Midtown Lunch

I’ve been meaning to get down to Zigolini’s on Pearl (at Coenties Slip) for a while now, but mostly the heat has prevented me from wanting a hot, carb-filled lunch. Then one day a lunchtime craving for pasta hit, and after dismissing the Ravioli Fair cart and a couple of other nearby options, I decided to hoof it down there to see theirs was any good. Lunch’er boomshanka had long ago suggested the eggplant parm from there as a go-to lunch, but once I saw the line for sandwiches, I was even more dead set on getting pasta from the much shorter line next door. The to-go portion of the restaurant in split into two separate rooms, so make sure you’re in the correct line so you don’t wait forever and then realize you’re about to get a sandwich instead of a burger or pasta. What pasta creation did I end up with? Find out after the jump.

This place is slightly classier than your typical generic deli, and you pay for the privilege. Most of the lunch menu is under $8 or $9, but once you add tax or a drink it’s toeing the $10 line. I’m getting more and more used to this, though, because as I’ve found, most lunches in the FiDi that are not sold at a cart are overpriced. Pasta is no exception because even at a couple of generic pizza places, it was still $7 or $8 which is tough to swallow when the stuff is so easy and cheap to make. I guess Hello Pasta won’t be so out of place down here with its $8 pasta after all. While I was waiting for my food, I was watching the cooks in the open kitchen cook and assemble burgers, and I must say they looked really good, as did the heap of fries they’re served with. Anyone tried a burger and fries from here?

I’m not averse to going meatless when it comes to pasta, which would have knocked me down to $7. For some reason I was wanting a meat, and the cheapest option was the bolognese sauce for $1 more, and I went crazy and added mushrooms. Total: $8.75. Adding chicken is $3, bumping it over the ML price cap. What I got was a heaping helping of freshly-cooked and scalding hot pasta (I got two meals out of it, but a hearty eater could eat it all in one sitting) that came with a quarter of a baguette and little container of parmesan cheese. I saw the guy making the pasta in the open kitchen, and I guess you could think of it as getting a restaurant-quality pasta dish to go.

There was a lot of meat in the meat sauce, which I appreciated. There was also a little bit of melted cheese on top, but I still dumped some of the parmesan on for good measure. Don’t do like I did and dig right in because you will definitely burn your mouth on the oily, meaty sauce. I appreciated the inclusion of bread to dip in this sauce, but I kind of with I could have gotten a little more of it. Oh well, maybe I’m just being greedy with my carbs.

This was some good pasta, and probably better than what I could make at home or reheat in the microwave at work. Was it worth $8? Probably not, but I’ve learned that sometimes when a craving hits you just have to suck it up and pay.

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

• They make everything fresh, including the pasta.
• They have a nice outdoor seating area.

THE — (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• I want a sandwich, but there’s no way I’m waiting in that line for one.
• Some of their food is a little overpriced for what is essentially a classed up generic deli.

Zigolini’s, 66 Pearl St. (at Coenties Slip), (212) 425-3127