Tartina — Restaurant in New York

I had an absolutely wonderful experience at Tartina. We stopped by with friends before seeing a play and were delighted by every dish. Collectively we ordered the calamari and shrimp fritti, oysters, panariello, and arancino. All of the appetizers were great and packed with flavor. For our entrees we ordered the cacio e pepe, Bolognese, gnocchi massaia, vitello alla costiera. They were all delicious and filling, and I think my favorite had to be the gnocchi and the vitello. The gnocchi were the most wonderfully delicate pillows of flavor I have ever had and the sauce was to die for. The dish was so good that it made me realize I'd never had truly good gnocchi until last night. The vitello was tender and juicey and I sighed with happiness after each bite. For dessert we ordered the panna cotta, profiterole, fragola, and tiramisu. Once again all dishes were wonderful, but my favorite was the tiramisu closely followed by the panna cotta. The sponge of the tiramisu was light and fluffy and all the flavors were perfectly balanced, it was truly a joy to eat. On top of all the delicious food the service was wonderful. We were waited on by Victor and he was lovely and provided the best service. Everyone on staff was kind and attentive and made the whole experience not only one to remember, but one to cherish. I look forward to...

I hosted a birthday brunch for 12 people at Tartina this past weekend, and the experience was amazing from start to finish. When I emailed to inquire about a party menu, Maria Teresa called me personally to put the details together, and I got a quote quickly. Tartina had the best prix fixe price of any of the restaurants I reached out to, and being a neighborhood local, I knew the food would be amazing as always. The day of the event, our table was beautifully set (one long banquet for 12 people), and the service was professional and efficient. They put so much food out! For the price per person, I was shocked by the generous portions--it was served family-style, and we couldn't finish everything they put out. It was a gorgeous 3-course spread, and everything was cooked consistently and very well-done. Everything came out hot and fresh; the tables barely had enough room! Everything was truly authentic Italian. My guests raved about the food (the arancini and the pancakes were crowd favorites), and we enjoyed the live jazz music throughout the afternoon. Our table was set up on the "upper level" (a short step above the main level of the dining room), which felt like a semi-private experience. I cannot say enough good things about the day, and I will definitely be hosting more...

BEWARE My credit card was not returned to us with our receipt to sign and there was no attempt by the waiter to return it to us.

We paid as we finished dinner and were there for 10-15 mins more finishing our drinks. The waiter was happy to visit our table to grab the signed receipt while we were still sitting there, but at no point during this was any attempt made to return my card. I didn't notice until we were already on the bus heading home at which point, we ran back to the restaurant to retrieve the card. When we got back (~5-10 mins later), we searched all around the table and found nothing. Our waiter finally comes out from the kitchen and almost seemed surprised that we came back. He was very slow to retrieve it and seemed to shuffle around a lot of things in the cash register (where my card had somehow ended up). Needless to say, I've already started the miserable process of replacing the card as I do not trust these people.

As to the rest of the dining experience, in a single word, lackluster. The portions were tiny, the food lacked flavor, and the service was about as present as my card after dinner. I'm extremely disappointed that we stumbled across this place for a date night and felt I needed to apologize to my fiancé for how...