Bacaro — Restaurant in New York

Bacaro has the potential to be the go-to Italian restaurant on my list on this side of the city, but the food falls a bit short. Echoing what everyone else has said, the atmosphere is brilliant, whether it's for a date night, group event, or whatever else. The downstairs "dungeon" is fantastic and the bigger tables are in their own little caverns.

The service is fine - it just takes some warming up to get the conversation going, otherwise yeah, I can tell some people might feel a little put off. The service is also fairly slow, but honestly in this environment of a restaurant you really shouldn't be rushing anyways.

As far as the food goes, I ordered the pork shank for my main. The portion is definitely plentiful, however it wasn't a particularly "moriesh" dish. It was tender enough but I felt like it wasn't really braised in anything flavorful. There is a lot of fat on the cut which was fine by me (because that's the only thing that gave it flavor) but I can see why others wouldn't be too excited if they aren't comfortable eating the fat. The polenta it was served on was fine but there were only two or three little tomatoes - I wish there were 3-4x as many to help cut down the richness of the fat.

The appetizers really weren't anything to write home about. The mozzarella and tomato dish was very simple and wasn't served with any olive oil or seasoning so you're left to your own devices there. The fried calamari was just spongy batter with hardly any seafood. The meatballs did actually taste quite good but as others have pointed out, they are very, very small and it really isn't worth sharing them.

The drink menu is solid and prices for both cocktails and wine are good, although some of the others felt their mixed cocktails on the rocks were just fine, so I'd suggest sticking with the wine or spirit-forward ones

I'll definitely look forward to coming back down the road, trying some pasta and seeing if anything has changed - I just hope they don't get complacent and rely on the ambiance to continue...

Complaint Letter to party planner: I am writing to let you know how disappointed we were with the overall experience at Bacaro last saturday 7/17/2021. This was a repeat of a celebration we had there about 4 years ago. What a difference time makes! While the food was good, the service was poor and unfocused. There really is no excuse for this. It started with your confusing text message saying we had only 90 minutes at the table (incorrect). I found a hostess to confirm that we indeed had more time as a special party. Our table was only partially set (five sets of cutlery instead of seven). The appetizers came out and dropped on a very crowded table with no explanation or warmth. Plates were cleared and as the last main came out (again just dropped on table), we still did not have clean plates to eat. As the food was cooling, plates finally came. Coffee was also served with no spoons, cream and sugar on table.

I do not blame Ethan, our server. He was clearly in over his head and doing the best he could. I blame you, Ana, and the management at Bacaro. This special event was know and planned. I expected more from a $1000 meal. You knew the number of people in our party in advance. We were a special event in a private room and expected to be treated as such. It is amazing how these cumulative serving errors and inattention colored the overall experience despite the adequate food.

After complaining to Manager, she said they were short on staff and even suggested if I wanted to work there due to that issue, completely inappropriate and rude.

I will no longer recommend Bacaro to friends and family and I will certainly no longer book special events here.

Extremely...

We kind of stumbled onto Bacaro wandering along Division St looking for something to eat. On a cold night we wanted something comforting and Italian sounded good. The sub terrain dining area feels like a cozy wine vault and softly lit candle light but still bright enough to read the menu. We had an early dinner so the choice of tables was our to chose. It filled up a bit late as dinner time came.

Our server was friendly and recited the daily specials. The food came out at a reasonable time not too long and not too quickly. They seem to like their polenta there. I guess nothing says Italian like polenta? We started with the Insalata di Granchio over you guessed it polenta. The crab was delicate and fresh as the salad. The polenta was more of a congealed mush but wasn’t bad. The beet tips sautéed with garlic was a good accompany with the whole wheat pasta in rabbit ragu and the beef shank on top of a creamy polenta! While I don’t remember if the whole wheat pasta was housemade or not but it was cooked al dente. The rabbit ragu was well seasoned. The beef shank was tender and meat fall of the bone. The polenta was nice and creamy. I can’t imagine who many stick of butter went into this but I just won’t think about it.

Bacaro was a good dinner in a quite setting. The service was good and out water always filled when needed. It would be a good date dinner night with food that is...