Italian is my favorite cuisine, and UOVO caters not just to gourmands devoted to this ethnic cuisine, but more specifically, to true Pasta Lovers. So, whether you’ll like the food at UOVO really depends on whether you truly love pasta. If you’re someone who claims to love it, but then you go to an Italian restaurant and order the Italian sausage from the “Grilled” section of the menu, or the branzino from the “Sauteed” section, then you’re nothing but a Philistine. At UOVO, it’s all about the noodles and the sauces. What’s that? You expect a lobster tail, at least, alongside your pasta? Get the hell out.
UOVO’s menu is relatively (i.e., relative to other Italian restaurants) simple and spare: Three choices of antipasti, pasta entrées representing two regions of Italy (Bologna and Rome) plus a “Classic” category, three vegetable sides, and two desserts. There are five-course tasting menus intended to serve two, but on this day, after staying up till 4 am to catch up on the Paris Olympics highlights, I was too sleep-deprived to muster up the appetite for a five-course lunch, so I just ordered one of the Pasta Classicas, a (handmade) tonnarelli with arriabbiata. Tonnarelli, according to the definition provided on the menu, is “most similar to spaghetti,” which made it seem like a safe bet.
As sleep-deprived as I was, the sight and smell of a chef cooking my food right in front of me stimulated my appetite so effectively that by the time he transferred the pasta from his sauté pan to my plate, I was ready for it. Left to my own devices, I would’ve drizzled some Tabasco to intensify the heat of the arrabbiata, but I wasn’t about the ask for extra seasoning in an establishment whose menu clearly states, “We recommend eating our dishes the way they are served without adding extra cheese or black or red pepper.” Other than my slight disappointment with the sauce’s degree of spice, I found its flavor satisfyingly profound. While I enjoyed the flavorful sauce, however, I realized that tonnarelli is a lot chewier than spaghetti, which I didn’t especially care for. I started eyeing Charlie’s first pasta (out of a whole series of pastas—Charlie ordered a set tasting menu), a delicate-looking slim, flat pasta, with envy and made a mental note to order his dish (the “Pomodorini e Basilico”) the next time I eat at UOVO.
Besides my own entrée, I stole a piece of Charlie’s antipasti. This thinly sliced, raw Japanese yellowtail tasted sublimely fresh and almost melted in my mouth upon contact. Another dish I must remember to order for myself next time!
