Amid all the recipes we post here, you might be wondering what we eat when we’re not cooking – and considering that New York has such a wealth of great food on offer, there’s a lot for us to try!  Today we’re going to highlight two Italian places we visited recently, which happen to be just a few blocks from each other in Manhattan’s West Village.  Both are places we think are worth checking out, so we’re going to show you what we got at each – just know that we feature some images of non-vegetarian food here.

First up is Via Carota, an insanely popular spot that’s meant to look like a rustic Italian cafe.  If you’d like to eat here there’s a strict process you have to follow, because they don’t take reservations.  Instead, you have to show up and get on their list for the night, but if you want dinner they won’t take your name down until 5pm (11am for lunch) and then it might still be a few hours before you’re seated.  It’s not an easy way to go about getting into a restaurant, but we wanted to see for ourselves why this place was so popular so we got ourselves in one Friday night.  We started out with one of their more unusual appetizers – charred leeks, topped with goat cheese.

Of course we had to try some pasta too – for Miriam, it was the tortelli stuffed with smoked ricotta.

And Cyril tried the tagliatelle with prosciutto and Parmesan.

Now if you head just a little ways down 7th Avenue, you’ll come to another Italian spot called Morandi.  Morandi is also a pretty well-known restaurant, but fortunately they do take reservations – although like Via Carota, the space can also become pretty crowded at times.  Their menu has a focus on seafood, so you can get things like this fritto misto di pesce – fried shrimp, fish, and calamari – that Cyril enjoyed.

Also, this lobster spaghetti was one of the specials on the night we went:

Don’t fear for vegetarians, though – Miriam was able to get one of her perennial favorites, cacio e pepe.

So there you have two interesting Italian restaurants in downtown Manhattan to try – if you can manage to get in and deal with all the other people who also want to try these places.  Both spots serve up good pastas and other unique dishes, and it’s worth checking them out if only to see what the hype is about.  You can make your own judgements about the wisdom of the crowds, but we did enjoy certainly the food at Via Carota and Morandi.