The Meatball Shop

The Meatball Shop
84 Stanton St
New York, NY 10002

http://www.themeatballshop.com/

Yelp Reviews

Hannah Whitaker, for NYmag.com:  salmon, chicken, beef, spicy pork, vegetarian balls

So like I said in a previous post,  I took my friend to trendy food spots for her NYC visit.

The evening's adventure was the Meatball Shop on the Lower East Side.  I've heard the wait could be horrendous, and we had every intention of going a bit earlier, but time just gets away from us.  We arrived about 7ish on a Saturday night.  We weren't deterred by the hour wait proclaimed by the hostess.  Some people were like fuck that, and went in  search for another restaurant.  I'm glad we didn't.  There is enough to do and look around on the LES to be entertained for hours, let alone one.  The hostess took my phone number and said she will call as soon as our table was ready.  We walked to a coffeehouse and were about to settle down with  the hot cups at the table, when my phone rang.  15 minutes was the wait time.  Unbelievable!  Good thing we didn't get a beer instead.

It was no big deal to have our coffee cups at our table, thankfully.   The meatball shop works as a build your own meal type of place.  Mark what kind of meat, then sauce, whether you want it as sliders, or a roll or over pasta.  Sides are separate.  Since we wanted to go out a bit later and not look like fools with sauce decorated clothes, we opted for the balls over pasta instead of as a hero.  I got the spicy pork (4 balls), with spicy meatsauce over rigatoni.  K got the beef with spicy meat sauce over spaghetti.

One word.  YUM!!!! Not spicy at all, which I know could be a major complaint amongst the hot-philes amongst us, but to me it had a nice kick; enough to be interesting, but no fire engines needed.  Oh this next part is gonna sound so innuendo-ed.  The pork balls were so well spiced and soft.  I tried a sample of the beef, which was bit more firm, but very well prepared.  The sauce I need to emulate.  The foccacia bread that came with it, is the softest I had in a long time.

All in all, this place was ridiculously good.  I would never go too late, I'm sure the hour wait would be truer the later in the night it got.  But I simply cannot wait for the Williamsburg shop to open, I know where I'll be stopping for takeout!