Il Corso — Restaurant in New York

Everything could have been almost perfect, but it had to end on a sad note.

My husband and I decided to go to NYC to celebrate my upcoming birthday. We meet up with a friend who is studying at Cornell and decided to take a 4 hours ride to celebrate with us.

We had a reservation at 6:15, when we arrived the hostesses were very helpful and accommodating. We were directed to our table. The waiter approached us within a few minutes to tell us all about the specials.

The service was friendly and we can’t really complain about anything. Maybe the waiter wasn’t as friendly to us as he was with the 3 tables around us, but he wasn’t bad either.

The food was good, specially the Paccheri All’astice. The portions were generous and the pasta was cook to perfection.

The desserts were good, nothing special, but decent. The coffee was definitely not fresh, nor the best in NYC, but after all Il Corso is not a coffee shop... so I guess we didn’t go there for the coffee... oh well.

After we finished our desserts, we requested our ticket. I was surprised to find out that they include the 18% service gratuity for a party of 3?!?!?!? The menu clearly states that they include a 20% service charge for parties of 6 or more, but it doesn’t say anything about parties of 3!

In all the other restaurants that we have visited over the past 2 days, none of them added the gratuity for parties of 2, 3 or 4 people. We have traveled to many places in the world, and I worked many years in the hospitality industry, so we know how to tip and what percentages are appropriate based on the country we visit.

When we asked our waiter why he had added the service charge, he “explained” that they do that with all their customers, but it was “optional”. Well, I wonder if the fact that we were speaking in Spanish had anything to do with that or the fact that we were the only non-white customers seated on his section.

Well, we will never know. What it is sure, is that we are never coming back nor recommending this restaurant to any of our friends and acquaintances.

My philosophy about restaurants is that they could have great food, but if they don’t make me feel welcome, there is not need to go back. There is plenty of restaurants that really know how to treat their customers and those are the restaurants that I want to give my business to, and I have to add many of them have...

We were a party of 5, and had clearly stated on the online reservation that we were celebrating the birthday of our son and wanted a special celebration dessert for the occasion. We never got a response online, hence we decided to remind management of the special occasion once we arrived at the restaurant and sat at our table. By the time we came to dessert….nobody knew about the special occasion and hence we had to remind the staff again (all this in front of our son, which took the surprise aspect of the event away from the occasion - very sad). Then, the cake arrived and there was no singing by the staff….just a simple delivery of an ice cream & chocolate cake dessert.

Let’s now talk about service: we arrived at the restaurant and we were seated quickly at our table - that was good. Then a senior staff member, Italian, came and started placing the orders. He was nice, pleasant, knowledgeable and did a good job (at first). Then, while we were enjoying our main course, the same gentleman informed us (disappointingly to us) that he had to leave as his working hours had been completed…..and, we were left to “nobody”. The next person that showed up was a non-Italian speaker, did not know us from the get go, showed up 10 or more minutes later….and from there it was pretty much downhill. What a strange place, great Italian restaurant, great food, relatively high prices (in exchange for good quality food) but with a terrible service. Never met the manager, we had half of our single bottle of wine still unserved by the time we got to the dessert (so, I decided to pour the wine on my own), the senior staff serving us at the beginning disappeared half way through our dinner, the birthday cake special was very basic and un-special……yet the bill arrived with a pre-defined and pre-printed 20% tip - what an absolute terrible service. This restaurant should reinvest the 20% tips on customer service training and customer retention.

Food quality was good, but when the service is so bad, then the quality of the food also tends to be forgotten very rapidly.

What do you think, would you ever recommend this place to your many Italian and non-Italian friends after such poor experience? I guess that is a loss for Il Corso restaurant itself.

Tip should never be pre-set…..tip should be linked to the overall experience (quality of food and,...

what an exceptional meal. only caveat-one item i had seen on the menu on their webpage, which led me to choose them, was not on the current (covid shortened?) menu. but everything we experienced from the service & ambiance through the meal was outstanding. early dinner before a saturday night show so restaurant not full at all. NYC covid protections in place all around. quickly & personably seated by our host. menu had many delicious sounding choices. a nice bread basket arrived with warm focaccia & baguette rounds. interestingly, it was accompanied by a small dish of lentils in what i assume was olive oil. this was a presentation i had never seen before, different from the more common balsamic/olive oil complement. the lentils didn't do much for us. my wife chose a Mista salad but after consulting our server thought it my be bigger than she needed as a starter so she requested an extra plate for sharing. when it was served, the kitchen had kindly split between two plates for us. a nice touch. our entree selections were both delicious pasta dishes. wife chose a special-parpadelle with veal & sausage ragu. rich red sauce probably simmered for hours with perfectly seasoned pork sausage and what i think was veal shoulder. what an outstanding dish. i chose the cacio e pepe-a heavy spaghetti with olive oil, black pepper and pecorino cheese. this was served in a "bowl" created from crispy parmesan cheese. when presented, it looked like a nest of spaghetti. but as you ate, you discovered the oil & pepper had drifted to the bottom and the heat from the pasta began to melt the cheese bowl! this all added up to a delicious rich cheesy, peppery, meld of flavor. i could have eaten another it was that good. we both cleaned our plates, which is rare. magically the dessert tray appeared. we chose the hazelnut tart. shortbread crust with rich chocolate filling similar to a nutella. plus a scoop of vanilla & drizzled with fudge. an impressive end to a great meal....