Tucci New York City

Tucci - Review - NOHO - New York - The Infatuation

"Every 15 minutes or so, Tucci’s basement dining room shakes softly as the R train goes by on the other side of the wall. It would be annoying, but the 200-year-old stone arches and antique oakwood doors at this Italian restaurant in Noho weave a strong spell over date night. It might take you a minute to notice the vibrations. (At first, we just thought we were cutting into our chicken parm too aggressively.) Tucci could have been one of those cheesy Italian restaurants that tries to pretend it’s been around forever, and ends up looking like an Epcot property. Instead, with its weathered arches, illuminated only by the small lamps on each table, it outcharms most of the other Italian restaurants in the area—even when the food is otherwise unremarkable. photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte Pause Unmute An old-world pedigree certainly helps as well. The Tucci family runs centuries-old steakhouse Delmonico’s, and an ideal meal here includes anything that’s chophouse-adjacent. Try the pork chops for a dish that’s exclusive to Tucci, but tender to the bone, thanks to a Delmonico’s-trained hand. The pastas are bland by comparison, but decent enough to share a plate, and eating shrimp scampi under those arches adds a lot to the experience. Where you sit at Tucci is important. Upstairs, the lights in the shiny, green velvet dining room by the bar are much brighter, and the flaws in the food more glaring. They don’t specify the section when you're reserving online, so try sweet-talking your host if you want to request a table downstairs, or leave a message on their answering service. If you’re looking for an environment conducive to sharing single spaghetti strands with your lover, it’s worth the extra effort. photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte photo credit: Kate Previte Pause Unmute Food Rundown Heirloom Radicchio Salad On a menu that’s generally very straightforward, this salad serves as a kind of signature. The radicchio is softened until the ribs are tender and the leaves have completely lost all their bitterness, and then assembled into a pile with honeycomb, candied walnuts, goat cheese, and creamy balsamic dressing. Don’t bother with the caesar, this is some of their best work. photo credit: Kate Previte Shrimp Scampi Well, it’s $31, and the shrimp was slightly overcooked. But that lemon butter sauce is so good that the shrimp are barely relevant. It hurts a little to spend $31 on sauce, but we don’t regret it either. photo credit: Kate Previte Baked Clams So many garlicky breadcrumbs, with some fat clams underneath. So good. photo credit: Kate Previte Casarecce alla Boscaiola A uniformly bland and overcooked sausage pasta. These are not pasta people in the kitchen, these are carne people. Agnolotti Con Tartufo The sweet corn sauce makes this cheese agnolotti slightly more exciting than the other pastas, but on multiple visits, we’ve found that the texture of the noodles is still too stiff in some spots, and too soft in others. photo credit: Kate Previte Chicken Parmesan We like the thin, tender cutlet, but it’s more of a couch parm than a date night parm. You’ll keep picking at it because it’s very cheesy and everyone loves cheesy things, but the sauce could use more depth. photo credit: Kate Previte Iberico Pork Chop If there’s one area where Tucci delivers, it’s meat. Delmonico’s doesn’t actually have a pork chop on the menu, so this entree is reason enough to check out Tucci. The meat gives in to your knife after a couple tugs, and it comes with a sweet and sour combo of balsamic and pickled peppers on the side. photo credit: Kate Previte" - Neha Talreja