When Mike and I decided to go to New York, one of the restaurants at the top of my list was Mario Batali’s Babbo. Three weeks before our visit to New York, Mike tried making a reservation at here. For the entire five days we were supposed to be there, they were already fully booked. After doing some research online, he later realized that getting a reservation at Babbo is quite a process. If you want a reservation, you better do so, exactly one month in advance of the date. Oh, and be prepared to call them a few times since they’re notoriously known for having a busy line.

Babbo
They started us off at the bar for about ten minutes while they were still setting up. I’m a sucker for fruity drinks, so when the bartender told me about their special, a cherry bellini, I had to get one. Nice and refreshing!
What I liked about the setup was that we had a fourtop to ourselves and they seated us on the banquette next to each other. After taking a look through Babbo’s menu, we decided to go with the Pasta Tasting Menu for $69 per person.

Black Tagliatelle
We were also served some bread which was served cold without any butter or olive oil. I wasn’t too impressed with the bread so I didn’t have very much of it…and I was about to have a pasta tasting menu. I didn’t need any extra carbs.
Our first dish was the Black Tagliatelle – with parsnips and pancetta. I’ve never had squid ink pasta before but I’m glad Babbo’s was my first. I simply loved the crispy bits of pancetta sprinkled over the dish and the sweetness of the parsnips. The combination of it all just worked so well with squid ink pasta, cooked to a perfect al dente. What a great start to the meal. Mike and I agreed that this was our favourite dish of the evening.

“Casunzei” – with poppy seeds
The second dish was the “Casunzei” – with poppy seeds. The server explained to us that “casunzei” translates into “small pockets”. This dish came with three small pockets filled with sweet beets and ricotta, topped with a sprinkling of poppy seeds. After cutting into this delicate pasta, the beets started to bleed into the white sauce which created a nice pattern on the dish. Similar to our first dish, this blew me away.

Garganelli – with “Funghi Trifolati”
The fourth pasta dish was the Agnolotti al Pomodoro, which was the first dish that actually had meat in it. They were pretty much mini ravioli pouches filled with braised beef topped with a fresh tomato sauce. Although the agnolotti was tasty, it wasn’t as impressive as the previous three dishes. And by this point I was starting to get pretty full. So many carbs!

Agnolotti al Pomodoro
Now, onto the desserts… three of them! The first dessert was the Sweet Plum “Delizia”. It was a small sweet plum cake topped with cream and a sage leaf. The interior was quite moist and Mike found it to taste like cheesecake. It was a nice little dessert and the meal could have easily ended here. But we still had two more desserts to go.

Papardelle Bolognese
After the mousse, we were stuffed so we only managed to have a few bites of the final desserts. The server explained to us that one person at the table would be served the dessert listed on the tasting menu, while the pastry chef would whip up a surprise for the other person. So, we really had two final desserts.

Olive Oil Rosemary Cake - with Olive Oil Gelato
My final dessert was the “surprise” dish that the pastry chef had whipped up for the day. It was Grape Brioche – with honey vanilla gelato. I thought it looked like a tart – again, too large of a portion to end off the meal. The taste and texture reminded me of French toast, which actually tasted really nice… I really would have enjoyed this under normal circumstances. Just not after seven other courses.

Grape Brioche – with honey vanilla gelato
Ratings (out of 5):
Babbo is one of my faves! When I was there I had a really delish blueberry upside down cake that I still dream of.
I can see why. This was definitely the best meal we had during our NYC trip!
$69 for the mains? That is… Actually very reasonable considering the quality of food! Need to go to the States!
Actually, it was $69 for the whole pasta tasting menu – so, I actually found it to be very reasonable given the great food! And there was A LOT of it too. 5 pasta dishes + 3 desserts!
Thanks, Jess, for your description of each of the pasta courses. I’m going to Babbo tonight and am considering the pasta tasting menu, so it was great to read a little preview of what I might get! Although you went a while ago, the menu is still pretty similar.
You’re welcome. Thanks for dropping by and hope your meal at Babbo is just as enjoyable!