Met a girlfriend here for a belated birthday dinner. Even though the restaurant opened about a year…read moreago, it was both of our first times here. We came on a Tuesday night, and the restaurant was very empty. Maybe it was the end of summer, the rainy weather, or simply a slower night, but there wasn't much of a crowd. It's also about five minutes away from all the restaurants on Newark Ave, so perhaps it doesn't get quite as much foot traffic.
The restaurant itself is very pretty - neutral colors, high ceilings, and dim lighting make for a really charming atmosphere. Our server was friendly, thorough, and very chatty when walking us through the menu. I believe he was the only server for the entire restaurant, though, so it took quite a while for our drinks to arrive from the bar. Once we ordered our food, however, everything came out very quickly, almost so quickly that I wondered if some of the dishes had already been prepared and were simply waiting to be served.
We decided to share four dishes. First was the ahi tuna aguachile. Our waiter described it as being similar to a tuna crudo, but it came out in small chunks, and I didn't really see or taste the mango. This was our least favorite dish of the night.
The street corn croquettes were our second least favorite. They arrived lukewarm and didn't really deliver much in the way of street corn flavor. I think they could benefit from a drizzle of Mexican crema and a sprinkle of chili powder or Tajín to bring those flavors out more.
Our favorite savory dish was the honey-miso ricotta toast. The flavors were really nice, although I wish the focaccia pieces were larger or that there were at least four instead of three.
We also shared the gnocchetti sardi pasta which was just okay. It wasn't particularly flavorful and felt pretty average overall. At $27, I'd much rather have a homemade pasta at Corto.
Our second favorite dish of the night was actually dessert. There were only three options, and we were initially on the fence about ordering anything, but I'm glad we went with the toasted marshmallow crème brûlée. It was delicious. Our server also generously comped the dessert after learning we were celebrating my birthday, which was a really nice and unexpected gesture.
From the restaurant's website, it looks like the menu changes regularly, and I think there is a lot of potential here. The space is charming, the service was friendly, and there are some good ideas on the menu. Unfortunately, nothing we ate really wowed us, and there weren't any other dishes our waiter described that left us wishing we had ordered them.
Overall, I'd give this place another try, especially if the menu continues to evolve. Hopefully we just caught them on a particularly slow night and the restaurant is doing better than the nearly empty dining room suggested. For now, though, this feels like a solid 3-star experience: great ambiance, friendly service, but food that was mostly just average.