Marea in New York City

This weekend my Italian-born better half and I enjoyed a beautiful seafood lunch at Marea, on Central Park South. We were celebrating a recent accomplishment of his, so we decided to use the occasion to try one of the restaurants on our ever growing "list". You know, the places that you say - "oh! we should check this out one day" or "have you heard of that place? let's try it sometime."

The crudo was spectacular. The lobster and burrata was excellent.

But, most exciting of all was the house-made gluten free pasta. I didn't see it mentioned on the menu or website, but I asked the waiter and to my surprise, they offered to substitute any of the pasta dishes with this fresh gf version! 

I went with the strozzapreti - jumbo lump crab, calabrian chili and basil. It did not disappoint. I've found that it's not easy to find great, fresh, handmade gluten free pasta - especially in the U.S. It even passed the test for my gluten loving Italian, which is no simple task.

His take: the octopus fusilli was remarkable (he loved the red wine sauce with bone marrow and braised octopus, and the fusilli itself), but the scallops were nothing to write home about.    

If you have the chance, I highly recommend Marea.