Valdari Ristorante — Restaurant in New York

Oh boy... where do I begin. Came here today for Valentine's day. My wife and I walk in on time, I give the hostess my name and spell it out for her because it's an odd Asian name and it's just 4 letters long. Somehow she shows me a totally different Asian name that's 5 letters long that do not even contain any of the letters I just gave her. No big deal.

As we're being seated right in front of the LIVE BAND, she tells us we have 2 hours because it's busy. Who wants to be seated in front of a live band and need on scream across the table over loud music on Valentine's day. The place was pretty full and the other 2 tables open at that time were just 1 row behind us. It's fine, I'll just accept it. As we're getting into our chairs, the hostess tells us they can't serve tap water because it's brown and contaminated and if we want water, we can only get bottled. Could be possible, but that's very suss to me.

We sit and wait 25 MINUTES for someone to even take our orders. I get it, it's a busy night, 2 tables sat at least 10 minutes after us already ordered and received their cocktails.

I figure no big deal. My wife orders a cocktail and I ask the waitress about the soda whether it's canned or out of a gun. Apparently it's from the gun. So if your water line is contaminated, how are you dispensing soda that uses the same pipes? What about your ice? It's all from the same pipes!

I order hot tea to at least have a chance at boiled water, I get iced tea.

Now let's get to the food. Preset menu, an app, an entrée and a dessert. $70 per person. Not terrible for Bayside but it is what it is. The meatballs looked nice, but were cold. I had shrimp oreganato, not terrible but far from good.

My wife got the Bolognese, she did not enjoy it. I had chicken parm which was very good but the pasta that came with it was bland and mushy. The chicken parm is the only reason I'm giving this place 2 stars instead of 1.

Come the check. 2 dinners at $70 plus 2 teas and a cocktail, plus tip and ADDED GRATUITY $206 in cash. PLUS THE AUDACITY to add ''suggested tip'' message on the bottom for tipping which was calculated on tax and gratuity. THAT'S UNETHICAL suggesting tip on gratuity and added tax.

I ask about using a gift certificate that I received and was denied because their 'system was down'. Fair enough but that sounds like BS too at this time. They'll honor it next time we come. Now after this experience, why would I want to come back and take a chance of your system being down again and not accept a gift certificate from your...

Valdari was a really weird experience. The restaurant wasn't busy at all for a Sunday night, and my family was celebrating my sister-in-law's birthday. Our party spent a bit of time chatting at our table before looking at the menu, and this seemed to annoy the wait staff. Nonetheless, we tried to keep things light and celebratory.

However, the service issues did not stop there. Our waitress was absent for most of our meal, casually munching on her own food across the restaurant. This meant our table's water carafes went empty, and our drink orders went untaken. It seemed like our waitress did not care to give us good service, because the gratuity was guaranteed with our large party. She could've helped herself by allowing us to order more cocktails!

The food was extremely unremarkable. I had the ribeye, which was inexplicably smothered in some flour-based (?) sauce/gravy. The steak was competently cooked, but the finish on the meat was undermined by the gravy. It gave the meat a soggy mouth feel, as opposed to the rich crust you'd want in a steak. The veggie accompaniments and mashed potatoes were quite good.

As an appetizer, I had the grilled octopus. It was fine. The portion was large, when considering the mashed beans and mushroom components of the dish. I have had better and worse grilled octopus.

The price on the food and cocktails was pretty reasonable. We got out for just under $400 for seven people (after auto-grat 😀), but we could have easily purchased another $100 in drinks, had our waitress cooperated. Either way, that's not bad for seven people.

Overall, I'm not mad at Valdari. I just don't love it. The food didn't take any risks. The venue is a bit drab. The wait staff was extremely distracted. If it were up to me, I wouldn't choose this...

The food was delicious! This was my second time here. However, this time around the service was terrible. The hostess took forever to seat us claiming she needed to clear tables meanwhile 4 tables were clean. She then forgot to come to look for us to tell us the table was ready. We had a reservation and it took almost another 30 mins to be seated.

When we ordered we didn't get our margarita pitcher until 15 mins after we ordered. I had to call the waiter to ask what was taking so long. Meanwhile the whole time the pitcher was ready at the bar but the waiter was too busy chatting away and forgot all about it. He realized that I saw him chatting away and immediately rushed over with the water down pitcher.

After when the entrees came the two others in my party got their meals and I never got my pizza. When the waiter finally came over he asked how everything was and I told him I never got my pizza. He forgot to put it in! I got my pizza once everyone else finished eating. He gave me a shot on the house so that was nice of him. My friend ordered fries on the side and those never came. We didn't bother to tell the waiter because it would probably take forever to come.

When we were ready to pay again the waiter disappeared after dropping off the check. He was in the back chatting yet again with a coworker. I had to call another waiter to call him over so we could pay. This was so annoying! We spent more time here waiting than actually enjoying our meals and drinks.

Sucks that the service is so bad at this place. I really love the food and vibe but I don't know if I'll be back after...