Becco — Restaurant in New York

I was excited to try Becco. My young daughters all watch MasterChef. Although Joe Bastianich was not their favorite judge, they enjoyed it when Lidia came on the show with Joe and I thought it would be a neat experience. I was a New Yorker for 30 yrs before I moved to the Philly area - was in town to see my mom and brother. Experience started off OK, but I felt that the waiter initially was standoffish. Appetizers were fine. Then there was this huge gap of at least 3O min between the end of appetizers and our entrees. I went to the manager to complain - she offered to comp our appetizers. The entrees then came, but I guess the rest of the staff was not happy with my complaining - I got various stare-downs from the other wait staff, while clearing dishes they were unnecessarily close to us almost pushing us out of the way so they could clear the plates - splashing water and sauce unnecessarily on the tablecloth and close to our clothes. I got the pasta tasting and my dish was the only one there for a few minutes so I shared some pasta with my 9 yr old daughter (EVERYONE at the table ordered a meal, including all three kids) - a waiter came over and actually told me that I wasn't supposed to share my pastas with anyone else - this is nowhere on the menu, but my kid was hungry for food so somehow this waiter is saying I shouldn't feed her. I didn't want to stay any longer and so I just asked for the check after entrees finished. It came and I paid and our party of 7 were getting ready to leave. Then this man, that I later learn was just the "beverage manager", says that he is bringing out multiple dessert plates. I said it wasn't necessary and that we were ready to leave - he said that they were coming and that we might as well stay and eat them - in a quite rude and abrupt tone. Some of my kids were excited and my mom and brother were curious, so we stayed. They tried some of the desserts - I didn't. One of my daughters had a nut allergy that I told the waiter earlier - the "beverage manager" didn't seem to say anything about the desserts having nuts or not - he likely didn't know if the desserts were safe or not. We leave the restaurant, but my wife wants to talk with the manager so she asks all of us to wait outside. The conversation ended with the manager asking her to step outside and the manager escalating the conversation into a shouting match.

The food I thought was good - and when this happened, I went and stood by my wife and told the "beverage manager" that. The service provided was subpar. The staff was not attentive, careless with the dishes, disinterested in providing a good experience and unapologetic in how they treat their customers. I got better service at Carmine's last year and Fulton at South Street Seaport yesterday. There also should never be a need to escalate to the point between customer and restaurant staff where the restaurant staff is yelling at a customer in front of a roomful of diners - shows no restraint and shows the public that the restaurant thinks it is better than the customers that support it.

The "beverage manager" also told us to never come back to his restaurant again. I don't think me and my family will have any problem doing just that. I would rather enjoy my time and rather spend my money at a place that can provide good food and an enjoyable dining experience.

I have read some of the 1-2 star reviews - my review above is not too far from their experiences. I wish I could have had the 4-5 star experiences. My surprise is that there are so many of them.

If you want to go to a small-batch Italian restaurant that couples above average food with substandard service, this would be the place for you. Otherwise, especially in a city like New York, you should be able to find at least 100 Italian restaurants that would better...

Heading to a Broadway show and if you are doing New York City, you need to do New York with a nice renowned chef owned restaurant!

I found this restaurant during a search that was near the theatre I was attending for a Broadway Show. I then found out it is a Lidia Bastianich restaurant. She is my mom’s favorite so I was thrilled to find this out. When I told my mom that, her immediate response was, “Oh wow! It must be good!”

I’m sorry to say, we were not pleased. The restaurant is huge! Very nice atmosphere and if I was grading the service alone it would be five stars. Portion sizes, again five stars. You know, when you go to a chef renowned restaurant you basically get these small portions and leave the restaurant still hungry, well not here.

