Casino — Restaurant in New York

Synopsis: Casino, in the Lower East Side, is one of the best restaurants I have ever been to in my life, and I am in my 50s and have eaten in restaurants around the world. I live in the SF Bay Area and ate at this restaurant 4 nights in a row (arrived every night after 10pm) with my 21-year-old son, Zach, while we were visiting Manhattan from 1/3-1/9 2023. It was THAT delicious. The owner is Aisa Shelley and the chef/wizard is Ken Addington. I think a Michelin star is coming their way.

Details: We were browsing for a late-night dinner spot on a Wednesday after a show and saw 3 5-star reviews for this brand new restaurant (opened December 13, 2023). Since the kitchen is open until 11:15pm, we decided to give it a try. The restaurant's atmosphere is like a small, plush 1960s supper club, and you enter through a narrow, but well-appointed bar. When the restaurant is full, it can be very loud so be prepared.

The staff was amazingly thoughtful, friendly and professional. However, bringing alcoholic beverages to the table could have been handled better. One evening they didn't bring our bottle of wine until half way through our meal. Another evening they left the unopened bottle of wine at our table, and we had to find somebody to open it for us. On our third night, we ordered so much of the menu that they forgot to bring us the duck breast and the crespelle (which was the only mediocre dish on the menu) before the kitchen closed, but they comped us $75.00 off our bill for this faux pas and invited us back for a 4th night, promising to treat us to the two dishes they failed to deliver to us the prior evening so we were roped into a 4th evening of culinary delights.

Every dish we ordered was spot on and, yet, still surprising. Start your dinner with the raw oysters and a cosmo cocktail, which was an amazing combination. Then move on to the Amberjack Crudo, Wood-Fired Prawns and the Charred Florentino (this is literally broccoli with an anchovy bread crumb topping, and I can't tell you how ludicrously delicious it is) and order a bottle of wine. We ordered the Sangiovese at $72.00 (that's the only way to identify the bottle on the menu) 3 nights in a row, which goes perfectly with all the mains. Move on to the Pasta with Clams (looks like any pasta/clam dish, but the flavor of the sauce is fabulous), Lobster Cioppino (the lobster was creamy and perfectly cooked and the red sauce was the tastiest I have ever had!!), Steelhead Trout (my son devoured this dish and just gave me a taste, but also amazing), Tournedos Rossini (the filet mignon was tender and perfectly cooked with toast spread with duck liver pate beneath it served with a black trumpet mushroom sauce that was to die-die for; and don't forget to order the baby carrots with the filet) and the Dry Aged Duck Breast (this was served rare with little skin and not done in the Chinese-style of crispy skin; It was delicious but not my most favorite).

We didn't get to try the $145 t-bone steak or the Whole Roast Turbot for Two, but based on what we did try, these dishes have to be amazing too. FYI, the owner's favorite dish is the T-bone Steak.

They have no dessert menu yet, but we had every single dessert that wasn't just gelato, and they were stunningly fantastic. I can tell you the components of the desserts, but literally I cannot describe how fiendishly amazing the desserts were: Casino's version of butterscotch pudding and the best dessert of all was pistachio and chocolate ice-cream between a light chocolate cookie. The server came by to ask us how we liked the dessert, and I was screaming at him that it was so fantastic but I couldn't describe what I was tasting--literally indescribably fantastic. If you get there late in the evening, tell your server to hold the dessert you want for you because our 4th night there, which was a Saturday, they ran out of all desserts except amaretto cookies and ice-cream.

The price: Without a bottle of wine, we spent $300.00. With the bottle of wine it was $400, including a...

One star is way too generous for this place. If I could give this establishment less than a 0 I would. I want to start this off by saying I understand that this place is new, however, it’s owned by the same hospitality group that owns Primo’s and Mr. Fong’s so I had higher expectations…

Firstly, our reservation was for 8:45, our table wasn’t ready when we arrived (which was fine), however, they advised us it would be a 15-20 minute wait. We weren’t seated until 9:43 (almost an hour past our reservation time). Secondly, there were multiple dishes that they seemingly forgot to bring out/put in orders for that we had to remind them that we ordered. Every time someone ordered a drink it took approximately 20-30 minutes for them to receive their drink. My friend even received her wine in a dangerously chipped glass (see below for evidence). The downstairs bathrooms were disgusting, paper towels thrown all over the floor. It was akin to a gas station bathroom and considering this place has a steak entree on the menu for $145 I don’t think their bathrooms should be as disgusting as they are…

All in all, the food was completely average - certainly not good enough to make up for the offensively bad service. Everything came out lukewarm except the...

The vibe of the restaurant, and most of the staff, were exceptional and absolutely tons of fun. I really liked the ambiance, theme, the aesthetics; and was welcomed into and thanked at the end in a really wonderful way.

HOWEVER, while most of the food and drink was quite good, the entree -- we had the chicken -- was absolutely cold and undercooked. In fact, we had to pick around most of it because of how pink it was, and I even had a bit of a stomach ache after. This was pretty unacceptable. The waitress did not ask how our food was.. putting us in the uncomfortable position of telling her this fact. We weren't in the mood to bring this up, especially as we were pretty full from multiple starters etc, and our waitress was rather curt, so we cut our losses and didn't say anything at the time. Would have liked to see the staff be more proactive about asking how the food was; as some guests like me always prefer not to raise this unless necessary. And would have liked to see some more effort going into a $30+...