Where Are Your Favorite Meatballs Served? A Google Meatballs Fantasy
Has the world gone meatball crazy? I believe it has. No matter what kind of restaurant I walk into, I find at least one kind of meatball on the menu. And that, my friends, is a good thing. Great meatballs, light and savory and slightly toothsome, are to my way of thinking one of life's great edible pleasures. So I have decided to compile, with the help of the Serious Eats community, a master list of great meatballs around the country and the world for that matter, that we can put all our go-to meatball places on a Google Map. And if you feel like sharing a terrific meatball recipe, by all means post it as a comment here.
Call it Meatball Radar. Or Google Meatballs.
Consider just some of the delicious meatballs I have had recently in NYC:
The duck meatballs with cherry moustarda at A Voce in the Flatiron district in New York. I'm sure chef-owner Andrew Carmellini is sick of making them and talking about them, but they are damned fine.
The tuna meatballs at Esca. Dave Pasternack's tuna meatballs are so meaty you'd swear they were made out of red meat.
Jody Williams' Sicilian-style meatballs at Morandi. These cloud-like beauties are studded with raisins and pine nuts.
And this doesn't even include Mike Psilakis' incredible Greek meatballs at Kefi, the great plate of meatballs and potatoes I had at Pepolini, or Frankie's Spuntino's incomparable meatball sandwich. Someone e-mailed me about the delicious giant meatball served in the Tavern at Gramercy Tavern. What's on your Five Favorite Meatball list?
A Voce
41 Madison Avenue (at 26th St.)
New York, NY 10010
Ph:212-545-8555
Esca
402 W. 43rd Street (at Ninth Avenue)
New York, NY 10036
Ph: 212-564-7272
Morandi
211 Waverly Place (bet. 7th Ave. and Charles)
New York, NY 10014
Ph: 212-564-7272
Where do you get great meatballs? Serious Eaters want to know.
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11 Comments:
i order the meatballs at frankie's (457) for lunch on a regular basis - they're quite tasty.
j at 9:28AM on 05/17/07
i like stanton social's meatballs.
ceforrester at 9:42AM on 05/17/07
I like Josh White's:
A little man walked up and down,
He found an eating place in town.
He looked the menu through and through
To see what fifteen cents could do:
One meatball, one meatball,
He couldn't bought but one meatball.
He told the waiter near at hand
The simple dinner he had planned.
The guests were startled, one and all,
To hear that waiter oddly call:
"One meatball, one meatball,
This here gent wants one meatball."
The little man felt ill at ease,
Said "Some bread, son, if you please."
The waiter hollered down the hall
"Ya gets no bread with one meatball!"
One meatball, one meatball,
"Ya gets no bread with one meatball!"
baboo at 9:58AM on 05/17/07
What a pleasure to see it's happening elsewhere. St. Louis is erupting in meatballs (and even "meat"balls). And mostly they're really good ones. Long live the meatball!
lemons at 10:11AM on 05/17/07
lemons, are there any specific places in St. Louis that you can list for us?
Ed Levine at 10:40AM on 05/17/07
While not a restaurant per se, I love the meatballs at Pete's Meat in the Arthur Avenue Retail Market in the Bronx. I'd be hard pressed to make better ones myself.
http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/04/06/abbondanza-on-arthur-avenue/
jperlow at 12:11PM on 05/17/07
And, I hate to say it... IKEA.
http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2006/06/04/nj-dining-ikea-cafe/
jperlow at 12:53PM on 05/17/07
Ed, we've met once when my husband and I were making rounds with Tim Z. But on to The Great St. Louis Meatball List:
Tenth Street Italian (lunch only; closed for dinner)
Curry In a Hurry (kefte, made with paneer, light and fabulous)
Anthonino's Taverna
Pueblo Solis (albondigas, often a daily special)
I'll get the details of these posted on our blog, if anyone's interested in more details; www.stlouiseats.typepad.com
lemons at 1:01PM on 05/17/07
I remember meeting you. Was it at the old Daniel?
Ed Levine at 2:01PM on 05/17/07
Meatballs are best at home. That way you can sneeze them off of your spaghetti all covered with cheese and start singing about it and nobody will give a hoot.
I prefer to do this with meatballs made with veal mixed with pork fat. And lemon zest and garlic and tomato and some other things. Tender. Good on orzo with zucchini and parmesan.
And when they roll off the table and onto the floor, somebody will surely eat them if they roll out the door. Even if they are named "polpetonne".
Karen Resta at 10:52AM on 05/18/07
Ed - please revisit this topic - stop the presses - the best meatballs I've ever eaten in my life are the Polpette e Pomodori from Apizz. Veal-pork-beef meatballs on a bed of fresh ricotta with tomato gravy. I mean the best ever. Absolutely mouthwateringly great. Let's give these the props they deserve!
Livetotravel at 12:35PM on 05/18/07