Pine Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

I used to come here all the time but stopped when they took every single thing I ordered off the menu a few years ago. Last night we went back and it was incredible. We were seated immediately (we showed up around 8 so the crowd was just starting to leave) and I didn’t think we were sitting there that long but a server came up to us and seemed offended that nobody had come to our table yet. At that point our comically awful server for the night showed up and insisted he could handle the table. He could not. My husband ordered a soda and I asked for water. His soda came out promptly and we got salad from someone else (not sure about his name but he was the hero for the rest of the evening) and he was like whoa let me get you some more water. No, my friend. It was not ‘more’ water it was water for the first time and thank you. The salad was just as tasty as I remember. Our appetizers came out exactly as we finished our salads and were excellent. He had the fried mozzarella and ravioli and I had the artichoke hearts oreganata. Both were perfect. I foolishly drank my small glass of water thinking some more would show up at some point but that was a mistake. My husband was out of soda and unable to order more because our server never came back until we were done with our entrees and he graciously let me have his small glass of water. This time I paced myself.

He ordered the stuffed chicken parmigiana and I had the skirt steak with broccoli di rapa. Both were out of this world and we finished every last bite. Pedro finally stopped by and I asked for a pitcher of water which never came and we ordered 2 desserts and a cafe mocha, delivered promptly. We ordered the Nutella pizzetta and the chocolate cake with berries. That was way too much but spectacular. When it came my husband reminded him about the water and it finally came. We drank the entire thing and it might have been the best part of the night at that point lol both desserts were excellent and I can’t even decide which was better to make a recommendation but we finished the pizzetta and took the cake home. In fact I think I’m going to go snack on that right now. I would recommend sitting in...

I have been going to the Pine Restaurant since the early 90's and have always enjoyed it, often recommending it to friends. Yesterday I visited again, what a huge disappointment! The only saving grace was our waiter Mario, who was absolutely great, and the tiramisu! We started with fried calamari, the batter was not crispy and the calamari was not tender. I had giambotta, it's supposed to be a southern Italian vegetable stew, there was no "stew" (sauce), no eggplant and filled with too many potatoes (cheaper ingredient) flavor was lack lustre. Another in our party had the linguine pescatore, which the description said crab legs as well as other seafood, the legs were so small, there was no meat to them. My daughter had the Atlantic salmon which she enjoyed. I ordered chicken scarpariello to take home to my husband. He thought we were given the wrong dish, it was awful, the flavor...well I'm not sure what it was but it definitely wasn't chicken scarpariello! The potato croquettes were always delicious, again, what have you done to the recipe??!! The restaurant was busy, it always has been, but this was the first time the food was not good. I realized looking around the dining room that there were no Italian guests and so I think maybe whoever is cooking also is not Italian and so the recipes are not authentic anymore, catering to a different clientele. Get the cook a good Italian recipe book please! Or I could share with you some of my recipes. There was one large group of guests, who when they got the bill starting arguing about it right in the dining room, standing in groups right next to our table with their nonsense, they should have been directed to a manager in another space, it really spoiled the ambiance. Having said that, I know the restaurant isn't responsible for guests behavior and lack of restaurant etiquette, but just saying, clientele has changed and so has the food. It's a good sign when Italians go to an Italian restaurant, but I didn't see any! So disappointing, like all good things this has...

I had to change my review to one star after what happened to me here. It used to be my go to restaurant but apparently they steal from people. Please bear with me. Here's a picture of the NY strip I ordered and broccoli di rapa. The steak was amazing but the broccoli was bitter since it had burnt garlic. I asked the waiter to change it because it was inedible but he said NO because I already ordered it. Not even ihop is this stingy but whatever I left the whole thing on my plate. My biggest problem was when it came to paying. Here's a picture of my receipt which was 127 dollars. I had taken the picture because my friend had an issue with not being able to split the payment, which they don't do at this restaurant, so I ended up paying the full balance with my card and then taking a Pic to later send to my friend so he could send me his part of the bill. THEY CHARGED ME 147 DOLLARS. I believe it was the waiter who did this on purpose because we went ourselves to pay at the register since he would come and go after assisting us for 10 seconds, not paying attention to us. This was a busy Saturday night. On Monday I called the place and the manager said "This has been happening to a lot of ppl, if you don't see your money in your card by the next 2 days come back and we'll return your money". I didn't see my money so I went in on Wednesday and spoke with another manager and showed him the picture of the receipt. He said he would fix it and to give it 24-48 hours. Today is Friday and there's nothing yet on my card. This is outrageous and worst thing is that they're getting away with it. Who knows to how many people this has happened to. Please BEWARE and pay cash. Oh and don't go when busy or waiters will do this to you and managers will literally do nothing. What a disappointment, I'm not...