'inoteca Restaurant, New York
Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 9:36AM 
This restaurant is located at 98 Rivington St (on the corner of Ludlow and Rivington) in the Lower East side in New York. Based on referrals from friends and the listing in Zagat, we decided to give it a shot. From what we heard and experienced it seems like the best thing about this place is the wine list more than the food. Rachel and I were underwhelmed by the food as well as the service.
I started off with a sliced meat plate of Coppa, which came with small toasted bread slices and Rachel started with a grilled mushroom, watercress, piave vecchio & shallots salad (minus the piave vecchio ~ cheese). The salad was tasty but Rachel said it was a little unwieldy with the large pieces of watercress. My plate of Coppa was as advertised - a tasty plate of sliced meat. The glass of 2005 Aglianico del Taburno, inoteca Rosso helped bring this dish to life for me - a great tasting red wine that was a bit spicy with a smooth finish.
For our main dishes, I ordered the Polenta with Cauliflower Alla Siciliana w/Prosciutto and Rachel had the Lasagnette di Melanzane (Lasagne with Eggplant). My dish was ok - the Polenta was the tastiest part but the Cauliflower and other vegetables were a bit overcooked. Rachel's lasagne seemed a bit overcooked as well and she thought it may have been heated up in the microwave since the edges were more cooked than the center - and the center was a little mushy with dull flavor.
The highlight of the meal came at the end and we joked that maybe we should have just skipped to the dessert which was a moist cake with pear and marscapone frosting. It was so good.
I'm not usually one to care much about the atmoshphere in a restaurant when the food speaks for itself but at 'inoteca I noticed that they were playing Top 40 type Rock music in the same establishment that provides a glossary menu to help translate the menu which is mostly in Italian. Just didn't seem to go together. Our server also seemed disinterested and possibly burnt out on translating menus to patrons.
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