Norcina — Restaurant in Town of Clarkstown

48 Dollars – Cut Off The Leg– 7 Dollars - 75 Cents

Went to Norcina for the first time last night based on recommendations from two sources. They both said the food is excellent but the place is very noisy. They also said the wait staff was excellent and tried to please – which turned out to be very accurate. We were a party of 3. We knew going in that the dinner menu is very limited with no soup or salad included with any of the dinners but we assumed there would be specials. None of the specials appealed to us so we ordered from the menu.

$48: The most expensive listed price for dinner on the menu is $28. Listed next to the $28 item is Veal Osso Bucco at MP (Market Price). When we asked the MP we were told $48 dollars – most 4 star restaurants in Manhattan don’t charge that much for braised veal shank & we know of no other restaurant in Rockland County that does. No one ordered it.

Cut Off The Leg: One of the items listed on the dinner menu is Herbed Chicken at $19. When asked if it was all white meat we were told “no it is chicken breast with leg attached”. When the waitress was asked if it could be ordered as all white meat she seriously replied “We can cut off the leg”. We told her to leave the leg alone. We then asked her to check with the chef to see if he could prepare an all white meat order. She went into the kitchen and returned shortly with the chef’s response of “no, would not do that”. At this point we knew we were never coming back here again so we ordered the old stand by’s chicken parm (2 orders) & eggplant parm (1 order).

$7: We asked the waitress what comes with the parm orders and she said rigatoni marinara. One of us requested to have polenta instead of rigatoni and she wrote it down and went into the kitchen. She returned and said the polenta would be $7 extra. There are no indications on the menu that substitutions would incur an extra charge but we said OK.

75 Cents: When the dinners arrived the two chicken parm dinners were excellent. The marinara sauce on the rigatoni was also excellent but one of the side orders had very little sauce. Additional sauce was requested and promptly provided in a small aluminum tumbler. When the check arrived a charge of $0.75 was on the bill for the extra sauce - another reason never to return.

As previously stated the chicken parm was excellent but the eggplant parm was terribly dry and almost tasteless. Traditional Italian Eggplant Parm is prepared almost like lasagna with layer upon layer of breaded fried eggplant, sauce, grated cheese and the top layer with a generous amount of sauce, grated cheese and mozzarella. This eggplant parm had layers of breaded fried eggplant with little or no sauce or grated cheese between layers.

The $7.00 polenta was terrible with a taste & consistency of a hot, milk & cheese, runny tapioca pudding.

As far as the place being noisy, that is understated. Even though the place has a high ceiling it has a bare metal roof. There are acoustical foam panels & sprays that are relatively inexpensive that can be applied without too high a labor cost. But I guess no matter how inexpensive an acoustical solution might be any restaurant which would add a 75 cent charge because they skimped on the sauce is not about to spend money to keep the...

I waited for my order to be taken, waitress walked away after taking the man's order at my table, leaving me to sit there with nothing. I waited for everyone to finish eating while she came back to check on the man and ignored me. I feel really sad due to this experience and will not be returning.

Edit: Table furthest in the back to the right side. Got there about 5:30 pm.(march 8th) Order: wings, kids mozzarella sticks, penne pizza, 1 drink(alcohol),kids spaghetti,kids drinks.

I attempted to order when the kids second drinks were ordered. I gave up after. It was known by the table that I can't eat gluten so I didn't order pizza. I just played it off so there wouldn't be conflict. Also a proper tip was given as well. I'm not angry by the situation, just didn't have a good experience. I did say excuse me but maybe she didn't hear me. I like my family to have a good time and didn't want my experience to hurt that.

Edit:Also, the man at the table wasn't in good spirits as he decided against finishing the food and wanted it packed up and leave immediately.his facial expression in video reflects that. He put his food in the trash after we left and said that he didn't enjoy being there as the situation stressed him out. In the end...just let your waitress know to ask both adults at the table it they want to order something and not always just cater to the...

Ordered a chicken Caesar salad. Chicken taste great, however, not enough dressing, did not provide any napkins or utensils and a rather small portion for $20. Also no bread included with the salad. In comparison to their competition, they are lacking overall. The competition is either half the price or provide everything I mentioned above that was missing. If at a minimum they would at least provide more dressing, bread and utensils then they may very well beat the competition. Until then I can only give them 2 stars.

Not sure what type of etiquette you have but clearly your missing the concept here. First off you are very rude with your response, seem very angry. Secondly, as I said in my previous post, in comparison to other restaurants who charge as much as you do, the portion comes up short. Lastly, even McDonalds gives you napkins without having to ask. As an example Banchettos in Nanuet, similar price, napkins and utensils provided without needing to ask and a bigger portion. But it all makes sense now, with your poor customer service, and lack of basic restaurant etiquette I have no regrets with my initial review. Word to the wise, you should learn how to take criticism and learn from it to improve your service instead of replying with a two star response to match your two star salad. No need to reply won’t be back. I’ll take my business...