Once again, I returned to my favorite Italian restaurant in New York, Enoteca Maria with my mother and my husband (You can read about my previous post here: http://www.foodlovergirl.com/enoteca-maria/). I discovered this lovely, wonderful restaurant almost 10 years ago, and I fell in love with everything that this restaurant had to offer; food, atmosphere, service, and the owner, Joe Scaravella. It is a small restaurant located in Staten Island. They have extended their business hours from 3pm to close, allowing us to have late lunch or early dinner, whichever you want to take it. Since my mother does not want to have heavy food late in the evening, this worked out perfectly for her. With our reservation at strange hour at 3pm, off we went on the Staten Island Ferry. And look at the view from the ferry, a perfect and beautiful view of Downtown Manhattan skyline, and also, Statue of Liberty.
As I mentioned on my previous post, their chefs are very unique, they are all Nonnas – Italian grandmothers! Now, Joe has gone international. With much broader concept, they now offer “Nonnas of the World”…! In addition to their Italian grandmothers, they now have grandmother chefs from Sri Lanka, Philippines, Japan, Algeria, Moscow, etc., etc., etc…. How awesome is this??? You can check their Nonnas of the World Calendar on their website to see which grandmother is cooking on which day.
For my mother who loves Italian food, well, Italian food from Enoteca Maria to be precise, wanted one of the Italian grandmother’s cooking. So we were there for home-cooked Italian food. We started off with glasses of wines:
We got Antica Enotria Falanghina, 2015 from Puglia ($9/glass), Grandpa Chacha Momestyle Wine, 2014 from Puglia ($9/glass), and Monte Das Promessas Branco, 2014 fro Portugal ($9/glass). My pick was the Grandpa Chacha, and I chose that solely based on its name. I mean, come on, Grandpa Chacha! I could not resist such festive named wine. This restaurant has great wine list, you will be sure to find a wine that you love. The three wines we got were all really nice. Antica Enotria Falanghina is rich with fruity and floral notes, easy to drink. Monte Das Promessas Branco is a nice and refreshing wine with notes of citrus that linger on the palette. Right amount of acidity to keep your delicious meal going.
Grandpa Chacha is soft on palate, and is combines the balance of red Zinfandel, blended with the fruitiness and tannis of a full-bodies Merlot. The fun named wine was calm, cool, and all chill. Maybe Grandpa is there is keep you Chacha in check, and help you relax. It was a really nice glass of wine, I totally enjoyed every sip.
Their complimentary sample plate and homemade focaccia bread changes a bit every time we visit, which is another fun thing to look forward to. The bread was so tasty and fluffy and really, really good! And since it is homemade, the size can change from day to day. They had fresh roasted beets and green pepper, and I am not a fan of beets, but when it is so freakin’ fresh, it taste nothing like the ones you get out of a can or treated with preservatives. It was actually tasty!
For appetizer, we ordered Insalata Frutti di Mare ($16). It comes with chilled shrimp, calamari, octopus with lemon vinaigrette. This is a bowl of super fresh seafood! Each one was plump with right amount of chewy-ness, juicy and very refreshing with the lemon vinaigrette. A great start to a wonderful dinner! It is a not a bit portion, as it is an appetizer item, but it was certainly packed with quality and flavor.
We also ordered another appetizer, Melanzane Ripiene -Vegetarian ($17). Eggplant boats stuffed with rice, mozzarella, medley of vegetables, provolone cheese, then baked in red sauce. This was very generous portion for an appetizer, large eggplant boats with mountain full of fillings.
The filling was simply amazing. Packed with cheesy rice and veggies, very filling and yes, super satisfying. It is the kind of comforting food that you want to have at cozy, warm home. Of course, cooked by your grandma. Or, have it at this lovely restaurant, cooked by someone else’s grandma. Works for me!
