DeFazio's at 216 — Restaurant in Troy

OK, first we need to address the elephant in the room and that is the noise level. We were in the front dining room and it was almost impossible to hear conversations at a six top. They really need to do something such as sound absorbing tiles or some other Mediation. OK, I feel better.

So there were six of us and we started off with drinks and everyone was happy. I had two drinks which is very unusual for me because the mango tango’s were so good. Flavored rum, and a bunch of different fruit juices served with a garnish of dried mango. Others had pomegranate margaritas and no one was unhappy.

We started with focaccia which was oily and grilled I think. I prefer it just warm but not grilled but it was delicious anyway. Served with an oil and balsamic mix. The salads are absolutely huge. Luke said that two of us could split one, but really it’s good for three. The Caesar salad came with real old-fashioned anchovies and not the newfangled white kind. The arugula salad was just as large and just as good. 3/4 of it came home.

For entrées, we had a wide variety. I couldn’t resist the cavatelli with pumpkin, a vegan dish that was too unusual to pass on. The pasta was delicious cooked just right on homemade I believe. The best description is that it came with a carrot sauce with carrot broth and carrots that were more stringy than anything else. It was really unusual and will be especially good. Come the fall.

Everyone like their entrées. Shrimp oregenata, chicken Parmesan, one couple split a pizza and one had a meatball appetizer and salad. The only disappointing entrée was the chicken and artichoke risotto. The chicken on the artichokes were just fine, but the risotto wasn’t. It was probably our boreal rice, but but it tasted like regular white rice. It came out on a plate, not garnished in any way and really, not appealing to look at; the one choice we wouldn’t repeat.

We split two desserts, a slice of their hangover cake, which was really amazing. A very wet type sponge cake with liqueurs in it and literally melted in your mouth. We also shared a piece of the cheesecake of the day, which was Basque cheesecake. Regular cheesecake with a sugar crust on top. The cheesecake might have been ricotta, but was not as heavy as I like my cheesecake. The service by Luke and his colleagues was friendly and attentive.

A solid four with a...

I visited Defazios at 216 for the first time last week. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was how massive and polished it looks. I was very impressed with the design and layout of the restaurant. There is both a front and back entrance - which is great idea considering parking.

My table sat in the family room. The first thing you notice when you sit has to be the acoustics. Despite eating at a table set for 6, you could not hear what the person at the other end of the table was saying. Someone at my table actually put in their AirPods to drown out some of the noise, which was a great idea.

There was also some kind of electrical issue in the room we were in as well. The lights had flickered four times when we were there, which coupled with the acoustics, it just wasn’t a good mix.

The food was great. We got antipasto , the Caesar salad, and meatballs with ricotta. We wish there was more bread that came with ricotta because there was just so much ricotta on the plate! I also just wanted to note that the bread crumbs on the Caesar were amazing, definitely homemade.

The service was good, but I will say one thing that was hard was all our food did not come out at the same time. 4/6 people at the table had their meals and the other two waited patiently for 5-10 minutes

We got a mix of entrees. The Pizza was great (we got “the Vinny”), I definitely think that pizza is always a sure bet. Another person at our table got the carbonara and it didn’t taste like much (although I will say the next day it tasted better, maybe it just needed to sit for a little).

I thought that the Cajun Chicken Alfredo was one of the best things we got at our table. The noodles are very thick and it was very filling.

For dessert our table got a tiramisu and limoncello which was phenomenal.

I definitely will be back, and understand this is a new operation so it might take a few months until they are performing at their best. I hope this review can help this location because local business...

My partner and I had a really pleasant date here on a Friday night. We walked into a beautiful and boisterous dining room -- definitely don't except to be able to have quiet conversation here, it is LOUD and you will be raising your voice to talk to your dining companions. Their drink menu, especially the wine list, is extensive. I opted for a strawberry gin cocktail which was well-balanced and delicious. We took a chance on the arugula salad, both thinking it might be too simple, but were so pleasantly surprised by how good it was. A big bunch of arugula dressed in a lemon vinaigrette with Romano and crispy garlic and shallots, we could not stop eating it, and we're still talking about how much we liked it days later. We've been fans of DeFazio's pizza for a long time so we knew the pizza would be good, the roasted garlic and eggplant one we got had some really nice char and was the deliciousness we expect from a DeFazio's pizza.

The one entree that was bit disappointing was the Cacio e pepe. I prefer this dish with the traditional bucatini, but this one is served with linguini and it fell into the pitfall many Cacio e pepe's can fall into -- it was clumpy. When done right Cacio e pepe is smooth, but the cheese broke on this one so while it had a really nice strong peppery flavor, the texture was off. Granted our waitress did forget to put this order in initially so I feel like they might've rushed it, which might be why it was not prepared correctly. We finished our meal with a very generous serving of a silky smooth tiramisu; I did find myself looking for a bit more of a coffee flavor but it was a tasty dessert nonetheless.

Overall, I really like what they're doing here even though there are some things I wish were done a bit better and I'm definitely going back for that...