Evelina — Restaurant in New York

Evelina is a very special place in Fort Greene, a must, if even just to get their gelato scooped right outside from their little gelato cart parked right outside, though now comes my review of why you should also sit down for dinner and maybe end on a sweet note with the aforementioned gelato.

The appetizers that we tried were showstoppers, insanely memorable so much so, that I just had to leave a review after pondering for a week. The octopus tentacle, with grilled endive, pine nut sauce, brined lemons sliced super thin and bits of bacon was the best I’ve ever had, I even ordered a second serving and it wasn’t a lucky accident, it is truly a perfect marriage of flavors that blew me away. The peach salad was creamy and refreshing, and the steak tartare came loaded into a grilled bone marrow canoe, with crispy sourdough they even thought to replenish drizzled with great olive oil. It was a simple concept done right, they blew the appetizers out of the park. For main courses, we ordered the burrata ravioli with a mushroom sauce, which was so delicious we ordered a second serving, the squid ink risotto, which tasted very good with the crabmeat, but there was so little of it you could at most get a taste of crab with every third bite. I understand it’s already the most expensive option in the pasta and grains portion of the menu, but a slightly higher price for a little bit more crab would have made the dish feel more complete, and the spaghetti alle vongole, which was also so lacking in terms of clams that it reminded me of a butter and garlic pasta you can get in a kids menu. Perhaps the kitchen forgot to season it/add chili that day?

In my opinion, the recipe to success is how you remember something, and a sour experience turned sweet will often be remembered as a great thing because of our live for happy endings (no matter the process). in Evelina’s case, they started so strong that whatever followed was sure to be somewhat of a letdown, and the finish was a lot weaker than the apps. Though I must say, for those apps alone, it deserves a lot of praise.

Forewarning: your gelato experience really depends who is scooping the gelato in the cart, I’ve gone once when there were two friendly dudes, who scooped with abandon, filling the cones and ensuring stuffed cones and great stability, who earned themselves their 30%tip and my love for Evelina’s gelato. Another time there were two girls who looked like they were taught how to scoop and sell gelato that same day, there was 50% less ice cream, all balanced on top of the cones so precariously that out of the three cones we bought, we had two topple over that we thankfully managed to catch with our hands. Upon inspection of the cones themselves, they were completely empty shells free of ice cream. Hopefully you’ll get lucky, or the girls become experts by the time you get to check this place out. And I seriously recommend that...

Just go to Aita.

Aita has much better food, full stop. Also, their atmosphere is slightly more casual than Evelina, which may be why their staff is friendlier and the portions are more generous.

I was excited about Evelina, it’s been on the list. We came here on a whim and figured on a Tuesday we might just get a table as a walk in. Having never been I didn’t know the host(ess) greets guests outside on the sidewalk. I saw the sign where to wait, but interpreted it too literally so I stood directly next to it on the threshold. I also wanted to check out the dining room so I popped my head in. A server walked by in the dining room so I smiled, and she gave me a very annoyed expression and pointed outside saying “the hostess is outside, she’ll help you outside.” The hostess was very nice and offered us options. We chose outside. It was charming but very cramped. Every person in and out of the enclosure including our head server and back server knocked my partner’s chair each time they went in and out. I mention this because as fine dining as Evelina makes itself appear, it’s just another cramped, overpriced restaurant with overworked, underpaid, under-trained staff who probably have every right to be stressed, unfriendly, and transactional. Maybe if we were regulars or were a large party racking up a big tab, we would’ve received a different experience, but as a 2 top walk in we were no one’s concern. The head server said nothing more to us than to take our order, ask how the food was, and give us the bill. Never a smile, always stressed. And the food was so underwhelming. The octopus was terrible, way over cooked and rubbery. We decided not to say anything because of how unfriendly everyone had been. Restaurants like to come on here and say “if you had said something we would’ve been happy to fix it”. It’s a fair point, but realistically who wants to try to sort that out when they’ve already been made to feel so unwelcome and unimportant. It’s true we could’ve gotten it taken off the bill or swapped it for another plate, but when you’re far along in the meal, you just want to cut your losses and get out as quickly as possible. These are all signs of issues with management and ownership, not staff.

If you’re gonna have these prices, then you better have exceptional food for the portion size, you better have expertly trained staff who at least like their paycheck if not their job, and take some tables away so people can breathe and tables/chairs aren’t being knocked by...

This was originally our back-up plan for Miss Ada two blocks down since it had a wait, but so glad we came here instead!

For our party of five, we got the following: Burrata Ravioli 2x Prosciutto Di Parma Eggs Benedict Multigrain Toast Spicy Eggs in Purgatory

I quite loved the Burrata Ravioli. It was just the right amount of flavor and ricotta cheese to not make it too heavy. The mushroom also helped to balance it out. This was the first time I’ve had ravioli without a filling inside and also not with tomato sauce so it was def a surprise dish. The rectangular shape as opposed to the usual square was also a bit of a shocker. I would say that while the plate was big, the portion size was actually quite small. I didn’t feel entirely full after having it.

My friends got the Prosciutto Di Parma Eggs Benedict, which I got a try of and loved the crunch of the brioche on the bottom. It was made perfectly and made the dish that much better. The Multigrain Toast was rather basic and as it’s named so would recommend you getting other things instead. The Spicy Eggs in Purgatory were interesting as they came with lamb merguez, which is a type of sausage. I’m not a big fan of lamb and while the flavor wasn’t too strong, I could still taste it so wouldn’t opt for it for my own dish.

We got there around 1:30pm so it was still the brunch menu and lunch items were unfortunately unavailable. We wanted to try the Pappardelle here, but that was on the lunch menu only. Guess that means I’ll be back another time to try that and other items!

One thing I noticed that took off from our experience a bit was that the servers were very hard to flag down. Whether it was when we wanted to order, get more water or get the check, it took a long time to finally get their attention even when they were right by our table. They were still very kind though, but would’ve preferred more attentiveness. When we got the check, they gave us a postcard for their restaurant that had a unique design and very soft feel. As a big postcard collector, I was surprised at the texture since it’s very rare for a postcard to feel this soft. We ended up asking for a few other copies as my friends wanted one too. Would def recommend this place for anyone looking for some good...