i Trulli
122 East 27th Street between Park Avenue South & Lexington
New York, NY 10016
212-481-7372
I must confess, I live for NYC’s winter and summer Restaurant Weeks. What’s more exciting that rounding up members of your posse and sampling fancy fare at a fraction of the cost? Not much! $35 gets you a prix fixe dinner: starter, entree, and dessert; $24.07 for lunch. Feeling like you’ve swung a fab deal is always a happymaker.
Batting first was dinner at i Trulli. Stacy and I were offered the option of sitting outside or sitting inside. Since the heat wasn’t up to its usual oppressive self, we ended up outside. The covered patio is actually very lovely. If you don’t look up, you can forget that you’re in Manhattan. We were seated by the small waterfall which was in front of the rare thing called greenery. Ceiling fans kept air circulating. i Trulli wasn’t that crowded (we were dining on the early side), but it seemed to be filling up more when we were ready to roll.
I went with the Apulian bread salad with heirloom tomatoes, onion, and cucumber even though there was complimentary bread which came with a mystery spread. Something white and whipped. Stacy and I were stumped. The bread salad could be characterized as strong, with the strong vinegar kick and strong taste of onions. I liked it. My entree was veal ravioli which was fine. Last but certainly not least was my dessert: chocolate and toasted almond semifreddo with almond brittle. This was hands down the best part of the meal. A semifreddo is an Italian take on the ice cream cake. It just sounds fancier in Italian. The top chocolate pudding-like layer was fabulous. I mopped the three layer cake in the chocolate drizzle on the plate: delightfully chocolately! Can cake be an anti-depressant? The semifreddo made all my troubles slip away temporarily. Stacy ordered different plates so we sampled each other’s edibles. That’s strategy right there.
Our waiter was polite but not a superwaiter. He wrote down what we ordered on a notepad [I am incredibly impressed if you don't need to write down our picks]. Pacing of the dishes was a bit off; they were coming out somewhat faster than is optimal. And we had to pour the chilled red wine ourselves 75% of the time. A slight frown for those. However he did check up on us about twice and did clean the crumbs off the table before dessert.
i Trulli is probably a bit more high-end than it should be, but it’s a solid dining experience. If you like grazing on dandelions, the regular menu uses them quite a lot, fyi.
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