Is VIA CAROTA Worth The Hype? NYC’s BEST Italian Restaurant?

Among all the many famous Italian restaurants, Via Carota may be regarded as the best by New Yorkers and tourists alike. Unlike famous Italian American restaurants in NYC, like Carbone and Carmine’s, Via Carota is known for serving more authentic Italian food, and the dishes are often more simple. However, their taste is anything but simple!

When it comes to the best Italian restaurants in NYC and the most exclusive restaurants in NYC, Via Carota is definitely up there. The restaurant is walk-in only for the most part. They do have a reservation system but it is down most of the time. Even arriving at 3pm, I still had to wait about 20 minutes just for bar seating for one person! Is this place worth the crazy hype? We put their famous Via Carota cacio e pepe and their famous Via Carota wild boar ragu to the test.

The place may pack crowds and be highly regarded by critics and locals alike, but is Via Carota truly the best Italian restaurant in New York City or is it an Emperor’s new clothes situation? We’ll see if it lives up to the hype and if it’s significantly better than my favorite authentic Italian restaurant in NYC, L’artusi!

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Restaurant Deets:
Via Carota
51 Grove St, New York, NY 10014

Hey guys and welcome to another episode of UA eats uh actually let me take the mask off but I’m UA and we are at perhaps the most famous Italian restaurant in New York via corota VIA Kata I never took Italian I don’t really know how to say it there’s lots of

Famous Italian joints in the city not far from here there’s Carbone and of course we all know uh there’s Italy here too although that’s not strictly a New York place but there’s two locations of Italy here as well but this is perhaps the most famous authentic Italian joint

Or what people say is a more authentic Italian joint unless you’re Italian American like red sauce you know spaghetti and meatball pen aloda joint and let me tell you this is a pretty exclusive place to get into uh I tried to put down a reservation but the system

Just like shut down what’s interesting is that the system uses like Google Assistant to like Place reservations and it said there were just too many requests that it it was overloaded so I just walked right in and I was lucky I was able to get a spot at the bar but

Just look at how many people are behind me in this restaurant just this place is completely full I thought I was even here at an off peak time it’s almost 3:00 I thought this was off peak there’s not going to be anyone but no it’s it’s completely full you would think it’s

Like 12:30 p.m. at any other restaurant let’s take a look at the menu so this is the menu at Via corota uh you know like many great restaurants uh it’s not a very big menu just one page it’s a big sheet of paper but it’s a

Uh you know it’s just one sheet and the back are mostly your wines I do not drink just out of personal choice no Health reason or religious or ethical or any reason like that but um take a look at this uh wine menu let me know if you

Guys think this is pretty solid pretty pretty uh extensive wine menu uh I would think some of these are probably imported or maybe maybe many or even most but we’re going to take a look at these pastas and see how we’re going to net out I am so uncultured I’m sorry uh

I guess I you know with this channel hopefully I appeal to the every man but you know unfortunately I do not know what spuntini is although I do know what Bretta is and the Bretta there’s two options here salted an chov is very interesting they got

Pido they got uh cardi Frey I do not know what this is maybe this is assigned that this is a legit spot bag nakala riita oh man I I I I I feel like a country mouse in the big city verdor Veri maybe I presume that these are all vegetables and like

Appetizers and then we got our pastas in the middle and fish I believe fish and meat but I hear these two items are to die for and they are the things to get when you’re here Kio aepe a simple dish pretty much just cheese and pasta and

Not much else but quickly becoming one of my favorite things to eat despite its Simplicity like it’s beautiful in its Simplicity and a papelli wild boore Ragu like a more red sauce or I asked the server earlier I asked if that was more of a red sauce and he said it’s more of

A brown sauce so same difference so let’s get those two a lighter ccho a Pepe and the brown sauce wild boore Ragu so let’s see if this place truly lives up to all the hype and if it’s hyped up in the West Village grite Village area my expectations are a little High maybe

Too high I’ll try to temper them so let’s order and wait for our food all right now what is quickly becoming one of my favorite Italian pastas authentic Italian pastas the Kio a Pepe or is it Kio e Pepe I’ve had this at several authentic Italian restaurants