With that being said, the food isn’t that good. You are given black and green olives, bread with bread sticks basket with this delicious white bean dip with garlic and olive oil. They serve 3 types of pasta that change daily. It’s a sampler meal and unlimited and comes with Caesar Salad or Antipasti Salad. I had the Caesar Salad. The pasta tonight was a Spaghetti Alla Chitarra with Tomato & Fresh Basil, Mezzi Rigatoni with Broccoli and Olive Oil, and Oxtail Ravioli with Brown Butter. My mom, had the Peperoni Ripieni which is Cubanelle peppers stuffed with beef, pork, & veal braised in tomato sauce, with mezzi rigatoni & Grana Padano.

The spaghetti sauce was so spicy, I could barely eat it. I’m allergic to mushrooms, so I couldn’t have the oxtail ravioli. The Mezzi rigatoni with broccoli and olive oil was good, but I was served with barely any broccoli. All pasta was very undone, more undone than just Al dente. People a table away from us complained about the pasta and spicy sauce as well. The Peperoni Ripieni was good but the sauce was spicy.

Our appetizer was one of the best parts! Burrata alla Becco which is Burrata served on top of grilled Tuscan bread & sautéed broccoli rabe tops, with black Hawaiian sea salt. This was delicious! The bread was soft and so flavorful! It complimented the Burrata well.

Dessert was the Panna Cotta and Ricottina. The Panna Cotta was delicious! The Ricottina was a bit dry, rather disappointing. I love real Italian Cheesecake and it’s hard to find. I was so looking forward to this and it was so dry. I was very disappointed. I should have gone for the Panna Cotta.

There is a secret dessert menu item which is a sampler platter for $9 a person (cheaper than the regular desserts). It came with a decent size sample of the brownie, cheesecake, Panna Cotta and sorbet.

Unfortunately, we were not pleased with the quality or taste of the food. Service was incredible! Attentive, friendly and helpful. If only the food would have been better!

There are a lot better and more reasonable restaurants in the area. I would definitely pass. Maybe have appetizers, but...

What an interesting experience (this is a nice way to put it). My spouse and I arrived very impressed with the restaurant. We sat and bread/crackers, white bean dip and olives arrived at the table. We ordered a bottle of wine and a side of marinara to dip in with the bread. We ordered the Veal Chop, medium, and my spouse wanted a side of pasta, not realizing he was able to eat all three pastas that were available (not bad). Our server specified that I was not allowed to eat the pasta that the add-on was meant for one person, he was very stern about it thinking I wanted the pasta but in fact I didn’t 🤣 but besides the fact. The veal chop cakes with garlic mashed potatoes and greens. I really wanted risotto they had on another dish but was informed I’m not allowed to substitute so I asked if I can order a side of the risotto but was not allowed to. So my risotto was the out the window. Veal chop comes out and it is medium well. I had two bites and my spouse had two bites. He looked at me and said what’s wrong and I’m like it’s not medium it’s over cooked. It was dim in there, not too dim but I was going to suck it up bit he said no let’s call over the server and see if they can cook one the way we ordered. Server came over went to the chef and told us the chef said he cooked it medium that’s our medium. We call manger over, he reassured that’s not medium came back and told us the chef will not re cook the veal because it’s expensive. I was very upset at the point because I felt stupid, they made a customer feel stupid and my spouse began to handle the situation because he knew how upset I was. He offered another meal but I am pretty sure I cut him off and said no( I don’t remember him offering another meal but my spouse said he did, that’s how upset I was) he offered dessert. I didn’t want dessert. So he said the only thing he can do it take off the pasta and give us a 25% food discount. At that point it wasn’t about the money I just wanted something I ordered cooked correctly. My spouse asked another server for the chef to come out he said the chef isn’t here. So now we are just confused because the manager kept going back and forth with a “chef” who was apparently not there?? My spouse was not happy he got up found another manager(Joe) explained the situation and needless to say he was embarrassed how we were treated, and took care of us. We were only charged for the bottle of wine, but the point wasn’t to get reimbursed, it was the fact that I couldn’t have my meal the way I wanted it and how embarrassed I felt in that restaurant. We made it a point to take all the left overs and throw it away afterwards because of how unfair everything was. The only reason I’m giving this 1 star is because of Joe. He at least gave us reassurance that we should not have been...