La Bottega

88 9th Ave., Chelsea, NY

7.2

map & more

Neighborhood
Chelsea

Cuisine
Italian

Nearby
Highline Ballroom
Hiro
The Highline

212-488-2626

Official Website

By Chris Stang
July 28, 2009

If you’ve ever been to the Maritime Hotel for drinks on the patio, you basically know the drill when it comes to La Bottega – everybody is way too cool, ultra Euro, and nobody seems to have a job, including the wait staff. The Maritime patio is always crazy in the summer months, and its proximity to Meatpacking and Highline action ensure that even in colder weather, La Bottega could be slinging Totino’s Pizza Rolls and still turn out a nice dinner business. There are a lot of reasons to expect mediocre food out of a place like La Bottega, but surprisingly, this Italian restaurant is far better than it needs to be. The tagliatelle bolognese is incredibly good as are the rest of their homemade pastas, and the pizzas are also a nice size and tasty. A respectable wine and beer selection makes the environment a little more tolerable, but let’s be honest – you’ll have to take La Bottega as it comes. You might as well embrace it and throw on a really tight t-shirt, some silver Pumas, and one of those Gucci fanny pack things … you know you kind of want one of those anyway.

Food Rundown:

Burrata
A caprese salad, but with cream filled fresh mozzarella, grape tomatoes, and basil. A terrific way to start your meal.

Margherita Pizza
This is a basic margherita pizza, but the La Bottega pizza crusts are a nice balance of crunchy and tender. Much better than you would expect.

Salsiccia Pizza
Mozzarella, tomato, onions, and spicy sausage come on this pizza, and the spicy sausage makes it.

Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese
I’ll probably catch heat for saying this, but this is honestly one of my favorite pasta meals in the city. The tagliatelle is perfect and delicate and the bolognese sauce is incredibly flavorful yet not overly heavy. Don’t knock it ’til you try it.

Bucatini with Guanciale Special
A special I had on a recent visit, this is fresh pasta in a spicy meat sauce. In case you were wondering, guanciale is pork jowl. As if I weren’t already concerned enough over my pork to every other kind of food intake ratio, now I’ve had pork cheek and it’s good. If this is a special when you’re there, dive right in.