Pass the Pasta!

Osteria 57 & The Cacio e Pepe Challenge

Ah pasta! The possible noodle + sauce combinations are as endless as the number of Italian restaurants in New York City. When I simply cannot decide which joint to stop at for dinner, I turn to my Food Expert for suggestions. Italian recommendations seem to be his specialty, as he always has pasta on the brain. What he didn't realize was that this recommendation was going to spark a new challenge for me and my favorite Upper Eastsiders.

It started as any other dinner would: an invite via text for a Sunday feast and catch up, and me running late and overdressed. We all met up and walked from Union Square to Osteria 57, which is located on W. 10th Street between 5th & 6th Avenue.

We started the evening with three glasses of red and the ricotta and truffle appetizer. Crispy on the edges, but fluffy goodness in the middle of each bread slice, covered with whipped sheep ricotta, honey, and a balsamic glaze.

Then we tucked right into the main course: Cacio e pepe!

 

As we sipped and ate, we recalled all the other spots around town we'd hit up for cacio e pepe during our time in New York. 

While this classic Italian dish is simple in it's ingredients, each restaurant's version resonated differently with us. Noticing this, we decided to go on tour. An NYC cacio e pepe tour that is, where we will go around our beloved city and rate bowls of CeP from different restaurants. Here are our thoughts of Osteria 57's:

Darsey: 

Pros: It had great flavor without being too rich and we got a lot of noodles compared to other restaurants. 

Cons: I prefer bucatini noodles over the spaghetti noodles they used here. Also, I thought it came with burrata on top after looking at the photos online, but instead it came with a poached egg." 

Kat:

Pros: They gave us a lot of pasta that was really cheesy without being overly rich and not as peppery as some places. 

Cons: It tasted more like cheesy pasta than classic cacio e pepe because of that.

Jordin:

Pros: The portion size was very generous and overall it was absolutely delicious! 

Cons: While it tasted amazing, I agree with Kat on the fact that it seemed more like cheesy pasta than cacio e pepe. It could have been richer in taste. Also, I was disappointed when I cut into what I thought was burrata, but turned out to be an egg (though maybe that would have been too much cheese).

Keep checking back to see more restaurant recommendations and who has the best cacio e pepe in the city!

Top: Asos (similar) // Skirt: Jonathan Simkhai

Vivre dans le luxe,
Jordin