Daddies NYC Review

Today, I ate at Daddies, the West Village outpost of the Frank Prisinzano empire. It was a meal of much anticipation after a long day of packing and driving. The decor is classic Frank, to the extreme. Tons of marble, lots of intricate parts, brilliant woodwork. I felt cool eating in there. The menu is basically just a clone of the Lil Frankies one. After being questioned multiple times if we wanted drinks, we ordered appetizers. We ordered the burrata (which the waiter upsold us from the caprese salad), the calamari, and the eggplant. The burrata was incredible, so creamy and luscious, but I wish there were more tomatoes to balance it out.

The calamari was good, but I wish it were more seasoned. I remember the calamari being perfect at Lil Frankies so this was a downgrade.

The eggplant was spectacular as always. It is a pretty perfect dish, the soft eggplant complemented by the chili oil, and accented by the smokiness from the char and the salt. Also fun to order and eat.

For mains we got the limone, ragu, chicken parm, and a margherita pizza.

Limone was another perfect dish, if you haven't had you need to. Ragu was great - lovely small tender meatballs and sausage permeated by sauce. Chicken parm was great, thin but not too thin cutlet, perfectly moist and tender in the right ratio with breading and cheese. I used to just want the cutlet impossibly thin for parm, but this proves otherwise. The pizza was also fantastic. I recently ate at my favorite restaurant in Providence, Figidi. They have great Neapolitan pizza, the best I have had in a while. I was able to compare that pizza today with that of Daddies, and Daddies blew Figidini out of the water. I was reminded of the importance of an uber-light dough and of char in the balance of flavor in margherita. Daddies is exceptional in these regards.

I was perplexed why this restaurant was basically empty while we dined. All of the food was fantastic basically the same as Lil Frankies, yet no one was there. This concerns me because I am in full support of my guy Frank, and I know he put significant resources into developing this restaurant. My mom claims it's because everyone fled New York for Memorial Day weekend. I just slightly got the sense they were struggling, with the drinks being pushed on us and being upsold on burrata. This would be normal at most restaurants but I expect a little more from service at Frank's restaurants, as I have been so impressed in the past. If Lil Frankies is too far, GO HERE! It's the same thing.

May 27, 2024