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Andrew Carmellini served as the right-hand man to one of the city’s great chefs, Daniel Boulud, in one of the city’s venerable, uptown restaurants, Café Boulud. The menu at A Voce is classically modern Italian, replete with a mix of fashionable rusticated dishes (tripe, lamb shanks) and old chestnuts like chicken cacciatora, veal chops, even the chef’s grandmother’s recipe for ravioli. Everything about the place is carefully calibrated to convey a sense of soothing, almost soporific familiarity, including the décor, which is a study in retro Four Seasons–style modernity. The room’s color scheme is a subdued mix of earthy browns (the walls) and mossy greens (the tabletops), both of which contrast nicely with the sleek, modernist windows, which are cathedral-size and afford a tall view of the streetscape outside. Unless, perhaps, you’re a devout Daniel Boulud fan, it’s difficult to be disappointed with any of the food. But since Carmellini is a chef capable of all sorts of culinary pyrotechnics, it’s hard to get too excited, either. A Voce is a place where all the rough edges have been conspicuously smoothed away, where the tone emanating from the kitchen isn’t hard rock (Batali) or haute classical (Boulud) but low-wattage easy-listening jazz. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

Recommended Dishes

Vegetable antipasti, $14; duck meatballs, $15; homemade pappardelle, $24; meat ravioli, $24; chocolate panna cotta, $13

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Adam Platt's Full Review (5/8/06)

Featured In

• Where to Eat 2008: The Best Restaurants for Each Occasion (1/7/08)
• Where to Eat 2008 (1/7/08)

Recipes at A Voce

• Black-Mint Granité (2006)