Al Di Lá

Al Di Lá
247 5th Avenue - Map
Corner of Carroll Street
Brooklyn, NY
(718) 636-8888
Italian Venetian (Northern Italy)

Don't let the Italian cuisine fool you - you won't see tomato sauces and lasagnas here! This restaurant is Northern Italian cuisine. After having read impressive reviews, and having heard only praise about this restaurant, I've finally had an opportunity to go. And there enlies the problem. Too much hype, leads to a potentially disastrous restaurant experience, and unfortunately, this one was not a good one.

While I wouldn't call it a disastrous evening, it was just plain whatever. Let's start at the beginning. Upon entering the rather small restaurant, I had to pass a pair of dark navy, velvet drapes (which was wierd considering we're in the height of summer). My friend and I only waited a few minutes before the hostess attended to us and escorted us to the table. The decor was very strange, the walls were bedecked with a seemingly antiquated, floral wall paper with a cream background. The ceilings were certainly not high enough to accomodate the low-hanging, frosted glass chandelier, which were surounded by exposed oven vents - not a touch I preferred. The walls were adorned with various pieces of artwork and photography, that neither contributed nor removed from the total ambiance - which in my book is really not a good thing. An overall feeling of a blase attitude regarding the decor was distinctly felt.

My friend an I ordered their ricotta, sage, and swisschard gnocchi. While the texture and color were interesting, the taste lacked a boldness that I've come to expect of anything with sage. The swisschard, along with the ricotta created a somewhat bland flavor, and only mildly reminiscent of sage. The accompanying butter sauce was negligible in both flavor and quantity with which to coat the gnocchi. I expected more....umph....it was just...ok.

I had ordered their braised rabbit dish, which was accompanied with a polenta and olives. This being the first time I've ever consumed rabbit, I was hoping for a new and interesting experience. I was sadly mistaken. Being that this is the only frame of reference I have for rabbit - it is just some glorified chicken dish. I am willing to concede that there may be a redeeming rabbit dish out there somewhere, so I will not completely remove it from my list of foods to try again, but right now, it's not favorable. Again, I expected something more interesting or exotic, and to just taste "chicken" in both texture and taste, I was somewhat disappointed. I feel that it just wasn't prepared in the ideal way...I don't know, being that I have no experience with rabbit before this, but I've heard that southern fried rabbit is quite tasty, so I can only assume that this was not the way to go.

My friend ordered thier hangar steak dish, and he too was unimpressed. Being an amateur steak connoisseur, he felt the cut of meat was just an inappropriate choice for the kind of restuarant Al Di Lá purports to be. He said that while the accompanying sauce was very delicious, the cut of meat simply did not do the rest of the dish justice. He said it was somewhat "stringy" and would have preferred a NY Strip, or Rib Eye. I can't say I disagree.

Probably the greatest disappointment was the wine that the waiter recommended I have with the rabbit dish. He suggested I order the Masseo, an Umbrian blended wine, of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sangiovese (2003 from Podore Vaglie). The wine started out full-bodied and syrupy, neither distinctly cab or merlot. It had a nice sweet floral nose and flavor, which was quickly accompanied with a mild dryness. However, as the evening progressed, and I allowed the wine to incorporate some oxygen, it failed to hold up. The wine simply lost its robustness, and fell flat immediately at every sip. I couldn't finish the glass - which I almost NEVER do. I found this to be particularly disappointing as I had a lot of faith in Italian wines. This by no means has sullied Italian wines for me at all, but they do get one demerit point for this particular blend. Shame, really.

While this review is far from a glowing one, I still would rate this as a 6/7 on a scale of 1 to 10 with a 10 being Blue Ribbon (review to come). Mind you, this scale is strictly for Brooklyn restuarants, as I feel it's a little unfair to compare Brooklyn restaurants with those in the city that cater to a very different crowd (especially a Park Slope restaurant). I feel that for a restaurant that proclaims itself to be one of the only Venetian (not just Northern Italian) restaurants in New York City, it lacked the umph and gusto I would expect of such a rarity. Frankly, the cuisine resembled a local ethnic restuarant that caters to the locals of similar ethnic background, than a novelty restaurant.

I have nothing to complain, really, of the service. While the wait staff weren't particularly attentive, once we were seated, it did not take long for the waiter to approach us and orate the day's specials, and he did try to answer any questions he could. I don't want to make any excuses, but the restaurant was pretty full (considering it was a late Monday evening - 9:30pm) and the wait was not long at all, but it did lack a certain level of personability.

Unfortunately, this restaurant was nondescript at best, just plain...eh. I hear that Al Di Lá Wine Bar around the corner is supposed to be a smidgen better, with a much better wine selection, and the same food menu. Maybe one day I'll go, but for now, I'll keep to something that's been known to be a little better.