Piacere — Restaurant in New York

You won't find better pasta or pizza many other places. Friendly Place. Great Service

It isn't a restaurant you would walk into and say "I'm totally doing right by taking kids here." The restaurant is a bit dark. Romantic feeling. And, as really the only drawback, the music was too loud.

But but but. This place was great. The staff here is perfectly attentive and quite friendly. For example, we had very hungry kids. They whipped us up a very simple tomato sauce with home made spaghetti and a cheese pizza. It was not only quick, but delicious. I challenge you to find much better pasta and pizza anywhere.

What we ate:

Margherita - Simple as it should have been. My kids have eaten horrible pizza their whole lives. (papa john, pizza hut, etc) They loved the pizza here.

Spaghetti ala Bottarga- My girlfriend and I have tried just about every type of thing. Bottarga is salted cured fish roe. This pasta was bright with flavors of pepper and lemon. Those flavors along with the salty cured roe? Some of the best food I have ever eaten.

Taglierini porcini e tartufo- This pasta was was rich as you could want without any meat. The musty delicious mushrooms along with the truffles was a nice alternative to the above dish. We gladly swapped bites between the plates.

Grilled Squid w/ Arugula- This salad was pretty simple for a grilled squid salad. I wouldn't say it screamed amazing like the pizza or above two pasta dishes. However, it was well executed.

You should try this place. It is a small, friendly, and delicious place. I also like that there was an atm in the bathroom too....

I went to eat at Piacere for the first time yesterday. I have to say I was quite disappointed with the entire experience. Firstly, the staff are lovely and welcoming and we were seated quickly with menus given to us immediately. To start we had the octopus with potato and the burrata. The octopus was not good, it was not seasoned well as some pieces were very flavorful and others were completely bland, the potato had no flavor and the sauce on the bottom made everything taste fishy. Burrata with arugala was good and tasty. We had the pizza with prosciutto and arugula, it was also just average and small for the price. We had the pasta with truffle and mushroom and that was the best dish of the night, and even then it wasn't a perfect dish, much. too much sauce but the flavor was there at least. All in all only 1/4 dishes was really worth the money paid. They don't accept any cards accept AMEX and they take cash. It is disgraceful in todays world to be so greedy that they don't want to pay credit card fees for the other cards, and conveniently have a ATM in the bathroom to take more money from you. They may say this is a policy from day 1, but times are changing, change with them or be left behind. Would not go back and would not recommend, there is better...

We tried this restaurant to see if we could avoid all the tourists traps located next corner. We had mixed feelings in the end.

To be clear, it was pretty expensive for what we've received.

Also, be aware you can only pay with a PHYSICAL American Express card or with cash. That's it. A gratuity was applied automatically to the bill by their machine. I found it expensive so I checked and it was 21%. A cash machine is available in their bathroom but of course, like most/all of them, fees are to be paid on top.

Our waiter hopefully was kind enough to modify our bill so we could choose the gratuity though. It was an exception as he explained me that all their payment restrictions were to prevent frauds they had in the past.

My glass of beer was not even half full and uneven compared to my partner's. $9-10 per glass. Not a pint, a glass. Pizza is just good, but pretty small. Gnocchis were ok, probably reheated and the portion was quite small too.

Nice service though, the guys were nice. I understand the prices are high now, and going to the restaurant is definitely a luxury today. This place serves good food, in a nice manner, but prices, even eventually justified by the economic situation, tends to ruin the experience and leaves a bittersweet...