Please note that the meal was complimentary. However, the opinions expressed in my blog are 100% my own!

Have you ever been to a restaurant and, after seeing their menu, wish that you could order all of it? Or if one single ingredient could be changed, you would order that dish? It happened to me multiple times. But that problem is resolved at Il Gradino, “the step” in English, an Italian restaurant located on the Upper East Side that opened in May 2022. There, owner Diego Argudo, a veteran of the restaurant industry, decided to implement the concept of piacere (pleasure, enjoyment in Italian) that is interpreted that as “preparing the dishes your way”. Diego explained to me that he want to people to feel welcome and at home, and the restaurant is ready to accommodate any request that would be prepared with products sourced daily, everything being made there, from the pasta to the dessert. There is no eggplant parmesan on the menu but you would love to eat that today? Not a problem. But he is pushing the concept even further: there are several appetizers or pasta you would like to try? Again, not a problem: they will serve you smaller portion of each, making it a sampler that I often regret is not on a menu. The menu on their website is small compared to what you can get at Il Gradino, because on top of that, they have many specials. Listening to the waiter was a bit overwhelming as they had so much to offer, each special being described precisely and made me thinking that I should have worn stretch pants for the occasion! Here is what we had:

For cocktails, Jodi had a virgin mojito, while I settled for an espresso martini. I admit that I would have liked a more Italian cocktail like an Aperol Spritz, but they apparently did not have any. We ate some bread that came with some antipasti, the star being the zucchini that was cooked with garlic (I wish I had the recipe and no, there was the right amount of garlic), as well as the pieces of parmesan cheese that is definitely a cheese that should not be ignored and is more than just something that goes on pasta.

Then, we decided to have a sampler of appetizers, but the owner, treated us with full size dishes! the first one was crispy artichokes, a special, that were not fried but cooked in their oven and served with a tomato and bean salad. This is the kind of recipe that makes you wonder why artichoke is not that popular (I used to eat lots of artichokes when I was a kid in France, cooked and raw, depending of the dish). Another special was the zucchini flower beignets that were also stuffed with prosciutto: I loved it! It has been so long since I had zucchini flower beignets, the last time being in Nice, South of France, a city known for it, to the point that people selling them on the farmers’market yell at tourists who cannot resist taking a photo of these blossoms. Next was calamari. So, this is where I had a choice on how it would be made and I decided to have them grilled. Calamari is difficult to prepare because if you do not do it well, it can be rubbery. Not at Il Gradino: there, it was superb, simple, with just a drizzle of garlic sauce. The last appetizer I tried was their mussels and clams in marinara sauce or “cozze e vongole Posillipo”, a must have if you like shellfish, with a marinara sauce that had a robust flavor that made me want to dip bread in it (I stopped because of what was coming).

For the entrees, we decided to sample their pasta, not imagining the quantity of food we would get in quite large plates that seem more appropriate in a family style restaurant. Jodi went with two specials: linguine with mushrooms that were made with three kinds: porcini, shiitake and portobello and cooked with tomato and asparagus. Good and comforting, her favorite was her second choice: mushroom ravioli with cream. The ravioli were fantastic: with enough filling inside, the shell was thin, the cream not too heavy, with just the right amount of truffle, so the mushrooms remained the center of the dish.

On my side, I went for my classic linguine alle vongole with white sauce, but also wanted to try their bucatini all’Amatriciana where these thick pasta are smothered with a mix of pork and a robust tomato sauce. and finally one more dish, the third was their linguini fruit di mare that was made with mussels, calamari, shrimp, scallop, clams in a red sauce. In all the dishes, the house made pasta were perfectly cooked al dente. My favorite was the vongole with its delicious white wine sauce. The frutti di mare, with a generous portion of seafood was quite good, at the exception of the scallop that I did not like, maybe because of the way they cooked it. As far as the All’Amatriciana, I was close to digging further into that succulent dish, but I remembered that I wanted to try dessert.

And so, we did try dessert, although we started to get full. Their cannoli was quite good, but my favorite was the tiramisu that was well balanced between the coffee soaked lady fingers and the mascarpone cream. They also brought us some biscotti that I ate with my espresso, thinking about my aunt Claudine who is the queen of biscotti in my family.

Needless to say that we needed a walk after that feast at Il Gradino: this place is truly a hidden gem that I would definitely recommend to people who are looking for a true Italian experience and love Italian cuisine. The piacere concept is quite unique and a good way to discover dishes from all the regions of Italy.

Enjoy (I did)!

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Il Gradino - 808 Lexington Ave #2, New York, NY 10065

Il Gradino on the Upper East Side

I Just Want To Eat!