NYTimes Gives L'Apicio One Star, Loves The Polenta

This week, Pete Wells stopped by the newly opened L'Apicio in the East Village, a large new restaurant from the team behind the much smaller gems Dell'Anima and L'Artusi. The critic sang the praises of the pastas and especially the polenta, but issued a "meh" about many of the other dishes, awarding the venue with one star. His takeaway:

"The polenta dishes, along with most of the pastas and appetizers, are handled so expertly that it almost doesn’t matter that L’Apicio’s grasp of the main courses is much less steady. After eating from the opening sections of the menu, you can be in such high spirits that you don’t necessarily mind when the uncharismatic pork chop or dubious arctic char shows up. You can even forgo them altogether."

He also doesn't love the larger space, which he likens to "a trattoria airlifted into a nightclub." You can read the full review here and see a video about the venue here.