al di là Trattoria — Restaurant in New York

A charming small restaurant, with just a few tables and a robust outdoor seating conglomerate, featuring heaters, plants, and a nice tent. The service was solid, the waiters were friendly and chirpy, and the food came quickly.

I tried two different ragu pastas, one with beef and another with smokey pork, which felt more reminiscent of pulled pork than of standard Italian pork. My pasta was tasty; it had decent flavors, and it had that bright, fluffy texture that a strong pasta should aspire to emanate. However, the flavors were in some unfortunate regards slightly neutered. The ragu sauce seemed awfully underutilized and didn’t contribute enough to the complexion of the dish. Hence, the pasta was left without that magical flavor in the sauce that separates the good restaurants from the great restaurants. The other ragu pasta was tasty, but once again, the ragu itself seemed to be at (metaphorical) low opacity. The fatty and strong textures of the pork were undesirable; if I had wanted barbecue or Jamaican food, I would’ve gone to Hometown BBQ or The Islands. (The Islands, by the way, is an excellent Caribbean restaurant; it’s located in the Crown Heights / Prospect Heights area, and has perhaps the best jerk chicken I’ve ever consumed.)

The dessert, an unconventional pear pie slice with chocolate chunks blended in an uncomfortable manner. The combination of the bright fruity flavors with the dark, rich, strong complexion of the darker chocolate emulsified poorly. The texture in the dessert felt uneven, and every bite felt like a mediocre, culinary equivalent of Pandora’s Box.

While Al dí La is certainly a fine restaurant, and excellent for Park Slope, a neighborhood with many mediocre, overpriced restaurants, Bar Toto (located on 11th St and 6th Avenue in Park Slope; northeast corner.) is a better experience for the approximately the same price. Al dí La is certainly a class above most of Park Slope; for the neighborhood, it is a wonderful contrast to the dozens of forgettable restaurants I have dined at across the green and charming streets of simple, kind and grounded Park Slope. Al dí La is certainly a winner, however, it isn’t one of my Park Slope favorites, much less one of my favorites in general. For date-night Italian food, I recommend Scalinatella (located on 61st and 3rd Ave in Manhattan) if you can stomach the pice. However, for something cheaper that also happens to be in Park Slope, I once again highly recommend Bar Toto.

Despite my qualms with Al dí La, it is very strong for Park Slope, and is certainly a place I’ll go back to. The menu today was admittedly not complete, and when they reinstitute their complete collection, I will certainly give them a second chance. A charming corner spot for high end Italian eats, Al dí La is a solid restaurant, not a heavyweight by any means, but a fine establishment. Besides, I had lovely outing to Al dí La; my evening there was excellent even if the food wasn’t spectacular. I’m very glad that I finally checked them off my list. I will certainly return, at one time or another.

Rating: 7/10 Adjusted...

I have been eating here for 13 years... tonight I decided to take my wife for dinner ,we always sit in the little side street "wine bar" area ... the waiter was some Italian guy (I only say this so the manager reading this knows of whom I speak about ) the place was completely empty . I asked him to put my wife's order in first , literally 1 minute later , I put my pasta order in' I ordered the ragu ... literally 1 minute later . We waited , 2 people arrived and sat at the bar .... the server was immediately friendly with them ... my wife ordered a Whole fish ... her food arrived , we thought it was normal as she put it in 1 minute prior to me... she started eating I asked her not to wait .... the people at the bar received their pasta , ate , finished . At not one point did the waiter come back to my table to ask if I needed anything or to tell me the status of my order or to offer me a glass of wine .... My wife finished her food , she wanted to walk out and so did I.... I was so angry I was ready to punch the waiter . He also creeped my wife out . Fix this . Your food is on par with what I cook at home , the house Barbera was a black cherry fruit bomb .... I would normally not complain because it's just house wine but in this case scenario you start to realize all of these little things, my wife even told me my fish is better ... We don't come to this place because the food is outstanding we come just because we like the vibe of the little wine bar.... there is normally a girl there at the wine bar who is the server , maybe she's a manager ? she has curly red Brown hair and she is a sweetheart .... I spent a $113 I was even kind enough to leave a $15 tip I wanted to leave him $0 I wanted to punch him . My family owns a number of restaurants in the the west village and in Brooklyn, this is not the way business...

Before moving to the neighborhood, my impression of Park Slope was basically brownstones, Prospect Park, and Al Di La. As a college student, I once schlepped all the way here with my then boyfriend and his family just to go to this restaurant.

So as you can imagine, I was exultant to return here and had pretty high hopes. I won't say that my hopes were dashed because the food is still very, very good, but the service has been severely downgraded since the pandemic.

They are now doing contactless service, which for us meant that there was only one server working the entire restaurant when we went for lunch. It was a frustrating experience for both us and I felt bad for the poor woman who had to juggle everything on her own.

We came at lunch on a Friday, and it was fairly empty. We scanned the QR code to see the menu and were able to put in our order on our own phones (payment, tip and all). Just as we arrived and sat outside, another party of two also sat down right after us. About 15 minutes later, I noticed that they got served their water and coffee before we'd even gotten our water, and this was in 80 degree heat! I was pretty annoyed. What made it an even weirder experience was that I had already tipped (and there's no way to retract/reduce that). All that said, I did feel awful for the server - she needed more help.

Food came out in take out boxes which was also weird. They either assume you'll have leftovers or ran out of dishware?

Polenta is...