Sette on 7th - ick.

Subject: poor taste in park slope

you people suffer from poor taste. Santa Fe is "reliable" for serving sludge on a plate, poor quality dreck from a can. Mango is bland, tasteless food that is not in any way close to real Thai food. Lemongrass serves sick corn syrup sweet glop that should be illegal.

Subject: edible food

rosewater
convivium osteria
al di la
ici

Subject: Sette's future - NY Times

Coming Wednesday October 5: NY Times review of Sette. By their restaurant critic Frank Bruni.

Subject: NY Times - 1 Star

By FRANK BRUNI NY Times 10/5/05

THERE is much to learn from dining out in New York these days, and the latest lesson is a revised understanding of the proverb "youth must be served."

You thought it was a commentary on the privileges and demands of being young, on the tyranny of youthful impulses? Think again. It's menu advice, cooking instructions. It must be, because chefs all around the city are treating it that way.

They trot out not only veal and lamb but also poisson and baby squid. They advertise their visits to the Greenmarket as exercises in robbing the cradle: baby Romaine, baby beets, baby eggplant. The infantilization of vegetables is all the rage, and at Sette Enoteca e Cucina in Brooklyn it extended to two appetizers, the fresh mozzarella with grilled baby leeks and the baby artichokes alla Romana.

A friend, ordering the latter, couldn't resist a bit of fun.

"Are the artichokes really, really young?" he asked our server.

The server didn't miss a beat. "They're mewling," he said.

The menu descriptions at Sette and the server's sense of humor about them captured the hybrid spirit of this new restaurant, its mix of motives and attributes.

Sette aspires to sophistication and wants to telegraph that it's in touch with the latest trends and on the hunt for distinctive ingredients. The care with which its menu and best dishes are put together underscores the aim of an increasing number of restaurateurs in Park Slope, which seems to be especially fertile soil for Italian cooking. They shoot for more than just excellent neighborhood restaurants. They shoot for excellent restaurants, period.

But Sette isn't too full of itself. It doesn't let its ambitions trump the relaxed atmosphere in its attractively dark, oppressively loud dining room. Nor does it let those ambitions distract it from trying to win diners' hearts in direct, unpretentious ways.

In terms of the half-dozen pasta dishes on Sette's menu, the ratio of portion to price was generous and commendable. These dishes were easily large enough to be main courses, and only one of them, fresh pappardelle with oxtail and pecorino, cost more than $15. Tagliatelle with tomato, eggplant and ricotta salata was $13. Strozzapreti with roasted corn, red peppers and watercress was $12.

In terms of wine, Sette means to live up to the promise of its translated name, "wine bar and kitchen," by coaxing you to drink. Its persuasive tactic is a featured list of "venti per venti," or 20 bottles for $20 each. Half are red. Half are white. All are Italian, and they range from Piedmont and the Veneto down to Sicily, stopping along the way in less celebrated regions like Lazio, Apulia and Calabria.

But Sette's good, prudent intentions are not reliably matched by the appeal of what comes out of the kitchen, run by Amanda Freitag. She was the chef de cuisine at 'Cesca, the hugely successful Italian restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, from its opening in late 2003 until early this year.

She is a talented cook, and some of what I had at Sette was terrific, a credit to her way of taking familiar dishes and administering subtle tweaks, tiny inventions (maybe baby revisions would be the most apt phrase).

Take that mozzarella. It was fresh and lovely, but what made it sing was its pairing with those leeks, from which Ms. Freitag wrung a surprising sweetness, amplified by a drizzling of saba, which is cooked grape must.

An appetizer of roasted asparagus was distinguished by the Parmesan fondue on which the spears rested. It was satisfyingly rich without being heavy, and scattered here and there were crisp bits of pancetta, needed and appreciated less for their salt than for their crunch. The contrasting texture lifted the dish a notch.

In a city with no shortage of tuna, Sette's stood out. Served as a main course, it was rolled in ground fennel seeds before being seared and topped with olives and preserved lemons.

Sette has a wood oven, and it produced a firm crust for small appetizer pizzas, with toppings that changed from visit to visit. It also produced a fantastic plum crostata - the fruit also changed regularly - with a crisp shell.

Ms. Freitag's hand with desserts was especially strong. She often veered admirably from the easy path of sweetness, whether with the whipped cream that accompanied that crostata or the chocolate shortbread cookies brought to our table as a complimentary coda to a long meal. A particular standout: her lemon tart with a pistachio crust.

But Sette had a few too many letdowns. Fritto misto was so emphatic with the fritto that the misto of ingredients encased by it was a matter of guesswork. Most of the pasta dishes lacked a spark of some kind. Some of them were overcooked.

And some of them and some of the main courses needed salt. Those main courses were for the most part pleasant, and had pleasant dimensions: a pine nut relish with slices of duck breast, a thorough char on the hanger steak. But they weren't remarkable.

The wedges of pizza bianca that Sette serves as its bread were stale one night. Servers could be counted on for a warm greeting at the start and a warm goodbye at the end, but they could not be counted on to circle back to the table regularly, a problem in particular on a night when my friends and I ate on the less noisy patio. Except for the feeling of being stranded, it was a lovely place to sit.

As for the fixation with so-called baby vegetables, Sette merely mimics scores of other restaurants. These vegetables in many cases aren't really immature. They're smaller, different versions of their kin. But apparently the phrase pipsqueak vegetable has a less appetizing ring than the evocation of an adorable toddler.

What would Jonathan Swift have made of that?

Subject: The most consistent

The most consistent reasonably priced are 12th street, Nana and bonnies grill. I am never disappointed with the food or the bill in those restaurants. However, they are not in the same league as Al Di La, Tempo or stone Park, but then they don't charge those rates.

i'm completely not a shiller, trust me. i'm bored and at work, like everyone else probably posting on here.

...not to say that i couldn't be bought by any of the above-mentioned restaurants real cheap. then i'd shill for anyone...

Subject: sette and miracle grill

Wow! so surprised at the bad experiences at the new eats on 7th. I had an absolutely unforgettable meal at Sette... the fish was fresh and unique, the pasta was perfection and the wine both affordable and delicious. I was so pleased, I've been sending friends ever since. Maybe I visited after they had settled in experimented.

Never had Miracle Grill's brunch but love there dinner menu. It's great for a lighter meal (2 or 3 apps) or a full on meal with entree. It's hard to find decent mexican-american food in the hood... and you can't beat the location. Very pleased.