Mediterraneo — Restaurant in New York

One of the worst hotels I've stayed at because the customer service of staff is incredibly rude. We booked a 5 night stay for our honeymoon. The first placed us in the wing of the rooms 601-607. 603 was first and there was an awful smell coming from the room. Most likely the carpet because it is so old and abused. In their defense they are in the process of renovating the hotel piece by piece but they placed us in the area that hadn't been renovated and it was awful. They moved us then to 604 and then 607. All awful smelling rooms with terrible decor. If you have indoor allergies make sure to stay away. Finally they got the point that the wing of that floor smelled awful, which was difficult to get across because they insisted on denying that it was a bad smell. The smell was that of a gym that doesn't have air conditioning, on a hot humid day, after everyone's sweat was left behind on all the machines, that is trying to be concealed with cleaning product. It's not nice.

They finally moved us to one of the renovated modern rooms that we were initially very content with. We spent our first night there and then saw all the dead bugs (ants and ants with wings) in front of the terrace. By in front of the terrace, I mean in front of the entrance to the terrace. On our side. Inside our room. Aside from that, as we were settling in we tried to pull out the drawer and it fell off. We tried to use the wall mounted soap dispenser and it fell off. We tried to use the safe and it didn't work. This was important to us as we were in Europe for 12 days and had a decent amount of cash we did not want to walk around with. Plus our stay in the hotel was for 5 nights. You'd figure we be important guests to them but def not the case. They didn't want to move us at all initially and they were very difficult to deal with. Finally got an amazing person who actually thought that the issues we had were actually issues! She moved us back to a room on the 6th floor that actually did not have carpet and with a great view, but still dated and with really old decor but it worked out. For a 4 star hotel with mostly rude staff that likes to think the problems in the rooms are your problem and not their problem, this is definitely not a place worth checking out. If you can, stay away. Barbara ( the nice one who helped us) alone can't save this hotel. So many people need to be retrained or fired from the bottom up and the place needs an immense amount of consulting from hotels like the ritz. It's supposed to be a 4 star hotel but it barely qualifies as a 3 because of the staff and that it is not finished. Soooo much potential though. Needs...

Don’t waste your time, especially not if you want good Italian food. I went here with my boyfriend because it’s across from his job and we always notice that it’s busy, and it has good reviews. However, it’s terrible When we walked in the hostess didn’t acknowledge us for a bit. We were seated and our order was taken quickly, but we had to ask for the complimentary bread, which came with butter that was too hard to spread. We ordered fried calamari to start, fettuccine with porcini mushrooms and cream sauce, and a Quattro stagione pizza. The fried calamari was cold & seemed to be made with old fryer oil. None of it was crispy and it tasted a little too fishy. We ate some of it and then put it to the side of the table so they’d know to take it. They left the calamari on the table and our food didn’t come out for at least half an hour, maybe longer. The pasta had a good flavor, but it was obviously sitting for a while before it came out. The cream sauce started to congeal and the fettuccine tasted hard. The 4 toppings on the pizza were separated into quarters. One quarter olives, one ham, one artichoke, one mushroom. The point of a Quattro stagione pizza is that all of the toppings are together. The crust was thin and cracker-like, almost like they made it on a tortilla/wrap. We left the restaurant about 2 hours ago and I could feel the food not digesting so much that I legitimately just threw up. There are tons of restaurants if you walk up second avenue, Italian or otherwise. Mediterraneo is certainly not...

Update in 2024 April: even though we had said we would go back, it took us 3 yrs...! But this time, we really marked Mediterraneo with a heart in google maps, as it's absolutely a local gem. The owners are so lovely and treat each customer as if we are long lost, distant relatives that they just connected with. Their care and attention really differentiates this place. The food is also amazing. Tried their duck ragu parpadelle this time (apparently the owner's favorite and you can tell from the menu as well 😋) and it was absolutely delicious. I could eat it everyday.... My partner got a pizza and it was also made to perfection. We won't take another 3 yrs to go back; this is definitely going to be our new go-to restaurant on the UES.

(From 2021:) Ordered fried calamari and had black pasta with tiramisu for dessert. The calamaris were cooked to perfection, so crispy with soft inside. The black pasta was the highlight for me; freshly made pasta was the best I’ve had in a while and the sauce was great as well (even though my husband wasn’t a fan of the sauce.. I guess depends on the person). Tiramisu was a bit disappointing - thus the 4 stars. I personally prefer the bread completely soaked in coffee but you could see the bread and didn’t seem to have much coffee. Overall, it’s made to my ‘favorite restaurants in UES’ list and would definitely go back to try more dishes. Our waitress was also great and the service...