Esca: Where the Seafood, Among Other Things, Is Raw

Mario Batali, the plump, ponytailed star of his own Food Network cooking show, cookbook author and owner of the Italian restaurants Po and Babbo here, has come up with a smart concept for his latest Manhattan restaurant. Called Esca (which means “bait” in Italian), it’s a Southern Italian seafood house in midtown. What’s unusual is the antipasti menu, which includes a dozen items under the term crudo. That’s Italian for raw, and yes, you’ve got the idea: It’s more or less Italian sashimi.

It means, first of all, that the fish has to be impeccably fresh. When I dined at Esca recently, the host pointed out the fish display in the bar. It wasn’t much, actually, a few whole fish buried in ice, with some mollusks arranged around them. Fortunately, that isn’t the entire crudo menu. Of course, there’s a selection of half a dozen oysters on the half-shell, and sea urchin roe served with a drizzle of extra virgin oil from the Carmignano estate Tenuta di Capezzana. I loved the filet of pink snapper with a pinch of Hawaiian sea salt on top, and the fresh marinated anchovies with peperonata or roasted marinated peppers. You could also order raw octopus with shaved baby fennel or yellowfin tuna carpaccio. A crudo tasting of six raw seafood items served in two flights is available for the entire table at $30 per person.

Altro or “other” antipasti includes a vibrant salad of grilled octopus with large oval beans and fragrant Sorrento lemons in a rosemary vinaigrette, and a spicy brodetto (fish soup) brimming with Mahogany and butter clams, scallops and mussels. And if you love baccala, he serves the poached salt cod as a warm salad with Yukon gold potatoes and wild mushrooms. Is it any wonder we had a difficult time deciding what to order and wished we’d been six, not three?

The long list of pastas is thrilling, too, and includes a fine version of linguine alle vongole made with beautiful little Mahogany clams, pancetta and peperoncino. Fedelini is tossed with garlic scapes (i.e., garlic flower stalk) and bottarga (dried pressed tuna roe). And the shrimp and sorrel ravioli is napped in nettle butter. That’s one I wish I’d had room to order.

And for a main course, two or three can share the whole branzino (striped bass) roasted in a sea salt crust. Not that there aren’t other choices, among them bistecca and pollo al mattone, which are the only non-seafood items.

While the ideas are terrific, the execution sometimes leaves something to be desired. And the service? Since we were relegated to a table out in the garden, our waiter hardly bothered to check on us the entire evening, which proves, once again, when a restaurant is hot, they couldn’t care less whether you’ll be back again or not. After all, the phone is ringing off the hook, and there are always more customers waiting in the wings.

BE THERE

Esca, 402 W. 43rd St., New York, N.Y.; (212) 564-7272. Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner. Antipasti, $8 to $13; crudo tasting, $30 per person; primi, $17 to $24; secondi, $21 to $26. Reservations taken up to one month before the date.