Seventh Heaven

Insieme 777 7th Ave. (at W. 51st St.) 212-582-1310

Another week, another high-end Italian restaurant: This time it’s Insieme, which opened last year in the Michelangelo Hotel on Seventh Avenue and West 51st Street. Helmed by chef Marco Canora, who won raves for Hearth in the East Village, Insieme offers three menus in one: a selection of Italian classics, a more sophisticated assortment of “contemporary” Italian dishes and a $95 tasting menu that combines a little of both. I asked my friend Sara to meet me at Insieme at 8 o’clock on a recent Friday evening. After a pit stop at the gym for a pre-emptive calorie burn, I arrived at the restaurant more than 20 minutes late. No worries, Sara had a smile on her face when I arrived. She and the bartender were engaged in a spirited debate about the merits of a fresh lime gimlet.

Once seated, Sara and I admired the restaurant’s minimalist décor: a modular palette of neutral colors framed by long lines and sharp angles, with off-white tables, beige banquettes and dark wood floors. I had read criticisms of the restaurant’s atmospherics (that it lacked warmth, that the dangling white strands that function as curtains fail to screen diners from the thump-thump chaos outside), but I found the setting very Zen, like a waiting room at a chic spa. The dining room’s organization also has a soothing simplicity: tables for two along the windows, tables for six down the middle and booths seating four tucked into the interior wall (an ordered arrangement that seemed more Germanic than Italian).

Faced with so many choices, Sara and I decided to create a tasting menu of our own, sampling antipasti, primi and secondi from both sides of the menu. The insalata di misticanza (traditional menu, $12), an amalgam of crisp greens, sweet potatoes, elegant slices of beets and sheets of three-year-old parmesan cheese, was delicious—a deft combination of bitter and sweet, tossed with an almost syrupy balsamic vinegar. The elk carpaccio (contemporary menu, $17), finely sliced and delicate, was also good. The celeriac that accompanied it, drenched in a mayo-like sauce, was overpowering at first; but by the third bite I’d figured out how much to add to the elk to give it just the right kick.

The lamb dish (contemporary menu, $36), comprising four different cuts—breast, sausage, saddle and chop—was a tour de force. The breast, soft and layered, was fatty and sweet, suggestive of tiramisu. The sausage had the shape of a crab cake and was well seasoned and sharp. And the saddle, a tender portion of the lamb’s lower back that is difficult to extract, was chewy and rich, topped with a sprig of watercress, like a gymnast astride a pommel horse.

Oddly, the most disappointing of the evening’s dishes were pastas. The saffron farfalle (contemporary menu, $16), with shrimp and mussels, was good but unremarkable. Both the shellfish and pasta in the dish were well cooked, but the topping of pecorino was smothering, like a blanket tossed on a campfire. The linguine con vongole (traditional menu, $16) suffered from a similar imbalance: nice pasta, cute clams, but too much garlic. The service at Insieme is friendly and informal, in some respects too much so. When the waitress swung by to describe the night’s specials, she read them aloud to our table and a neighboring table simultaneously. When you’re paying $80 per head for a meal, is it too much to expect personal service? She redeemed herself with the wine list, reviewing what we had ordered and recommending a 2005 Schiopetto to pair with the carpaccio and pasta, and a 2004 Serradeneri to go with the lamb.

Insieme is, without question, a pleasant dining experience; and it’s a tranquil respite from Times Square madness. And while the kitchen’s productions can sometimes fall short, overall it’s a bravura performance compared to most of the other culinary numbers seeking an audience in the theater district.