Review: Cafe Altro Paradiso

Don't Waste Your Time And Money

TLDR: You probably won’t regret skipping Cafe Altro Paradiso. It’s ok, just know there are better places for simple pasta in NYC, and I bet you can walk into them.

Image credit: culinaryagents.com

Altro Paradiso isn’t a terrible restaurant. It’s not. But it’s not a great one either. For how well rated it is across the RIG (Resy, Infatuation, Google. Wasn’t that obvious?) it’s plain disappointing. Not being able to book less than 2 weeks in advance for a normal timed dinner is just the nail in the coffin. I won’t say don’t try this place. You can try it. You might even like it. But when the “side salad” is the best dish of the night, I wouldn’t waste my time.

Let’s start with the main event: food. The aforementioned side salad was in fact quite delicious. I could eat a hell of a lot of that salad (the other recommended fennel salad was much less tasty and as much as I love fennel, just kind of boring). Where things really fell down was the pasta. This place is known for their simplest of simple, authentic pastas. There was therefore nowhere to hide when the pomodoro was bitter and unsalted, barely coating the pasta. There was nothing to do about the pesto, which was also bitter, clumpy, and just bland. I love the idea of super simple pared down pasta, but the execution wasn’t there.

On to the vibe. Very pretty but sort of stuffy, in the way a “cool” place in the Hamptons feels. That is, cool for old people, but not nearly enough energy for us young’uns. I wasn’t whispering, but it wouldn’t be hard to imagine doing in there either.

Final verdict? There are better places for simple pasta in NYC that don’t make you wait for weeks. Save yourself the trouble of making a reservation if you can, but if you do go, opt for double helpings of side salad and maybe a seasonal special (and ask for salt).