It’s creamy it’s cheesy it’s simple this dish is beautiful in its Simplicity like the star of this dish is the freshly grated cheese on top I believe peino romano and or parmesano regano and the pasta hopefully a good quality pasta not necessarily fresh pasta but a good quality one from Italy hopefully and

Perfectly alente and it’s good for the sauce to be you know Saucy but not too slimy and not too watery so let’s mix this a little oh man it smells so good like it has great like fresh cheese flavor let’s mix this up a little

And try a bite why don’t we I’ve never been the best pasta tler so forgive me I think I did a good job this time looking solid right you know I think I’m getting the hang of this you know pasta flowing yeah there you go honestly this

Cheese like like sauce is just the star of the show it’s out of this world the cheese sauce I mean it’s getting kind of hard to see it now because it’s kind of like evenly coated the pasta like if I really zoom in you can see it but it’s almost become like

One with the pasta like symbiotic with the pasta you might say this sauce really is like a perfect consistency it’s not too thick like you’re eating like a really heavy like a really gluey sauce it’s not so thin that it’s like watery and it breaks and it’s you know

Not really adhering to the noodles they definitely have like this down to a science like adding the perfect amount of cheese and you know pasta water so that it clings perfectly to the sauce and the black pepper specs as well you know not overpowering although you know

I would welcome a little more black pepper I am a fresh black pepper fan the black pepper tastes fresh and tastes good uh not overpower powering but you know what I kind of wish it were overpowering cuz you know I love some fresh black pepper although I wouldn’t

Say all is completely perfect in Paradise I would say my main gripe with this is that the pasta like the noodles could be uh more alente I feel they’re a bit soft like you really want that alente chew and in a dish with so few ingredients uh small details make a big

Difference the pasta sauce is very good um the pasta noodles the pasta strands when you just see how like iable they are like that’s kind of indicative of you know them not quite having that bite to them like you know you really really want that ow Dente bites so that’s

Unfortunate I wonder if it’s you know I wonder if it’s partially a bad day bad luck or maybe this is their style but I really really was hoping for more of like a Al Dente bite which is one of my favorite things when it comes to these

Simple pastas the cheese sauce dough is good like I have no complaints about the cheese sauce the cheese sauce is excellent like I know it doesn’t really look like much it looks like it’s just blending with the noodles but that’s pretty much what you want you know

Despite my uh thoughts or gripes with the uh texture of the pasta the sauce is quite good so I’m going to I’m going to mop this up all right that cheese is out of this world I want to figure out where in Italy they got that cheese track it down and buy

Like a pound of that stuff anyways we’ll eat more of this and then we’ll wait for the Rago thank you yeah he’s here right now he’s doing all right now this is the wild boar Ragu and this is more of a red sauce or I guess a brown sauce one

Consistent thing of both dishes freshly grated cheese on top you know I forgot to say earlier that the uh portions are not the biggest although the food is quite filling but that being said uh the CIO eepe uh not the biggest plates and yeah as you can see these are the same

Size so not the biggest portion as well but hey quality over quantity right and this unlike the ccho a Pepe is less like a thin like kind of like spaghetti noodle this is more of like a wider Noodle and hey look at this it’s a wider broader noodle but it still looks pretty

Thin right kind of cool I wonder if these noodles are handmade I don’t think I’ve had wild War before so let’s give it a try I wonder if it’s going to be like pork at all I guess I’ll just take like a sheet of it like this right let’s

Try this wild boar Ragu now that is a thin noodle this almost would remind me of like Chinese hand strrretch noodles except that it’s those are usually much thicker and chewier this is like same appearance but opposite Concept ooh ooh I just got a say the sauces here are just so fire let’s try another piece of pasta yeah with plenty of sauce look at that it’s still smoking a little I don’t know if you can see on the camera still piping hot a

