When I first moved into my hood, I went with neighbors to Da Andrea, a neighborhood Italian restaurant. I hadn’t been back or thought about it until recently when a friend’s kids who live in Brooklyn took her there for her birthday. She mentioned it was good.

I had to return to see what I was missing.

On a sunny day recently, I met my friend Thomas Farley (Mister Manners) for lunch. We sat outside on the sidewalk, their shed blocking the noise of passing trucks.

At Da Andrea, we embraced the Italian tradition of sharing each dish, one course at a time, starting with their warm octopus salad of sliced tender pieces with diced potatoes and olives ($19). We then had a stack of grilled veggies, including eggplant, red and yellow peppers, zucchini and a tomato, spread with goat cheese glazed in balsamic ($16).

Our main course was their cavatelli di ricotta, the pasta with shrimp and salmon in a pesto sauce, requesting gluten-free pasta. There was no upcharge for being gluten-free ($26). We started enjoying it when we looked at each other and mentioned that the pasta was too al dente. It was too raw to enjoy.

We told our waiter, and they happily replaced it. It was the correct thing to do, said Mister Manners. This time, the pasta, still al dente but cooked, came coated with a light pesto sauce, with some tender shrimp and small salmon nuggets.

Dessert was the velvety panna cotta with Amarena missing the menu-promised cinnamon tuile with a serving of biscotti instead. We each sipped espresso, ending our enjoyable meal.

I recommend a visit to Da Andrea.

Da Andrea
Greenwich Village
35 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011
(212) 367-1979
daandreanyc.com/