Gemma, NYC

Martiniboys
MBO NYC :: NYC Restaurants & Dining Guide
  • Gemma, NYC Page 2

    Frank Longo

    Back to NYC Restaurants | Gaucho Steak Co. Gennaro

    Email This Page Printable Version of this Article Submit a Review Add to my Favourites RSS Syndication       Post this Article to facebook Add this Article to del.icio.us! Digg this Article furl this Article Add this Blog to Reddit Add this Blog to Technorati Add this Article to Newsvine Add this Article to Windows Live Add this Article to Yahoo Add this Article to StumbleUpon Add this Article to Spurl Add this Article to Google

    A light and elegant Burrata Caprese salad ($10.00), with grape tomatoes, basil and olio novella di Sicilia, and a plate of crispy zucchini flowers filled with ricotta, are elegantly plated. But a hastily put-together crispy shrimp and calamari ($10.00) was the only disappointing starter. Other starters include a beef carpaccio with white truffle puree, a dry cured pork salame with black peppercorns ($7.00) and a seared yellow fin tuna with rosemary and shallot butter beans.

    Mains are for the most part winners, and modestly priced, too. It's hard to imagine a better roasted organic chicken ($19.00) than D'Amico's – crispy, juicy and served with a tangy sauteed spinach. And I can't remember enjoying a piece of steak ($36.00) as much either. This grilled 20 ounce porterhouse steak, normally tender but dull, was full of flavor served with a simple heap of roasted potatoes. The grilled veal chop ($36.00) is good: just a decent cut of meat, seared hard till it gets a nice crust, paired with fagiolini.

    The rest of Gemma's food - pizza and pastas - ran the gamut from workmanlike and pedestrian to lackluster and disappointing. The Quattro Stagione ($14.00), which I tried a few times, is with the scantest four seasons flavor hidden within overwhelmingly basil, with a few artichokes, prosciutto and mushrooms quickly tossed in. The Prosciutto di Parma e Arugala ($13.00) is inadequate in several ways; mostly though, the ham itself is strangely flavorless, so wan and lifeless that it could be anything—pork, chicken, tofu, clothing, who knows. As if to compensate for this, the kitchen swamps the pizza with piercingly salty parmesan with the eponymous baby arugala.

    Service at Gemma has been, in my experience, highly unpredictable. While service at an introductory visit was efficient and courteous, a subsequent visit was maddening. At the last visit, we hardly saw our main server after we placed our orders; instead we were subject to a frenzy of disorganized servers' assistants trying to do things like place entrees on top of still-being-worked-on appetizer plates, and snatching away plates from which people were still eating.


    Page « Previous | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next »
    AT A GLANCE
    Gemma
    335 Bowery, New York, NY
    212-505-9100
    Italian
    East Village
    Venue:
    Restaurant
    Hours:

    Price Range:
    $$$ (Within Reach)
    Payment:
    Master Card, Visa, American Express, Diners Club
    THE BUZZ

    IN THE AREA

    6 Reader Reviews

    Lousy service and the food is no better either!

    1. Joe Clark's Review :: February 21, 2010
    Joe Clark's Rating: 1 Stars
    Gemma is a nice, under-the-radar restaurant. That said, Gemma's atmosphere is refreshingly unpretentious, and the ingredient-driven cuisine is far from fussy. We (there was four of us) dined there last weekend, and it proved a great choice.

    2. Nick Geordan's Review :: February 02, 2009
    Nick Geordan's Rating: 3 Stars
    Traffic, traffic - traffic everywhere. Now I remember what I hated about living in the East Village. Nonetheless, Gemma is still a good choice; they somehow manage to deliver sophisticated haute cuisine without the off-putting haughty service.

    3. Anonymous's Review :: August 21, 2007
    Traffic, traffic - traffic everywhere. Now I remember what I hated about living in the East Village. Nonetheless, Gemma is still a good choice; they somehow manage to deliver sophisticated haute cuisine without the off-putting haughty service.

    4. Randy Cohen's Review :: August 21, 2007
    Randy Cohen's Rating: 3 Stars
    It's a small place and heading over here on a Friday night (which was also First Friday) left us with little room to enjoy... too many people in too cramped a space. It seems like it would be a pretty sweet hangout if not too crowded, otherwise the sardine-can chic really describes the atmosphere. The area seems to be gentrifying and with the light rail on the way more places like this will start popping up in the area. Good thing for those who couldn't make it into the Waverly

    5. Anonymous's Review :: July 20, 2007
    It's a small place and heading over here on a Friday night (which was also First Friday) left us with little room to enjoy... too many people in too cramped a space. It seems like it would be a pretty sweet hangout if not too crowded, otherwise the sardine-can chic really describes the atmosphere. The area seems to be gentrifying and with the light rail on the way more places like this will start popping up in the area. Good thing for those who couldn't make it into the Waverly

    6. Randy L's Review :: July 20, 2007
    Randy L's Rating: 3 Stars

    Name
    Your City
    Email Address
    Overall Rating
    Your Review
     

    NYC Hotels, NYC Restaurants, NYC Clubs, NYC Shopping, NYC Parties, NYC Galleries, NYC Theatre, NYC Club News