Scalinatella — Restaurant in New York

I felt like a Times Square tourist… And not in a good way-The quality of the food was very good, but that is the only real positive I have for Scalitenella. where to start? should I start at the end when I received a phone call from the restaurant at 11:45 PM(!) accusing me of leaving without paying my bill. Here’s how it unfolded: THE RESERVATION - reservation was for 7:30 PM but not seated until 8:30 PM. The restaurant is small and very full. Kudos to them but wasn’t great for us. THE BAR WAIT - we were asked to wait at the bar, which is quite small, we were a party of three, and there was one chair available. So we squeezed in and took the one chair and two of us stood for an hour. The entire time we were there an older gentleman was giving us the stink eye. because he felt he was there before us when the hostess asked us to sit there. …at this point, things are still salvageable BUT THEN, we are finally seated and instantly affronted with a very busy waiter, who proceeds to give us 3 very paltry menus, and then rattles off probably 30 “specials“ but as he’s rattling off all those specials, he’s NOT rattling off the prices - no clue on pricing tried to order appetizers (since we were seated an hour later than we had anticipated, the couple I was with was hungry) but i was told, as the waiter huffed off “not placing any orders until you order your entrée”. later a busboy whisked away my friends appetizer plate and fork out of her hand. She was not done eating. we asked for our leftovers to go, but the beef carpaccio that was left (1/2 of the order) didn’t manage to make it into the box with the leftover pasta. in the end, we had three appetizers, two entrées, a glass of champagne, a martini, a glass of wine, a port, and two desserts. The bill with tip came to $420+/- which I paid with my AMEX at 10:22 PM, and which I also retained a customer copy receipt of thankfully. so imagine my surprise… ACCUSED OF NOT PAYING - when at 11:45PM I get a phone call accusing me of leaving without paying my bill. I did have two martinis so in the back of my head I’m thinking anything is possible… So I checked my Amex card and sure enough it showed the charge pending and I had a copy of my receipt that was printed out from the processing machine.

I called the restaurant back and explained the situation and they said they would check into it and then they called ME back and told me I paid the WRONG bill….In a way that made it sound like it was my fault that I paid the wrong Bill, not that they gave me the wrong bill and i paid it accordingly. (My bill was actually $60 less than the bill I paid). I was asked to come back in so that they could credit the wrong Bill an recharge me the correct amount. I told them I would be in the next day, they wanted to know what time and I said I didn’t know. The next day a woman called me and asked me what time I would be in or if they could take my credit card information over the phone…at This point I am not comfortable giving my credit card information to the restaurant over the phone so I told her I would be in later; the woman aggressively asked me if I could be in “now” and I told her no I was working and she said can you be in within an hour and I said no I’m working and she said “when can you be in” and I said between 4 o’clock and 5 o’clock. none of this exchange is friendly or apologetic on the Restaurants part. I did get to the restaurant later that afternoon, and they did process the credit for the $60…i received a hug for my troubles but even that felt disingenuous.

I was hoping for a neighborhood, Italian restaurant experience at a high end, but I ended up walking away, feeling like a Timesquare tourist to be taken advantage of. I would not go back, nor would I recommend dining at this restaurant.

I understand that they were left with one ticket unpaid, but who calls a customer at 11:45 at night to accuse them of not paying their bill without making sure it isn’t their mistake...

Went there last night after walking around the area for a bit. The experience was really nice but with a couple of flaws.

Notes for the customers:

First of all, just to say that, Upper East, you kinda expect the prices to be pretty high. So you don't walk in there with an empty wallet or a tight budget.

There were two complimentary entrees and bread with olive oil, which would cost you a good $25-30 anywhere else.

The food was really good. I happened to be in Italy in November, and the quality and flavours at Scalinatella took me back there. The energy in the room was impeccable. The cooking bar next to the tables, the family energy, and the overcrowded tables made this evening a whole experience.

Unfortunately, my phone was off battery, so I don't have pictures, but I ordered baby spinach salad with grilled goats cheese, sea bass as a main, and panna cotta for dessert. By the end of the night, I was so full I had to take some food back with me!

The quality of the food was amazing, and all the ingredients were fresh. While I sat next to the stairs, I kept seeing returning customers, which is a really good sign for any place where you're planning to spend $$$ at. That's a quality restaurant that I definitely advise people to try at last once if it suits your budget! I had only water and the three dishes, and my total with 20% tips was $130

These two points are for the people at the restaurant to take notes:

The fact that most of the things are not on the menu kind of threw me off, having to guess how much I would be paying. I'm sure the locals have more than enough to go by, so maybe the prices are never a question. But as a tourist I like to know the cost of things even if I don't mind spending some extra bucks.

Another thing was the overcrowded energy, with more than 5 staff hanging and moving around in a tight space yet so hard to get someone's attention to order a dessert and pay at the end. You give an amazing first impression with the main person becoming your new best friend and the complimentary starters hitting the table in less than a minute. But I had to ask for my food to be packed, twice, waited to get someone's attention for the bill for about 10 minutes and had to use sign language to order dessert by waving at the person behind the bar. Almost as if they impress you to get you to order loads at first and then don't finish the experience. The whole atmosphere is super friendly, but the overall exchange with the staff makes it feel like business and money driven, which kinda ruins the vibe. This coming with the hit of the bill and $18 for a panna cotta that wasn't that impressive in presentation or size left me a bit disappointed. When the rest of the dishes are so big, a thin slice of dessert feels like a downgrade. It also tasted a bit like creme caramel. You might want to change the caramel flavour to a fruity one.

I hope you find my constructive points useful and insightful, and I hope to see you again when I'm back for some freshly...

Lets start with wow. The worst thing I could say about this place is their side of vegetables are slightly under-seasoned, that's literally my only complaint. The best thing I could say about them is that this was one of, if not the, best dining experience I've ever had. My boyfriend and I had plans to eat at Serendipity but seeing a tremendous line out front decided to talk a walk and look elsewhere. Thank god we did. We were greeted warmly as soon as we came in and our coats were hung for us. Then we were seated. Before we were even given a menu we were brought a sampling of marinated grilled zucchini, traditional scungili salad, and a variety of house-made breads with olive oil. All were delicious. Then we ordered two classes of cabernet and an order of grilled calamari to share. It was served with an Italian olive and tomato compote and an herbed vinaigrette. Again, delicious. For our entrees my boyfriend had chicken fra diavlo and I had the lamb chops. His was good, but nothing spectacular. Mine came in a deep wine and balsamic demi glace that was so good I though about licking the plate clean. Cooked perfectly medium rare and fall apart tender. And finally dessert, tiramisu, pannacota, and cappuccinos. The pannacota came in a red caramel sauce that was out of this world. Cappuccinos were lightly sweet and piled high with tons of foam. Throughout the entire meal multiple servers were very attentive, your water was never empty, plates were quickly cleared. However they never interrupted your meal and didn't make you feel uncomfortable with their constant presence. Also, all of the staff spoke fluent Italian and when they spoke in English they had thick accents, which I liked because it gave an authentic feel. The decor and ambiance was also very nice. Exposed brick walls lined with bottles of wine, dimmed lights and no windows (being below street level) and a cute small bar gave it a very intimate and romantic feel. There was also some sort of island-area in the middle of the dining room where you could see the waiters prepare some parts of your meal. This is the type of place I wanted to leave and immediately tell every I knew about it. If you are not afraid to spend some money I would recommend this place to anyone! Kudos to ALL staff at Scalinatella and thank you for making it such a wonderful, memorable,...