Extra Virgin

After the whirlwind of the LA trip, I handed home for merely 48 hrs and turned back around to the other airport of the city and headed East. I was really going for work, but who said that I can't snuck off to check out the city?

Truly, there weren't much sneaking out to be had due to some confusion on transportation, there were alot more waiting than checking things out. I will say this, if you ever wanted to use a luggage storage service for a few hours, I think Schwartz is your best bet. It is near the Penn Station, they also have 2 more locations around town for your convenience. I just wanted to jump down to Chinatown to get some errands done, by no means was I there to have a shopping fest. If you have a long layover and wanted to check out the city without lugging your luggage around, this is a good service to use. $10-15 to store your stuff, and you can tell it's quite popular too.

Anyway, on to the food. A colleague of mine and I went from Westchester down to the City to meet up w/ some folks that I work with on a regular basis. The group met up at Blind Tiger for drinks. And honestly, that's what I was there to do... to collect my drinks due to favors I've done for one of the peeps there.

You know how that goes, drinks leads to dinner. As we mobbed out of the bar, I have no idea where we went, but we landed at Extra Virgin in the Village. I'm not even going to pretend I know my geography, but it was just a few blocks away, literally.

The menu serves a wide range of food good for all types of tastes. Although, I do wonder, at the time, if it's possible to please everyone with one fell swoop. I'm glad to report that they did deliver.

Colleagues ordered the Fritto Misto (fried calamari), one guy didn't realized they're fried. Urm. Hello! What the heck did you think fritto mean in Italian??? (in case you honestly didn't know, it means fried). Another colleague ordered the bacon wrapped scallops, that was flavorful and along w/ the potato latke, that in itself can be a meal for me. Another appetizer that was ordered was the Artichoke Parmesan. That 'salad' was topped w/ mixed greens, poached egg, and hollandise. Amazingly, the hollandise was lighter than I expected. Then, again, it was quite dark in there, I could very well had dipped very little and not see it.

I was pretty torn between the chicken and the ravioli. As you can see, above, I picked the Lobster Ravioli for my choice. The green sauce looks more intimating than the taste. I would venture to say the taste was mild to nil. The flavor came from the lobster and the cheese inside the ravioli more than anything else. The pasta was fine, but nothing out of the ordinary, as a matter of fact, when it comes to ravioli, I don't want the pasta to be 'special' and disturb the flavor that were meant to be the signature of the dish.

One thing I will heed to you, is to save some room for their sides. They are not to be ignored, as I'm sure the chef would appreciate if you order some of that. While I only got the asparagus, which matched the green in my ravioli sauce. I did see the truffle mac and cheese tart and the brussel sprouts with caramelized apple and pancetta on the Sides menu. I do encourage you to try it and report back.

Extra Virgin
259 West 4th Street
NY, NY 10014
212-691-9359
reservation is highly recommended
http://www.extravirginrestaurant.com/