An Italian Family Restaurant in Queens, New York, the Bridge-And-Tunnel Crowd Should Put on GPS

An Italian Family Restaurant in Queens, New York, the Bridge-And-Tunnel Crowd Should Put on GPS

 

Summer tomatoes at their ripest are part of Senso Unico’s salad appetizer.

Having run low on Cambodian snack bars, taco food trucks and vegetarian burger stands in Brooklyn to cover, the New York food media have turned their sights on Queens in search of the same kind of low-rent, small-menu eating places—all of which well deserve coverage—while largely ignoring more traditional, less trendy restaurants. Hard to remember when the media have covered any Italian restaurants above the level of a pizzeria. Here’s one thus far ignored that deserves kudos galore.

As an admirable labor of love, Senso Unico—which means “one way” in Italian with the additional meaning of doing things one way, the right way—is a corner osteria that exudes good feelings and hospitality from the moment you meet owner Laura Garofalo at the doorway. She’s the wife of Chef Vincenzo Garofalo, whose long résumé includes time at notable restaurants like Antica Osteria Nonna Rosa and Il Pellicano in Italy, as well as a stint with the Maccioni family at Sirio in New York. But his most enduring and endearing influence is the cooking of his grandmother.

 

Vincenzo and Laura Garofalo provide Senso Unico with a family atmosphere.

I love restaurants with a corner entrance, and Senso Unico’s is particularly inviting into a small, tidy, colorful room that opens onto the street in the Queens neighborhood of Sunnyside.

Here the food is alla famiglia, and housemade pastas are the focus, but the antipasti are not to be ignored. We began with cuoppo, a plate of lightly fried, crispy calamari, shrimp and mixed vegetables ($15). You can tell when a fresh, light oil is used at the right temperature.

 

A cuoppo is a mix of lightlyl fried seafood.

Vincenzo is obviously manic about the seasonal freshness of his ingredients, evident in the cherry and Roma tomato salad with Castelvetrano and Gaeta olives, pickled onion, basil and—surprise!—a splash of Campari ($11). A fine beef carpaccio of beef had shreds of peppery arugula, shaved parmigiano and a tangy lemon dressing ($14), and it was so good to see an old Italian-American favorite, prosciutto and melon ($14), served: the melon was succulently ripe and very sweet, the prosciutto draped in feather-weight slices, with a delightful, unexpected pistachio dressing ($12). Also dependent on absolute freshness was a carpaccio of sea scallops with capers, cantaloupe, pink peppercorn, a dash of fresh chili and lemon oil ($14).

 

Pastas at Senso Unico are all housemade.

And so on to the delicately wrought pastas at Senso Unico: Spaghetti with plum, cherry, and Roma tomato sauce that was the essence of summer in a bowl ($24), as was the  scialatielli alla Nerano ($24), a fat form of spaghetti with green and yellow squash, basil butter and Parmigiano. Spaghetti with the small vongole clams in their shells seems a simple dish, but getting the balance of the white wine, tomatoes and salsa verde takes canny timing, and Vincenzo’s got his down pat ($17). The heartiest of the pastas I sampled was fusilli Avellinesi ($19), made with sweet Italian sausage, tomato and a truffle sauce. Portions are very generous.

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A classic Italian napoleon dessert is rich with cream and flakey pastry.

As requisite as the pastas are, there are some good secondi on the menu, including a tagliata cut of beef ($36) with mixed grilled vegetables; a nicely crisp and juicy Cornish hen with roasted potatoes and brown butter-rosemary sauce ($26); an eggplant parmigiana ($15) so good that the old-fashioned dish deserves to be brought back to eminence; and branzino al cartoccio ($26) that was exceptionally succulent, steamed and baked with zucchini, yellow squash, cherry tomato and white wine sauce.

I didn’t really expect that Vincenzo would make his own desserts, but, of course, he does, and his tiramisù ($6)—another version with beer is merely odd— and flakey puff pastry napeolon, with amarena cherries are expertly made. The a refreshing dish called affogato (“drowned”), made by pouring chocolate sauce and espresso over vanilla ice cream ($6), is always going to be a pleasure, and I haven’t tasted a zabaglione with vin cotto, glazed berries and vanilla gelato ($8) this good in a very long while.

For anyone who lives in those other boroughs, Senso Unico is well worth the price of a subway or Uber fare. The people of Queens have already found out how lucky they are to have the Garofalos cooking for them.

Senso Unico is open for lunch Fri. & Sat., and for dinner Tues.-Sun.

SENSO UNICO

43-04 47th Avenue

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