Little Owl — Restaurant in New York

What an incredible and intimate venue for our date night! Jack, the GM, and Dani, our server, were both spectacular hosts - we were seated promptly and had some lovely conversations, then began appreciating this gorgeous little corner restaurant! Huge windows, simple vintage decor with a gorgeous chandelier and eclectic details such as fresh flowers on the tables and little notebooks to write messages in which presented the check.

The food was marvelous: they split our caesar salad in the kitchen for us, while we enjoyed the squash risotto and palm hearts salad on the first course. So delicious! Fantastic caesar with fresh anchovy, the risotto was rich and perfectly cooked with great balance of flavor and texture in the garnish.

That palm heart salad was the winner for me however: fresh citrus all over, the softest palm hearts, and a delicious cappeletti reduction made for a sweet and rich salad with bitter and fresh green notes to round it out. I could eat that every single day.

For our entrees, we shared the daily special: striped bass with another risotto, shrimp, and crispy shallots, with a side of the eggplant parmesan and some lovely green beans. We both agreed the fish was delightful and soft, cooked perfectly, but the whole dish was a bit light on salt. As a special that's understandable - less time to perfect it, or maybe we just like more salt, but it was quite tasty and pleasant on the palette. The eggplant parmesan was classic, and the green beans were lightly spicy and sweet and were delicious.

We finished with the dulce de leche brownie and three different flavors of gelato on the side, which were all tasty, but if you have to choose one get the banana chocolate chip gelato all the way.

This may be one of our new favorite date night spots. The friendly and comfortable atmosphere, incredible food and a killer, tight wine list, and great hosts made this an easy place to spend our evening....

Little Owl shines because of its community feeling and friendliness. I went with my wife on a dinner date. As a visually impaired person, I enjoyed that Little Owl used SMS texting to communicate with me and be welcoming of my disability and use of a cane. In addition, they went out of their way to personalize the experience. I asked via SMS to surprise my wife because she has been rewarded at work but does not appreciate her awesomeness (and honestly, I don't appreciate it enough either). Little Owl brought out a dessert as a surprise after we ate our entrees. I loved the experience so much that I will be returning the next day to have a business meeting with another person with a disability. I am grateful to LIttle Owl for it's inclusive attitude. As my NYU backed AI startup continues training it's AI by mapping places with a 360 camera in order to help businesses improve their operational efficiency, I will gladly include Little Owl so that the startup can encourage customers (with disabilities and customers who are supporters of people with disabilities) to support Little Owl. FYI they accept payment via the InKind app, which is a huge plus for me because I can use my iPhone's accessibility features rather having to use the phone camera to magnify and read the bill - saved me stress and a headache! Furthermore, they use a portable led litle on the table so that I can have light in order to more easily eat my food; the light has a dimmer so light intensity can be adjusted. Well done Little...

I was prepared to rate our experience 3 stars but ultimately our server took care of us in the end.

We were excited to finally try Little Owl and arrived right on time for our 8:15 reservation. Unfortunately we were not seated until almost 20 minutes later. We were seated in the second dining room which was a tad disappointing, but it’s still a lovely setting.

Our server took our order (drinks, two apps, two entrees, and a side) and we settled in. After waiting for a bit our server returns with our entrees. After looking confused and mentioning we never received our apps he admitted he forgot to place the order. He asked us if we would mind eating our entrees first but we declined. I felt guilty for sending the food back, but I don’t really want appetizers for dessert?

Our server was apologetic and brought a drink on the house — a nice gesture!

The apps were good, not great (meatball sliders and fries). The entrees were both stellar. We ordered the lasagna and the salmon. The lasagna was the star of the meal in my opinion — great sauce!

We finished off the meal with the cheesecake which was just fine. I felt the crust was soggy and almost felt more like I was eating a pudding than a cheesecake. Our server comped the dessert after seeing I only ate a couple bites even though I insisted he not. Again, a thoughtful gesture.

Overall I’m not sure we’d be back. Maybe we came on...