Manducatis — Restaurant in New York

This place is fantastic (Insert appropriate expletive inside fantastic).

The moment you walk in from its corner entrance, you instantly feel you might have traveled back in time several decades, AND, if you let them, you actually will. Handwritten reservations? ✅ Years-long regulars arriving as you are? ✅

The first surprise is when they lead you from that front room to your table, through a series of well compartmentalized dining rooms, each with the same charm but own aesthetic. And the host is the owner, and probably your server, and will almost certainly give you the liberty to pick the best table for you. This does not happen (proactively) in NYC restaurants anymore. Nowhere.

I regret not checking out the next room where a large group was clearly celebrating a birthday.

As one of my dinner guests said (we were all first timers, late to the game apparently), "every minute I'm falling in love with this place more and more."

Don't hesitate to follow the standard Italian structure here: get some antipasti, then get some pasta, then go for the meat and fish after that. The menu doesn't try too hard and excels at execution. Get the clams (use the lemon). Get some vegetables. Don't skip the Carbonara. One of our party was Tomato averse, but I will focus on those pastas next time. The veal chop, perfectly cooked. We also passed on some classics: Parm, Francese. Marsala, but I will not pass on those in the future.

Place has been around since the 70s. So has some of the wine. The main list is all red, but there are some whites if you ask (white we brought, and corkage is beyond reasonable). The sommelier is well versed (as is the owner) and will almost certainly point out something you overlooked, even after choosing a real gem at an exceptional price point.

Do not skip dessert, and don't be bothered that all are presented nearly identically with chocolate drizzle and puffs of almost gratuitous whipped cream. Cannolo unreal. Cheesecake 🔥. Coconut sorbet delicious and, unsuspectingly, with shreds of coconut...

I was at this restaurant last Saturday and was very disappointed. My family arrived at 7 and the waitress disappeared, we had to keep calling her. She didn't take our appetizer order until an hour and a half later. We can an elderly man with us that was hungry when she arrived at our table he told her what appetizers he wanted and she was nasty towards him. Telling him " I DIDN'T EVEN TELL YOU THE SPECIALS", I let that nasty response from her go the first time. He was so polite even though we waited an hour and a half, he sat there and listen to her. Then we had to ask the runner to call the waitress over again since we haven't seen her like in another hour or so for water & round of drinks & to place our food order. She came over with the most nasty attitude again stating " I heard something asked for the server WHATS THE PROBLEM" I told her the problem is that we have been sitting here now for hours and we haven't received proper service and have to keep calling her. She starts giving us some a story about her personal life that I 'm here to celebrate Mother's Day with my family and enjoy my dinner not to have a bad time. She made this dinner the worst dinning experience I have ever had. We didn't even get our full order, we had dishes missing & the server didn't even know the wine list. I work in Hospitality & I was very angry and disappointed. We were there a total of 5 and a half hours.. NOT INTENTIONALLY BUT BECAUSE OF POOR SERVICE. I WOULD USUALLY WALK OUT BUT DIDN'T WANT TO RUIN MOTHER'S DAY MORE THAN WHAT THE WAITRESS HAVE...

I wish I would have loved this place. The owner is a lovely man and the servers were very nice and hospitable. The venue itself is retro and I enjoyed the feeling of "old fashioned" Italian restaurant, the kind Billy Joel would have had in mind when he wrote his famous song. However, truth be told, the food was mediocre. The steamed mussels were okay. The baked clams were fine. The lettuce under the shrimp cocktail was not fresh. It was obviously cut a day or two beforehand by the browning around the edges of the lettuce. The lemon they served with it was completed dried out and the cocktail sauce was straight out of a jar and had not oomph of horseradish. Chicken Parmigiana entree was a little skimpy and that not so fresh taste and texture. A freshly fried chicken cutlet tastes freshly fried, its unmistakable. The tomato sauce was delicious. The lasagna was okay...The fish of the day was tile fish. We ordered it Livornese style which is one of my favorite ways to eat it and the Livornese sauce was good. We ate everything except for the few bones they missed from the belly part of the fillet. We enjoyed our time in this cozy restaurant. We spent $160 before tax and tip for the above mentioned items, a tartufo and tiramisu for dessert, 2 glasses of the house pinot grigio, a bottle of Pelligrino and two espresso's. I don't mind spending money on good quality food, not at all. I'll gladly pay and return for quality. The details are...