NYCReview
photo credit: Café Carmellini
Café Carmellini
Hats off to Café Carmellini. The first fine dining spot from the chef behind Locanda Verde, The Dutch, and Bar Primi, this Nomad restaurant uses theatrical chandeliers, indoor trees, and sweeping velvet banquettes to maximum, glamorous effect. It’s quite the accomplishment, and it all feels slightly hollow.
A mix of French and Italian, Café Carmellini’s menu leans heavily on luxe ingredients, with too many misses and humdrum dishes to justify a check of several hundred dollars. The crab mille-feuille, with its Jenga-like construction, is a fun party trick, and the meuniere-style crudo is as inoffensive as it gets, but the foie gras-accented duck tortellini is oddly mealy, and the $75 lobster cannelloni topped with caviar is definitive proof that market price and deliciousness have zero correlation.
Even when disillusioned with lobster and caviar, you can still have a very pleasant evening here. The cocktails are excellent, the portions are generous, and the dining room, with its elegant curtains and flickering lamps, feels grand and melodramatic. Is that, plus a spoonful of golden osetra, everything you want out of life? If so, have at it. The roast chicken here is similar to what you'll find at any other restaurant, just a bit pricier, and served with a little more panache.
Food Rundown
Table Bread
photo credit: Café Carmellini
Shrimp Colonnata
Cannelloni of Lobster & Golden Osetra
Duck-Duck-Duck Tortellini
photo credit: Café Carmellini
Gran Sasso Chicken
photo credit: Café Carmellini