Little Park, Tribeca, NYC -- food and restaurant reviews -- food blog

Last year I had lunch at Little Park — although I loved it I hadn’t returned until a recent birthday celebration. (If you’re a follower of this site, you might have surmised that I am truly a birthday glutton — celebrating as many days and with as many friends as possible…)

We got off to a bad start with a blasé waiter, who handed us menus and began spouting the special, never asking us if we wanted a drink. We stopped him, ordered a bottle of wine that lucky was delivered by Lindsay Gulics, the sommelier. We asked her whether our waiter was new. Not. We then explained to her his odd attitude and lack of service. She smartly stepped in and took great care of us — starting with our wine, the full-bodied, rich Brundlmayer Gruner Veltliner, Alte Reben, Kamptal, Austria ($110) to go with our veggie-focused meal.

I highly suggest this Andrew Carmellini restaurant, as almost each dish is uniquely flavored to wow your palate. Little Park serves flavorful crusty spent grain bread and soft cultured butter served upon request. I suggest you ask for it.

Our first app was the not to be missed grilled avocado served with crisp potato slices ($17). This wasn’t grilled slices, but cubes of flavor sitting on an unusual dry-aged mayo … aioli, made with — according to their PR person — dry aged beef fat plus coriander, capers and cornichons.

Next, we had a crunchy and bright country salad made with spiralized kohlrabi, black kale, sliced figs and baked hazelnut all in a roasted garlic vinaigrette ($16). Another unusual dish bursting the flavor.

For pasta, we ordered the snail-shaped lumache with a pork ragu made spicy with some pickled peppers ($18). I liked that the amount of ragu was enough to flavor, not overpower the pasta. Don’t miss.

From the fish section of the menu, I suggest their tempura-fried soft shell crab topped with a tomato chutney and yogurt ($23); from the fire-roasted “meats,” the moist and succulent, butter-milk soaked Sullivan county chicken along with spring veggies — morels, fava beans and garlic scapes, the night we were there ($26).

But do save room for dessert. My favorite was the unusual frozen Meyer lemon fluff — a light mousse that’s sort of a cross between meringue and whipped cream with orange sorbet and strips of candied ginger ($13) that could easily be mistaken for lemon peel as it picked up that flavor from soaking in the fluff.

A richer chocolatey dessert held my birthday candle. This dense, rum-marinated chocolate came with raspberry coulis and coconut meringue cookies along with ice cream ($16).