Joy J.
Yelp
Clear and simple: this place is quantity over quality.
This is a family owned restaurant that's in a two-story family house. Deco was warm and welcoming, with different dining rooms decorated in different styles. Reminded me of going to an Italian grandma's house. Plate setting was beautiful.
We were seated on the second floor and was the first table to arrive. We were told the tables were originally put together for larger parties, but were separated for Valentine's Day celebrations. The waiter warmly welcomed us and helped us opened our BYOB bottle of wine, and poured for us. Plate of olives and glasses of water were already on the table when we arrived.
The meal started promptly at 7:30. First plate was a small, palm-sized dough with a thin spread of tomato sauce and sprinkles of cheese. The dough was meh, but the tomato sauce was great. Next followed the stuffed peppers, which my fiancé liked, but I thought it was way too salty, and the stuffing lacked depth. Homemade potato chips followed, the spicy peppers on top were a nice garnish, but the chips might as well been swimming in a pool of oil because that's what they tasted like. Don't get me wrong, I have a deep love for all things potatoes, but this was way too oily. Next came polenta with sausage. This was one of my favorites, but it was quite heavy. Very creamy. Fried eggplant with cheese followed - eggplant was so overfried that it had lost its flavor, and the cheese carried the dish.
Meatballs were next - meatballs themselves were quite good, but the bread that came with was literally just white sliced bread. Not toasted, not buttered/oiled, no garlic, nada. Eating it with the meatballs was okay though because the meatballs were flavorful. My absolute favorite was the mussels - baked with lots and lots of garlic on there. But I liked this the most probably for the wrong reason: it reminded me of the Hong Kong style garlic steamed scallops. This was also probably one of the least oily dishes.
Manicotti baked pasta came next. I've actually never had manicotti before, so I feel like I'm not a good judge of this, but I could tell at the very least that the pasta was way too soft. There's no bite to it and everything was kind of mushy. Asparagus creamy penne came out at the same time - these honestly tasted like something I'd whip up at home myself for a quick dinner. Nothing special.
The waiter encouraged a break to walk around the house at this point. We walked around and looked at all the rooms, read some reviews framed on walls.
Next came the main course. First came the celery pepper shrimp salad in a cocktail glass. The celery and shrimp tasted fine and refreshing, but suddenly, super pickled sour pepper! It was just way too overpowering and vinegary to serve in large pieces, and there were big pieces in there. I couldn't quite swallow it, and I love sour foods. Another salad came next - arugula garlic bread salad. Was it garlic bread? If it was, I couldn't taste it. The bread was very crunchy though, and I enjoyed it. A lemon sorbet was served after this to I assume cleanse the palette. Much needed.
Main meat dish came next, and it was horrific. The stuffed chicken roll-up was horribly dry. So dry that I refused to eat a second piece. I mean, the edges were really as dry as cardboard. This was hands down the worst dish of the meal. Squash and mashed potatoes came with the chicken, the squash was phenomenal. If I wasn't stuffed already I'd have killed it.
Finally, dessert. Molten chocolate cake with homemade vanilla ice cream. I ate all of it, and it was good, but I didn't get a molten center at all, and the cake over all tasted "wet". The ice cream was great, this is coming from someone who isn't a vanilla person.
You think you're done? No. You get a shot of limoncello, a pair of cream puffs, coffee or tea or espresso, and biscotti and lemon cookies.
We got around 20 plates of food, to sum that up for you. By the end we hated ourselves and we're falling asleep.
In short, come for the welcoming service, the home-like feel, and the quantity of the food. Don't come for the quality of the food. I understand some people love this style of home cooked, heavy Italian food, but if you're used to the New York Italian dining scene, this is probably not for you. At $90 a pop, this was an experience, but an experience I would not come back to.