Bottega — Restaurant in New York

Sat down and was enjoying a glass of Rose.... When Tony (Manager? / Owner?) came to the table and told me “You have to leave. It’s busy”, and he would not allow me to order anything else. I was stunned. Mind you this is at 5:40pm on Saturday 9/12/20 ... with plenty of open tables, and not one person waiting to be seated. I had been there for about 20 minutes. The kind waiter then promptly brought the check and apologized and said he was just following orders. I asked for the waiter to please ask Tony to come back to the table. When I challenged Tony and said there are so many open tables and how dare he demand I leave and that I have every right to stay... He maintained his same position... when I kept repeating his words back to him “you have to leave, we are busy” the absurdity of his words (especially with so many open tables and nobody waiting to be seated) finally dawned on him. He then tried to suddenly shift the blame onto Covid! What??? He said I should have ordered food. I said “But you demanded that I should leave because you said were busy and you made your waiter give me the check. You did not ask me to order food nor did you allow me to order anything else. In fact you refused to allow me to order. You told me to leave”. He then agreed with me that that was in fact what he had said. Witnessing my complete shock and dissatisfaction (to say the least), he then changed his tune again, feigned kindness and now offered for me to stay and to order whatever I wanted (after I had already signed the check). Clearly he had ruined my experience, and so I had zero incentive to stay there. Who does this? His choice of words and his behavior were absolutely uncalled for, absurd and ridiculous. Deserves zero stars for absurdity, discrimination, bad manners and lack of hospitality. [ The waiter...

Anthony, the great personality welcoming you to Bottega Restaurant at 70th and 2nd, is a maestro of magic when it comes to food and ambience, having created this superb 2nd Avenue gem that we love for its amazing antipasti, creative cocktails and some of the most fabulous specials in the UES restaurant scene. (Check out their superb soups, halibut, veal chops and branzino!) From the minute you stroll into Anthony's welcoming food festival in the well appointed and sleek modern dining room (past the lovely and welcoming patio space which is a favorite for our pup who's treated like a king by the folks who make Bottega one of our favorites!), one is in awe of the walls of wine racks featuring some terrific vintages and hidden jewels from around Italy and the world. From the beautiful bar stocked with the standards as well as some surprising eclectics that allow you to explore your inner mixologist, one feels at home, ready to be pampered, well fed and treated like the friends you've always wanted to be in a place that takes two things more seriously than anything else - it's food and it's clientele. Become part of its family and you won't be disappointed. Bottega is a must do in the Upper East Side for any...

I'm very disappointed by this restaurant. Besides the fact that they cleared our plates before we finished eating, the food was rather bland. The service was horrible as well. The waiters tried to get us to leave even though the restaurant was half empty, and they even told us to hurry up and order. The manager, too, was rude, both to us and his employees. He and his employees made it clear to us that we were not wanted there. Also, they squeezed way too many tables into the restaurant. Though it's a rather big space, they became greedy and put in as many tables in as possible. I kept having my bags kicked over, and there were constantly people shoving between tables. This was an extremely disappointing restaurant. Don't be fooled by the 4 stars this restaurant has, for it's really deserves only 2 stars. We're not going to come back to this restaurant, and we urge all of you to...