This weekend I spent time in New York City for some holiday shopping, and time at the spa. I do a trip to NYC annually, and like every other year I had a amazing time!
This time around I decided to venture over to Eataly on Fifth Avenue. Eataly is 50,000 square feet and includes 7 restaurants, a wine shop, food market, and includes private dining options and cooking classes. They even have a Guest Relations Desk to assist customers with their experience.
Eataly in New York City has shared owners including owned by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich and Joe Bastianich.
Why did I want to come here? Well, I read reviews about how amazing it was online and wanted to check it out myself. Even at the airport there were other travellers talking about visiting the Eataly location in Chicago! Another reason I wanted to check it out was that rumour has it there is one coming to Toronto.
The location in NYC is very easy to find since it has multiple entrances stretching across two streets. This place is huge!
It’s hard to explain just how big this place is! As soon as you walk in there are maps available, and staff to assist you find what you are looking for.
The market stretches across the whole space, and the selection of food was incredible.
The pasta is so fresh that I saw the staff making pasta and then pouring it into containers to hand straight to customers. It was amazing – it can’t get fresher than that.
Eataly NYC has 7 restaurants which have table and bar seats at each. The opportunity to sit at the bar was perfect for me since I was dining alone. I wanted to have a great meal, and eating at the bar made me feel a little less like I got stood up. I randomly chose a restaurant called Manzo. It was more of a formal restaurant compared to some of the others, and the food did not disappoint. The best part about eating alone by the way? I didn’t have to share the bread basket! I decided to try on of the specials, a lamb bolognaise with papardelle. I was in pasta heaven. The server said that it was the best bolognaise they had ever had, and I had to agree after eating it. The pasta itself tasted so fresh that it’s ruined some of my previous favourite restaurant pasta dishes.
After lunch I was back to checking out the market, and seeing what else it had to offer. There was a Gelateria with fresh gelato made in-house, a Pasticceria with fresh pastries and cakes, and an espresso bar.
There was a housewares section with kitchen gadgets, and a cookbook section for inspiration.
The word fresh was centered around everything at Eataly. The pasta, the pastries, the butcher – everything was made on site and that day. Even the Rosticceria was cooking rotisserie chickens and carving them for sandwiches served to a line of people waiting in anticipation. The market was extremely busy, but the space was so large that it was easy to find a restaurant with a seat, and the cash registers moved everyone quickly through lines.
If you think you would be overwhelmed with a visit to Eataly, they offer walking tours of the facility as well. I looked online for more information and found that it was sold out for a Wednesday – this place is very popular! The cooking classes look amazing – from Pizza Making to the Flavours of Tuscany, there were lots of classes to chose from. They even had a kids pastry making class which I thought looked cute.
You can shop online with the Eataly website, and they ship to Canada as well.
Eataly New York City is located at 200 Fifth Avenue, and you can find them online at www.eataly.com.
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