San Carlo Restaurant NYC: Northern Italy in Central New York

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San Carlo Restaurant NYC: Northern Italy in Central New York

6 years ago

A brown bowl of creamy yellow soup on a white plate, San Carlo NYC

Review by Matthew Lux

There’s real, and then there’s San Carlo Osteria Piemonte, an authentic Piedmont restaurant right here in NYC. This restaurant (San Carlo’s NYC for short) is run by Italian-born Carlo Rolle, Moreno Cerutti and Davide Poggi Ferrari. The trio are passionate about bringing traditional Piedmont cuisine to the United States.

San Carlo Restaurant NYC – Overview

You do not need to go to northern Italy as everything that you would experience in the Piedmont region is right here in the heart of SoHo. The wine, food, and culture of Italy is embodied in this 50-seat restaurant.

San Carlo’s food is excellent; fresh, plentiful and packed with flavor. The meats are all sourced from grass-fed certified Piedmont beef, and the Baralo and Barbaresco regionally-native wines can aptly be paired with every meal.

San Carlo Restaurant NYC is good for brunch, lunch or dinner. It is open for lunch and dinner from Monday to Friday with a happy hour from 5pm to 7pm.

At the weekend, the restaurant opens at 11.30am for brunch and lunch with dinner served from 4pm. San Carlo’s stays open till 1 am on a Saturday night so it is a great choice for a late night out. You can make reservations online in advance or by phone.

If you want a quintessentially Italian experience without leaving New York City, then head to San Carlo’s.

The Food

The Piedmont cuisine served here is fantastic and the menu is diverse.

There is a good range of meat and vegetarian appetizers including a hand-cut Piedmont beef tartare with truffle sauce and a light fluffy egg and herb souffle.

Some ‘must have’ main dishes include a killer Cotoletta Milanese, which is often uninspired in NYC but not here. At San Carlo’s the tender veal is cooked with arugula, grape tomatoes, and lemon vinaigrette. I’d recommend that fish lovers opt for the perfectly cooked pan seared cod fish in white wine, anchovies and caper sauce with polenta.

The freshly made pastas here are near-orgasmic. You should order pasta either as an antipasto, a primi or a secondi just so you don’t miss out.

Pasta highlights include the Agnolotti Di Brasato, a homemade ravioli topped with butter sage sauce.

The Lasagnette Allo Zafferano Con Tonno Di Coniglio comes with poached pulled rabbit with lemon zest and rosemary. San Carlo’s Carbonara Di Mare is a delicious black squid ink spaghetti with seabass, octopus, egg yolk and crumbled “guanciale.”

There are several dessert choices including Italian cheeses, a Piedmontese panna cotta and, of course, a Tiramisu which is made with Lavazza coffee.

There is an impressively varied lunch menu which is excellent value for money. Each lunch order includes a shot of Espresso on the house.

As you would expect, the wine menu is enormous and is packed with Piedmont specialities.

The Atmosphere

San Carlo Restaurant NYC is a next-level neighborhood place, but with a lot more polish. It’s good enough that people travel from all over the city to dine here. San Carlo is the kind of place where you can usually get reservations same-day, but it’s always packed by primetime.