Wednesday in the West Village

A special visitor was in town last night from London and requested that we go to dinner at L'Artusi in the West Village. Having been to it's sister restaurant Del'Annima, I was excited to try this Italian eatery.
Our 9:30 reservation was kind of late for me on a school night but it was a special occasion so I made the exception. The restaurant was filled with people eating at the bar and every table.
We had gotten the low down a little before ordering, but so many things sounded amazing, it was hard to just choose a few.
The items are mostly meant for sharing so we went down the menu and chose what we heard and thought were going to be the best.
The first thing to come out was the tuna crudo with grapefruit. It was fresh and tart. There was also this grapefruit tasting icey served on the side that was very interesting and when combined with the tuna - it was great.
After that, all of our other dishes were served at the same time and we looked like we had enough food for 10 when there were really only 4 girls.
We got an order of the roasted mushrooms with a fried egg on top - sounds gross I know but its really good. We also got 2 pastas -- the tajarin (a fettechini type noodle) with garlic and Parmesan cheese and the orecchiette pasta served with sausage and salumi and it had a kick to it.
We also got the branzino that was sweet and salty all at the same time. There were olives underneath and it tasted like it was cooked with honey.
Then we ordered 3 side dishes, the sunchokes with chili pepper, Brussels sprouts (I feel like I order them wherever I go) and the roasted potatoes with a spinach sauce on top that was very similar to my brunch at the Smith. While all the sides were amazing - I was a little disappointed when they came out all fried. Fried anything is a win win situation, but there's really nothing special about it.

Last but not least we got an order of the special appetizer that everyone raves about. We were about to put in our order for it when our waiter said they were sold out. A tear almost came to my eye but then the table next to us saved the day! Knowing how much we wanted to try this fresh ricotta ravioli type dish, he called in a special favor for us. His business partner is also part owner at L'Artusi. It was worth the fight. Homemade pasta filled with fresh ricotta cheese with shaved cheese on top. Melted in my mouth.

To finish it all off - we didn't order the olive oil cake like Lindsey and I wanted - but we did get some mint tea that was perfect for my oncoming cold.