Novitá — Restaurant in New York

Upon walking in, they had curtains, possibly for privacy or to keep out the cold for winter. We had made a reservation and were seated promptly. We were seated in a back room, so it was very private. The rest of the restaurant looked very beautiful and peaceful as well. Our waiter allowed us to go over rhe menu and then went over the specials for the night. Initially we had an idea of what we wanted, but that changed as soon as we heard the specials. We ordered the buffalo mozzarella with cherry tomatoes as our appetizer. I am a huge fan of buffalo mozzarella, so I already had high expectations, and they absolutely delivered. The mozzarella was creamy on the inside and had the perfect amount of salt that paired with the freshness of the tomatoes. It was a very refreshing dish to start our meal. They also provided bread, as well as breadsticks and have olive oil, salt, and pepper at the table to make some dipping oil. The bread was very good, nice soft inside with a rougher outside, and the bread sticks were amazingly crunchy. For our main dishes we got the gnocchi ragu/shirt rib and the truffle pasta - both specials. The gnocchi was unlike any gnocchi I have had. It was a perfect balance between fluffy with a bite. The meat was very tender and paired well with the gnocchi. I believe it also had tomatoes which cut through the savory dish. The truffle pasta was better than expected. Often times, I feel like truffle dishes can be overbearing, but this one was light and allowed you to taste the pasta, sauce, and truffle together, rather than a strong truffle flavor overbearing the other ingredients. The pasta was perfectly al dente and 1000% made in house/fresh. The cream sauce was light, and although I was incredibly full, I didn’t feel weighed down like a normal cream sauce can make you feel. For dessert, we had the gelato affogato. If you’re a fan of affogato in general, definitely order it. The espresso was had a strong full flavor and balanced well with the sweet ice cream. Overall, I would highly recommend it for a date night or overall nice night out. The ambience was great, the staff was very kind, and the food was...

Despite having enjoyed this restaurant thoroughly on a few outstanding lunches, we went there for my birthday recently for an early dinner. Not only was some of the food sub-par but the service was appalling and, frankly, insulting. The waiters were all young native Italians plus an older Italian maître-d. These young “waiters” were clearly here on a holiday or a temporary work visa and not professional waiters. Even though for most of the meal we were the only occupied table, our waiter, along with his colleagues, paid us scant attention. After taking our orders, the appetizers, which were delicious, came out so quickly we didn’t even have time to enjoy our drinks. At no time did anyone enquire as to how the food was or if we needed anything. The main dishes arrived barely after we finished our appetizers. At no time did the waiter offer us the wine menu before the main course (or ever). After plopping our dishes on the table, the waiter disappeared. He and his colleagues were all standing at the bar, talking and laughing, 0laying on their iPhones. At no time did they ever come by. The professional busboy actually felt so sorry for us he apologized. I ordered the soft shell crabs, a special and one of my favorite dishes. These were appalling. They were not sautéed properly: they were soggy and chewy. They were not attractively presented on the plate at all. My son had the veal Milanese - one of our favorite dishes. The small refined salad that’s supposed to top the veal was just chopped lettuce and some cherry tomatoes. There wasn’t even any dressing on the salad (a light olive oil). Tasteless disappointment. My daughter had the seafood special with squid ink pasta - she said it was very good. The restaurant does have delicious desserts although this time the outstanding semifreddo was drowning in a chocolate sauce drizzled across the dessert. At no time did the waiters make any efforts at all. When a waiter sees a guest leaves over nearly the entirety of the main course, at least a question is in order! I’m so sad that one of my favorite restaurant was such a dreadful let...

Perplexing experience this evening. Arrived 20 minutes early for our 8:30pm reservation on a Thursday. We waited 10 minutes for seating; fine, we were early and appreciated the accommodation. No menus were provided upon seating. After 10 minutes we requested them from the bus staff. No drink menu was given so when our server arrived 15 minutes after we were seated we asked for one. It was provided promptly. Finally placed orders for food and drink after being in seats for 25 minutes. Food arrived quickly, artichoke appetizer was fantastic. Then main course arrived. The food deliverer offered Parmesan and we said yes and he went off to find said Parmesan but must have gotten distracted. We waited for it, and our drinks which still had not arrived. Server appears and resolves drink situation promptly. Mains were both quite good (bolognese and lamb ragu). No one acknowledged us again until I flagged them for the check 10 minutes after we had been sitting there looking at our leftovers waiting for someone to offer a box and see if we wanted dessert, another drink, etc. Overall it was not an attentive dining experience. I feel like surrounding tables received more attention than us. After we requested the check they did deliver a tiramisu on the house (tiramisu was unimpressive) which I took as an acknowledgment that the service was lacking but I would have preferred an apology and some proactive communication (“hey, we are slammed, sorry for the wait”). I’ve been a server in 20 restaurants over the years and could see it was very busy and didn’t make a peep of complaint but the experience was underwhelming. With so many other local options I would hesitate to...