Da Marino NYC — Restaurant in New York

I used to like “Italian” food. At least I thought I did. Big family night? Go to the Olive Garden. Sigh. (Living in Southern California will do that). Then I spent two years of my Navy career working in Naples, Italy. Now when my family says they want Italian food, and my Daughter says “let’s go to Olive Garden,” I just shake my head. We have actually found a few very good Italian restaurants in the Southern California area, but none are as good as Rome or Florence, or Da Marino.

We recently helped our son move to NYC, and while there, was referred to Da Marino by a friend who had been there several times.

Now, when my wife says she wants Italian food, I almost start looking at tickets to JFK. It’s THAT good.

I have had the best food Italy has to offer, from Florence to Rome to Naples to the Amalfi Coast. Our visit to Da Marino put us in the heart of Italy (the country with the best food on the planet), and they met the standard.

Conveniently located a block from Times Square and in the heart of the Theatre District, perfect for a pre-Broadway meal. The owner Craig is also a retired Navy veteran, so we had some commonality there.

Frequent guests to the restaurant are a veritable who’s who of NYC and Hollywood, with Martin Scorcese and Robert De Niro (among others) known to dine there, and countless other signed photographs from notable patrons adorn in the walls. If Scorcese and De Niro find Da Marino to be up to the standard for Italian food, I’d say that’s a ringing endorsement.

Upon entering, we were taken with the old-world look and feel of the decor, and greeted by Tom, the most gregarious and likable Maitre D’ in the Big Apple. The hospitality of the entire staff is exceptional.

There is a full cocktail bar (at which was produced an impeccable martini), there’s a robust wine list (house Chianti was exceptional) and the appetizers were magnificent (Caprese and Calamari). Dinner was beyond compare, we ordered Pappardele Bolognese, Linguini with Clams and Linguini di Mare, which were all amazing. Linguini with clams was the best I have ever had, and I am very particular about that dish.

Live piano music made for a perfect ambiance, and our sever Josh was wonderful.

Dessert was cannoli and tiramisu; I had basically given up on tiramisu outside of Italy, but have now found the one place in the US I can really enjoy it. Light, delicious, …perfect. Tom said the cheesecake is always extremely popular, but we had no room … so we will be back for that.

I rarely if ever write restaurant reviews of this length and detail, but Da Marino was well worth the effort. It was the finest Italian restaurant experience I have enjoyed outside of Italy.

Can’t recommend this wonderful restaurant...

Authentic, very small, Italian restaurante. Piano music was fun and entertaining. Food was just okay. I think you probably needed to be more knowledgeable of real Italian food to really appreciate it. The steps down into the restaurant were dark and frankly dangerous. I really had to stop and step down slowly. I will assume they really clean these off in the winter time. It would not be a good place for anyone with a disability. As far as service, I think we hit them on a really 'off' night. There were so many servers and they seemed very unorganized. Two servers kept wanting to take our drink orders and take our food order. We just hoped they would have worked out amongst themselves as to who our server really was supposed to be. In the end , the server came back and said that their computer was down and asked what we had to eat. We told him and he wrote it down on a piece of paper. He was gone for a very long time and then came back to ask us the same question again. When the bill finally came, he had placed three additional items adding up to an additional $35.00 of food that we did not order. Again, it took him more than a reasonable amount of time to fix. Earlier the servers kept taking away our lentils and olive oil and vinegar despite the fact that we ordered additional bread (which by the way, my friends liked, but the crust was so hard I couldn't not eat it WITHOUT soaking it in the oil first). It was also very loud and crowded. Family members who were related to the owners came in to the corner table and we noticed quite a bit of attention was given to that table, which didn't sit well with us because we were getting such poor service anyways. I would not go back or recommend this restaurant. It did have a good atmosphere, despite tables being so close to each other and was a stone's throw from our hotel. Pricey, but not out of line with other NYC...

I loved Da Marino! We came there, like many others, before a show. We made a reservation and we were seated right away. Strongly recommend making a reservation. The service all night long was excellent.

We had a couple of appetizers, Carpaccio and Burrata. The carpaccio was fantastic, thinly sliced, a bit of olive oil and fantastic parmesan, while the burrata was delicious with some flavorful tomatos.

For the main course, she had the Linguine Carbonara and I had the Chicken Parmesan. I was able to get a taste of the linguine, and I loved it. Its not just a cream sauce like so many may be accustomed, but yolk sauce. It isn't yellow doesn't take like egg yolk (don't worry). I(t was very flavorful, not heavy, and with pancetta, carmelized onions, it was great. The chicken parm, fantastic. Plenty of gravy (sauce), chicken was cooked perfectly, and my side of pasta was also delicious.

I was taking my significant birthday out for dinner, and the GM made it memorable, I can't believe I didn't ask for his name. He was great when we go there, I had noted it was her birthday on the reservation, and they were ready and gave us a great table. Come desert, not only did they provide her with a delicious pieces of NY Cheesecake (which was perfect, not too dense, not to "fluffy"). The GM and some of the staff came over to sing Happy Birthday to Elaine (he had a microphone), and we found the entire restaurant singing. It was great. Sometimes, New Yorkers get a bad rap! Everyone was great, the people next to us were really nice too. You can guarantee, when I go back to New York for a show, or just to hang in the city, I am going back!!

Again, a special thanks to the GM!! I made sure to thank him before we left, told him how much we appreciated everything. This is a great restaurant to have dinner at, whether you go to a show or if you're just spending some...