The other night, a friend of mine and I went to Via Della Pace, a cozy little Italian restaurant in the East Village. Located at 48 East 7th Street (between 1st and 2nd Ave.), Via Della Pace offers a large selection of very reasonably priced dishes as well as an extensive wine list. I had purchased a livingsocial voucher for $40, which was good toward two prix fixe menus (two apps, two entrees, and one dessert), plus a bottle of house wine.
When we arrived, around 6 PM, the place was empty, and the crowd didn’t pick up until closer to 7:30 PM. In addition to the general European-style seating, they had these great window seats, which we decided to take. Overall, our experience was decent and the atmosphere was nice. I would definitely go back, but probably order different dishes. Our waitress was quite nice, but very uninformed – she had to ask someone else almost every time we had a question (perhaps she was new). We chose the house red as our wine selection, which we thought was delicious. Pictured above are the appetizers we tried – prosciutto with melon, and goat cheese, asparagus, and crispy pancetta bruschette – both were pretty tasty, but nothing to write home about.
For our main dishes, we ordered the Chicken Milanese, and the Grilled Rib Eye Steak with Arugula and Parmesan. I thought the rib eye steak was perfectly cooked and delicious, but the arugula had no dressing of any kind on it, which was disappointing. My friend seemed to like the chicken, but the one bite I had was unpleasant due to some strange, unidentifiable spice that must have been in the breading. We had Panna Cotta for our dessert, which was okay, but a little stiff. I have faith that a better expereience can be had here, if one chooses their menu options carefully, and as long as there isn’t a vicious mosquito biting you during your entire meal (mosquitos can ruin anything) as we did.
