RESTAURANT REVIEW: MISI

Let me start off by saying it took me a month to get a reservation at Misi. Every day for a month I went on their website and to my demise, nothing. I have the RESY app, which allows you to set notifications to alert you when someone cancels at a restaurant you want to dine at.  

SET!  

A Resy notify alert popped up on my phone at 7:30am for a 5:30p table of 2 on March 29th at Misi, the hottest Italian restaurant in NYC right now. With one eye open, I accepted the reservation and joy instantly filled my heart, but of course I went back to sleep. March 29th is also my birthday, so this was the perfect birthday gift to myself.

Misi, is the latest restaurant from Chef Missy Robbins. I have loved Chef Robbin’s cooking since I dined at A Voce Columbus a few years back. If you knew me at that time then you know I raved about A Voce until I couldn’t rave anymore. Ever since then I have always kept my eye on Chef Robbin’s, quietly cheering her on with her well deserved accolades and noteworthy buzz. Her simplistic and clean cooking always kept me wanting more.

Chef Robbin’s also has Lilia, another restaurant phenomenon that’s still buzzing almost 2+ years after opening. Getting a table here too is a game of chance.

There was a small line outside of Misi at 5:00pm as my mom and I arrived for my birthday dinner. Located on the corner of Kent Avenue in South Williamsburg Brooklyn and on the ground level of a luxury apartment building, Misi has an incredible view of the Brooklyn Bridge, the budding Domino Park waterfront and more. Misi itself is visually stunning as this large restaurant is bright and spacious with sleek, modern and minimal design, black accents and it’s very own glass pasta making room. Yes, just off to the right side of the restaurant you can watch pasta aficionados make fresh pasta every single day. Inside the restaurant there are tables and also counter seating which is the perfect place to watch the cooks in action preparing bowl after bowl of pasta and also a hightop communal table to dine at as well. Wherever you choose to sit in Misi, it’s going to be a great view regardless.

photo via Misi’s Instagram

Now it’s time to eat. The two focuses on the menu at Misi are perfect vegetables and perfect handmade pastas. The only dessert is gelato. There is however mention of a delicious steak that’s best for a table of 4 but I heard through the grapevine that once the steak sells out, it sells out. The wine and cocktail menu has lots of bottles and by the glass options, but we decided to start light with a glass of lambrusco and the bellini fizz cocktail.

Here’s What We Dined On:

Radicchio, Melted Bone Marrow, Cipollini Onions, Balsamic, Ricotta Salata

French White Asparagus, Guanciale

Strangozzi, Pork Sugo, Nutmeg, Parmigiano

Sheep’s Milk Ricotta Filled Occhi, Bottarga, Lemon

Fettuccine, Buffalo Butter, Parmigiano Extra Vecchio, Black Pepper

Lambrusco

Bellini Fizz, Peach, Aperol, Lemon, Egg Whites, Nino Franco ‘Rustic’ Prosecco NV

Pistachio Gelato

Olive Oil Gelato

Our vegetable dishes came out first. The white asparagus dish was a special for the evening and as we cut into these tender white asparagus, covered in crispy guanciale (an Italian cured meat product prepared from pork jowl or cheeks.) we knew we were in for a delicious evening. We scrapped the plate! The radiccho with melted bone marrow was well executed but proceed with caution. The deep bitterness of the vegetable paired with the bitter notes of the balsamic and orange zest packs a major punch on your palette.

But now, it’s time for pasta…

We dived into the strangozzi with pork sugo first as it arrived. We always love a good meat sauce and the sugo in this dish was right up our alley. You could taste the quality and cleanliness of the ground pork and there was nothing throwing the simplicity of the fresh tomato sauce off. The strangozzi was thick and al dente which helped carry the sugo from the bowl to our mouths. Out next, the fettuccine with buffalo butter and the sheep’s milk ricotta occhi. The fettucini instantly reminded me of what a perfect comfort meal would be. The creaminess of the buffalo butter and the lightweight fettucini is a dish that needs to be on your table at Misi.

My “stand out, mind blown, OMG I need this every time I come here no matter what other dishes I get”… of the evening was the sheep’s milk ricotta filled occhi. This small tender ravioli like pasta filled with a pungent and rich sheep’s milk ricotta cheese was so good, we had to slow down on eating it. I was originally torn between the occhi and the chickpea pappardelle on the menu but our server won me over when describing the occhi. And I’m so glad he won me over. There was fresh lemon zest and bottarga ( Italian name for a delicacy of salted, cured fish roe, typically of the grey mullet or the bluefin tuna) on top, and I just knew this was it for me. I want this pasta again and again.

Cue to breathing through our noses as we managed to polish off 3 bowls worth of fantastic pastas. But the night was still young and of course there was gelato to be had. Misi’s gelato’s have some buzz circulating around them on there own and who am I to NOT try them?!?!? I ordered the olive oil gelato which I loved so much that if possible, I would have taken a pint to go. (They do not sell pints of gelato at Misi. I was just wishing that they did) The olive oil used in this gelato was light with fruity notes but not heavy enough to feel like your average dipping olive oil. Again, if pints every become available, I’m first in line.

To put it mildly, Misi was incredible. I’ve always felt and have been very vocal about my feelings towards pasta and how making and eating pasta is very personal. And I felt in each bite, that Chef Robbin’s takes her pasta very personal. And her dining room. And her vegetables. And her gelato as well. Will I go back to Misi, ABSOLUTELY. It’s the perfect place for all occasions which again I feel like eating pasta is fit for all occasions as well. Maybe that was the plan here at Misi. Whatever it was, I love it and genuinely can not wait to go back again and again.

MISI

329 Kent Avenue

Brooklyn, N.Y. 11249