To take a break from all our recipe posts lately, we’re coming back to you with some more local restaurant recommendations, based on places we’ve tried and enjoyed recently.  Today we’re featuring two places in Midtown Manhattan – which isn’t typically known for it’s culinary scene, because many of the restaurants in the area rely on their convenience of being close to a lot of tourist destinations and get comfortable with that rather than trying to put out an interesting menu.  But we found two places we really like and we’re going to share them here, but be warned that there is an image of meat in this post.

First we got to visit L’Adresse, which has two locations in Midtown:  one at 28th and Broadway, and the one we went to near Bryant Park.  To start off our meal we tried this mushroom flatbread, made with mushrooms plus a truffle mushroom pâté, paired with Asiago cheese, all piled on top of naan.

Then Miriam had more truffles!  This is the tagliardi pasta in a parmesan-asiago sauce, with truffle shavings on top.

And Cyril tried the house burger, topped with Gruyere cheese and some fries on the side.

Next, if you head a few blocks up to the southeast corner of Central Park, you’ll come across a new restaurant called Aperitivo, serving up some really interesting Italian food.  Our first bite once we got there was a pizza:  here’s the margherita, made with just fresh mozzarella, basil, and a tomato sauce.

We also split this arugula salad, topped with pine nuts, shaved fennel and Parmesan, and red onions, all in a charred tomato dressing.

Then Cyril had one of the house specials that day – a butternut squash ravioli in brown butter and sage sauce.

And Miriam tried the penne alla vodka, which is slightly different than what you might be used to because it’s topped with breadcrumbs seasoned with Calabrian chiles.

These two restaurants were nice places to go when we were looking for interesting sit-down spots in Midtown.  It can be hard in that area to figure out what’s good and what’s just a middling place coasting on its proximity to lots of foot traffic, but we’d recommend either of these places.  At L’Adresse we got to try truffles in two different dishes, plus an elevated burger, giving us a chance to splurge a little.  And at Aperitivo, we were able to sample two delicious pasta dishes, and we especially liked the penne alla vodka because the Calabrian chiles gave it a spiciness that we don’t typically see in vodka sauce.  So keep these places in mind if you’re wandering around the middle of Manhattan, hungry and wondering what’s truly worthwhile – these two restaurants rise above the rest and give you some really interesting food.