My Life in Meals

Donatella

I truthfully only wanted to go to Donatella because celebrity chef and owner Donatella Arpaia built a faboush blinged out pizza oven and I just had to check it out (pictured below, but for a better one click here). Someday, I hope to have one exactly like this in my massive chefs kitchen (hey, a girl can dream….). The pizza unfortunately was average. I have been to D-Bar before, Apaia’s smaller outpost of Donatella literally around the block, which boasts the same exact menu and I distinctly remember that dining experience to be much better. With that said, a restaurant that doesn’t have consistency is a no-go in my books.

We didn’t have a reservation so we had to sit at a communal table with others, even though there were clearly other tables open. Fine, whatever - on to the food. We started with the Calamari Fritti which is served with a lemon-bottarga aioli. It was nothing special - if you want to have really good calamari check out the calamari I wrote about here at the Collective.

For the pizza’s we ordered the Margherita with san marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, pecorino and basil and the Cappellacio, which consisted of charred & marinated mushrooms, smoked buffalo mozzarella, pecorino and basil. The margherita was fine by me, but the mushroom pizza was nearly inedible. The mushrooms had a consistency I have never had before, they were chewy like rubber!