A Taste of Italy — Dinner at Il Buco

The following post was written by nutritioulicious™ intern Megan Kian
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Imagine entering the rustic home of a small Italian family. This is exactly how I felt when I was seated at my table at Il Buco on Bond Street in New York just last week. The dim lights, the cozy atmosphere, and the rows of handmade pottery created the perfect ambiance for an Italian dinner.

[Photo credit: IlBuco.com]

Eating out in the city can be tough. With over 24,000 restaurants to choose from, it’s hard to know where to go for the freshest and healthiest meals. Il Buco enters the category of a restaurant that is both nutritious and delicious.

As I was handed the menu, I noticed something especially unique about Il Buco’s dinner menu. If you flip to the back of the menu you can find a list of all the main ingredients that the chefs at Il Buco use in their various dishes. We, as patrons, aren’t usually privy to where the ingredients in our meals come from. Il Buco’s philosophy is that they use only the freshest ingredients in their simple, yet elegant dishes. I began to salivate as I eagerly awaited my Cachi con Finocchio (a salad of persimmons (cachi), fennel (finnochio), hazelnuts, mint, and parmesan). Once I finally delved into my unusual salad, I could see the philosophies of the restaurant coming to life. The luscious and fresh ingredients of the salad created a refreshing, yet mouth-watering combination.

My next course consisted of a moist grilled halibut with perfectly charred tomatoes and fingerling potatoes, topped with aioli, a sauce consisting of garlic and olive oil (olive oil is a great source of monounsaturated fat!). Although fish has never been my favorite, I couldn’t help but like this halibut dish when it was accompanied by such appetizing vegetables. The charred outside of the tomatoes added another level of flavor to the dish, revealing a smokiness within the cherry tomatoes. The fingerling potatoes were perfectly cooked with a flaky skin that when cut into revealed the soft white inside of the potato.

As I finished my last bit of halibut, I realized that Il Buco had proved to me that you can indulge in a healthy, yet wonderfully tasty meal while dining out.

Read about Il Buco’s philosophy and the ingredients they use on their website.

*Note: Opinions expressed in this post are solely my own and I have not been compensated by anyone for this post.