Moise's Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

I really wanted to like this place but couldn’t find one single redeeming thing about my experience. Walking in at lunchtime and having all but 1 table empty should have been a clue. We were seated outside which was nice enough. It took about 5 minutes for someone to acknowledge us, but our server was nice. We ordered their signature martini and clams oreganato to start. The drinks came and were ok. Not bad not good. We were also served bread which some dipping oil which we could not identify. It looked and tasted like the greasy runoff from some pasta dish. So we asked for butter. We then ordered a lasagna and a pear and Gorgonzola pizza. The server comes back and tells me the pizza I ordered was not in the lunch menu. I asked if the menu I had was the lunch menu and was told yes. I was confused because the pizza was right there. I pointed it out and said that it was right there. He argued with me and said it was not available for lunch and that they switch the menu over at 3pm. It was only 1:30pm. I asked if I paid dinner price could I get the pizza. He said yes and I agreed. The appetizer came out but we had no silverware at the table or any napkins. We had to ask for them a few times. We also asled for butter....again. We are given silverware and our napkins? Paper towels from the bathroom!!! The clams were good, but nothing great for the price for 6. It took a very long time for our lunch to arrive, and we still had no butter. When our meals arrived the lasagna was served and looked like a soupy mess of pasta in a greasy pink sauce with congealed cheese on top. My pear and Gorgonzola pizza was placed in front of me in a bowl. It was a mound of arugula and 4 paper thin slices of pear and walnuts with barely any Gorgonzola. I look at it and realize there is no crust, it is not a pizza. It literally is a bowl of lettuce!!! I tell the server and he says he thought I wanted a salad. I reminded him of the conversation about the pizza and it being lunch and blah blah blah and he tells me I would have to wait again. The meals already took almost 30 minutes to arrive no way I was waiting again. So I had to settle for the bowl of lettuce. The lasagna tasted just as unappetizing as it looked. The pasta was still crunchy in the middle ( no fresh pasta here). The lettuce was just that... nothing to write home about and barely any pears or Gorgonzola the main ingredients in this dish!! The server asked how everything was and we expressed our dissatisfaction, he patted me in the shoulder and said sorry and walked away. Oh we just got butter!!!! The check comes and I paid the same price for a bowl of lettuce as I would have had I gotten what I actually ordered. I was very upset but said nothing. Overall it was a bad experience and memorable for every bad reason. I will never go back and would recommend any other restaurant in the area...

This experience did have a few positives, but I am not sure if I would go back. Starting with the good, the best part of my meal was the bread and olive oil that we started with. I am not trying to be funny, they mixed some spices with the olive oil to make it pop a little more. We did not get any appetizers and went straight for the main courses. Now getting to what I would change; I ordered a chicken parm and made sure it came with pasta because you can’t have chicken parm without pasta (my requirements). To their credit, it did come with pasta however there was barely any of it. They gave a lot of sauce, but the ratio of sauce was overtaking the plate and the pasta was hiding. On to the hero of the dish, the chicken itself. This was not bad, but quite thin. I was glad that the bread stayed on; there have been various times breading falls of clumsy chicken parm; this was not the case. The dish was not too bad, but left something to be desired because of how small it was, and how little pasta. I am not even kidding, I literally went home and ate some leftover pasta in order to fill up more because this was not really enough. My only gripe with the menu (from what I saw) was that all of the pizzas were personal pizzas. When I go to Little Italy, I want a big boy real sized pizza because that is what would really fill me up. It is cool to have a pretty plate, but I was hungry and wanted to take care of that over anything else. This place did not offer it, which was a let down because that would have been my first choice. Also, our waiter looked like this restaurant was the last place he wanted to be at. I understand people have tough days, and I am more focused on the food. The waiter just seemed irritated throughout, even the person I was with noticed how upset he was. I gave the guy a decent tip since I felt a little bad, but in the future I would recommend putting on a happy face as hard as that might be. Like I said, if the food is good that does not matter. In this case, I was not a big fan. Also, pretty lame they didn’t have free refills for soda. Had I known that I would have rationed my drink, but there really is no excuse. I worked in restaurants free soda refills are not that hard and do not cost the place much money. I will say that the person with me seemed to be happy with her pasta dish, but I did not taste it. Can only speak on behalf of what I had. I would buy that bread dip on it’s own, but the dinner itself was not really filling or what I thought. Interesting...

My wife and I have only lived in NYC for a little over a year, but one of my daughters has lived here for twenty years. She told us she knew of a terrific Italian restaurant close to the Bronx Botanical Garden. Upon arriving at Gerbasi as a party of 5, including my 2 teenage grandkids, we were comfortably seated and promptly delivered menus, water, bread and accouterments. We ordered drinks and appetizers. The deep fried Calamari with Artichokes are superb; crisp with not a smidgen of grease. The special asparagus wrapped with shrimp and prosciutto has a complex mix of flavors that explode on the palate with pleasure. For my main course I ate Fettucine Alfredo, and enjoyed delightful, aldente homemade Fettuccine pasta with a lovely white cream sauce; Gerbasi shows they know what they are doing in the kitchen creating this first rate dish. The others in our party had butternut ravioli, a special ravioli, baked Ziti and pizza. Along with the delicious bread we finished everything but had a little leftover pizza for tomorrow's lunch. Homemade Limoncello, coffee and yummy deserts topped it all off. Actually, you know what really topped it all off is the service provided by the staff. Unpretentious, welcoming, relaxed, attentive, are all descriptions of their work. No matter which Borough you are from, a trip to Gerbasi...