Bubbles, Birthdays and Babbo

Yes you read that title correctly. I finally made it to Babbo! Who cares that it was 10:30 on a Saturday night, I still had an amazing dining experience and even gained an hour of sleep on the same night!

After two hours of busy signals a month to the day prior, a reservation was made to celebrate Robin's birthday at Mario Batali's first NYC restaurant and still an impossible reservation and impeccable pasta menu.

After reading all the reviews and talking to friends who had been before, we decided against the alluring pasta tasting menu. For first timers, we needed to create our own tasting menu and get a feel for everything on the menu, not just my favorite - pasta.

We started with the grilled octopus - a first for almost everyone at the table, including myself. Although the looks are a bit intimidating, it wasn't chewy like I thought it was going to be and actually was quite tasty.

Next came the most exciting part -- 4 pastas for 4 people. It was an extremely difficult choice as we heard of so many good ones but we decided with the garganelli, beef cheek ravioli, gnocchi with braised oxtail and the mint love letters. The garganelli was outstanding with home made pasta rolled into their own version of a penne with mushrooms, light garlic and olive oil sauce and your choice of parmesean or goat cheese shaved on top. I think we all agreed that a couple bites of the garganelli was not enough to satisfy all of us.
Next up, the beef cheeck ravioli - was a bigger portion for sure and served with shaved parmesean as well. I really enjoyed this pasta and it just tasted like a slight rendition of a finely ground meat sauce.
I think my 2nd favorite next to the garganelli was the gnocchi. It was the only pasta served with a tomato sauce so it added a little more flavor and the oxtail was delicious. It reminded me of pieces of brisket, tender pieces of meat that wasn't gamy in the slightest.
We had to order the mint lovers as it's a staple on the Babbo menu but I wouldn't order it again. It was interesting to say the least. Picture a normal looking ravioli, but inside is all green and has a mix of mint and spice. I don't love a strong taste of mint unless it's mint ice cream, but it was worth a try. The mint taste was a little too overpowering for me that I didn't get a good taste of the spicy lamb sausage either.
My favorite thing about the pasta course was the different cheese pairings they choose to shave on top. You can't thoroughly enjoy pasta without cheese and they do it up right.

Next time we score a reservation, I'm hoping to try the pappardelle bolagnese, the pappardelle with wild boar ragu, the pumpkin lune and the goat cheese tortelloni. Or of course, the $120.00 pappardelle with white truffles shaved on top.

We didn't stop at the pastas and decided on the lamb chops and side of brussels sprouts for our third course. One order came with 5 chops, plenty for us girls filled up on pasta goodness. The lamb was grilled medium rare with sunchokes, onions and a delicious yogurt sauce. Brussels sprouts are a must if they show up on a menu. I'm even tempted to try to cook them myself, but they won't be as good as these were. Crunchy to the center served with pancetta, it was the perfect compliment to our main course.

We finished it off with a glass of dessert wine and a chocolate hazelnut cake which was better than expected. It was slightly gooey on the inside with crunchies of hazelnut throughout.

I have to give a big thank you to the Engel family and Gina and Jenna for their alcoholic contributions to our dinner - it wouldn't have been the same without it! I also wish I remembered our amazing waiter's name because without him, I don't think our dining experience would have been the same. I thought the service couldn't have been better (before our waiter left us at 12:30 before dessert). The courses were timed perfectly and I honestly didn't feel overly stuffed. We closed the place down at 1:30 in the morning, fought the cold to a cab, rolled into bed and dreamt about our exciting adventure at Babbo.