Supper – Simple and Delicious Italian Food

Supper is a lower east side staple of good Italian food for me. It is easy to get inundated with Italian food options in NYC, from chains to over-the-top family style eateries. Not Supper, which is a small, dark and intimate.

I went a number of years back with my friend Jenna and a couple of her friends. I remember ordering a mushroom pappardelle, but what I remember most was the lemon pasta that other people at our table had ordered. That dish by itself sums up this restaurant and what great Italian food is – simplicity.

So, I had a date coming up and I was thinking of places to take her. She liked Italian food, but was a bit conservative when it came to food adventures. I live my life through food and wanted to branch her out to have a new experience. That’s when I remembered Supper, it’s Italian but like nothing you have ever had. Perfect!

Be warned! They take no reservations for parties smaller than 8 and is notorious for long wait times. But, if it’s not 10 degrees out — leave your phone number and take a walk. Also, be warned this option can result in waiting longer because if a table comes up suddenly, you can miss out. After about an hour we sat down, got a great spot at the end of the kitchen table. From here you can see the chefs firing all of the dishes and especially on a cold NYC day the warmth is a welcome.

I ordered the not-so-baby octopus salad, Spaghetti Al Limone and she the Spaghetti Pomodoro with Burratta Mozzarella. Again, I have a love of octopus, especially if it is grilled let me just say this dish is not to be missed. It is savory, tender, dotted with the perfect about of residual good quality olive oil and paired perfectly with a fresh potato and celery salad. OUT OF THIS WORLD and the portion size is large enough to share for two or three people. My date was not a fan of octopus, so I ate it all by myself :).

Next up, the pastas. Mine was perfect as ever with a creamy emulsified lemon, olive oil and parmigiano reggiano cheese. The fresh pasta used is money, the texture is unlike anything you can get out of a box. Hers looked delicious as well, the fresh burratta mozzarella added a creaminess to the fresh tomato sauce. After a couple of mixes and bites, it began to resemble a vodka sauce in color.

Spaghetti Al Limone

Spaghetti Pomodoro E Basilico

I was stuffed and passed on desert, as did she.

Here comes my second warning, the service here can be a little stretched at times. It’s a small place with usually 1-2 people in each dining space, it’s kinda separated out into rooms/sections. I went back with a friend of mine and we waited almost 2 hours for our pasta, granted it was early in the day and they were still serving brunch – but the pasta was on their brunch menu. Apparently, they went downstairs to make my Tagliatelle Al Ragu Bolognese, handmade my pasta and scratch made the bolognese. At least they are not storing around pasta and sauce from the night before. We were not in a rush or very hungry so we ate bread, had drinks and talked. What my biggest issue was the fact that they could have told us upfront how long the wait for the food would be, that way we could say okay I’ll order something else. But, our waitress was nice and sent us out a couple of free dishes. Their tiramisu is incredible.

Decor

Simple things

So, good.

Tagliatelle Al Ragu Bolognese

Tiramisu

They took a lot off our bill 🙂

Now there is something to be said for service, but I personally believe in today’s society people rush things far too much. Food is meant to be enjoyed, if you have the time for it why not sit and have a great meal that takes a couple hours and have a face to face connection with someone. Slow (purposeful) service is one thing, rude and incompetent is another, let’s not be mistaken.

So, be sure to try Supper and any of their sister establishments.