A silver lining of the pandemic is that it’s now possible to make a reservation at Via Carota!

One friend and I began with a refreshing Aperol spritzer as we sat down. Being with food folks, we ordered more than I traditionally do for our so-called “research.”  And so that everything didn’t arrive at one, we requested the dishes arrive in waves instead of all at once.

Our first wave included the layered salad with buttery lettuce, fresh peas and prosciutto ($21). My fav. With that, we had an addicting pile of fried zucchini strips sprinkled with sea salt ($19).

The next wave included grilled artichoke hearts. The ones that were trimmed enough were so delicious it didn’t even need its aioli $(21). I wished they had cleaned the hearts more completely and not left as many tough fibrous ones.  In that wave, we had their tender grilled octopus sitting atop an unnecessary green olive pesto ($26) as it didn’t add anything to the dish.

The pièce de résistance were both pastas. They were cooked perfectly with a bit of a bite. I like the stracci (loosely cut pieces of pasta; the word literally means rags) in the rich pesto just a tad more than the tonnarelli (somewhat square thick spaghetti) cacio e pepe (translates to cheese and pepper, $25) with olive oil, butter, cheese and the pasta.

I recommend a trip, especially for the pasta!

Via Carota
West Village
51 Grove St,
New York, NY 10014
(212) 255-1962
viacarota.com