Cervo's — Restaurant in New York

Overall, our experience was good. Some things I think could have been better but certainly worth having done, especially for a place with such hype.

The menu is a bit limited and in looking at the pictures on Yelp, it seems there are some dishes that are much more popular.

Crispy shrimp heads: This was seemingly a "must". Six in total, which was a nice surprise. Beautifully crispy and quite delicious without being overly flavored/salty. However, I think this dish needs a dipping sauce mostly because the texture can be a bit much to chew, i.e. a bit on the dryer side.

Pea shoots w/ watercress & walnuts: Delicious dressing and overall a lovely choice in the midst of some heavier other options. A bit difficult to eat, though, as the leaves are just quite large so any scoop you take ends up taking up a lot of food. And I honestly didn't even notice that there were walnuts present until I got to the bottom. They were great, but really should have been mixed into the salad a bit more.

Louisiana white prawns: It feels like every review included pics of these, so this was a must. And I get why. So plump, so well seasoned. Easy enough to peel the shell off to suck the shrimp out of the tails. I will say, I wish I had requested a new napkin following this dish and it can be a bit messy-especially for a restaurant like this. Best dish of the night.

Cockles w/ vinho verde: I didn't really care about the cockles-they were fine. But the sauce was divine. We ordered sourdough for really no reason and were a bit bummed when it didn't come with butter. Out of all the dishes we got, this was the only one with a sauce that was nice to dip the bread in (we thought the prawn sauce would be, as well, but it really wasn't).

Half chicken piri piri: A really solid portion of chicken. The skin was perfectly crispy in an ever so slight layer. The piri piri sauce was very nice- a surprising spicy kick. Glad that the previous dishware was cleared before this came out- a nice touch. The fries were great: thinly cut and perfectly crispy with a (I think) mayo/aioli dipping sauce flavored in a way I'm not even sure of.

Got 2 chilled red wines and we loved them both. Tons of chilled red wine options which you don't see so often and we appreciate.

The biggest drawback for the place, though, is the setup. It's incredibly packed with very small tables which is tough when the menu is mostly small plates. When we got there, a table of six within ~1 foot of us was enjoying a very loud birthday celebration and when we left, a new table of 8 maybe 1 foot 2 inches away was starting theirs. Looking around, it seems like all the tables were this way and I constantly felt like we were in someone's way. Definitely not an intimate night but would probably be difficult for a group (as it's a lot of small plates) so I'm not sure really what the ultimate vibe...

I always thought that you could judge the cooking quality by its smell and it smells amazing here. The flavors are intense and food very tasty. I ordered two seafood dishes and while very good were floating on a pool of oil so a bit too greasy than I wud like it. My next dish is the chicken which was not tender and overcooked. It tasted like they put a lot of hot sauce so that was a miss. Flan was eh and not special at all. Their Old Fashioned is very good and not too sweet like some bad ones I had. But what is this? An Old Fashioned with tiny ice cubes instead of one big one? Totally unacceptable. Overall, while food tastes promising, given their large crowds and fully booked at opening, the food feels a bit overrated to me.

Good or ok food is just part of equation. Fine dining is about the full experience. I did not like the location which is sketchy and lots of homeless persons outside asking me for money.

The place is very small and mostly bar seating with very uncomfortable wooden stools with no back rests. The bar doesn’t even have a proper foot rail. They also tried to pack as many patrons as possible to maximize the bucks so you are literally elbow to elbow with everyone which makes for some excruciatingly uncomfortable dining. The woman sitting to my right kept hitting me with her elbow and you wud think after once or twice she stops but she just kept on doing it like I am a total nobody. I refrained from saying anything because that will make my dining situation worse with all the tension. Also, why do I need to say anything when this is clearly management’s fault for putting profits above customers’ comfort? Tables may be a bit better but no chance of that happening for solo dining. But I wholeheartedly refuse to be treated like packed sardines in any restaurant no matter how amazing their cooking is.

I made a small request on my reservation to sit next to the wall at the bar to at least have one less elbow hitting me and this was not during prime hours when customers were already seated but at opening time when bar was completely empty. I was their first customer waiting outside for 20 mins until they open at 5:30 pm. But the hostess denied my request to sit next to the wall despite my prior notice on Resy indicating such request and gave me some BS reason that the configuration at the bar does not allow it but my seat was literally sandwiched between two couples so what difference does it make if those couples were seated together and I dine in my corner? Absolutely, no difference except I can dine in peace. I refrained from arguing with her because I figured if she treats customers like total morons, why wud I...

The food was excellent. We started with the crispy shrimp heads and crab croquetas, and then for mains, my wife had the seabream and I had the fried skate wing. Every bite was wonderful. (I literally began salivating just thinking about it!) The staff were also excellent: every one of them - be they taking an order, guiding you to the bathroom, or dropping off food and drinks - made a warm and genuine personal connection. A model of what service should be like in 2024 NYC. If it weren't for the uncomfortable seating, I would have easily given a 5-star ranking. We sat on stools at one of the tables across from the bar/kitchen. While sitting on backless stools may be OK for a bar, I would prefer something more comfortable for a proper meal. The bigger problem was the close proximity of the tables against this wall. A larger man was sitting behind my wife and she was shoved close to the table for the entire time (honestly, the gent himself looked quite uncomfortable as well). I was literally leaning back-to-back against the stranger behind me but that felt weird, so I ended up pushed up against the table, slightly bent over for most of the meal. Toward the end, I had a sensation in my stomach that perhaps I wasn't sitting in the best position for digestion. Our meal completed, we were anxious to stand up, stretch, and leave (would have liked another round of drinks but couldn't bear it any longer). But maybe that's the idea?: they're not going to have a lack of guests so perhaps they prefer that diners are uncomfortable, so they don't stick around and the table frees up quickly (this was my wife's - a restaurant worker's - guess). Could just be the cold hard business decision: squeeze in one more 2-top and you can make an additional $500-$800/night. SO, if you're a making reservations for a party of two, this is an odd instance where I'd recommend getting seats at the bar: you'll still need to sit on stools but at least you'll have a bit more room behind you and only have to deal with an occasional guest or server brushing against you. (Note: parties of 3 or more get sat at...