La Bocca Ristorante & Vineria — Restaurant in City of White Plains

I am giving 3 stars because of the service... our waiter made us feel very uncomfortable. We were from out of town and we happened to see the restaurant so we went over to check it out... we only seen 2 couples inside so we were gonna leave but then we looked it up. We seen it had great reviews (almost 5 stars with over 200 reviews) so we decided to check it out. But after we sat down and we were offered sparkling water etc and we opted not to have any. Our waiter seemed annoyed then asked if we wanted anything to drink (alcohol)... we don’t drink plus we had a long ride home 1 hour+ so we were looking at menu and we were asked a few times about appetizers (we don’t generally get appetizers) - it’s not that we are being cheap we are just very basic and get full easily off our dinner. Well going forward the waiter began to make us feel very uncomfortable...so anyway onto the food!

So coming from a very authentic Italian family from Italy I’m very picky about food, I must say the food was excellent!! The bread with the pepper and onions they give you for the table was fabulous... and my entree was very flavorful and I felt as though it was a pretty good portion. I feel as though the pricing was standard for most Italian restaurants in NY. So I give the food 5 stars... since I’m not from the area I don’t know when I would be back but I would return BUT I would hope never to get that waiter again as he made me feel extremely uncomfortable as though we were wasting his time... not to mention he was only worried about watching the TV, we sat at table with our leftover food in front of us for a very long time...it was obvious we were done. I had to ask the bust-boy for boxes and then had to wait an additional 10 minutes+ as I watched the waiter wander around and stand behind bar to watch TV... finally we acted as if we were putting our coats on and he ran over!! We still left him a 20% tip because that’s the right thing but if he was more attentive and made us feel more welcome we would have left him more!!

So overall..... the service really was NOT good! But the food was great- I can’t speak for the whole menu but I enjoyed my meal and I am a extremely picky eater!

Sorry for the long review, I don’t usually leave reviews unless the service isn’t great! PS- I think his name was Antonio... he acts as if he’s better than you! It could make you lose your...

Service was great. The food was mid to unexceptional. I don't know why people are complaining about the prices. The prices seem pretty comparable to other places like this. Perhaps those complaints are because the value is not there.

My server/bartender gave good service.

The reason for 2 stars which would have been one if not for service is the hygiene. It's...pretty gross. The bartender has the fancy fake nails and she was clicking on her order screen, tapping to text on her phone and also grabbing lemons, lines and espresso beans for drinks. Long nails are NOT sanitary especially fake ones and I say this as someone who has naturally long nails and am an obsessive hand AND fingernail washer. I work in healthcare and the reason nurses and others taking care of patients must keep short nails is because of instances where dangerous bacteria was spread causing additional illness all from their nails! Imagining the bacteria and potential viruses being spread because she is using hands and nails for items going into drinks really disgusted me. Worse though? Far worse. I observed a server at the bar taking some obviously used wine glasses because at least one had lip gloss print and pouring hot water between them. He then would take a couple of the glasses and use the hot spray from the coffee machine on it. I'm pretty sure restaurants have a rule about how glasses should be cleaned. No sanitizer. No steam machine. One of the glasses with the lip print he was wiping with a table dinner napkin. The server notices after he's wiping with this napkin and goes over to coffee machine, uses the hot nozzle and then proceeds with the same dirty dinner napkin that likely has gloss on it to wipe out wine glass. I visibly showed the horror on my face and I could not get out there fast enough.

It is so dangerous to people's health to be this casual about basic sanitation. Anyone eating here really should be cautious. They have a great tiramasu but I would never eat here again. The hygiene standards make it...

We came here to celebrate my daughter’s college graduation, a very special day for our family. I want to start by saying our waiter was absolutely wonderful. He was professional, kind, and attentive throughout the entire meal. None of the issues we experienced were his fault.

Unfortunately, the food was extremely disappointing. My daughter ordered the lobster tails over linguini, but the lobster was so overcooked it was inedible. She sent it back and opted for penne alla vodka instead, which was just okay. I ordered a steak that was supposed to come with an arugula salad, but it arrived with potatoes instead, and the steak itself was terribly overcooked. The chicken parm was also bland and tough, and the seafood in the fra diavolo was rubbery and clearly overcooked. The carbonara had a visible puddle of oil sitting at the bottom of the plate.

To add to it, I ordered a Sprite and watched as it was poured from a 7 Up bottle; not even from a soda gun. It felt off for a place at this price point.

We decided to stay and make the best of it because our waiter was doing a great job, and we didn’t want to ruin the mood or our daughter’s graduation photos. But for the quality of the food, it simply wasn’t worth the price. We truly should’ve left after the first few bites. I hope the restaurant can take this as constructive feedback—the front-of-house staff deserves better support from...