What can I say? Il Mulino is here. Foodies around town have been breathing hard ever since the word got out that this New York City (and other cities) bastion of fine Italian dining was coming to town. You can stop breathing hard now. Let's face it, Il Mulino is just another Italian restaurant in a city where Italian restaurants are di poco valore.
It is difficult to make any kind of sense out of the prices here. Yes, the food is decent, but in no way does the goodness of the food rise to the same level as the prices charged. And the portions are so huge they border on the obscene. A half-order of pasta is enough for two people. And just about any entree, at least those that I sampled, would easily satisfy two people. None of the waiters will tell you this, but I am. Split, split, then split again.
At some point in all of this, real dining exits stage left and it now becomes an opera buffa, a culinary comedy, one that is staged to full effect. The effect was heightened with grand bravura when our tuxedoed waiter announced the daily specials. This guy was good. He vocalized something like 20 daily specials with a passion of a Pavorotti and never once needed to look at a cheat sheet. It was all a show, of course, part of the act, because then he handed us the "additions to the menu" list. Give me the list, I can read.
Next the bread came, then more bread, then more free zucchini, a buzz of activity, a swarm of tuxedos that had me thinking "March of the Penguins" It's tumultuous. Basta! Enough.
An appetizer of langostino was only fair. "Sardinian jumbo shrimp," the menu pointed out. In fact, "langostino" is the Spanish word for "prawn." These oversized shrimp can be great when grilled, but lose some of their character and take on a chewy consistency when sauteed. I am not saying these were bad, just not great for the $23 price (appetizer, remember). The risotto under the langostino should have been better; in fact it seemed to be a warmed-over afterthought. At these prices everything, and I mean everything, should be absolute perfection. The ingredients might be first-rate, but the execution was a crime.
Good things can happen. Caprese appetizer was excellent. Each ingredient in this dish was on the money ($22). Snowy slabs of fresh mozzarella, sliced fresh tomatoes, fragrant basil, prosciutto di Parma, and luscious roasted peppers. It's enough for two people easily.
"Fresh papardelle with sausage." Very delicious. The broad noodles silky, perfectly al dente, were dressed quite elegantly with a fragrant tomato-basil sauce studded with chunks of terrific Italian sausage. Nubbins of wild mushrooms added texture, but frankly were not needed.
Gnocchi al pesto didn't quite get it for me. The basil sauce was well made, but for some reason it just didn't work for me with the gnocchi. And the gnocchi were not the kind of gnocchi I favor (a touch chewy).These gnocchi were gummy (to be fair, this is the nature of some gnocchi, so take it or leave it).
Ossobuco with risotto and porcini mushrooms was one of the better entrees sampled. A mighty and hefty veal shank, the meat falling-off-the-bone flavorful, was cloaked with a classic soffrito or, as the menu suggests, a "brown sauce." And, of course, ossobuco without its classic accompaniment, risotto, is lonesome. This risotto was done much better than the one served with the langostino, but then risotto doesn't go with langostino in the first place.
Menu description: "Milano arugula. Double-cut pounded veal chop, lightly breaded, pan-seared and topped with a tomato and arugula salad." How can I say this delicately? This dish was really awful. Is that too harsh? I don't think so. Not when I spent $38 and got this mass of rubbery meat splayed across the entire plate with the bone sticking over the edge of the plate. All of the meat was buried under a layer of chopped arugula and tomatoes that were soaked in a harsh-tasting oil and vinegar dressing. That "salad" in turn, turned the breading on the veal into mush. I wish the kitchen knew about restraint. It is possible that the two parts to this dish would each have been great each on their own, but together the marriage was a failure.
Desserts range from sorbets to zabaione to poached pears. After all of this, a simple sorbet is a good choice. However, if you need something more, zabaione (cold) with marinated strawberries is a good bet. Also, chocolate cake, which sounds rather mundane, but it was quite good, the three triangles of rich cake snuggled up to a cloud of whipped cream.
Pat Bruno is a free-lance writer, critic and author.
