Christopher L.
Yelp
L'inizio is a romantic Italian fine dining restaurant that offers polished service and pretty good food -- but at a high price point relative to the overall value.
The restaurant's romantic ambience and excellent service got the evening off to a promising start and raised our expectations for a wonderful evening. The dining area has a rustic modern vibe with dim, warm lighting. We appreciated the acoustic paneling on the ceiling, which meant that even as the restaurant filled and the noise level increased my wife and I could still hear one another at a conversational volume.
The staff were legion, and they were attentive throughout the evening -- the way the staff served bread at the table, kept water glasses filled, and even the quiet grace with which they cleared away plates showed considerable training. The dining room did get a bit crowded towards the end of the evening as tables filled up and staff scurried to and fro, but I suppose that's why we booked an early reservation.
I also enjoyed the Negroni I ordered before our meal. I'm not entirely convinced the barrel aging process added much to the drink besides $1 to the price, but the drink was good. The bar and wine menu looked attractive, and we might be game to return for a happy hour.
Of the three dishes we ordered, one was a clear hit, the second came in at about par, and the third was a miss.
The chicken scarpariello I ordered for my entree included perhaps the best cooked piece of chicken I have had in my entire life. Crispy skin on the outside with meat that was absolutely succulent. The entree was traditionally prepared -- including fingerling potatoes, cherry peppers, and chicken sausage on a bed of greens -- but was presented as a composed fine-dining dish. The sauce also was perfect, bright and acidic on the front end with a deep heat to finish. I don't think the bitter greens paired especially well with the sauce, and adding more fat (for example, from pork rather than chicken sausage) might have made the greens a more effective flavor carrier. For as good as this dish was -- and it was the best dish of the night by far -- at $29 for chicken I do question the value. Even adding some homemade pasta would go a long way to resolve my concerns about the price point.
My wife ordered the tarragon fettucine, which came with a seafood marinara. The entree portion was huge and was full of shrimp, calamari, and crab meat. No question about value here, even for $29. While the dish is tarragon fettucine, my wife did feel that the tarragon was used with a heavy hand, giving the whole dish a soapy flavor.
We also had nutella bread pudding for dessert, which was on special, and it just wasn't very good. The interior of the pudding was dry, the hazelnut flavor was difficult to find, and without the fresh whipped cream it would unsalvageable. We were surprised by such a big swing-and-a-miss at a restaurant that prints its pastry chef's name on the dessert menu.
The tab for one cocktail, two entrees, and dessert came to $90. That's about par for Westchester fine dining. The service was clearly worth the tab; the food on the table significantly less so. Based on one visit, we'd rate L'inizio significantly behind our other favorite Italian fine dining restaurants in the area -- Tredici North, Piccola Trattoria, Mima Vinoteca -- but the food and the service were still good enough to make it worth another visit sometime down the road.