Hello there,
Last Saturday on May 6 I had my 30th birthday – YEAYYYYY. Noooppe I was not excited. I love my twenties 😀 But since life moves forward, I guess there was nothing I could do to turn back time. Okay that sounds a bit of a drama queen, which I believe I’m not (a drama queen) so I’ll just cut the dirty thirty crap and move on with my lovely dinner with my husband and my little monkey at LILIA Restaurant (567 Union Ave, Brooklyn, NY).
Oh before that, I have to tell you that I had been wanting to try the food at LILIA since like, last year. But every time I wanted to make an online reservation, they were either fully booked or the time was not good (like 10.45 PM – who wants to eat pasta at that time right? Maybe I do. LOL. but obviously it’s too late of a dinner time for my son 😀 )
So, like a month ago, I visited LILIA caffe – yes LILIA has a small caffe for coffee and some pastries right next to the restaurant.
I thought, you know, if it was so hard to get a reservation, maybe I just stop by for coffee and something sweet to munch. That day, I got to taste their latte, which was a good latte, and also some pastries. But most importantly, I got to try their famous Olive Oil Cake. And boy I did not have any regrets munching it LOL. It was so good!! And the other two pastries we tried were also delicious (I forgot their names sorry 😦 ) but the Olive Oil Cake indeed was the winner of the day.
Anyways,
That day while I was waiting for my coffee, I came in to the restaurant (it was still closed at around 3 PM) and asked how to make a reservation. Apparently, I had to book exactly a month in advance and the girl recommended me to call the restaurant exactly at 10 AM – 1 month before.
Since my Birthday was a month away, I thought I might be able to get a table for my birthday. And so I called LILIA on April 6 to book a table for May 6 and finally, I succeeded in making a reservation at a reasonable time, 6.45 PM. WOOHOOOO..
And without further ado, here are the food I and my little family got to enjoy on my Dirty Thirty Birthday dinner;
Antipasti (to start)
Roasted Escarole – with anchovy, ricotta salata, & crispy garlic
This was so delicious!! It tasted sour – like vinaigrette dressing – but when you eat them altogether it was really really good. I loved it. So glad we tried this for the appetizer.
Primi (pasta)
I was really curious with LILIA pasta and so I was really excited to try them. And you know what? I really wish I could try them all; The pasta are SUPER – super delicious, super fresh, super yummy, super good!! But since there were only 2.5 of us, three pastas should do it (perhaps the other pastas for our next visit :p ).
Linguine, Clams, Green Garlic
The Linguine was very very delicious. It’s kinda hard to explain but LILIA’s pastas are simply AMAZING. It taste different than any other (handmade) pasta I have ever tried anywhere else. This one was my husband’s choice and at first, he thought it didn’t look as he had expected (perhaps because the usual pasta with clams comes with clams still intact in their shells and this one was not) but once he tried it he was like “this is very good” and he finished it in like 20 minutes 😀 But it’s true, I tried it and it was really really good. A must try indeed.
Spaghetti with Butter & Parmesan
The Spaghetti with butter and parmesan was actually not on the menu. I asked the waiter if the chef could make regular spaghetti with tomato sauce because my son loves spaghetti (but it has to be red) and so he kindly checked with the chef. Unfortunately, the tomato sauce has to be paired with Rigatoni and the pasta could not be substituted with spaghetti. So if I wanted spaghetti, it has to be either spaghetti with anchovies and caramelized onion (which sounds delicious by the way) or the chef could make spaghetti with butter and parmesan. And because the spaghetti was for a 3 year old, I went on with butter and parmesan. And check this out:
Ricotta Gnocchi with Broccoli Pesto, Basil, and Pistachios
This one was mine; the Ricotta gnocchi. I was baffled between Gnocchi and Mafaldini (which everyone seems to have tried – at least on YELP) but the waiter recommended the Gnocchi so I got the gnocchi. And it was so good. The gnocchi was really tender and moist. You know some time, gnocchi could be chewy right? But this one oh my god, was so good. I loved loved loved it. The basil and the pistachios blended really well and I just loved everything about this dish. So yummy 🙂
Dessert
Chocolate Gelato with salted hazelnut (soft serve)
I was going to have another taste of the olive oil cake but the pastas made us really full so we tried the gelato instead. And it was so good. It didn’t taste a lot like gelato though, it tasted more like soft ice cream but whatever it was delicious and we finished it 5 minutes LOL.
Okay that was it 🙂
Overall, I love the place; LILIA is very cozy and “stylish” restaurant with very delicious menu. I would like to try the steak as well but I’m pretty sure we need to go there for another 3 – 4 times to be able to try everything haha. Here are some more photos we took after our dinner – I love Brooklyn and I love LILIA 🙂
Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed writing it (still not excited about being 30 though 😀 ).
For more info on LILIA, kindly check out their website at http://www.lilianewyork.com or simply find them at their Instagram page @lilianewyork
Cheers,
Suada XOXO
suadaland 