A Voce Columbus
10 Columbus Circle - 3rd Floor, Columbus Circle, NY
We have a new rule here at Immaculate Infatuation. No taking escalators to dinner. Why? Think about where are you likely to be if you’re on an escalator – an airport, an office building, a filthy subway, Disney World…or maybe a mall. In none of those situations are you likely to be scooting your way to an awesome meal. Guess what the Time Warner Center is? A mall…with a really expensive food court.
Considering this new rule, we have adjusted our scientific rating formula (see The Meatball Shop) to reflect a minimum two point deduction for making us ride an escalator to a meal. Therefore, every restaurant located in the Time Warner Center will receive a maximum 8.0. What’s that you say? Per Se is located in Time Warner Center and it’s the best restaurant on earth? It’s also 200 yards from a J-Crew and at the other end of a three escalator ride. No 10 spot for you.
The original A Voce in Gramercy holds one of the highest ratings on this site. It’s a go-to on Date Night or for Dinner With The Parents, and a spot we always suggest with confidence. The Columbus Circle (mall) incarnation serves a very similar menu of the rich, egg heavy pastas and entrees that lean more towards New American than Italian. Unfortunately, this A Voce just isn’t quite on the same level as the original. That sick view of Central Park doesn’t make up for the fact that the service is less impressive and the food doesn’t come out of the kitchen with the same gusto. That said, we’re still talking about a high quality restaurant here, and overall, we like it. Make note that most of the food is better suited for a taste than entire serving, so go with a group and sample a good portion of the menu. Just make sure your people are prepared for three floors of escalator climbing and maybe a little post-meal browse of the Sephora down the hall.
Food Rundown:
Insalata di scarola
An escarole salad with warm pancetta vinaigrette, soft boiled farm egg and pecorino romano. This was a nice sized appetizer salad that would have been excellent, but it was swimming in too much dressing.
Cavatelli
Small shell-like pasta with brussels sprouts, bacon, Sicilian almonds and whipped sheeps milk ricotta. The ricotta makes this dish quite dense and heavy, so all you really need are a couple of bites. Also, if you’re not into smokey, avoid this – the smoked bacon taste is pretty intense.
Pappardelle
Pappardelle is my favorite kind of pasta because the long, broad noodles can be wound up on your fork to create the perfect sized bite. Also, there’s usually some ridiculous slow cooked meat accompanying it. In this case was braised rabbit with hen of the woods mushrooms, rosemary and parmigiano reggiano. Definitely order this. That rabbit is incredibly tasty.
Spaghetti alla Chitarra
Similar to the Malloreddus we recently experienced at Convivio, this spaghetti with crab, leeks and sea urchin was a big hit. The flavors worked really well together and it was definitely nice to eat something on the lighter side, as most of the pasta dishes here would make even CC Sabathia feel full.
Trota alla Griglia
While a couple of the other entrees are a bit boring, the trout is surprisingly good. Coupled with fingerling potatoes and bitter greens, it comes in an addicting anchovy vinaigrette that even the anchovy averse will like. This is a mainstay at A Voce and you’ll find it on the brunch, lunch and dinner menus.
Brasato
We found this braised beef cheek pretty to be surprisingly unexciting. Served with root vegetable soffritto and marrow, this somehow lacked flavor and could have benefited from a heavier hand with the seasoning.
Salmon
I had the salmon for lunch recently and was impressed. The flavors were spot on and the fish was fresh and prefectly cooked. It takes a lot to impress with us with salmon, but this did the trick.
