?> {"id":1743,"date":"2009-12-01T22:11:50","date_gmt":"2009-12-02T03:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2009-12-01T22:11:50","modified_gmt":"2009-12-02T03:11:50","slug":"becco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/2009\/12\/becco\/","title":{"rendered":"Becco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCN2445\"<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in my post about Del Posto<\/a>, Lidia Bastianich is my favorite chef. I\u2019ve been watching her since I was little because I didn\u2019t have cable growing up and there was nothing on regular TV on Sundays after church. The only thing that interested me were the cooking shows on PBS. As a result, every Sunday I\u2019d sit down and watch Lidia, Jacques Pepin, Julia Child, Martin Yan, and others.<\/p>\n

I really didn\u2019t know much about food growing up because I always ate Chinese food at home, and if we went out to eat it was either to a Chinese restaurant, Pizza Hut, or Burger King. So aside from Yan Can Cook, all the food on these shows seemed very exotic and foreign to me but I loved watching the process of cooking. I would then experiment with random recipes I found in one of the cookbooks we had in the house, substituting for ingredients that we didn\u2019t have. For example, I once made brownies using Nestle Quik, figuring that it was close enough to cocoa powder. The resulting brownies weren\u2019t as chocolately as I would have liked, but they actually weren\u2019t bad either.<\/p>\n

Over the recent years I\u2019ve tried to expand both my palate and my cooking abilities. I\u2019m still a pretty bad baker but now I watch cooking shows to get ideas of things to make and different flavor combinations to try. I still have a soft spot for PBS cooking shows and vastly prefer them to the ones on the Food Network that have very little actual cooking involved. Lidia\u2019s Italy is one of my favorites, and every time she makes a pasta, my mouth waters. Even the simplest pasta, with just oil, garlic, and tomatoes, loosened with a little pasta water to make a sauce, looks absolutely delectable.<\/p>\n

Thus, it is only fitting that Becco is my favorite restaurant. I always get the same thing \u2013 the unlimited tasting of the three pastas of the day. The offerings vary daily but there is always one with a simple tomato-basil sauce. I\u2019ve tasted enough of them to have my preferences but I get really excited when I see a pasta that I haven\u2019t had before at the restaurant.<\/p>\n

Josh knows how much I love Lidia and Becco so the restaurant has become our go-to special occasion place. We\u2019ve celebrated birthdays and anniversaries here, as well as a few pre-theater dinners with family. Once in a while though, if we happen to be drinking at the House of Brews next door, we\u2019ll go for an impromptu dinner if the wait isn\u2019t too long. Prices are reasonable enough that it\u2019s not a complete splurge but it\u2019s still a once-in-a-while indulgence.<\/p>\n

So on one Friday evening after happy hour at the House of Brews, we decided to grab dinner with Josh\u2019s cousin at Becco. Luckily the pre-theater crowd had already thinned out so we didn\u2019t have to wait for a table. The restaurant is split into lots of different rooms and tables are packed closely together but it still has a pretty intimate setting. The noise volume is chatty but not too loud so you can hold conversations without having to scream.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Tasty

Tasty assortment of olives<\/p><\/div>\n

Our meal started off with a box of delicious breads, a pureed bean spread doused in olive oil, and a bowl of assorted olives.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Soft

Soft focaccia, crunchy grissini, and crusty italian bread<\/p><\/div>\n

The breads included a soft focaccia, a crusted rustic loaf, and thin, crunchy grissini, all perfect for dipping into the creamy bean spread.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Creamy

Creamy white bean and olive oil dip<\/p><\/div>\n

Another aspect that makes Becco more affordable is the $25 wine list. It consists of Italian wines and there are lots of reds and whites to choose from, as well as a few rose wines and sparkling wines. We\u2019ve tried several of the reds and found most of them to be pretty good, though now we stick with our favorite, the Ramitello. It\u2019s full-bodied and a little bit spicy on the tongue, which I like a lot. But if you\u2019re unsure about which wine to order, just ask. Someone is always happy to help answer your questions and offer suggestions based on the kind of wine you typically prefer.<\/p>\n

