Finally made it back to Locande Verde for dinner last Thursday with Cookie Monster’s old colleague and her husband. Ever since my first meal (it was dinner) at Locande Verde back in the summer of 2010 I’ve been dying to go back. Not surprisingly, reservations are still impossible to get :c. We had 6pm reservations Thursday night and I was SO surprised to see a fully packed bar at that early bird hour. Goodness, New Yorkers are seemingly having to eat earlier and earlier to get a table at prime restaurants.
What a meal it was though! Let’s begin…..
The four of us decided to share a bunch of apps. We started with the ever creamy fresh sheep’s milk ricotta and some crusty bread drizzled with olive oil:
Then we got two orders of Locande’s famous lamb sliders. (2 sliders come per order)
You don’t understand how delicious these mini meatball sliders are. Moist ground lamb meatballs are nestled on top of yogurt sauce and fresh cucumbers. It tastes like a lovely version of the beloved gyro. These meatballs are so great – only rivaled by Little Owl’s meatball sliders. I love the soft soft bun.
We also shared the duck terrina bruschetta and fresh crabmeat bruschetta:
The left is the luscious and sweet crab meat bruschetta piled high. They definitely do not skimp on the crab meat. To the right is a small portion of the duck terrina topped with a pickled red cabbage slaw to cut the richness of the duck. I expected the duck to be softer, like pate, but it was actually quite solid. Although both were great, I definitely preferred the crab meat bruschetta.
For main course, Cookie Monster got the wood fired pork chop.
I’m so sorry the photo is not great but two large slabs of thick cut pork chops are presented. How do I begin? The pork was impossibly tender and so full of flavor. I believe the pork was dry aged. The wood fire method of cooking them allowed the outside of the meat to caramelize and char so nicely, imparting the pork with a bacon-y smokey goodness to it. Everyone was quite impressed. I gnawed on the leftover chop bone when Cookie Monster had finished with the rest. It is the best part…This is probably one of the best pork chop preparations I have ever had.
I got the papardelle verde with white bolognese.
This was good. The pasta was clearly homemade and the white bolognese was bursting with flavor. HOWEVER, after tasting the other non-pasta main courses at the table, I had big time food envy. Locande makes great entrees and I now know that is where the action is. Get a pasta for an appetizer if you have to but definitely get an entree.
Noteworthy mention: I did not take a photo, but Cookie Monster’s colleague got the duck and it was DIVINE. I never order duck – it’s a bit too fatty and gamey for me but this duck was unbelieveable. It melted in your mouth. The duck fat was perfectly rendered off the skin leaving two perfectly cooked duck breast slices that were wondefully seasoned. The pork chop was very delicious and yet the duck somehow managed to surpass it.
Cookie Monster and I are still talking about how we MUST get over to Locande again soon just to get the pork and duck entrees again.
For dessert, Cookie Monster got chocolate cake with the salted butter gelato.
That salted butter gelato was outrageous. You definitely felt like you were doing something bad eating that 
(but in the best way possible)
I got Locande’s version of the apple tart: cooked cinnamon apples atop puff pastry served with a side of caramel ice cream.
I found the apples themselves a bit too sweet/tart for me so I just ate the ice cream and puff pastry. The apples had infused the puff pastry with just enough lovely apple flavoring.
This meal was amazing. It’s no wonder that Locande Verde is still bursting at the seams with waiting patrons on a daily basis. With food this great, I would wait for a table as a walk in! But given that we had 6pm reservations and the bar being totally full – does Locande even take walk ins? Or must one arrive at 5pm to even get a walk in table? But for food this good, working to get a reservation is worth it. Divine!
Locande Verde, 377 Greenwich Street, New York, NY
