Babbo is back — and it’s better than ever without Mario Batali

Babbo, the once-great flagship restaurant from once-great Mario Batali, is back with a new owner and a new chef — and, maybe hard to believe, it’s better than the fabled original.

Babbo limped on after Batali was divested in 2019, in the wake of multiple allegations of sexual misconduct. Mega-restaurateur Stephen Starr bought the place from Batali’s former business partner, Joe Bastianich, last winter and closed it temporarily. Now, it’s one of the most thrilling reboots in recent memory.

With chef Mark Ladner in the kitchen, Babbo 2.0 is not only better than it was when Batali was under a cloud, but perhaps even better than in its late-1990s glory days.  

Gone are full-of-themselves waiters and Batali-era innards — like goat’s head and head cheese — that made customers squirm. In their place are a menu-savvy, attitude-free floor team and delicious, creative-but-crowd-pleasing fare that sets the new Babbo apart from the city’s many pricey Italian joints.

Babbo is so identified with Batali — who opened the restaurant in 1998 — it’s hard at first to grasp that he’s only a memory.

Re-launched by Starr and Ladner, the 87-seat trattoria that made sleepy Waverly Place an unlikely scene for nearly two decades is both new and not new. The exterior facade looks much as it always. Inside, things both are and aren’t the same — a “now you see it, now you don’t” stroke of magic.

The ground-floor dining room with the round wine table at the foot of the stairs, white tablecloths and sconces looks almost exactly the same as it once did. Ladner’s work might seem familiar as well: He launched Babbo’s first kitchen before he became head chef at Batali’s great Del Posto.

But the large, bland, second-floor Siberia where unglamorous guests were once herded has been transformed into a cozy, Oak Room-like refuge, sexed up with an oxblood-red paint job and intimate lighting devised by the celebrated L’Observatoire studio. The skylight and windows that previously let in harsh street glare have been covered. Put me up there next time I go!

An artfully curated soundtrack of classic rock, reggae and blues make both floors feel like a party again — but now it’s a civilized party. The new Babbo doesn’t seem to engage in overbooking and there aren’t long delays for reserved tables, which made the front of the house “less a waiting area than an exercise studio,” as the New York Times Pete Wells aptly put it in 2017.

Ladner has said he wants to “celebrate the diversity of Italy’s culinary landscape through the prism of New York City.” Don’t they all say that? Ignore the shtick and just enjoy the dishes, which channel old Babbo’s rustic and rugged spirit without the harsh edges.

The chef popped by our table and cheerfully announced, “a little performance tonight.” A mortar and pestle suggested a guacamole surprise, but he used them to grind Thai basil into a pesto for pouring into a complex, slow-cooked “49 day minestrone” ($22).  Although I’m still not sure what the soup was up to for a month-and-a-half, it’s a fun overture to the chef’s way of gently accenting favorite dishes without warping their traditional essences.

Prawn royal ($29) was another fabulous starter, the juicy crustaceans served with toothsome artichokes and fregola. Cavatelli ($36) is hand-made with wide ridges to bear a tomato-based ragu made with braised rabbit, stewed with peppers and porcini mushrooms, and finished with an herbal ambrosia of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme.

Veal chop marsala sounded extravagant at $95, but the on-the-bone number, cut into small rectangles, easily feeds two. The center cut is slow-roasted in marsala wine sauce and served in veal jus fortified with black truffles and finished with foie gras mousse. The tender meat strikes a perfect balance between rustic and refined, sweet and savory.

A  few dishes from old Babbo live anew more or less as they were. Braised beef cheek ravioli ($45) finished with a pan sauce of chicken livers and truffle butter were as luscious as I remember.

Another blast from the past is a slightly tweaked version of Ladner’s 100-layer lasagna ($100 for four) from Del Posto. It’s the same eye-popping log of pasta sheets, parmigiano-reggiano cream, Bolognese sauce and Pugliese tomato marinara, but with a crispy, caramelized crust reminiscent of Detroit pizza. The dessert not to miss is an old Babbo classic — saffron panna cotta with rosemary-soaked raisins.  

If you still have trouble forgetting Batali’s Babbo, the crowd will do the trick. I saw zero boldfaces or fashionistas on my visits. Nobody seems to be there for people-watching or preening, but only for joyful eating, free of Batali’s pesky ghost.