Leonetta — Restaurant in New York

I had the pleasure of visiting this stunning new restaurant in Murray Hill for their soft launch last night, treating a friend to a belated birthday dinner. The ambiance was breathtaking, with clear attention to detail and a sophisticated vibe that transformed the space from its previous life as a sports bar into a gorgeous Mediterranean-inspired setting.

We were seated quickly and impressed by the diverse food and drink menu, which included Mediterranean-inspired dishes, pastas, seafood, and a great selection of both inventive cocktails and zero-proof drinks. The variety ensures there's something for everyone, which we loved!

The service, though friendly, had some early hiccups. Our server took our drink order but didn’t return to take our food order for over 20 minutes. We ended up flagging someone else down to send over our server, and while the server wasn’t rude, there was no acknowledgment of the wait. That said, we know soft openings can have minor kinks, so we didn’t let it affect our experience too much. Joshua, the sommelier, really made up for it! He was hospitable and knowledgeable and encouraged us to check out the lounge downstairs—a must-see.

As for the food, it was a mix of highs and potential. We started with the beetroot tzatziki and housemade pita bread, which were incredible! My friend had the saffron mezzi rigatoni and thought it was good, but not particularly standout. I had the sea scallops, which were flavorful but could use a bit more balance to offset the richness. The charred broccolini, however, was a showstopper—cooked perfectly and packed with flavor.

We were also touched when the staff surprised my friend with a light dessert for her birthday—the olive oil semolina cake was the perfect sweet ending to our meal.

The only other challenge was catching our server’s attention to settle the bill, as my friend had a train to catch. It took a bit of effort to track her down, but she was genuinely sweet and likely just getting the hang of things with the opening. I think with some support, the team will find their rhythm.

We finished our night by checking out the downstairs lounge, and wow—it’s stunning! I’ll definitely be back for drinks. Overall, this restaurant is off to a promising start, and I’m excited to see how it evolves. Highly recommended for anyone looking for a fresh, stylish dining experience...

This is a great new place that has opened in Kips Bay.

Ambiance: I loved the decor and set up at the restaurant. It’s boho modern Mediterranean. The seats are very comfortable and I love that most of it has booth or half booth sitting. The plateware is really cute and suits the theme of the restaurant.

They also have this amazing lounge area downstairs. It’s a great spot to start the date before you go up for dinner. They have a fireplace and comfy sofas. They also have a really nice bar area there with very comfortable bar stools.

Food: We got the spanikopita as a starter. It was good, well seasoned, but it wasn’t really spanikopita. They used a pita/focaccia type of bread instead of phyllo pastry. The mix instead was also wetter than spanikopita usually is so it felt a little more like a spinach dip. We also got the beet tzitaki. It was so yummy and probably my favorite dish. I don’t think I’ve had anything like this other than maybe something in Greece. The pita bread that came with it was fresh and warm. It has the right level of zaatar to enhance the bread. As the main we got the baked stuff shells. I really liked the rice mixture inside and it was really well seasoned. The shells were well cooked and the tomato sauce was nice. We got the fries as a side. It was nice and I liked the ketchup it came with.

Note: as vegetarians be aware that unfortunately the truffle dishes aren’t vegetarian. They looked really yummy but unfortunately they use some chicken something to keep the truffle texture correct so it cant be vegetarian.

Drinks: they had a great selection of wine and I had a really good sparkling wine. It was perfect. I also got the Paloma Picasso cocktail. It was the perfect mix of sweet and tart and it was a good size.

Price: cocktails are about $20. The glass of wines are fairly on the high end especially the half bottles considering some of the whole bottles were the same price. Food was on the higher end but the portions were pretty filling so even though they looked slightly small it was the perfect amount.

Service: service was fast. We didn’t have to wait long for our drinks and food came out at...

We had a very enjoyable brunch at this spot that came across my radar. I love that the parmesan tahini Caesar salad wasn't crazy salty. The black garlic hummus was not the prettiest thing you've ever seen but very tasty and the pita bread was warm and delicious.

I had the steak and egg kebabs which was a very good dish. The steak was very tender. There was a very small piece of king mushroom on the kebab which I thought seemed like an oversight. Either put mushroom on or don't put mushroom on. Nice potatoes and veg underneath the kebab. Very solid dish.

My One Note would be that I asked that my egg whites were not runny on the sunny side up eggs that they could not possibly make over easy according to the waiter. They were partially undercooked.

MIL had the avocado toast with smoked salmon. Looked beautiful. She enjoyed it although the bread was over toasted and a lil hard to cut. When I tasted it, I thought the feta cheese might have been a bit past its prime.

BF had the swordfish club sandwich which he loved! We got the bacon on the side and it was a slab of bacon. It was flavorful but pretty chewyy so I don't know how well it would have worked in the sandwich.

Our waiter was very nice but he needs to serve teaspoons with the tea and with condiments.

After my many years of working in restaurants, I know that it's much harder to stay on top of things when the dining room is slow which it was for brunch. There was a lot of staff and it was a little challenging getting people's attention.

Also a note to the hostess who was gorgeous and lovely. It's always better to sit at three top on a four top when you have the room because you clearly did as it was slow. It was cramped for three people on a table for two.

I love the space! A lot of thought into the design in terms of the aesthetics.

There's a gorgeous bar downstairs called Leo which opens at 7 p.m. on select nights. The hostess said that the menu is similar but not the same.

Definitely want to come back and check it out.

I think this place will be...