I would have given this restaurant four stars but the music was too loud and a complete disconnect…read morefrom the dining experience.
Playing thumping dance and pop music, and keeping it on just as loud, when we asked them to play something more appropriate.
I'm an artist and producer, and I love everything from Ariana Grande, to Vampire Weekend, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, etc, and it's great that they want it to be young and energetic, but 85% of the tables had patrons over 40, with the exception of one table with two teens and later, a young couple.
A complete mismatch and annoying experience where we were right under the speaker trying to have a conversation with friends we haven't seen in a while.
When we asked the manager to turn it down, he turned it down from 10 to 9.5, and never changed the style of music.
Turning up the music at Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister is proven to keep the energy and young vibe, but me and my friends don't want that when we are eating pasta and Arancini!
As an Elite member of Yelp, I eat out 3x a week in restaurants all over the state, and in NY, and this kind of shows me the management doesn't know how to take the temperature in the room.
And with that, the restaurant was also freezing cold.
Now, for the food!
We started with Eggplant Parmigiana and Arancini appetizers.
Eggplant was good, overall, but texturally, a miss. Some of it was not cooked through, which with eggplant, can be a turnoff.
The edges and the middle were the same texturally, and had no caramelization or char or crispiness and was simply one note the entire way through.
The saving grace was the sauce which was light, sweet, fresh, and perfectly seasoned.
The Arancini were very small and had a pronounced saffron flavor, but it was a bit overpowering, and as Arancini goes, I'd say these are a distant smaller cousin.
Normally, there is rice and peas and ground meat, and mozzarella, so I wouldn't call these "Arancini," but maybe "Arancetti"
All in all, not what we expected, but still a nice bite, with a flavorful lemon aioli to add a brightness to the savory dish.
The Branzino dish was a star. Delicious, fresh and well presented on a bed of Faro with carrots, asparagus and saffron. Super.
My baby mussels was delicious, but the pasta portion was very disappointing and small for the price.
I left the restaurant hungry.
The Caccio & Peppe was also a hit, with a deep cheesy umami flavor, but again, too small a portion.
The ribbon pasta with butternut squash was perfect, savory, and it felt heartier and more generous than the clam dish, which
at the least should have been served with crispy charred Italian bread to soak up the butter sauce.
For dessert, we all nibbled on chocolate flourless lava cake, which was absolutely delicious.
Overall, Bianco Rosso was saved by a couple dishes, and the overall food quality and presentation which was good.
We found the service to lack character. Not a lot of personality from the waitstaff. Not particularly friendly and simply--all business.
Nice ambiance, but the music and the cold temperature had us eating with our jackets on.
An area of opportunity here is to rethink the vibe and music. Like really sit down and have a conversation about how to express and connect the entirety of the dining experience
with a through-line from the lighting, temperature, and music.
People are there to share food and a good time together.
Like a good movie, you should always hear the words and only feel the music, not hear it during the actors dialogue.
This needs to be the same.
And finally, understand your crowd. Look at the people sitting there, it's not your show to play the kind of music you like, but to play something
that sits in the back seat, quiet and simply fills the air with a suggestion, or hint. Maybe it's instrumental, or Jazz, or Frank Sinatra, Blossom Dearie, or music with very little singing and thumping.
It all adds up, and it's just time to finely tune it all.
