Inside the Langham Hotel in New York City is a beautiful restaurant called Ai Fiori. It has won many awards and I was looking forward to enjoying an elegant dinner.
It all started when a waiter came over with a tray of assorted breads. I love fresh bread.
I went for the olive bread and the sun-dried tomato bread. With the added ingredients, this bread was full of flavor. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I was able to eat it straight without adding any olive oil or butter.
The Maitre’d’ brought over a welcome appetizer. It was a berry compote with an avocado mouse. The mouse was creamy and paired nicely with the sweet berries. It was a great starter.
We ordered a salad to share around the table. It was mixed greens with a vinaigrette. Very simple.
I ordered the Vellutata, a lobster soup with Périgord black truffle tarragon. It was very similar to a lobster bisque. It was light and not very filling.
We ordered a few pasta dishes as starters to share. The spaghetti was a very cheesy pasta that was tossed with blue crab meat, lemon, and bottarga chilies. The crab meat was a nice, unique addition to a simple spaghetti dish.
Up nest was the Trofie Nero. This was a squid ink pasta. The pasta was shocking when it came out because it was jet black. However, there is no funky flavor from the squid ink. The pasta had a liqurian crustacean ragu on top along with sepia scallops and spiced mollica. This pasta was rich and savory. I could not get enough of this dish. It was delicious, and the scallops were tender.
The last pasta dish was the Agnolotti, which was a ravioli. The filling of the ravioli was a braised short rib. The filling had great savory flavor with a hint of sweetness. The meat was tender. They covered the ravioli in a parmigiano fondata. This was an extremely rich and creamy cheese sauce. The flavors reminded me of a BBQ mac and cheese.
For my dinner I ordered the Capesante. This was pan seared scallops with a black truffle mushroom consommé and trout roe. It was a simple dish with just the right amount of food. The truffles added an earthly taste to the sweet, tender scallops.
While enjoying wonderful dinner conversation I ordered a cappuccino. It was perfect to go with the desserts we ordered to share around the table.
The first dessert was the Pudding di Riso. This was a vanilla rice pudding, roasted pears, and a maple gelato. This was a unique rice pudding. I really liked the pears in it verses the traditional raisins. The maple gelato was creamy and there was only a subtle taste of maple.
The second dessert was the Budino. This was a total coconut dessert. It was a coconut milk pastry topped with coconut almond crumbs and fresh lime pudding in the center. They also served a coconut sorbet on the side. This was my favorite dessert because of all the different uses of coconut. Everything from creamy to crunchy. It felt very tropical.
The last dessert was the Tartelletta. This was a small tart filled with ricotta crema and topped with mandarin curd and kumquat. There was a lemon-ginger sorbet on the side. The filling of the tart was creamy and went well with the sorbet when eaten together. It was sweet and tart.
The meal I had at Ai Fiori was amazing. I really liked that we shared so much around the table. When they open back up after all the Covid-19 social distancing you should check them out.
Visit their website at www.aifiorinyc.com
Enjoy!
T
