San Sabino
113 Greenwich Ave.
San Sabino is one of the places that went viral on social media for the famous “Garlic Bread Martini” and that made me extremely curious to try it! Beware, to get the any reservations, you need to try to book a month ahead when the reservations are released, or line up on a Sunday at 4pm and place the reservation with the Maître d' for the following week, or to stalk any availability on Resy. I chose the latter option and the reservation available was for a Wednesday evening at 6pm for an outdoor seating.
The easiest no-brainer choice for drinks was the Garlic Bread Martini aka Scottie’s Martini. We have also tried the Sanzese Spritz, a very floral cocktail -opposite of Scottie’s. We also had the opportunity to try a few of the hot cocktails which I don’t quite remember the names of other than it having bourbon - but it had the flavors of mulled wine meets blackberry vibe around it.
In all honesty, I haven’t paid much attention to the menu for San Sabino outside of the drinks, but everything sounded so delicious! One really interesting thing was that the menu had a lot more spotlight on seafood, I felt that was unique in comparison to other Italian restaurant menus. We ordered the Cheesy Frittelle, Octopus Carpaccio, Stuffed Farfalle, Shrimp Parm, and the Gelato Viennese.
Starting off strong with the Cheesy Frittelle, a deep fried cheese crisp with drizzled honey and saffron - a very light bite, mildly sweet and savory. Originally reading the description, I thought it would just be cheese fritters but nothing too crazy, wow I was wrong. This was like a cheesy samosa-like or like a cheese turnover. The outside wasn’t soggy or too fried, just a nice soft pastry shell.
The Octopus Carpaccio was light and peppery. The Stuffed Farfalle was stuffed with chili crab and tobiko, just amazing! I felt the amount was not enough to savor it for longer! The last entree was the Shrimp Parm and it was so unique - I personally really liked it! For closing, we ordered the Gelato Viennese, the indulgent chocolate layered with a bed of hazelnuts and caramel with a coffee syrup was heavenly. A bite to dream about.
Service was great! My only complaint would be for being an outdoor table during the cold of fall in NYC, there were only two heat lamps and it was okay before the outdoor area was filled to move the lamps that were giving us enough heat, but that became a bit more tough to keep both lamps facing our table only as the seats outside were taken. We had no other negative experiences during our dining visit.
Would I come back to dine here? Absolutely! This meal was wonderful and unique which is why I appreciate it, Shrimp Parm and even the Scottie’s Martini is very innovative. For me, San Sabino was a 9/10.