Then we moved on to entrée, with halfway full stomach already… The first one up was Ravioli ai Quattro Formaggi ($23). It is homemade four cheese ravioli, filled with parmesan, rocotta, fontina, mozzarella cheese and prosciutto, in nut cream sauce. Our waitress said “Great choice!” and told us it is a really delicious dish. I must be honest, I usually don’t have high expectation when it comes to ravioli. I mean, ravioli is a ravioli, just a basic, boring item, right? Wrong! When it is done right, with love and care, and with high quality ingredients, it is magical… It was creamy, comforting, cheesy and made my taste buds dance. The nut sauce was really great too, the nutty flavor went great with rich, soft ravioli with the the right firmness left. The prociutto gave extra punch of delicious smokey meaty flavor. Our waitress was totally right!
Second up, Lasagna della Nonna ($20). Sheets of pasta layered with beef, pork and chicken ragu, ricotta and mozzarella in a tomato sauce. We’ve had this lasagna before, but it is so good, it keeps begging us to have it! It is understandable, as it is one of their most popular dish.
Look at this beauty. Lots of time, care and love went into making this lasagna. Eat bite makes you imagine a warm fireplace, blanket, and a happy, smiling family and loved ones sitting by the fire, enjoying the lasagna. I tell you, the food here is really magical. It is really, super filling, meaty and a bit sweet from the tomato sauce. Than you Nonna!
The last iem is Branzino al Cartoccio ($28). A whole Mediterranean Sea Bass baked in parchment paper with a lemon-herb sauce, served over a bed of mixed greens and side vegetables. Mother of all fish dish! It was superb, but I must say, everything and anything we order from here are all amazing. I feel that this might be the only place where you get to have a real, authentic Italian food in the NYC, without actually visiting Italy. So, the fish. My goodness, it was so juicy, flaky, tender, soft, baked to perfection. We have attached and devoured that fish from head to tail. It was really divine.
It came with super fresh salad, beets, and artichokes. Refreshing and complimented the fish really well. Great texture, acidity, and never overpowering the flavor of the fish. This totally was a complete dish.
And yes we were more than full with all these delicious food, we had to pack some of then to take home with for amazing left-over meal the next day. But, you know how we do…we got desserts! We got Rotolo di Adelina ($10), a moist rolled vanilla sponge cake filled with Nutella and mascarpone cream. And they don’t joke about filling part. I tried to take a photo at the middle part after cutting in half, but the cream and the vanilla cake are kind of similar color, so it does not really clear, but the amount of filling was fantastic! It was like half cake, half cream ratio. Awesome! The cake was fluffy, light and airy, and the cream was velvety and melt in your mouth. The Nutella was drizzled over, and present between the cream and sponge cake. Needless to say, we were very happy and it disappeared quickly.
Semifreddo della Casa ($10). This one comes with few choices. Frist, you pick the gelato flavor, either homemade Nutella, or almond, or coffee gelato. Then the topping (kind of), either melted chocolate and/or espresso. We chose almond gelato, with chocolate and espresso. If there is “and/or” option, why not get both! The gelato had great nutty flavor, that worked really well with Nutella and espresso. We didn’t want to over-do the chocolate or coffee flavor, so almond gelato worked out great. And as the hot espresso covered the ice cold gelato, slowly creating sweet, yummy, delightful puddle of melted gelato and espresso.
We had the sweet goodness with Cappuccino ($3), a real, Italian cappuccino, I might add. We enjoyed another spectacular visit to Enoteca Maria with wonderful food, warm welcome by the owner, Joe, and friendly service. We were completely full, with more food to take home with, and all very happy. My mother’s face was filled with smile, such a wonderful feeling to see that!
Our waitress for this evening, Paola was really sweet. She took care of us really well, especially my mother. She adored my mother and brought her some of their homemade cookies. They were sweet, soft and moist. What a wonderful, sweet gesture! Of course this made my mother feel special and extra happy. Thank you Paola!
You see the reason why this is my favorite Italian restaurant in the city, and I keep recommending people to go there! We always have great time, and we can’t wait to go back as soon as we leave. Thank you Joe for creating this peaceful, warm, delicious home away from home. Will be seeing you again in a near future!
Enoteca Maria – 27 Hyatt Street, Staten Island, New York 10301