Saturday, Kim and I tried a new to us restaurant that’s been on my list to try for a couple of years now. (Seriously, there is not enough time or money to eat the world.) Asti Trattoria is located on E 43rd close to Duval. We were able to call at around 7 for 8:30 reservations. I note the time because it was way too dark outside for me to use natural window lighting to take pictures of the food. I don’t like to disturb diners with flash. Maybe next time, I’ll go at an earlier time.
It’s definitely a call ahead restaurant, as it’s pretty small and thriving, at least on a Saturday evening. We were seated maybe 10 minutes after our reservations? We had an immediate girl-crush on the tall possibly half Vietnamese hostess wearing a vintagey dress. I say Vietnamese because she gave my last name an impeccable Vietnamese accent that even I’m incapable of doing. So we killed our time imagining what kind of person she was. (According to our fantasy, she decorates her modest apartment with kooky but aesthetically pleasing flea market finds and is somewhat close to her mom who calls often.)
After mulling over the menu, we decided to have the appetizer featured as a special. Fried risotto balls. It was good. I mean, it’s fried risotto balls, how can they not be good? Kim chose the prosciutto and melon salad with olive oil and lemon as her entree. A surprisingly palatable and delightful combination. I chose the White Clam Sauce Linguine which is Littleneck Clams, white wine, garlic and fried breadcrumbs. DELICIOUS. I love shellfish. I was very pleased and wish to go back and try other things on the menu. Truthfully, I’ll be pleased with ordering the same thing again.
A cute quirk, when you order hot tea from Asti, they bring out a tiny teapot and a little box of assorted teas you can pick from. Cute right? I had the vanilla bean tea.
We didn’t have the dessert here like we usually do when we try new restaurants but only because we planned on walking across the street to eat and coffee at Quack’s 43rd St Bakery.