The fried calamari were notably tender, and tossed with the sweet-and-spice of hot cherry peppers and dark streaks of balsamic reduction. I had one of my first softshell crabs of the season here and it was spectacularly straightforward, crispy and plump over a fresh succotash of spinach and sweet corn. An excellent pan-roasted breast of duck, meanwhile, came fanned over an earthy mound of lentils beside a sweet slick of reduced port and apricot marmalade, plus some snappy haricots verts that tingled with house-preserved lemon. Even the house salad, tossed in a bright citrus vinaigrette, offered the pleasant bonus of little goat cheese fritters fried to a hot and creamy crunch.
Novità Bistro
Chef Hassan Zanzoul cooks fine if familiar Mediterranean fare. But his Moroccan dishes are a rare treat; he should stick to that road.
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The grilled Cornish game hen was among the duller dishes here, despite its rosemary and lemon marinade and some nice sagey white beans. The house-made porcini ravioli were flavorful, but in their shallot-mushroom cream sauce, they seemed far too heavy for summer. The big bowl of mussels was also fine but something of a bore, with its straight-ahead French-bistro wine broth. Novità's desserts, a spottily burnt creme brulee and a brown butter apple tart, were decent but undistinguished.
The familiar, though, didn't always fall flat. The breaded chicken cutlet with arugula salad was a deftly done take on a Milanese, the tuft of peppery greens crunching fresh against the hot, crisp meat. Those gnocchi were memorably light. A balsamic-glazed halibut special over roasted vegetables was simple but highlighted the quality of the fish, the flaky white meat edged with the sweet dark tang of balsamic.
And Zanzoul's whole fish of the day, a large branzino sauced in a tomatoey cascade of olives and capers, would have done any of the dozen or so other Italian BYOBs within walking distance proud.
And yet - I could have had that fish at a dozen or so other Italian BYOBs. Wouldn't it have been nice if that bass had shown more of a Maghreb mood, perhaps a little charge of tangy charmoula? With so many taste-alike trattorias to compete with nearby, Novità would do well to wear its exotic Moroccan pedigree even more proudly, front and center. That is one good thing, at least, that we don't have enough of yet.
Next Sunday, restaurant critic Craig LaBan visits the Jersey Shore, Part One: Fine Dining. Contact him at 215-854-2682 or claban@phillynews.com.
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