Po Restaurant

(100 posts and still going strong! Thanks for reading, y'all!)

Occasion: Dinner with Winnie (in town for a conference), Tom and Melisa

Location: Po Restaurant on Cornelia between Bleecker and W4th (porestaurant.com) [Note: There's another one in Brooklyn]

Edibles: cannellini bean bruschetta amuse-bouche; Tom and I shared the cured tuna app; I had the skirt steak with gorgonzola butter, roasted fingerling potatoes and escarole for my main; Tom had the orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabe for his; Melisa had the grilled portobello app start, followed by the pumpkin ravioli in sage butter; Winnie had the roasted beets to start, followed by the pappardelle

Musings: I'm a bit obsessed with Mario Batali and have been to most of his restaurants in the city: Babbo, Otto, Esca, Lupa, Del Posto, Casa Mono and Bar Jamón. I include Po in this list, even though Batali's no longer affiliated and hasn't been for quite a while.

Overall, I thought the food was great. The tuna was a little hard to pick out from the pile of fancy coleslaw it was served on, but once we started excavating, we uncovered a good number of slices. My steak was cooked perfectly and the gorgonzola butter melted into a very rich sauce.

I also sampled everyone's pasta. The pumpkin ravioli was a tad on the sweet side and I don't know if I could have eaten a whole plate, but one bite was perfect. Whoever makes Po's fresh pasta obviously knows his stuff - the pappardelle and the ravioli had great texture and elasticity. Of the three pastas, the orecchiette was the weakest, simply because it was the only one made with dried pasta.

I was very tempted by the ricotta cheesecake, but didn't really have room. Next time.

[Note: They have a six-course chef's tasting for $52. I had it a few years back with some friends and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.]