Amarone — Restaurant in New York

The Most Overdue Review Ever

Back in February, I found myself in New York visiting with friends from Google+ and touring the Google offices. I spent some time with my cousin in Brooklyn and even met up with a great friend from Nashville in Manhattan while I was there.

A trip to New York would never be complete without checking out some of the incredible restaurants and bars. New York truly offers more variety and options than any city in the United States in terms of food and beverage. The challenge with that is finding something good.

Sure, there are restaurants that claim to be the “best in the city” the “most authentic” and the “original.” The only way you can test those claims is to eat there yourself.

Amarone doesn’t claim to be any of those things. Its presence is humble. If you were to find it on Facebook, you would notice it is simply an “Italian Restaurant.” However, once you have the opportunity to dine inside, you realize is it much much more than just another Italian restaurant.

While in New York, my friend, and one of the manager’s at Amarone, offered me the opportunity to tour several parts of their menu and wine collection. Amarone (Italian for the Great Bitter) is actually a process of making wine with dried grapes, a delicious treat.

From the moment we walked in the door, my cousin and I were treated with incredible hospitality. We were immediately sat at a table in the back of the dining room nestled in bookcases filled with interesting wines. As the waiter came to the table to introduce himself, I felt like a mafia don in Little Italy.

We started with a glass of Amarone and the waiter was thorough in explaining the process in which the wine is made and what differentiates it from other grapes and winemaking techniques. Each glass was carefully rinsed with a small pour of bottle and then discarded and filled with fresh wine. The waiter explained that the rinsing of the glass ensured that there would be no residual flavor from the water used to clean the glass.

As we tasted the first wine, the restaurant’s owner came to greet us and welcomed us as though we were guests in his home. He explained the menu, what items were the best and what he would like us to try.

Within minutes, we had our first course (an antipasto) brought to the table, accompanied by another varietal of wine. As we noshed and talked with the owner we learned more and more about the cuisine and wine that accompanied it.

As the courses continued, I felt as though I was Alice in Wonderland, pondering how deep the rabbit hole of delicious cuisine would go. As of course, all good things must come to an end, we finished with our desserts and one more glass of Amarone. Stuffed with delicious food and tasty wine, we each enjoyed an espresso and thanked the owner and my friend for the incredible adventure and experience.

If you are in New York, want to try something new, incredible and humble, visit Amarone. It’s unassuming, not at all pretentious and an overall incredible experience. The food is delicious, the wine is amazing and the staff is the most since I have encountered.

Non bisogna fare le...

This might very well be the worst restaurant in Manhattan.

First let me say that the staff was very friendly. They were limited in their abilities, but friendly. They did their best to be professional.

The bad visit started with the cocktail I ordered while I was reviewing the menu. I asked the waiter for SoCo and lime; He had no idea what it was. I thought he didn't understand me so I repeated it. He asked me what that was. I told him it was a cocktail. Well, the bartender didn't know what it was either. Clearly it was something that they looked up on the internet to find out how to make and it was horrible. I don't think I could have ordered a simpler cocktail. I took two sips and told the waiter I couldn't drink it. He did have the bartender adjust it for me but the damage was already done. It was just a badly prepared drink.

Then the nightmare went on with my off the menu appetizer; Carpaccio with arugula and shaved Parmesan. The carpaccio was slimy and weird. Not spoiled slimy but perhaps just bad beef slimy? I'm not sure what was wrong with it but I scraped it all to the side and ate the arugula and cheese. At that point I dropped my napkin and asked the runner/busboy for a replacement. That never happened. Then I asked the waiter... Twice. Mind you, there were all of three tables in the entire restaurant. Every time I turned around the waiter was sitting at the bar on his phone.

The nightmare continued when I received my main course which was one of the days specials. Bronzini piccata. The presentation was phenomenal. And that's where the good ended. I put one piece of fish in my mouth and it was so lemony that it actually made me shudder from the pucker (and I love lemon). That was when I discovered the bread basket (very good, by the way). I needed it to absorb some of the lemon that this fish was drowning in. It wasn't so much that it was a lot of sauce I think the vinegar in the capers added to the lemony bite. It was just very overpowering. So I tried the potatoes and the spinach as kind of a deflector. Everything was covered in the same overpowering lemony sauce. The consistency of the sauce was excellent and the consistency of the fish was wonderful but the lemon / vinegar flavor was way too overpowering.

The best part of my meal was the bread and the edible flower. I enjoyed them immensely. The best part of this restaurant is its location. You have many other places near by to spend $80 on lunch and the food might actually be edible.

And the pièce de résistance; the bathroom was disgusting. Luckily they had two, so I left the first one for the moderately clean second one.

Do yourself a favor and skip this place...

Let me start by saying I rarely leave reviews (good or bad). We had a 5:00 reservation on Friday night and were one of the first tables in the place. There were lots of employees wandering around but we weren’t visited by anyone for at least 10 minutes. That happens….I get it. However, what I noticed throughout the night is that most of the employees were bussers/backwaiters and couldn’t actually take an order. The main waiter seems to be the manager. He was nice but had way too many tables to manage for it to be a good experience. Everyone seemed to be looking around for service. Not good.

All of that could be forgiven if the food was good. I say this as someone who eats out several times a week. After 30 minutes of waiting, I’ve never had worse food in my life. My kids ordered spaghetti and it was inedible. I tried it and it tasted like it was in a microwave for 2 minutes too long. I’ve never had crispy spaghetti. I only say that because I watched an employee come through the main dining room with a stack of store bought pasta dishes from a market nearby. I was floored. Who knows, maybe it was for them after their shift. It’s what I saw though.

My wife had GF pasta primavera and it made my kids meal look like a Michelin star dinner. It was horrendous. You’re probably thinking….this guy and his high maintenance GF wife are insufferable. I can assure you we’re just normal, reasonable people who eat out a ton. It was like eating bits of flavorless wood. I’ve eaten a lot of GF meals in my life and realize it’s not always the best. This was not that. This meal should have never made it to a plate in any restaurant.

My seafood risotto was mediocre at best but was definitely the star at our table. I could have gotten the same thing from the frozen food aisle though.

We couldn’t help but laugh at the entire situation. Food was going back left and right around us and we were trying to wrap our brains around the disparity between the good reviews and our experience. Maybeww it recently changed ownership? Maybe they just had an off night? I don’t know. There are a million other places I would go before giving this another shot...