AquaMarina
“Washington Heights is a neighborhood that is changing so quickly and so many new restaurants and bars, and this one is one of the best.”
“Small little place but decent food and the best early bird special.”
“Love the linguini vongole, crab cakes ,veal milanese home made tiramisu.”
AquaMarina
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
3 reviews
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Another star well earned, thanks to a continuously kind and courteous staff, coupled with my discovery of their "early bird dinner special":
-A complimentary glass of wine
-Soup or salad
-One of five entrees
-One of four desserts
It's $10 without dessert and $13 with dessert.
Honestly, a free sparkling white wine coupled with a fresh green salad, Penne a la Vodka, and tiramisu is a delight! A deal this fabulous will make anyone want to eat dinner early!
I've only been in once to order take-out as Aquamarina is down the street from my apt and I didn't feel like waiting for Grubhub or giving into Popeye's that day. I'm really glad I gave it a shot!
On this particularly day the front end staff consisted of lots of young people who seemed more interested in gossiping and texting than working. So it took a while for me to be initially greeted and made for very slow service. But the girls were very nice once they got around to me. And the kitchen looked to be at the usual NYC pace to pump out food as quickly as they could.
Please note that I have no basis for comparison yet during other hours/days at the restaurant. So take that comment about the front end staff with a grain of salt.
I ordered the Seafood Lasagna. It took about 15 minutes to get my food because they made it to order (I was able to watch them since I was standing at the counter. I don't doubt the validity of the reviewer who mentions microwaved lasagna…but this was not my experience). I was starting to get annoyed at that point but QUICKLY changed my tune once I dug into this dish!
I DEVOURED this rich, creamy, thick, decadent lasagna overflowing with a dense bechamel sauce mixed with cheeses and a GENEROUS amount of scallops, REAL crab meat, and shrimp. Just know that you HAVE to like cheese/dairy to like this dish. And I recommend sharing unless you're looking to spend 1/2 a day's calories on this dish (which is WELL WORTH IT!!!).
I'd like to go back and sit by the window when I have time to spare for a nice laid back dinner date. The rest of the menu looks very interesting, the place is cute and is located at a busy intersection which makes for good people watching, and it'd be a nice way to relax when you're not in a rush.
I really wanted to like this place, but the "Meh. I've experienced better." that pops up when I roll over two stars pretty much sums it up (thanks, Yelp!).
They recently started serving brunch, so I went today as part of a group of 9. The brunch special is $13 for an entree, brunch drink or coffee + "fresh-squeezed OJ." This was where we met the first of our issues — after ordering coffee, the waitress was strangely resistant to bringing the OJs? She demanded to know who, specifically, planned on drinking them and brought only 3 for the table (even though we had all ordered coffee.) That's actually OK, though, since instead of "fresh-squeezed OJ," we straight up watched the server pour from a bottle of Tropicana at the bar.
The food was pretty good. My boyfriend got an omelet which definitely hit the spot, and my seatmates' orders of the "breakfast pizza" looked really good! My chicken Caesar salad was a pretty small serving of chicken on about 10 lettuce leaves, and nothing else on the plate, so that was a bit lackluster. Initially when they brought one girl's food, it had a fly in it. They "exchanged" the salad but given that it took them all of 5 seconds to make a new salad, i'm pretty sure they just took the fly off the old salad. Blech. They also forgot one girl's order, so she got her meal after everyone else finished eating, and there was no offer to comp it or in any way make up for it.
They have a deal where you can pay $10 extra and drink unlimited for 1.5hrs, so maybe that's good. Maybe if i was more drunk I wouldn't mind waiting an hour and a half to eat, but somehow I doubt it. You're better off going to Marcha across the street.