Al Di La



This past Saturday we finally made it over to the famous Al Di La restaurant in Park Slope. First off: yes, it was as good as they say. And no: the wait isn’t really as terrible as everyone makes out. We got there at bout 6:30 and put our name down, only to be told chances were we wouldn’t be seated until 9 or so. That was way too late, of course. (We were with our friends and their 4-month old baby so the idea of lingering that long was absurd, but we decided to go to their adjacent wine bar for a drink before trudging back out into The Slope in search for a new place. In the wine bar, we were told there was only a 45 min wait for their 4+ tables near the bar, so we put our names down there, got ourselves a drink and then discovered that our name was up on the upstairs list already. Seems tons of people put their names down early in the evening then either don’t show up to claim their tables, and, as we discovered later that night, the maitre d’ tells everyone to come back at 9. Guess that ensures a second seating. Everything was absolutely delicious, but some my two faves were the beet & goat cheese raviolo and the taglatelle with meat ragu. Yummy! Apparently their other signature dish is the tripe, but I’m really not that adventurous.

All in all a fabulous night. Sometimes all the hype really is justified.