Lavagna — Restaurant in New York

This little Italian restaurant has been on our list to check out since we moved to the East Village several years ago. My fiancé isn’t a huge fan of going out to eat Italian since he’s usually tempted by ravioli and leaves hungry afterwards. (Legit reason if you ask me!) However, this place seems to do Italian food a little bit differently and the reviews have been solid. After chatting about it at a local bar earlier in the day (yes, we like day-drinking), we decided to book reservations on the Yelp app. It was surprisingly easy to book a table for two on a Sunday night in the winter. Upon arrival, the place was completely full except for three tables. We were unfortunately seated beside the kitchen and my fiancé’s head was somewhat near the heating lamp. Luckily for him, he ordered up a delicious cocktail and soon forgot about the extra heat on his head.

We ordered the Pasta Bolognese and I had the Monk fish. Both entrees were excellent and of good portion. I think this restaurant has quite a romantic feel and can appreciate the Italian hospitality of delicious bread served upon being seated and fine olive oil to accompany it. However, this does not deem worthy of a solid 5 stars because there wasn’t a knock out dish. The food was good and def above average. It’s a quite block in the East Village and the lighting really...

To the man greeting people and checking reservations: not sure if you were just having a bad day, but it was obvious you treated my friends and I rudely. We were the only non-Caucasian people in the restaurant, not sure if that had anything to do with it, but come on - if someone says they made a reservation, you should probably make half an effort to check in your system instead of assuming we’re wrong and telling us to wait outside. When he realized he was wrong, he didn’t apologize - he got annoyed at us because we arrived 10 minutes before our reservation time. That’s a first for me - I’ve never been to another place in NY that gets upset if you’re EARLY.

The table wasn’t ready until 30 minutes after our reservation time. When we asked the host how the status was looking, he gave us attitude, said they’re busy, and looked annoyed. I understand you’re busy - good for you! But you should probably try to honor reservations, or if you can’t, don’t give us attitude when it’s your fault? Just a suggestion.

Food was great, but unfortunate about the service. I’d like to hope that it didn’t have anything to do with the fact that we were the only Asian people there, but I also wouldn’t be surprised given other...

"I'm trying to decide between the pork chop, and your pasta of the day. Which do you recommend?"

"The porkchop."

"Done."

I appreciated this quick interaction with my waiter. I've been to restaurants where after being asked a question like that, the waiter would reply with something along the lines of, "Well the pork chop is pretty heavy." I hate this kind of non-answer answer. I'm fully aware that a pork chop is big and meaty. I'm also fully aware that linguini tossed with olive oil and pine nuts (or whatever) is less. Tell me something I don't know, tell me the truth. And for what it's worth, the waiter was right, the pork chop was great.

Other notes about Lavagna - Impressive wine list, really good octopus, delicious scallops and a place that is an overall crowd pleaser. I don't go out for Italian that often, but was...