Raj M.
Yelp
A few times a year, I visit my sister in NYC, and the two of us love to explore food/restaurant experiences together. On this occasion, my sister had to work most of the day but was able to meet me for lunch near her office.
She did a quick Yelp search and found Il Tinello to be one of the closest restaurants to her office, but she had never heard of it before. Still, she was intrigued by the extremely high rating (4.9 at time of writing, with 58 reviews). She asked her coworkers if they had been there, but none of them had, nor had they heard of it.
Regardless, we opted to give it a shot, because you don't see restaurants rated this highly (with over 50 reviews) very often. Too good to be true? We were about to find out!
I arrived early and waited in the bar area for my sister to meet me. There were two gentlemen patrons at the bar, and I watched their food arrive--which looked really good. I asked them what they had ordered and they started raving about the cacio e pepe, and the catfish tacos. I took note of these recommendations, and soon after my sister arrived. We were promptly seated in the dining room.
The entire experience was flawless. The restaurant was busy, but our server, out of the corner of his eye, noticed anytime I needed anything during our meal. We ordered the cacio e pepe (made tableside--must try/see!) and the lamb osso buco with saffron risotto--one of the specials of the day. Both of these dishes were absolutely astounding and had so much depth of flavor. The lamb, in particular was moist and juicy but still fell off the bone perfectly. We did not have time for dessert because my sister had to get back to the office, but next time we will definitely plan ahead for it.
On our way out, we met the manager Benny, who was so kind and gracious. We learned this is a newer, second location for a family's longtime esatblishment/original location on W 56th, and Benny has been working tirelessly to make this new location as good, if not better, then the original.
I plan to return here on all my subsequent visits to NYC. This place is the real deal, and you are guaranteed to have an amazing experience. I'm still thinking about this place, two weeks later. Can't wait to return.