Last Wednesday I left London for New York to meet up with by best friend Emma and her husband Claes who flew from Sweden. Once we got there it was pouring down with rain and we were all delayed, so we wanted food pretty quickly after arriving. So I thanked myself for asking all New Yorkers and ex-New Yorkers for food recommendations and compiled a list. So we chose a place off that list that evening, one only a few streets away from our hotel. We were so happy when we got the last table available and sat down with our (first) glass of wine.
As we were starving we thought sharing a few appetizers before having our maincourse was a good idea. And it was. We had just forgotten that thing about big portions in the US… We got A LOT of food, and did our best to finish it, but it was as impossible as climbing Mount Everest in flipflops.
Lavo (21 in the Zagat guide), is an Italian restaurant, bar and nightclub, but as well as Italian dishes they also had steaks, and that’s what most of us went for.
But first the appetizers.
Prosciutto with fruit, grissini and cheeses. More like a platter to share than an appetizer. But good of course.
Aubergine parmigiana, size XXL. It was really nice too, and it was a shame we couldn’t finish it.
Emma’s maincourse; lovely seared tuna with a nice marinade.
I chose the smallest steak on the menu, about 225 g, which I was very grateful for after those killer appetizers. It was really nice steak but not as blue as I had ordered it.
Claes also chose steak but went for the bigger valde New York Strip cut.
Our two sides: potato wedges with onions and rosemary (left) and really nice mash (right).
We had a great time here. The food was no-fuss but very good, the atmosphere great with the buzzing bar and it felt nice and laid-back, and definitely not touristy (thank God).
Lavo 39 East 58th Street (vid Madison Avenue) New York, NY 10022
Scandelights 