On Friday night of my New York City trip, after five days at a conference, I was ready for a night out with my girls! I met up with two of my best college friends for dinner at Basta Pasta.
I learned about Basta Pasta after one of said college friends went with her family. She described the house specialty (more on that in a minute) and I knew I had to experience it.
Basta Pasta is just a few streets away from Union Square. It's an Italian restaurant run by a Japanese family. Odd, I know.
We arrived after a freezing cold walk and couldn't wait to get inside.
The restaurant is mostly white - white walls, white table clothes - but they have incredible art work, which is apparently for sale. We saw one piece with a red sticker under it indicating "sold."
I love when restaurants support local artists.
The hostess showed us to our table and immediately our waiter was at our side handing us menus. My friend who had been before told us that they change their menus regularly, including the designs on the cover of the menu.
As we perused the offerings, our waiter brought us breadsticks, a basket of bread and toasts with gorgonzola cheese spread. They are so generous!
We had a difficult time deciding what to order because everything sounded delicious!
The friend who had been before ordered the house specialty, the spaghetti with parmesan and prosciutto. The way it works is, the chef prepares the pasta and then pours it into a giant wheel of parmesan cheese. The waiter brings the cheese wheel to your table and swirls and tosses the pasta inside the cheese wheel right before your eyes! This method coats the entire serving of pasta in hot, melted cheese! Are you drooling?
Once the hot, parmesan coated pasta is in a bowl in front of you, the waiter tops it with prosciutto and fresh basil.
My friend was nice enough to let me have a bite of the pasta and that bite turned into five bites! If I go back, this is absolutely the dish I am ordering (without the prosciutto)! It is clearly a hit and people clearly come back for it over and over again, because that cheese wheel made the rounds to every single table! Literally, every table.
I chose the spaghetti with tomatoes, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. It was nothing to write home about. It was certainly no cheese wheel.
Our other dinner date ordered pasta with mushrooms and ricotta cheese. I couldn't tell what type of pasta it was and she said it was like an open face ravioli.
Though Basta Pasta does have dessert, I asked the girls if they'd be willing to skip it here and go with me to Pinkberry. No surprise, they said yes.
The service at Basta Pasta is very attentive (and speedy!) and the cheese wheel alone is the reason to make the trip. That dish is absolutely incredible.
Experience the cheese wheel for yourself at 37 West 17th Street.
