Via Carota
“Jody Williams (Buvette) and Rita Sodi (I Sodi) strike gold again with this perfect mix of fun, energy and flavor!”
“Overall, this new space from Rita Sodi and Jody Williams hits certain notes which are not currently available in the village and does so quite well.”
“We then ordered the pappardelle with wild boar ragu which was out of this world, super fresh pasta with just the right amount of saucey funk.”
Via Carota
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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Chaos to get a table here. Zagat rated this place as NYCs coziest restaurant. They must get commercial and cozy confused. We waited 1 hr for our seats at the bar… The hostess was very blunt and rude about our "30 min" wait and asked us to leave – but we stayed.
The food – small portions so your best to order family style
Bogata Crostini. Delicious but a lot of garlic so make sure your going home straight after
Tagliatelle – best and unique flavors. Light loved the sage and walnuts
Wagu pappardelle – decent but meat was tough
Over all not a bad meal – food was good but for the price, wait and portions won't be back. But I doubt that matters since all of Nyc will be still waiting for a table. Haha
I have been here a few times at this point. The wines are always on point as is the service. The place has a great relaxed atmosphere. The food is not bad. I prefer the food at Buvette. Both of the restaurants are the type of place where the bill always seems to come out to be much larger than one would expect, but I suppose that is typical of the West Village
A very cute Italian place I have been meaning to try – perhaps the trick to getting a table with no wait is coming on Easter Sunday at 5pm (when it was still quite full, mind you!). I love the design and decor of the place – it would be an equally good spot for a first date, a bite by yourself while you read, a catch-up with friends, or a big family dinner.
As far as food goes, I think I liked the vegetables better than the pasta, which is not usually the case! Boar ragu and homemade pasta was good, but a little dry. My mushroom ravioli was the best, but I could have used a few more! Definitely try all the vegetables – the grilled artichokes were sublime, the tuscan beans revelatory with sausage, and the broccolini delicious. I could have made a meal just out of the vegetables and skipped the pasta. Will also want to try dessert next time!
Absolutely outstanding. We loved everything we got, which included the stracchino crostini, salami, topini gnocchi, pappardelle with wild boar ragu, and the incredible chopped steak.
What I really loved is that both the little things and the big things were impressive. The sun-dried cherry tomatoes on top of the crostini were just perfect, as were the garlic cloves (still in the shell) that came on top of the chopped steak. But then there's the chopped steak itself (essentially a bunless burger), which was one of the best things I've eaten in a while. And the pastas were amazing too, particularly the boar ragu.
We've been to both I Sodi and Via Carota in the last week, and my only regret is that we didn't get to this restaurant family earlier. Both were incredible, and I honestly have had trouble deciding which I preferred. Needless to say, I'd highly recommend both.
UPDATE 06/03/2016 Fri – We were more comfortable this second visit. The food and drink were more delightful than the first visit. I tried a Boulevardier (14), which was dry and crisp, with balanced flavors, a triumph in light of Campari as a primary ingredient. The Nebbiolo by the glass and a small carafe (15, 23) was pleasant. The prices seemed down to earth for the quality, quantity, and creativity (especially compared to Hillstone on Park Ave So, ouch!). The crowds were loud. We were always able to hear each other at the bar. We also found our advice to ourselves to order four items instead of five. That was a full meal for us. Here's the deets:
Boulevardier, 14 – excellent
Sbagliato, 12 (listed as Bicicletta on the menu) – nice, but could seem sweet to some
Asparagi blanco, 16
Insalata fava, 17
Tagliatelle Prosciutto, 20
Swordfish, 19
Nebbiolo, glass, 15
Nebbiolo, small carafe (250 cl), 23
TOTAL 136
BONUS – vegetable forward
SHOUT OUT – Taylor at the bar who served us, and the charming hostess, who remains nameless and memorable here
A charming space, very good service, and very good, creative food rise to 4 stars, even in light of medium-high prices and tight spaces for waiting and dining. There are delights to be had at Via Carota.
Deets (01/16/2016):
Prosecco, glass, 12
Americano, cocktail, 12
Salame e Pecorino, 10 – nice prosciutto and cheese; the salami is more of an individual taste IMHO
acciughe (anchovies), 10 – very good
Cavolo nero (black kale) salad, 13 – excellent
Carote (roasted carrots), 16 – worth it for amazing varietal carrots with an uncommon topping of lemon, pistachio, lemon, and yogurt
Orata alla Griglia (grilled orata), 19 – excellent
Coniglio fritto (fried rabbit), 20 – delicious and perfectly fried with a feather-weight crust
Frappato Planeta (red wine), bottle, 42 – good value
TOTAL, 154
We over-ordered for two. Three or four items should be good, instead of five.
