Rampoldi New York — Restaurant in New York

I want to provide some feedback to the management. We had a very negative experience last night. Perhaps some people called out sick, but just about everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. I also caveat this saying I have eaten at probably thousands of NY restaurants over the last decade, and have never written a review once. That is, I’m not typically a complainer. But last night was a different level. This includes:

1. We arrived at 6pm sharp for a 7:30pm show. No one came to take our drink order until 6:15pm. No one gave us menus. We sourced menus at 6:30 ourselves. We were able to get someone’s attention to order at 6:40 (no one came to us), and we received our single course of food at 7:10 - 20 minutes before the show. I really don’t know how a restaurant that bills itself as “pre-theatre” with a prix-fixe pre-theatre menu can allow that to happen, but that’s what happened

2. One member of our party who arrived late, and mentioned my reservation, was initially sat down at a completely different table. That is, the restaurant didn’t seem aware that our first table had checked in and been seated

3. Some of the drinks we ordered were incorrect

4. The first check they brought was for an entirely different table

5. The second check they brought was for our table but had several errors and included the drinks we had not ordered

Staff, ambience, and food were reasonably nice, but something is severely broken in the ordering process. Hoping it can be fixed...

Meh food and messy service. Pretty if gaudy decor. Good for cocktails at the bar (the bartender is very nice and makes good cocktails).

Our recent dinner was very sadly disappointing. It started out fine--the place has the Monte Carlo glitz, the old world charm in a gaudy way. Cocktails were delicious. Our server in the beginning was sufficiently doing his job. The appetizer was fine (fried calamari was very good/other items were ok but not impressive). But thing started to fall apart after that: we waited, waited, waited, waited, waited, and waited for our main course while we witnessed other patrons at a neighboring table finish their entire meal, leave, and another party gets seated and finishes entire meal. After we finally managed to get our server's attention, the entrees arrived...and we were quite disappointed. The lobster pasta was overcooked, the fish and steak were overcooked, and the ravioli had a suspicious fishy smell, covered by overly acidic lemon sauce that didn't pair very well. We had to ask repeatedly for water. The "chocolate cake" was dry and hard (a mass-produced deli brownie would have done better).

To be fair, I do believe that many of the staff there intended to do well, but something was really off--it was really disorganized. The place was nearly empty at 8pm on a beautiful Saturday. It was sad. All of us wanted to have a special meal and like this restaurant. It's an expensive and extravagant space--it should...

So last night our experience, or lack thereof, at Rampoldi finally convinced my wife that it’s not really feasible to get food or cocktails here. This is our 4th time here and every experience has been more frustrating and disappointing than the last. It is such a shame as it’s a prime pre-Lincoln Center performance location. We stopped in 50 minutes before the ballet was to start to get a cocktail and some apps. Place was half full but we sat at the bar for 20 minutes without the bartender ever acknowledging us, let alone giving us any indication we might be able to order something, anything, ever. In his defense they had one bartender for the entire restaurant and bar an hour before performance time at a place that bills itself as a pre-theater destination. This place could be so good! But alas, it’s either terribly managed or just not managed and running on auto-pilot with predictable results. We ended up leaving with nothing, waste of time, so tantalizing, so seemingly inviting, but ultimately no matter how hard you try or hope, at Rampoldi you’re doomed to 1) not get served and give up or if you have LOTS OF TIME 2) get served in some haphazard super slow way but not get what you ordered and also get a bill that has little relevance to what you ordered. We give up and we could have been regulars if this place was halfway competent in serving its...