Restaurant Review: Babbo – The New York Times

The sign still says “Babbo,” but should it? The restaurant opened by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich in 1998. Last spring, the powerhouse restaurateur Stephen Starr took it over and brought in the chef Mark Ladner, who rose from the pasta station at Babbo to running the haute Del Posto. When you first glance at the menu, you might think meet the new menu, same as the old menu. It’s only when the dishes arrive that you start to see what Mr. Ladner is trying to do. The warm lamb tongue salad from the glory days, tucked among truffled mushrooms and tomatoes, roasted to a luster. The poached duck egg that used to tremble on top is gone. Mr. Ladner thought it too rich, and he was right. The classic goat cheese tortellini are as astonishingly light as ever. Yuzu peel instead of orange. Occasionally, the kitchen seems to enter a fugue state. In a holdover from Del Posto, lamb scottadito — the lamb chops, were just too big. The meal ends without fireworks. The ideas behind the desserts are interesting, but inert on the plate. There is no pastry chef now, and it shows. When Mr. Ladner fully commits to his straight-shooting nonna side, the results can be extraordinary, as with the rabbit — so succulent you would never know this was an animal built lean to run. The minestrone — nurtured from a mother batch deepening with each replenishment. Linguine vongole comes with cockles, shucked at the last minute and shattered breadcrumbs that hold their texture in the heady sauce. Turns out Mr. Ladner is not trying to replicate the past, just make peace with it and find a way to move on. You can read my full review at nytimes.com.