TIP – I wouldn't go out of my way to go back because of the crowding unless I was going early or at an off-time
TIP – no reservations
Sister restaurant to Buvette. No reservations accepted, wait was about 15 minutes for 4 on a Monday night.
What we ordered:
Stracchino E Promodorini Crostini – fresh cheese was delicious. Great appetizer choice before the main meal.
Funghi Verdure – Also great appetizer choice. The mushrooms had a nice crisp, and ever so tasty with the cheese at the bottom. Get this if you like mushrooms.
Coniglio Fritto (fried rabbit, rosemary and garlic) – too salty for my taste. This is one of the dishes Via Carota is known for. I actually liked the bread and the crushed garlic it came with more than the rabbit itself.
Via Carota Sivzzerina (chopped steak) – another dish that has been written about and what Via Carota is known for. Again, a bit rare for my taste – and our friends felt that it was almost under-seasoned and lacked flavor.
Wild Boar Ragu Papardelle – The unanimous favorite out of all the meat dishes we ordered. Pasta tasted fresh and ragu cooked to perfection. The sauce was also very good.
Semifreddo – memorable dessert, perfect amount for 4 people to share.
Overall, I think this place is great for vegetarians since there are many options and the vegetarian dishes stood out to me more than the meat dishes. I would also do tapas style if I were to come back.
I'm definitely a fan!!! A friend and I have been wanting to try this place for a while but weren't not the no-rese, long wait kinda people. So what did we do you ask? Walked in at 5:30 on a rainy Wednesday night, that's what! I literally was the 3rd person there so I grabbed a stool at the bar. I absolutely LOVE the atmosphere and decor…very West Village meets adorable trattoria in Rome. The bartender was completely awesome, I was deciding between a Negroni and a Manhattan and I told him to chose, turns out that was a smart decision because he handed me a perfect Manhattan. I waited for my friend to join as I was a bit early and by 6:30 the place was packed with people waiting behind our bar stools for a table. We decided to eat at the bar which was the right decision, the tables for 2 are quite small. We were presented with a few thick slices of bread drizzled with excellent olive oil to start. From there,we had a hard time deciding because everything on the menu looked GREAT. Apparently we were over ordering and I appreciated the fact that the bartendress mentioned that. We ordered the olive all' ascolana, fried green olives with pork sausage which were amazing. We then ordered the salume e pecorino which was also very good but this was the only dish that was a bit on the small size. We then ordered the pappardelle with wild boar ragu which was out of this world, super fresh pasta with just the right amount of saucey funk. We had to order the svizzerina because everyone talks about it. There was one problem with this, I like my meat rare and he likes it on the well done side. They really only cook this one way and that's crunchy on the outside and pretty rare in the middle. I think I was let down a touch after all the hype but I did have the remainder the next day and it was very tasty. We just went with a glass of wine each, the Chianti Classico for me and the Nero'D'Avola for him. I walked out of there completely full with a substantial doggie bag! The QPR at this place is right on..I highly recommend a visit.
I was a little disappointed with my meal here, though think I may just have been a little unlucky with what I ordered. The place itself was cute, and both the red and white wine I tried, were good, as was the artichoke appetiser. But I wasn't impressed with the two larger plates we split: the grilled octopus had an unusual consistency, reminding me more of chicken or a white fish than the usual squeaky cephalopod (things with tentacles!) meat I am used to. Not sure if this to do with the particular animal or the way they prepared it, but I wasn't a fan. Now my girlfriend reckoned it was because it was so fresh, in which case I prefer my octopus on the stale side. That said, while I thought the meat lacked flavour, the olive pesto dip it came with was excellent.
We finished with fried rabbit, which came highly recommended but wasn't what I was expecting. I had imagined it would be pan fried, but was served deep fried and battered, a la bunny McNugget. Not my kind of food. Though the little piece of egg fried breaded it was served on top of was a delight. An excellent espresso to end.
I don't suppose I will go back, but if I did then some of the smaller plates sounded good and might be more to my taste.