Review: Lincoln Ristorante

I met up with my friend for brunch yesterday at Lincoln Ristorante (which you might have guessed is located at Lincoln Center). I think this opened fairly recently (end of 2010ish) and it is in an absolutely beautiful space. We were speculating that perhaps people weren't aware of it, because it was surprisingly unbusy during brunch (getting a table at some brunch places in NYC is practically a contact sport). Then again, it is a bit on the pricey side (although probably consistent with other places in this neighborhood). Anyhow, I am always down for trying new places, and our table immediately put me in a good mood.


That's the restaurant behind the sculpture, with the sloping roof. We were sitting by those windows, so you can imagine that our view was rather nice! (Also, natural lighting, woohoo!) I had a roasted beet salad to start (that's the top photo) which was visually beautiful, and also tasty. I love beets, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me, but I thought the pistachios were a nice touch. My friend had a chicken salad which I neglected to take a photo of, but I tasted a bit of the chicken and that was also really good! Oh, actually, that wasn't our first course though--every table also got bowls of panna cotta topped with granola. There was a layer of jam under the panna cotta (which was very yogurty tasting) and would have been great as a dessert!


We both had pasta for our mains (and here's one quibble--it's a brunch menu, but there's not a whole lot of what I would consider traditional brunch choices on it. That's not necessarily a bad thing for me, because I'd rather have lunch, but then....just call it lunch?) That's JJ's pasta with sausage above.


And my much less photogenic penne ala carbonara. Both pastas were delicious, and we managed to clean our plates pretty thoroughly, which I suppose is all the endorsement I need to give! We thought we were done, but then our server appeared with this:


Oof! This whole tray was also complimentary, and included chocolate filled donuts, brioches filled with pastry cream, pine nut muffins, lemon poppyseed muffins, and buttermilk scones. The scones were my favorite...and maybe it was just a function of being stuffed, but I wasn't too impressed with the other pastries.

Overall, I had a pretty great time, in large part because of the company! We also liked the service, which was formal but friendly (actually, I think they may be employing some ninjas, because one server kept appearing from out of nowhere to refill my water glass and startled me every single time). I'd love to come back for dinner, I bet the view is even prettier....

(I walked the 40ish blocks home afterwards, which helped assuage the feelings of guilt that always come hand in hand with carbonara!)