A Good Egg in the Pudding

Noodle Pudding

38 Henry St. (betw. Cranberry and Middagh Sts.),Brooklyn

718-625-3737

Most people will tell you that the question of restaurant value is a matter of apples and oranges. Or roast squab and phylo pastry. (Or something like that.)

But I believe there is an answer-a New York restaurant that comes manifestly nearest to some platonic ideal of comestible value, a place that is to dining and price what Joan of Arc was to adolescent female infantry volunteers: the most demonstrably accomplished.

What's particularly remarkable about it is that it makes the same dishes that half the Italian bistros in New York do: osso buco with rosemary and shallots, gnocchi in butter, bruschetta with black olives, rosemary-flavored sea-bass, ragout of venison, polenta, spumoni, tiramisu. The menu is remarkably alike to a great many contemporary Tuscan restaurants. The trick isn't novelty.

Noodle Pudding, located between Brooklyn Heights and Dumbo, does noticeably well for a Carter-era price. (OK, Bush I, but still?)

It would seem that like a west Texas DA with a capital indictment in hand, Noodle Pudding is just passionately committed to execution. (There is also, of course, the possibility that the place is-speaking of the Lone Star State-the Enron of bistros, an accounting scandal waiting to happen. But I somehow doubt it.)

The décor, although appealing, is, like the food, less than startlingly original. The walls are painted pale blue and yellow and antique sconces and candelabra abound. (The bathrooms, incidentally, are large, clean and handsomely-tiled.) Candlelit and shadowy, the restaurant is laid out with a series of plain, nearly unfinished wooden refectory tables. The ceilings are a bit too low and the noise level late in the evening can get too high.

But the food is simply terrific. This starts with the bread: classic ciabatta loaves set on top of a cutting board for each table. The salads are simple and excellent. A long-time restaurant stand-by, in fact, is the tomato salad. The homemade gnocchi and angellotti pastas are superb.

I must confess to being reliant on the testimonials of those I have gone with regarding the sublimity of the rabbit as I tend to think hares are for petting. But, if you like to eat Bugs done in an updated Tuscan fashion, this is widely acknowledged to be a house specialty. And most of the fish is also very good and wonderfully fresh, though the sardines may be a bit of a disappointment.

So?and what about the desserts-and that price? Both are more fabulous than the participants in this week's Village Halloween parade.

Incidentally, if you're wondering, the name of the restaurant is said to be taken from a translation of the name of the owner: migliaccio, which means noodle pudding in Italian.