My friend Ann just moved to the Upper East Side, so there was no better way to welcome her to the neighborhood than with a girls’ dinner at Uva.

Uva is a cozy Italian restaurant with flickering candlelight and a private wine cellar.

As you can tell from the pictures, in addition to girls’ night, Uva is also perfect for date night!

These were my dates for the evening:

We started with wine, and Jess ordered Uva’s Vino in Tazza. Yes, you translated that correctly: wine in a bowl! It’s a tradition in Northern Italy to drink dark, local reds out of small, white bowls. The darker the rings around the bowl, the better the wine’s density and flavor!

We started with bread.

And with the Burrata Barese. This is a huge chunk of creamy mozzarella topped with yellow beef tomatoes, fava beans and a balsamic glaze. It’s absolutely delicious!

Uva is known for three different pasta dishes, and we ordered them all!

The first is the Gnocchi di Ricotta, which is homemade ricotta gnocchi in a creamy black truffle and chive sauce.

The Pappardelle al Ragu di Vitello is also well known, and is homemade pasta ribbons sautéed with ragout of veal and montasio cheese.

The final famous pasta dish is the Fettuccine con Gamberi e Zucchine. It’s fettuccine served with shrimp, yellow pattipan squash, zucchini, shallots and grape tomatoes and sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and white wine.

All of the pasta dishes are fabulous!

You can find out more information on Uva here.

Uva is worth the move to New York, right Ann?! (Just in case Kendall, Jess and I weren’t enough reasons!)

~A