Timothy S.
Yelp
I recently filled in a major gap in my CNY dining résumé with a visit to Rosalie's Cucina. I had been reluctant to try it because most places that are hyped as much as Rosalie's has been over the past 30 years tend to disappoint, in my experience. Nope, not this time. Rosalie's is the rare exception that lives up to the hype and more.
We arrived early for our reservation to enjoy a cocktail at the bar. From my brother's well-made Manhattan to my perfectly balanced Sidecar, the barmaid had some serious chops. And the impossibly long, thin, and crunchy breadsticks were unlike any I'd ever had. Addicting.
Although it bills itself as an "Authentic Tuscan dining" restaurant (which the décor lives up to), the menu at Rosalie's is more Tuscan-influenced or maybe Tuscan-adjacent than strictly authentic Tuscan cuisine. There were grilled polenta and grilled, prosciutto-wrapped shrimp panzanella appetizers (which my sister-in-law ordered for her entrée; see below), but no baccalà or cacciucco or polpo. There was veal piccata, but also Sicily's veal Marsala and Southern Italian/Italian-American staples like manicotti and pizza margherita. I mention this to inform prospective diners, however, not to warn them off. The food at Rosalie's is amazing.
One word to the wise: the serving portions are enormous. We were a party of three and ordered the carpaccio and grilled polenta appetizers and the antipasto affetati e formaggio as starters. That could have been our entire meal and we would have been very happily well-fed. We literally had trouble fitting all three on the table.
The carpaccio was a huge portion and came on a gigantic plate. It was amongst the best I've ever had. The polenta had a perfectly char-grilled crust, yet remained nicely moist inside. But the antipasto easily stole the show. It came on a giant board that took up a quarter of the table and had enough "nibbles" to feed a family of five. Everything was superb, from the cured meats to the aged and fresh cheeses to the massive mound of shelled pistachios, but the little jar of honey was exceptional, especially when slathered on a hunk of the oven-fresh loaf of bread that was brought to the table as soon as we sat down.
For the primi piatti we skipped the insalata and went with the zuppa del giorno, a deliciously rich cream of wild mushroom. The funghi were puréed, not whole, and the layers of flavor (was that a hint of sherry?) were sublime. That soup could easily do double duty as a sauce for game dishes, like venison or wild boar.
For the secondi piatti, my brother and I went with the Maiale alla Milanese (pan-fried pork loin, roasted fingerling potatoes, wilted spinach, prosciutto, oven cured tomatoes, green beans, with a Dijon crab cream sauce), whilst my sister-in-law chose the Gamberi Grigliati di Panzanella appetizer (three grilled prosciutto-wrapped shrimp, panzanella salad with tomatoes, onions, olives, anchovy croutons, feta cheese, basil, lemon vinaigrette) mentioned above, which was easily an entrée-sized serving at most restaurants.
The pork cutlets were served hot and had a perfect crispy crust while remaining juicy and tender inside, which is hard to pull off with cutlets hammered to a centimeter thick. My sister-in-law reported that, like the polenta, the shrimp had a nice char from the grill, but remained tender and succulent.
My brother and I are notoriously big eaters, but we had already been served so much food that we needed to take home half our entrées if we were to have dessert. And you MUST save room for dessert!
Alas, although we originally intended to try a selection of desserts, like the rest of the dishes, the portions were ginormous, so the three of us split a banana budino...and ended up taking half of it home! A word about the budino: although I was accustomed to budino being a cross between a soufflé and a lava cake (with lemon curd or gooey chocolate filling) cooked in a Bain Marie, this dessert was more akin to a mousse. Described as a house-made cinnamon-sugar phyllo shell filled with layers of fresh bananas, banana cream pudding and almond cookies, finished with caramel sauce and almond cookie garnish, the best word for this is decadent.
The best word to describe the ambiance at Rosalie's is vitality. While some people think it is "loud," I think that's overstating it. The restaurant is small and is bustling with life. There were couples dining alone and two large, multi-generational families filling long tables set for ten and fourteen, respectively. Between the décor, the exceptional service (thank you, Eric!), and the other diners, I felt like I was back in Northern Italy for a few hours. This was one of the best meals I've had in my life and I strongly recommend you go out of your way to dine at Rosalie's.
