BABBO
Greenwich Village, New York NY
December 4, 2025
New York, NY
We had an amazing dinner at Babbo last night. Babe, the restaurant created by Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich (mostly Mario). Mario Batali became famous with Babbo, and a show on The Food Network simultaneously. The year was 1998. Anyway, Mario was (still is) a marvellous chef with tons of personality. He gained fame, became a celebrity chef and TV personality. Then he had a fall from grace, lost his TV show, and eventually sold his share in Babbo and other restaurants he owned with Joe Bastianich. After Mario left, Babbo began to slide, and lost much of its cache, which was Mario. Babo has never been the same post Mario.
Mark Ladner worked for Joe B & Mario during the duo's glory days. Mark was the chef of Lupa, and later the Executive Chef of Del Pesto. Mark is very talented, and so when restaurant impresario Stephen Starr bought Babbo and Lupa from Lida and Joe Bastianich, Starr hired Ladner as the executive chef of Babbo. Good move. Mark's food is amazing. Our dinner last night proved that. My cousin Joe made the statement that we had eaten at Babbo many times, and he said "This was our best meal here ever." I tend to agree. The food was amazing, we had some phenomenal wines, and I was with my cousins Joe, Eddie, and Tommy, and our good friend Max. We are all heavily into food and wine, and we are quite knowledgeable and versed on these subjects.
The food was quite wonderful. There were 6 of us, and we ordered more than half of the items on the menu. We had the 48 Day Minestrone, whatever that means. It was delicious. Everybody at the table loved it. Then for antipasti, we ordered Sweetbreads, Vitello Tunato, salad, and Carne Cruda.
We had two pasta courses. We ordered ; Tagliatelle with White Truffles, Beef Cheek Ravioli, Cavatelli with Rabbit Ragu, Spaghetti Vongole, and Tagliatelle Bolognese. All of these pasta dishes were amazing. The Truffles were sublimed. The Tagliatelle Bolognese was spectacular, a true Ragu of Bologna, "So Good." I loved it. Everyone, including me loved the Cavatelli with Rabbit Ragu. Really Tasty. And I always have loved eating the Beef Cheek Ravioli. I must say the pasta course was the highlight of the meal. Totally awesome.
We had started the meal with a Pigato, which I picked. Not many people would have ever heard of Pigato, a wine and grape varietal that comes from Liguria. It's a refreshing tasty white wine, and everyone at the table loved it. After the Pigato, my cousin Eddie ordered a magnum bottle of Barolo "Francia" 2001 from Giacomo Conterno, which is considered along with it sibling wine "Monfortino" to be the very best Barolos in the World. The wine was in perfect condition, and we all just loved it.
Our second pasta course came. The famed 100 Layer Lasagna by Chef Mark Ladner. This is becoming the signature dish of the restaurant and Chef Ladner. It's $100 a Pop. Not Cheap, but dammed good. Everybody in our group loved it.
For the main course, we had a T-bone Steak, Veal Chop Marsala, and Swordfish Milanese. The Steak was phenomenal. Loved it. The Veal Marsala was really good as well, but again, "The Steak," seriously good. The Swordfish was OK.
For dessert we had Saffron Zabiglione which was quite good, Panna Cotta (so-so), and Olive Oil Chocolate Cake which was one of the best-tastiest Chocolate Cakes that I've ever had. "So Good." we drank Averna Amaro with our desserts. The meal was phenomenal, and we all had a wonderful time.Thanks Joe. Cousin Joe who bought us all dinner. Not Joe B, he's gone.
And thanks to Chef Mark Ladner, and the whole crew at Babbo. Great job, we really enjoyed.
Thanks,
Daniel Bellino
GIACOMO CONTERNO
BAROLO "FRANCIA" 2002
"One of the Best BAROLOS I've ever had"
CHEF MARK LADNER
BABBO
