Il Totano
Italian restaurant · West Village ·
Coastal Italian seafood with dry-aged fish & creative crudos
Coastal Italian seafood with dry-aged fish & creative crudos
"A seafood restaurant that closed in early January after opening less than a year ago in May. Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle ran it with Alexandra Shapiro of the Upper East Side’s Flex Mussels and Hoexters; they are holding on to the space to carve out a new restaurant." - Nadia Chaudhury
"Opened in May 2024 at 154 W. 13th Street, near Seventh Avenue, by Top Chef season one winner Harold Dieterle in partnership with Alexandra Shapiro (of the Upper East Side’s Flex Mussels and Hoexters), the restaurant’s name means “the squid” and seafood was the focus; it was noted as one of the handful of places aging fish outside of sushi restaurants, along with Time and Tide, Travelers Poets and Friends, and Theodora. This was Dieterle’s comeback in Manhattan after closing Kin Shop and Perilla in 2015 (and after he had shut down the Marrow in 2014), and he told Eater: "The mom and pop model is very difficult in the changing economics of New York City ... great neighborhood restaurants become forgotten at times when everyone’s racing to the new hot spot." Though the operation lasted only a couple of months and has already closed to be flipped into a new concept from the same team, it received notable praise: former Eater New York critic Robert Sietsema called the dry-aged fish "a dish of the year," writing that Dieterle had returned to New York a decade later, with "fresh energy." The New Yorker’s Helen Rosner wrote that the restaurant "doesn’t seem to know what kind of restaurant it’s trying to be" in a summer 2024 review, while both Rosner and Will Hartman of the Infatuation (who ranked the restaurant at 7.8/10) exalted the crudo, calling it "necessary on every table," even as reviewers pointed to some unevenness across the rest of the menu. Eater has reached out to Dieterle and Shapiro for more information, and a representative confirms the duo will stay on as partners in the new venture in the space." - Emma Orlow
"It's a bit of a time warp to enter what's ostensibly a new restaurant beneath one of those formal burgundy awnings that are largely bygone everywhere except hotels and Upper East Side co-ops. But Il Totano, the new coastal Italian restaurant from Top Chef winner Harold Dieterle that occupies the garden level of a brownstone in the West Village, melds elements of utter class with bright color. This is the first restaurant I've ever been in where the idea of a beach-inspired interior really landed—gray-blue plaster, happy orange booths, wicker chairs—although the low-ceilinged, window-free space is still a bit tough. Once you order, though, the food will whisk you away. The slate of crudos are excellent, with the dry-aged kona kampachi in a bright passionfruit colatura ($22) the raw fish highlight. A $49 halibut saltimbocca wrapped in crispy prosciutto and sage also really delivers. —C.H." - CNT Editors
"Top Chef season one winner Harold Dieterle opened his latest restaurant — after a long hiatus — in the Village early this past summer. The space is nautically themed with blue and white wall treatments, and a glass refrigerated case sits mid-restaurant for aging fish, a current fad. Big-eye tuna here is aged, sliced thin, and served over eggplant caponata, and other menu highlights include grilled Long Island shrimp in pepperoncini butter and crispy pork cotolette draped with anchovies." - Robert Sietsema
"The first Top Chef winner, Harold Dieterle, of the late Perilla and Kin Shop, has teamed up with Alexandra Shapiro, of Flex Mussels and Hoexters, to open Il Totano, an 80-seat restaurant, hoping to capture the spirt of a 1970 Italian holiday vacation. Aged fish inspires the centerpiece of the menu and the space, which includes a dry-aging fridge in the dining room. In addition to crudos, the menu revives Perilla’s spicy duck meatballs. Don’t miss the pork cotolette, pounded thin and lightly fried, topped with bitter greens and whole anchovies." - Eater Staff