Today's review roundup includes: Petrosino, Freeman's, Pace, Sabry's, Kalustyan's Cafe, Ixta.
NYTimes Restaurants Frank Bruni gives Petrosino two stars (190 Norfolk Street; 212-673-3773):
In these crazy, carbohydrate-phobic times, many restaurants do not know what to do with bread service, which has come to approximate an apology: a few pathetic rolls on a distant corner of the table; a tentative server with outstretched tongs and a poignantly timid smile. Petrosino throws caution to the wind. It provides a brimming paper bag of ciabatta and focaccia and a bowl of tomato sauce for each diner, encouraging everyone to dip away.
In the process Petrosino sends the signal that is has no airs (or at least very few of them) and indeed cares first and foremost about sating you: perhaps with a plate of tissue-thin prosciutto or with a bowl of mussels or with a moist mound of braised beef over creamy polenta. Its decorative flourishes reflect not pretentiousness but a desire for prettiness. Why not tickle the eye as well as the stomach?
Petrosino is sensible that way: eager to please, intent on making special, thoughtful gestures within the context of moderate prices and a modest Lower East Side location. (The hot zone of Schiller's Liquor Bar and WD-50 is a few crucial blocks away.)
. . . And I really like the food here, especially in relation to its price. Most of the half-dozen pasta dishes cost $13, which buys a generous portion, and two-thirds of those dishes are terrific.
The garganelli with prosciutto, peas and cream leans just hard enough on the prosciutto and just easy enough on the cream to be pleasantly salty but not unpleasantly soupy. The rigatoni with Italian sausage and peas was another standout — also robust, also restrained. The trofiette with shiitake mushrooms, truffle butter and Parmesan is recommended primarily for diners who have just completed triathlons or a long grub-noshing stint on the latest "Survivor."
Petrosino's chef, Patrick Nuti, who grew up and learned to cook in Tuscany, does not really favor any region of Italy over another. He occasionally borrows ideas from elsewhere around the Mediterranean. He pairs a Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce with a fillet of wild salmon for an entree. He puts couscous in a colorful and delightful appetizer salad of octopus and grapefruit.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Octopus salad with grapefruit; walnut-encrusted scallops; prosciutto plate; cavatelli with veal ragout; rigatoni with sausage and peas; garganelli with prosciutto and peas; ricotta cheesecake with Nutella.