While oh man wow wow the kacho Pepe I liked it I mean I like kacho Pepe as a dish you know no matter any kacho pppe I have anywhere I’m going to enjoy even if it’s just a kacho a Pepe flavored Bagel that pop a bagel so I love kacho a Pepe

And I still clean the plate but I found the noodles uh slightly disappointing you know too soft not alente the way it should be this dish though complete opposite the sauce is Savory it’s got this flavor that I’m just not accustomed to it’s got that rich Savory flavor and

I’ve never had wild boar before but I presume that wild boore is that killer ingredient that’s making this really taste unique and I detect some wine in this I think maybe white wine or red wine but it definitely has like a alcoholic taste to it not a strong

Alcohol taste I mean I’m sure the alcohol has been cooked out you know you’re not going to exactly you know get drunk off of this but you definitely taste the alcohol in it and I wasn’t sure what to think at first at the thinner pasta and noodle like I said

This looks just like a handpulled uh noodle for Chinese food and I like those noodles to be chewier and stretchier so this looked kind of paper thin and you know I was a little bit not necessarily on board with that but I think that was the right choice because this is just so

Thin that like in a way like it kind of just acts as like a vehicle for the sauce it’s not like you’re chewing the noodle and you know the star of the show is the noodle and the sauce is just like Robin to the noodles Batman because this

Noodle is more pliable and thin the sauce really is the star and the noodle is just like a sponge almost to eat the sauce with like a delicious slide you know to just slide that delicious wild Bo Ragu meat into your mouth just look at how thin this pasta

Is I’ve never had wild boar before this will be my first time trying a chunk of wild Bo oh look at it just completely coming apart I thought I was going to be able to pick it up in one stab I guess that will have to do look

At that it’s like a beautiful like braze piece of meat brazed and slow cooked so soft it kind of reminds me of beef bergon yeah I haven’t been haven’t okay earlier I thought that they added some wine into the sauce and you know maybe they did I mean odds are they

Did but now I’m starting to wonder if that wine alcoholic taste was actually the gy flavor from the wild boar like this wild boar has like a bit of a s sour flavor and I think it’s from the gaminess from it being Wild game meat very very delicious it does kind of

Remind me of beef Bergan to be honest although of course not tasting like beef like the texture is like beef beryan or like soy sauce braced beef if you know that Chinese dish but it just tastes like a whole different protein like one that you caught with like a bow and

Arrow or something and I don’t know how to explain it you just got to try it it’s like gamey and sour but in all the best ways and the sauce is no doubt amplifying it we are going to knock this out I told myself I wasn’t going to eat two bowls

Of pasta too many carbs trying to you know watch my weight in 2024 which is difficult on this channel but I’m going to knock out more of this and then we’ll share some final thoughts outside why don’t we I’ll take the check whenever got a piece of meat on this noodle

Hey guys I just finished eating at Via corota and I stepped outside to share my final thoughts for the most part um I think I had a positive experience eating there it definitely was a good restaurant I thought that both dishes were good I thought that the wild boore

Ragu was especially very good the Kio Pepe was less good but you know still solid now my verdict is that via corota it was a good restaurant very solid uh not super cheap but normal prices by West village grite Village area prices but I think compared to all the other

Great Italian restaurants in New York particularly my favorite so far louzi I felt like they were within the same tier and if anything I probably preferred louzi at least the white pasta I definitely preferred that was lzi spaghetti is just spectacular lzi may have good reviews but via corota is

Really really hyped up like a lot of people consider via Kuroda to be the best Italian restaurant in the whole city hands down especially when when it comes to authentic Italian joints so I would say it wasn’t worth the hype but not because it was bad I really really

Want to hammer that home just go in with more neutral expectations but anyways that’s going to be it for this video I hope you guys enjoyed watching it uh you know I’m getting really into authentic Italian food these days so I definitely want to do more of it going forward so

Let me know what you think of via corota and if you have a favorite Italian restaurant in New York or anywhere in the world let me know in the comments because great minds eat alike if you like my videos make sure you like and subscribe that way you stay up to date

Whenever I post another video it’s uh getting really chilly so I’m going to hit the road so until next time I’ll see you Later