When you order the pasta tasting, it comes with a choice of Caesar salad or the antipasto misto. The Caesar salad has a creamy dressing that is not too mayo-y. Fortunately they don\u2019t overdress the leaves but I always get a bit annoyed by how the runners just haphazardly dump some on the plate in front of you from the big platter they\u2019re carrying. I guess it\u2019s faster than preparing individual plates of Caesar salad but it always ends up being sloppily presented and the portions are never consistent. That said, it\u2019s still a pretty good version of Caesar salad.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Caesar

Caesar salad with creamy dressing<\/p><\/div>\n

The antipasto misto comes with an assortment of vegetables and seafood that has been grilled or marinated. It’s a nice variety and a good way to taste lots of different things. The vegetables include zucchini, mushrooms, carrots, string beans, beans, and sun dried tomatoe<\/span>s. They’re pretty basic but have a nice tangy flavor and are well seasoned.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Marinated

Marinated and roasted vegetables<\/p><\/div>\n

The seafood included a soft white fish in a light tomato sauce, and marinated octopus with potatoes and onions. The octopus was soft, tender, and delicious.<\/p>\n

\n

\"The

The marinated seafood portion of the antipasto misto<\/p><\/div>\n

After they cleared away our appetizer plates, the pasta feast began. I was happy to see that there were two pasta this time that I hadn’t tried before. The first was an artichoke ravioli served in a light broth. The artichoke filling was creamy with little chunks of artichoke inside, and it was topped with fresh chopped herbs. It was tasty and light and my favorite pasta dish of the night.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Artichoke

Artichoke ravioli<\/p><\/div>\n

The second new pasta for me was farfalle with shrimp and arugula. The pasta was obviously fresh and hand pinched into the bowtie shapes, which I thought was really neat. The shrimp were tender and the arugula gave it a nice slightly bitter bite. This was also a very light dish.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Fresh

Fresh farfalle pasta with shrimp and arugula<\/p><\/div>\n

The last pasta was the standard tomato-basil sauce. Although the pasta shapes may vary (this time it was spaghetti), the sauce is always simple and classic. You really taste the freshness of the tomato sauce, and I love the large basil leaves mixed throughout.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Spaghetti

Spaghetti with classic tomato-basil sauce<\/p><\/div>\n

For dessert, we shared the torte di zabaglione e cioccolato, which was a chocolate mousse cake topped with sour cherries. It was smooth and rich, and, of course, very chocolately. It was a nice way to end the meal.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Chocolate

Chocolate mousse cake<\/p><\/div>\n

I know that I can’t give a full review of Becco since I order the pasta tasting every single time we go. So I don’t know much about the other food served at the restaurant, though I do remember that once when we went with a large group on my birthday, Sean had a grilled branzino (his name was Panchito) that he enjoyed a lot. All I can say is that the pastas are always fantastic and served perfectly al dente. Plus you can eat as much as you want; there are servers circulating the rooms carrying big pans of pasta and they stop by often to ask if you want more.<\/p>\n

Although the service itself is sometimes a bit sloppy, they don\u2019t rush you out even when the restaurant is packed. We\u2019ve lingered over wine at the table and were made to feel perfectly at ease. Overall, at $22.95 for the Caesar salad or antipasto misto and unlimited servings of three different pastas, it\u2019s a pretty good deal. Just make sure to call ahead for a reservation if you have a large party, or if you plan on going during the pre-theater rush.<\/p>\n

Becco<\/a>
\n355 West 46th St. between 8th and 9th Ave.
\nNew York, NY <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I mentioned in my post about Del Posto, Lidia Bastianich is my favorite chef. I\u2019ve been watching her since I was little because I didn\u2019t have cable growing up and there was nothing on regular TV on Sundays after church. The only thing that interested me were the cooking shows on PBS. As a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,9],"tags":[55,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1755,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.twofatbellies.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}