Lupa — Restaurant in New York

Lupa, I love you!

If every restaurant out there had even a fraction of the good service Lupa so graciously provides, 1 and 2 stars wouldn't even exist.

My friend and I came here for dinner on Thursday. We had early 6PM reservations. When we walked in, we were immediately greeted by a very friendly Maitre D and were seated right away. Menus were brought over and they asked us whether we wanted sparkling or tap. We chose sparkling.

Within seconds of us being seated, a very nice young gentleman, (I wish I remembered his name) came over and introduced himself as the sommelier. I was quite overwhelmed with the wine list as it's quite extensive so I described the type of red I like and he offered two great options in the right price range. I chose one and was not disappointed at all. It was the Montefalco Rosso, very dry and medium bodied wine that paired beautifully with the dishes we ordered.

CONSTANTINE! The man of the hour. What a real pleasure. Constantine was our waiter who really made our meal so magical and fun. The menus are all in Italian with the back of the menu having a dictionary but it could definitely be overwhelming. So having a waiter who knows every good dish, and knows translations is exactly what we needed. He explained why we should go with the appetizers and entree's we ordered and surely, they were the best decisions!

We ordered as follows:

Roasted Cauliflower with Black Truffle Fonduta ---- The combination of flavors in this dish is purely outstanding. The sweet pears combined with the flavors of the truffle and the savory cauliflower was simply top notch.

Marinated Sardines --- Sardines have never tasted so good than this right here. They take that unappetizing fishiness out and present a perfect dish.

Casarecce with Short Rib Ragu --- I'm salivating just thinking about this. I thought I'd had good pasta dishes but then I tasted this and my mouth dropped. The rigatoni was cooked at a perfect al dente. And those short ribs! AHHH! Tasty, soft, tender, perfection!

Pollo Alla Diavola --- It's called the devils chicken and rightfully so. If you like your mouth on fire, this is the dish you should order. Covered in black pepper and cooked remarkably well, this dish is to die for.

Lamb Scottadito with Gnocco Alla Romana --- If only all restaurants knew how to make a lamb taste this good! Maybe that's why Lupa is so up there on the ranks. Fantastically medium rare, soft and juicy this lamb was so outstanding. What can I say, their food is just 100%.

All of these dishes were recommended by Constantine and I thank him for being so attentive and perfect. Really.

For dessert, the sommelier suggested we order the Tartufo. GUYS! This is paradise. Chocolate - hazelnut - nutella - gelato. What more could you possibly want? This ball of paradise only upped the night by 100 notches. It was the perfect end to a perfect dinner.

I cannot be more thankful to the wonderful team at Lupa for giving us VIP service when we were just coming in for a small time dinner. I cannot wait to come back and try more dishes, and I cannot wait to recommend this place to everyone and...

Lupa, You Got Some Explaining to Do

What a complete disaster.

We went to Lupa thinking we were in for a nice Italian meal, based on all these “amazing” reviews. Well, this was the second-worst dining experience I’ve had in 35 years of eating in NYC. I'd certainly like to forget last night's!

We ordered four dishes: Tagliatelle with truffles, Branzino, Saltimbocca, and Rigatoni. We ask the sommelier to pick a wine that works with all of them for under $120.

What does he bring us? A 2017 Barbaresco Morassino from Piedmonte Italy. TERRIBLE. He apologized, saying it was maderized (oh yeah... bad storage probably).

We asked for a replacement. What did he bring us? Another bottle with the same problem. I’m now convinced he just brought back the same crap bottle. I’m no sommelier, but when the wine tastes awful, just stop.

Here’s the kicker: we’re all four Americans who live in Paris and know our wine. I worked in and out of Piedmonte Italy for 15 years, and so have had the pleasure of many lovely wines from the region ... I even consider it my favorite wine region in the world. So when we say your wine is undrinkable, maybe listen?

After two bottles of maderized garbage, they offered us a Chianti Classico. At this point, we’re like, “Yeah, sure, bring us anything that isn’t poison.” We didn’t even finish one glass of it. Not one of us. That too was crap. And I’ve seen my friends finish pretty much anything.

After the meal, we just wanted out of there. We paid the bill, went over to see Chris Botti at the Blue Note (thank God for that - an amazing jazz evening), and forgot about dinner… until the next morning when I look at the bill and realized they charged us $110 for the Chianti, which costs about $16 at the store. We took the photo and used Vivino. Oh, and they listed the wrong year - probably so they could charge a higher price.

Lessons for us: Never, ever go back to Lupa. Tell our friends to stay away Don’t be afraid to send back bad wine. If the first two bottles are trash, maybe don’t bother with the third.

Lessons for Lupa: If a bottle of wine is bad, don’t serve it. The sommelier said he tastes each bottle before bringing it to the table. Yet after we complained he told us it was defective. C'mon... Don’t blame the customers for your garbage wine. Don’t charge $110 for a bottle that costs $16—especially when you’ve ruined the dining experience. When your sommelier strikes out three times, it’s time to fire him (uh oh... maybe he's the owner?) Maybe ask your customers how the wine is (they didn't). When people order a mix of fish, meat, and pasta, if you've not got a good solution, maybe offer wines by the glass so we don’t end up trying to sip liquid trash. Just because someone has an international phone number doesn’t mean they won’t leave a review. Trust me, we will.

Oh, and the truffle pasta was decent. Saltimbocca? Mediocre. But at least it wasn’t maderized, so...

Our table was ready, and soon after we arrived, a waiter came to take our orders. The food was good and everyone enjoyed eating them.

We all decided to order dessert. Our waiter brought the dessert menu, but she disappeared, as we were ready to order. With so many restaurant staff walking around, we did not know what was going on. Finally, a floor manager came and took our order.

As a part of our dessert, we also ordered two coffees. The moment my friend and I touched our coffee cups, our fingers almost burned and coffee was spilled in the saucer. We could not believe or even understand as to why the servers had brought such a super hot coffee cups that burned our fingers to our table.

As if that was not bad enough, we are also very puzzled by the very poor choice of music that played rather loud, preventing us to hear each other while sitting at the same table.

Before we left, we noticed that a new group of guest who sat in a table next to us immediately noticed the loud music and told their waiter to turn it down.

At the end, we ended up—at least two of us — with burned fingers and all of us with a mild headache listening to such music at Lupa. Naturally, we forgot all about the delicious food that your staff had served us, as we left Lupa.

Almost a day later, I still do not understand why the staff at Lupa was so careless about playing such a loud music, and was so sloppy in bringing super hot coffee cups that actually burned our fingers, to our table.

What was so puzzling to us was while Lupa tried its best to prepare and serve our food, it also tried, of course needlessly, to leave such a bad impression about its service for its guests.

I, for one, will think twice before coming back to Lupa, no matter how good your food was and...