I Sodi — Restaurant in New York

• ARROGANCE, NOT TUSCAN FARE, AT ITS FINEST *

We gave this place a second chance last night, and it was even worse than the first experience. Please allow me to explain:

On the first try we showed up without a reservation, and joined the queue about 20 minutes before they opened. We were able to get in and were offered 2 seats at the bar. The bartender was a bit cold and stand-offish, but we shrugged it off as the drinks were good and so was the food. Until dessert. I ordered the tiramisu, and was presented with: cheesecake. I wish I had taken a photo. I'm Italian and have eaten many versions of tiramisu, but this was literally a mascarpone cheesecake - a microscopically thin layer of sponge beneath 2 inches of thick, flavorless mascarpone cheese. Where were the coffee and liqueur elements? The ethereal texture? They were elusive! I nicely informed the waiter, with a gentle tone and a smile on my face, saying "I'm sorry, but this is a mascarpone cheesecake, not tiramisu."

• He said nothing, abruptly snatched the dish, tossed it in the garbage behind the bar, and proceeded to hand us our check. *

Not a single utterance along the lines of "I'm sorry you were disappointed ... May I offer you something else?" Needless to say, that night, literally and figuratively, left a bad taste in my mouth!

Now, being Italian (and having been to Tuscany twice this year already), I'll admit it IS hard to find good Tuscan food in NYC, and since the pastas were acceptable that first night, we decided to give i Sodi a second chance. We showed up around 6 PM and put our names on the list, leaving our cell phone number with the maitre d. We then headed to one of their sister establishments, Bar Pisellino (Via Carota is the other), where we spent over an hour and consumed 4 drinks, which weren't cheap of course. During that time, we received a text message from i Sodi informing us that our table would be ready "in about 35 minutes" and asked us to reply with a confirmation. We promptly responded "confirmed," and awaited a follow-up text informing us that our table was ready. Well, about 40 minutes later we hadn't received that text, and so we walked back to i Sodi to see how much longer it would be. What happened next? Why I'm so glad you asked!

• We were "greeted" by a CONTENTIOUS, HAUGHTY man, who said, in an annoyed tone "We texted you over half an hour ago and you didn't show!" Perplexed, we politely explained that we misinterpreted the "in about 35 minutes" text as a ballpark estimate, and expected we would receive a final text informing us the table was actually READY. A seemingly understandable interpretation don't you think? Well, upon offering that explanation and inquiring as to why they didn't send a follow-up text we were curtly informed "That is NOT i Sodi's WAY!" *

We walked out.

GET OVER YOURSELVES! You are NOT IMPERVIOUS to customer service. It will catch up with you.

MY ADVICE: Avoid i Sodi, Via Carota, and Bar Pisellino, and patronize establishments that treat their customers like human beings.

Don't believe me? Read the Yelp reviews! And be sure to also consider the filtered reviews, because based on my experience, I certainly believe them to...

Very small little place for Italian flair.

Went in as a group of 4 for an early dinner. Nice service, a bit slow on everything I guess from the short of hands.

Appeitizers: Bread, olive oil, and olives: You pay for the bread, and it is a 4-5 inch diameter bread, to my taste, without proper proofing. The texture is a bit dense without lots of air bubbles/honeycomb texture that I am used to get from an European styled bread. Wouldn't order again if I have a choice. The unpitted olives were quiet nice.

Carciofi Fritti, fried artichoke hearts. Crispy and warm and seasoned correctly. The seasoning is umani, not overly salty. Almost felt like eating crispy brussel sprouts but with artichokes. It is a bit oily but quiet addiciting with the texture.

Bresaola e Stracciatella, aged waguy beef in prosciutto style paired with creamy stracciatell cheese, a cheese that is typically filled in burrata. Very very good. The beef is drizzled with balsamic vinegar/reduction and the stracciatella is drizzled with olive oil.

Entrees: Maltagliati con Coda di Blue, tonight’s one of the three special pastas with oxtail sauce and whole wheat sheet pasta. The sauce is thick and a bit on the saltier side and umani with the mushroom. You can taste the grain texture on the sheet pasta, which hangs onto the sauce pretty good. Nice try but not impressed.

Lasagna Sugo, the meat sauce lasagna that everyone talks about. 24 layers of sauce, ricotta make up to this tower of creamy and tomatoy creation. I refer to this as the “Lady M of Lasagna” for its multi-layering and melt in the mouth texture. There is an extra thick layer of meat sauce on the top and the lasagna tend to tip over if you don't cut it right (like a unbalanced crepe cake almost). HOWEVER, do consume it while it is warm. After sitting on the table for 10 minutes, the lasagna turned cold and meat sauce coagulated a bit, then it was less enjoyable.

Pappadelle Al Limone, the interesting one. The pasta was more “al dente” then “al denta”. It is chewy, which to my friend was a blessing but not to me. The sauce is impressive: very lemony and sharp with pepper.

Dessert: Tiramisu, not the my favorite type of tiramisu. The mascapone is dense, and it is a cheesecake style tiramisu. I am more used to tiramisus made with mascarpone whipped with more cream to give a much more smooth texture. Not sweet (good) and not very alcoholic (not good).

Semifreddo, a frozen hazelnut mousse, but please consider it a hazelnut ice cream. It is topped with salty-sweet toffeed hazelnut bits and it is a blessing. It is not an airy mousse but a more gelato-ish dessert, and it melted very slowly. All four of us liked it. After eating this, tiramisu got no taste almost in comparison (because it is way sweeter).

Generally a good date spot, the line was long when we dined. If you wanna a spot, better take your chances to come early for a bar seat or make...

Well, I gave management at I Sodi over a week to reply to my kind email, in which I requested a phone call regarding the exceptionally poor service we received on 9/18. Not only have I not received a call, there's yet to be a reply to my email. Quite inhospitable for a restaurant of this caliber.

We were a party of 5 with a 445pm reservation for my parents' anniversary. They were super excited to come to NY and celebrate at I Sodi, as they had only heard wonderful reviews. Unfortunately, our experience was far from wonderful. We arrived promptly at 440pm and immediately felt a pretentious energy from our server, George. It seemed as though we were doing him a favor by dining there and that feeling only escalated throughout the remainder of our meal. His only goal seemed to be getting our order to the kitchen so that we could leave as soon as possible. About 5 minutes after sitting down, he came to our table with a minimal greeting and asked what we'd like to order. We told him that we were still reviewing the menu and needed a couple of more minutes. Within 1-2 minutes, he came back again asking, and we replied the same. He proceeded to stand at the table, visibly looking at his watch until we were ready to order. The energy at the table was tense and we were just panicking trying to pick menu items so we didn't have to go through this cycle yet another time. We picked about 4-5 starters and he requested our full order, which we hadn't fully decided on because we'd only been sitting down for a few minutes. I must add that we were not taking an excessively long time so this behavior was completely uncalled for and unprofessional. We were concerned the food would all come out at once, but he reassured us that the kitchen would pace it out so there was nothing to worry about. After the appetizers, the 2 pastas, 2 main protein dishes, and 2 sides that we'd ordered all came out at the same time, which was exactly what we were advised would NOT happen. George had absolutely no trace of hospitality in his demeanor and was clearly trying to turn our table as fast as he could. My entire family left feeling as though we should've dined somewhere else and avoided that entire experience, which we'd felt from the start was going to be disappointing. Unfortunately the poor service overshadowed the food, though the food was also not as good as we were anticipating. $600 later and I will never be returning. Very...