I’m taking a writing class and my first assignment…a restaurant review.

PERFECT!!!  FOOD!!!  And an opportunity to satisfy some reader requests for longer posts and more New York food coverage.

So here you are my first restaurant review, can’t wait to here your comments!

Leslie

CAFFÈ FALAI

There is no shortage of restaurants in Soho, but just a few blocks east of Soho lays Caffè Falai, a small, modern Italian gem.  Located on Lafayette Street between Prince and Spring, Caffè Falai is an Italian lovers’ escape for fresh regional pastas, salads, paninis, and pastries.

Serving breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, Caffè Falai is a café-bar with a welcoming atmosphere of white tiled floors and walls decorated with flea-market-find mirrors and crystal chandeliers.  An open kitchen and bar offers solo clients space to enjoy a meal alone or stand alla Italien to enjoy an illy coffee.  The restaurant seats 35 inside and in warm weather a small front terrace offers additional seating.

The restaurant attracts a mixed clientele of locals, professionals and passing tourists seeking quality food in a casual environment.  Client favorites of Chef Iacopo Falai include the Prosciutto Panini, with mozzarella and tomato, and the Gnudi, spinach and ricotta dumplings in a sage-infused brown butter sauce.  I love the fresh Rughetta E Pere salad, baby rucola and sliced pear topped with candied walnuts, hard ricotta cheese and a lemon dressing, but ask them to top it with a little prosciutto for a hardier salad.  And for pasta the Tortelli di Patate con Ragu’ Alla Bolognese is perfection, a potato puree stuffed tortelli in a delicious Bolognese meat sauce.

The dinner menu offers a selection of second course classics as Saltimbocca alla Romana, thinly sliced veal with prosciutto served with broccoli rabe, finger potatoes and a Marsala sauce and Branzino, a pan seared sea bass filet with porcini mushrooms.  Portions are not large but satisfying.

A selection of Italian wines and prosecco are available, but even more tempting are Falai’s own bread and pastry selection produced across town at their Panetteria on the Lower East Side.  The Bombolone (Italian donuts) filled with chantilly, custard, chocolate or jam, dusted with a coating of sugar, are a must for breakfast or dessert.

Other sweets and bakery items include fresh focaccia plain or tomato, sweet cornetti (sweet Italian croissants) in plain, almond and chocolate, and mini ricotta tartes.  And luckily these sweets and baked goods are all available for take-out at the bakery counter.

Caffe Falai – 265 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012  Tel: 212 274 8615   www.falainyc.com

Hours: Breakfast 8 – 12pm  Lunch 12 – 4pm  Afternoon Tea 4 – 5pm  Dinner 5 – 11pm

$$ Moderately Priced.

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