Serafina

Sunday brought a large party to Serafina (55th and Broadway ) at 5pm. The dinner had to be early since we had a family (with a 2 yr old) coming in from Pennsylvania and another family (with a 3 yr old and twin 10 month olds) coming from Long Island. Both had to make it back at a reasonable hour to put their respective kids to bed. Ah, the family life. At least the early hour makes it easy to get reservations.

Honestly, with various kids running around, crying, spitting up, etc, everyone walking in and out of the room, and the many conversations with people who haven't seen each other for a long time, it was hard to pay close attention to the food. I do remember a pizza, a fried calamari and a caprese salad that we had to start. The pizza had a nice combination of flavors if I remember right. Unfortunately I don't remember WHICH flavors. The fried calamari was a little mushier than I would have expected and the caprese (all about the freshness of the buffalo mozzarella and the meatiness of the heirloom tomatoes) was good on the mozzarella side and not so great on the tomato side.

I had the risotto with champagne and black truffles. This was probably the most flavorless truffle dish I've ever had. The champagne taste was non-existent and, while there were plenty of truffle shavings, they didn't taste like anything. Very strange. I had to add mucho pepper to flavor the dish. Very disappointing. Some of the other pastas were good: the penne alla vodka and the rigatoni alla bolognese.

Desserts were nice all around. Besides the gelatos, we had a nutella crepe and a chocolate souffle. The chocolate souffle was super rich. I was torn since I don't usually favor chocolate desserts because they're almost always too sweet. However, I do love souffles. This one wasn't "quite" a souffle per se but it was just light enough. Many places will call their chocolate mousse cakes a souffle and this one was in between.

This restaurant is nice for a group around 12 since they have a separate room. Foodwise, I prefer the location on 61st between Madison and Park. The bar scene there is also much more lively.