Photo from Teatro’s website
“Jamie Mammano’s Theater District stop draws a young, hip crowd with its big portions of rustic Italian fare…” “What started out as buzz about Mistral chef Jamie Mammano’s perfect little Italian restaurant has risen to a dull roar. Be prepared to fight throngs of hipsters for a table. They’re here for the fantastic food—a to-die-for antipasto, the thinnest pizza this side of a cracker, and entrées including veal scaloppine and spaghetti carbonara—along with beautiful people, reasonable prices, and a trendy location in a converted synagogue…”
I was chatting to Rob about where I could go with my friend and work colleague, I try to think of fabulous, fun places we can go to. Rob and I went down a whole list of restaurants and basically what my mood was. We talked about so many places but when he said Teatro, my thoughts went to… hmm, yes, Teatro – why not.
Upon arrival the place was packed out. I didn’t make a reservation. Nevertheless, the hostess was lovely and said we could be seated within 10-15 minutes, or sooner and did we want a drink at the bar. We did end up sitting at the tiny, at the most 10 seat bar for dinner.
Teatro is a former bank – I think. High ceilings and a cavernous, loud atmosphere. This is another one of those places where if you want a quiet dinner, this is not the place. However, if you want something fun, noisy and where you can hear someone’s conversation 100 feet away, this place is perfect. The architecture of the ceiling is striking and I love the open kitchen. The people watching is quite interesting from the business crowd, to the pre- and after-dinner crowd, to the girls on a night out, like me. Very fun and still good!
We started with sharing the Crispy Calamari with Lemon Aioli – very fresh and tasty – a bit too many full fried calamari for my liking as I prefer the rings but still good.
We also shared the Crispy Maitake Mushroom, Truffled Herb Aioli – both were crazily deep fried and soooo good – the mushroom was a bit freaky looking – in fact, it looked like a weird beehive. It was delicious though.
I then had the Spaghetti Carbonara, La Quercia Pancetta, Fresh Egg & Parmesan, which was very nice indeed – thank goodness I ordered the appetizer portion.
Another great thing about Teatro – they allow patrons to order app portions, which for me is perfect. Robin had the Spinach and Mascarpone Ravioli, Creme Fraiche, Parsley and concurred that Teatro is quite wonderful.
What a great re-find. I totally forgot about this place.
