Convivio

Today was absolutely awesome!
My day started off with a delicious, wintery breakfast with Ed.
Followed by a nice, sweaty Billy Blanks workout (yes, I am obsessed with cheap, video workouts!)
Then my mom came to pick me up for our long anticipated day in the city!

*NOTE: Please excuse the extremely blurry pictures!! I was SO pissed that I forgot my camera! So I used my IPhone :-P

2PM Matinée showing of Phantom of the Opera

The show was incredible! The costumes, the set design, the songs!! I would have to say that this was one of my favorite classic musicals (how can you forget Cats?!)
Our seats were pretty awesome too! We were in the front row of the mezzanine. The only problem was that we were allllllll the way to the right so sometimes, it felt like we had a weird perspective.

After the show, my mom and I met up with Ed for dinner at Convivio, formerly known as L'impero.

Our meal was delicious and these picture will not do it justice... you must go and see for yourself. All my restaurant reviews have been given 4 or 5 stars (by me) so it may seem like I like all the restaurants that I go to, but it's really that my mom has a good sense of good restaurants so I'm lucky!

First, the Olive bread... similar to the ones that were served at Fiamma in SoHo... big chunks of olives!


We shared everything... here's what we ordered for appetizers:

Braised Veal Tongue with Parsley and a Parsley (maybe?) Purée sauce


Insalata


Sardines with Red Pepper Sauce and Celery

The appetizers were all delicious. The braised veal tongue was soft and flavorful. My only thing was that it looked really gross... it looked like a human tongue the way they just served it like a slab of tongue. It even had the little taste buds! But I tried to ignore this. The sardines were excellent. The fish itself was nice, tangy, and refreshing while the red pepper sauce added a sweet creaminess! The salad was also refreshing with a lemon and olive oil dressing topped with roasted red peppers, banana peppers, some kinda cheese, and some kinda meat (salami?).

For our pastas, we all got different things so that we could taste everything:

Ricotta Gnocchi with San Marazano Tomatoes and Basil


Gnochetti (I forget the real name of the pasta!) with Sea Urchin, Crab Meat and Bread Crumbs


Fusilliwith Pork Ragu and a Cheese Sauce

The pastas were very well done. My gnocchi was cute and tender! The tomato and basil sauce was so classic. My mom's sea urchin pasta was also very tasty with the pasta (cooked al denté) being the highlight. Everyone's favorite though was the pork ragu... When I put it in my mouth, I made that OMFG grunt!! The sauce was deep with so many flavors. OMFG, just trust me and order it!

Entrées... of course we all tasted each others:

Black Sea Bass with a crunchy green topping and green sauce (It was a special of the day)


Lobster in Tomato Soup with Beans, Vegetables, and Toasted Bread


14 oz Grilled Ribeye with Mushrooms and Parmesan Potatoes

Ahhhhh! My lobster was so good, especially the tomato soup. It really reminded me of a very simple bouillabaisse! My mom's black sea bass was delish... but we seemed to finish it off first and kinda forgot about it. And of course Ed's ribeye was divine! The meat was tender and cooked perfectly. The fat of the meat gave it soooooo much flavor! It came with these awesome tree-like mushrooms and fun, round, potato discs!

And finally dessert (we were all only able to take a few bites since we were so full!):

Cheese with Fruit Bread and Fig Compote

And OMG the last two pictures were too awful to post so I'll just describe them.

Our other dessert was a "Rice Tart" with candied fruit, grapefruit sorbet, and grapefruit slices. This was interesting... rice pudding in a crust?

And the "Braised Vanilla Pineapple" with coconut custard and coconut gelato. YUMMMMMMMM!!!!

So, this Prix Fixe dinner (you can order a la carte also, but it made sense for us to do the prix fixe since we did order 4 plates) cost like $60.00! Not bad! The service was great and the food was even better! Minus the loud, obnoxious, middle-aged drunk lady, our experience at Convivio was killer!

And the waitress told me I looked like Lindsay Price from Lipstick Jungle. This was the second time someone told me that, so I was intrigued and had to look her up. Is she like half Asian?

So let's see...


Hmm.... I dunno...


Convivio

45 Tudor City Place
New York, NY 10017
Phone: 212-599-5045
Fax: 212-599-5043