If you’re a theatergoer, I suggest dining at Sicily Osteria before your curtain. It’s a warm, inviting restaurant on Restaurant Row in the heart of the Theater District and Hell’s Kitchen neighborhoods.

As their guests, we started with their specialty cocktails as we perused the menu. Requesting a non-sweet cocktail, our host suggested the Capri Crush made with vodka, Limoncello, St Germain, lemon juice, and egg white. It was perfect, even a tad tart.

My dining partner sampled the Limoncello Spritz, a refreshing cocktail trending in Italy that replaces Aperol’s bitterness with the less-complex, sunny taste of lemon. Restaurant Business recently reported that it’s on trend to be the next Aperol Spritz.

We then shared the refreshing fennel, orange, hazelnut, pomegranate ($18) salad plus the tasty fritto misto with crispy two shrimp, two broccoli florets and lots of tender calamari ($24).

When our server placed my dish on the table, I wondered where they put the grilled Portuguese octopus. Was it chopped and mixed into the wild rice salad?  Instead, hidden under the greens were the hugest pieces of the cephalopod I’ve ever been served as two tender legs still attached to the body on a delicious salad with dried cherries and pine nuts ($25).

As their guests, we wanted to sample as much as possible, so we requested half portions of the pasta (NB: photos are not full portions!). We enjoyed the fettuccine ai funghi, the housemade fettuccine with mixed wild mushrooms in a truffle sauce ($28), and the spaghetti chitarra with crab, pistachios and cream ($32). I’d recommend both.

We then ate the vitello marsala — veal scallopini — with a variety of mushrooms in a marsala wine sauce ($42).

Both desserts we samples were worth the calories, yet we were too stuffed to do much damage on either the Limone di Sicilia or the Chef’s Torta di Cicoccoato ($17 each). The former contains their signature lemon vanilla mousse,  creme, confit and a lemon jam center with a coconut streusel. The chocolate had a decadent chocolate creme center with a hazelnut crunch, chocolate mousse, cocoa streusel and  hazelnut gelato!

Worth a visit.

Sicily Osteria
Theatre District 
328-330 W 46th St
New York, NY 10036
(646) 609-3417
sicilynyc.com