Ristobar

Ristobar Restaurant Review:

About the restaurant: Keeping true to its name, Ristobar is at once an Italian restaurant and casual wine bar. Speaking to the latter, a lounge-ish area outfitted with black leather couches is perfect for enjoying a small bite or glass of wine.

Food & Drinks: Salumi flights are ideal for sampling the restaurant's list of house-cured meats, such as the culatello, the “king of salumi,” the center cut of pig’s leg soaked in wine yielding a soft and subtle flavor. Larger dishes include the cavatelli pasta with yellow pepper purée --- unique, almost grassy in flavor, but the dish would be richer and more satisfying if the sauce clung better to the pasta. Wood-fired pizzas are another hallmark of Ristobar, though even the Vesta's prosciutto topping doesn't save the pie from overall blandness. For dessert, the versiglia, a sweet ricotta cream accented with juicy cara cara oranges and burnt candied caramel, is exotic and tasty. Thanks to the bar's Cruvinet, sophisticated and often unusual wines are available by the glass.