risotteria

One thing that I love about Gabriela is she went above and beyond to find great restaurants for me to try during my visit to New York. From Candle 79 to Pure Food and Wine, all of my meals were absolutely delicious. On the last night of my trip, we were headed to go see Jersey Boys and didn’t want to spend a boatload of money on dinner – however, we still wanted something delicious.

Gabriela found a great restaurant called Risotteria, an Italian restaurant on the edge of West Village, that’s menu was almost entirely gluten free. #ilovenewyork

When I studied the menu online before we left (read: you know you’re a food blogger when…) I couldn’t believe all of the options they had to offer. Gluten free pastas, risotto, paninis, and pizza – seriously? I need this restaurant in my life forever.

Risotteria was so tiny, but what it lacked in space it made up for in charm. There was the galley for the kitchen and a small row of tables against the other side of the wall. In fact, the hostess has to pull out the table to let some of their guests into their seats. It’s a good thing Gabriela did not have to go to the bathroom during our meal. That could have gotten awkward.

I was happy to see a lot of gluten free beer options on the menu – have I mentioned that I love beer? Because I do. While I don’t drink too often (although you wouldn’t have known it by the looks of this trip), beer is one thing I miss when I do drink. Our waiter mentioned the Redbridge beer was his favorite – so we both ordered one. It was made from sorghum, a gluten free grain.

I took a few swigs only to find out there was corn syrup in it. While this was an epic failure on my part, I bucked up and carried on. I figured I had already ruined my stomach that day with the sneaky gluten ingredients at lunch at Little Lad’s, so what was a little corn syrup to add to the mix?

It was delicious the entire way down.

Immediately upon our arrival, our waiter brought out a glass with two gluten free breadsticks. They had a little parmesan cheese in them (another #epicfailure on my part, but once again, I said “meh” and ate it anyways) and were so interesting. The texture was crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside. I would be lying if I told you we didn’t ask for a second round.

We debated over the menu for a while, and each chose the risotto dish that sounded the most delicious to us.

The food was cooked incredibly fast (probably since there were only 8-10 tables in the entire restaurant), and came out looking really delicious.

I had ordered the Pureed Garlic, Arugula, and Oven Dried Tomato Risotto.

While I wished there were more tomatoes in the dish, the flavor was spot on. It amazes me that without cheese or cream how creamy risotto gets. There was a great bite from the arugula, and it’s a good thing I wasn’t kissing anyone that night because I had ridiculous garlic breath for the rest of the night.

Gabriela went a different route and got a dish with calamari in it. On the menu it listed that item was cooked in chicken stock, but they were very accommodating and told her they could cook the risotto in vegetable broth per her request.

In addition to the calamari, Gabriela’s dish had red peppers and kalamata olives in it as well. I had a bite of it without the calamari, and the saltiness of the olives really paired well with the rest of the dish.

Not only was the food delicious, but we both really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. The wait staff was friendly and accommodating, and the restaurant itself was so quaint.

At the front of the restaurant were many different gluten free baked goods for sale. While I was tempted to purchase a few, I was too full to even think about eating again.

Many of you have mentioned you will be in New York in the next few weeks/months, and I really recommend you try Risotteria. It is not an expensive restaurant – in fact, for my drink, dinner, and tip, I paid around $25.

Even though I made some choices that left me with a stomachache (the beer and the breadsticks… on top of that sneaky gluten from before), Risotteria was an excellent find in my book.

Chicago needs to get on that – immediately.

Question: Are you a fan of risotto? What is the best affordable Italian restaurant you have found?

Tagged as: gluten free, italian food, new york city, restaurant, review, risotto, west village