San Carlo Osteria Piemonte — Restaurant in New York

As Brian said (again this morning): This is up there with the best meals we've ever had in New York.

@sancarlonyc was full of lively but not loud energy when we arrived. There was only Italian spoken to our left and two gorgeous espresso martinis on the table to our right.

We noted the fresh flowers in a variety of arrangements on the tiny tables and a huge one on the bar: a feat given that the place only holds 48 seats.

We had attentive service from both our server, and the wine master, especially after the wine Brian ordered was out and they recommended a 2019 blend that was recently named one of the top 50 in the world.

After much deliberation and the recommendation of our server, we settled on 4 plates. In order of our favorites:

The seared scallops had something secret in the sauce and the butternut squash compote was more like tiny diced-then-candied bits of butternut squash. A fantastic way to bring out the natural sweetness of a scallop!

The duck "porchetta" was only barely second behind those. Whoa. Rolled up like porchetta, with just a little herby greens inside, but where the wildly tender meat and melty rendered fat were tucked into crispy skin and another fantastic sauce.

The butternut squash ravioli also found flavors that most can't... I think there was some secret cinnamon and brown sugar in the filling and a buttery sage sauce with crusty torn bread crumbs for crunch you never knew you needed with ravioli.

The buffalo mozzarella was fresh and simple, better after adding a little olive oil and salt (both already on every table). The tomatoes were winter tomatoes, so hard to compare to the summer flavor just a few months ago. Still: fresh mozz and crusty bread with olive oil 🤤

We decided we couldn't do dessert, but they brought us tiny almond cookies anyway and a complimentary digestif (amaro?).

Oh and they take birthdays to heart here: The music changes on the speakers and they march a dessert lit by sparkler through the tiny space, while everyone claps (no singing). Pure shared joy.

A well earned 5-star...

When I first arrived to the restaurant I was met with many people enjoying coffee and desserts, little did I know that was probably one of the only redeeming factors of this establishment. Celebrating our anniversary My girlfriend and I started by ordering drinks which were alright, not worth the $18 price tag for simply mixing rum with espresso and making a whisky concoction of flavors that definitely was a sipper. Next came the appetizers, ordered the rice balls and signature scallop dish; it was understandable to pay $5 a piece for 3 little rice balls at a fancy city restaurant but $28 for 3 little fork sized scallops was blasphemous no matter what sauce they lightly drizzled on there. After that we had the main courses, the Gnocchi and the Calamarata; the Gnocchi was some of the laziest blandest Ive had with no effort put into the crafting of the gnocchi since they obviously rolled the potato into a cylinder and cut them to look like little hockey pucks, also as my girlfriend put it the veal looked and tasted like cat food. The Calamarata was no better since there short pasta looked like big uncooked calamari rings and there octopus smelt and tasted like bait; to top it all off they used the traditional big optical allusion bowls to make it look like your getting a lot of food and only filled it about halfway. For dessert we had the tiramisu And a cappuccino, pretty good dessert and they use Lavazza for their espresso so that was nice. Also the general look of the restaurant had a nice enough appeal till I used the bathroom, it gave me the feeling of using a restroom to some hole in the wall or a bodega that had a nice tiling budget then ran out half way through, said screw it and started attacking the walls with a paint roller. To conclude, left with a high bill for over rated/ nasty cuisine, feeling sick from the food, and still hungry. We could have split a $5 Costco chicken and had a...

I rarely leave negative reviews, but I feel compelled to share my experience.

The service was attentive. However, the food quality was extremely disappointing — and at times even alarming.

I was served meatballs that were clearly made with spoiled meat — the unpleasant smell and taste were impossible to ignore. This isn’t just bad cooking, it’s a serious health risk. I could have gotten food poisoning.

The Caesar salad was equally confusing. Instead of a proper Caesar, I received a tiny handful of greens topped with breadcrumbs and a strange green sauce. It didn’t taste terrible, but it absolutely wasn’t what I ordered or expected. When you ask for a Caesar salad, you don’t expect a mystery reinterpretation.

And finally, the pappardelle pasta we ordered with a white sauce was brought out with a red one — and not just any red sauce. It was so intensely sour it actually gave me heartburn. We couldn’t eat more than a couple of bites.

Despite the friendly service, this experience left me upset and honestly concerned. A restaurant should never serve spoiled meat or completely disregard what was ordered. I sincerely hope the management takes this feedback seriously and addresses the issues in...