Maruzzella — Restaurant in New York

If I could give Maruzzella's 6 stars I would. We stopped in at 7:30 on a Friday night, with no reservations, and the staff went out of their way to find a place for the four of us.

We started out with baby artichokes that were pan roasted in olive oil and served with thin crispy slices of garlic chips and small unpitted olives. Delicious. The artichokes were tender and the hearts had that perfect creamy consistency once you started chewing on them, the garlic chips were sweet and mild, and the olives added the perfect sharpness to each bite. What a treat.

Now..... my main course was so tasty and savory that I actually passed up desert because I didn't want to introduce any new flavors to my palette.

I had the rigatoni cipullo. A plate of perfectly done, al dante rigatoni in a light cream sauce with blended sweet sausage, prosciutto, onions and a touch of cinnamon. Don't be fooled, when you see the meat in the description you might think there would be chunks of meat tossed into the light cream sauce, and you would be wrong. The meat is pureed with the cream sauce and the cinnamon, creating this silky sauce of love that I wanted to bury my face in. Instead, what I actually did was carefully slide two rigatoni onto the fork tines through the holes, and slowly savored each bite until there were only six rigatoni left, and stopped, because I was just at that place where I felt like I was floating. Just full enough to be satisfied, and at the point where I knew that if I had eaten the last six, it would have pushed me over that edge where I would have felt that uncomfortable fullness, and I didn't want to risk anything detracting from how satisfied and comfortable I felt. This was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had.

Wonderfully warm and accommodating staff, delicious original recipes, and extremely reasonably priced. The trifecta of a perfect meal on the Upper East side of Manhattan.

P.S. my dinner mates had tagliatelle alla bolognese, linguine alla vongole (white clam sauce), and pasta with sauce that they all raved about, but honestly, as good as they thought their dishes were, there's just no way they were as good as mine.

Mangia e divertiti...

I had diner at this restaurant and I can regretfully say that it was one of the worst meals I had in a long long time. To start with, the moment you got in, a pungent smell of floor cleaner hit your nostrils. By no mean the smell you would like to experience in a fine Italian restaurant, garlic, olive oil, roasted pepper anything but cleaning fluid.... The appetizer was a tried and true Italian fare tomatoes, roasted peppers and mozzarella di buffalo. How can you go wrong with that? Oh well they did, the tomatoes not ripe, zero taste and the whole dish was plated as if somebody just took aim at the plate and missed. Unfortunately this was the best part of the diner. I ordered grilled sea bass with grilled vegetables. The sea bass was tilapia ( which is an ok fish if you don't call it sea bass) over breaded and over cooked over a bed of nondescript vegetables grilled mostly yellow and green zucchinis with some olive oil sprinkled on top. I could not eat that dish and believe me I eat most anything. My girlfriend poor thing ended up with a veal dish with looked worse than my fish. Hard to describe. It was called something along the lines of veal with porcini mushrooms. An interesting combinations unless you forget to add the porcini 's and you just drown the poor piece of veal thin as a membrane in an old speaker in a can tasting brown gravy. Did i mention that we both diligently looked for the mushrooms and found nothing! A very unpleasant eating experience and i do hope this restaurant will soon improve the quality of their food to stay in business. As you can see I gave them one star not based on the food quality or the outdated decor but for the staff who trying to be helpful and took off my bill that ungodly piece of fish i could not eat. Still overpaid for the gravy veal. And make no mistake this is not a cheap restaurant look at entrees of $35 to $45 if it is not a...

If you're looking for an Italian restaurant with delicious food, served with welcoming and impeccable attention in a charming, cozy environment, look no further than Maruzzella!

Yesterday afternoon, my husband and I hosted a luncheon for 40 people to celebrate our recent wedding (we had the entire restaurant for ourselves) and we could not have hoped for a more wonderful event!! From the moment we initiated a conversation with owners Nicola and Ramiro about having this luncheon, to the moment we said goodbye at the end of the event, they were consistently accommodating and patient, and always seemed genuinely interested in helping us have a successful celebration. The entire staff was equally attentive and helpful. Without exception, everyone who attended expressed how very delicious the food was (including those amazing desserts!) , how lovely the restaurant is, and how attentive and seamless was the service.

Prior to our event, we'd had dinner at Marruzzella just with a few friends, and our experience was as wonderful as it turned out to be at our luncheon yesterday.

Sincerest thanks to Nicola, Ramiro, and the entire staff helping us and our friends and family enjoy a very special celebration in such a very special way!

--...