Via Italia Restaurant
“A quaint place I found open late and good food.”
“I'm glad I didn't read some of these negative reviews beforehand, because our experience was good.”
“Excellent portion sizes and wine list.”
Via Italia Restaurant
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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I stopped in here with my girlfriend because we wanted to eat dinner somewhere new. We walked by a few places and I started craving Italian and after looking at the menu posted outside we decided to give this pale a try. The inside decor is nothing special and the place was pretty empty around dinner time. She ordered the Carbonara and I got the pasta with shrimp and tomato sauce (I forget the name). We were both underwhelmed because our dishes were lacking flavor. They were just bland pasta dishes. We'll try the place across the street next time.
This place is the worst. The menu looked abysmal and severely overpriced, as everything is in this neighborhood, but we were hungry and wanted to order an entree and a couple of appetizers to share. We were seated and everything was fine at the beginning. The server came to take our orders and got us water. Then, ten minutes later, the server comes back to kick us out since we didn't order an entree a person – what. the. hell.
Will this restaurant blow you away in terms of food and decor? Nope. But it totally hits the spot. I ended up coming to Via Italia with two friends after returning from 6 weeks being MIA. They were at Connelly's for some after work drinks and so we met up and I consulted Yelp. We figured Italian was our best bet in the area, aside from going to a big name steak house.
The restaurant is essentially what you would find anywhere outside of NYC – so think suburbia or Queens. Really, really basic decor, but they have it down when it comes to the food. Fried calamari was a little undercooked, in my opinion, but my chicken Piccatta was off the chain. Wine was reasonably priced so we order a bottle or two.
Would I make a hard effort to return? Probably not. The only reason I recall the name is because I checked in with Foursquare.
Ate here Friday night and was pleasantly surprised. We were in the city to visit the tree at Rockefeller center and we were looking for a spot to have some pasta.
The restaurant is very "cozy" with tables about 8 inches apart from each other but we were pleased to get a table without waiting since it was a Friday night. We started with an appetizer of roasted asparagus topped with grated parmesan cheese. It was fresh and light and nicely seasoned. My daughter had the homemade cheese tortellini in vodka sauce. The tortellini was creamy and delicious and the sauce more on the creamy side but very good. I had a homemade pasta special which was pasta with shrimp and shitake mushrooms in a light tomato sauce. It was so tasty. The richness of the mushrooms was carried through the entire dish. And the pasta was definitely fresh made. We didn't have dessert.
Service was very attentive and the clientelle seemed to be mainly tourists with some regulars sprinkled in. The prices were extremely reasonable for NYC. I highly recommend to any tourists traveling in NYC wanting to dine somewhere close to the tree
I was craving some gnocchi and found this spot walking around from my office. They claimed that they have the best gnocchi in NYC and that they would happily let me take it to go.
I waited for about 10 minutes – not bad – before paying and going on my way.
My coworker was super jealous of my awesome looking gnocchi. The portion was huge so this was also going to be lunch for the next day (bonus points). I will say the shape of the gnocchi was a little weird. It wasn't round like it usually is. It also tasted pretty ok. It was cooked pretty well (maybe 4 stars) and wasn't super mushy and overcooked. The sauce was a bit watered down unfortunately. What really makes gnocchi great is the sauce.
They also packed half a baguette of bread (literally 10" of bread, sliced), some butter and some cheese on the side. This made for an awesome carb snack later in the day.
I was pretty horrified reading some of the reviews. Had I not, I wouldn't have thought any of the food I was served and the service was fine. I didn't die or feel sick so…I don't really have anything bad to say!
Oh dear … this is a strange place. We asked the waiter how much sangria is in a pitcher and he says $30. Yeah, but how much wine do you get? it went on like this for a few minutes until the stressed waiter asked his boss waiter, who told us a 1 liter. A few minutes later the manager of the restaurant told us 1.5 liter. We decided against any alcohol.
The food was "Meh!" indeed. My gnocchi were swimming in butter and my friend send her dish back to the kitchen, as the seafood was clearly off. They gave us another dish and were nice enough not to charge us for these two dishes.
But even though I would not go back there.
Service was so, so, so slow. Bread was mediocre. Got the risotti via italie and it was bland and mushy. Sounds gross right? Yeah.
Oh, and Bill O'Reilly was sitting at the table right next to us. Apparently this is his hang out spot. He had a table to himself facing a photo of himself that was mounted on the wall.
First and most importantly… their takeout container leaked. So there I was, dripping creamy white liquid all over the subway platform and wiping it up with my hands.
There was hardly anyone here on a Tuesday night, which isn't a great sign considering how many tourists flock to the Rockefeller Center area. Interesting how a scarcity of customers begets further scarcity when people are scared off. Yet there's always a reason for a place for a place's level of popularity. The only way to reverse a trend is to intervene with better food, service, or prices.
Their prices are higher than on the Yelp menu, which they need to update. Fettuccini alfredo was $14 instead of the $12.95 advertised. Better to list no menu than to maintain incorrect information. The only reason I came here was for the relatively cheap food.
They also made a mistake when they wrote my check, writing down $15 instead of the $14 on their printed menu. I wouldn't assume it to be deliberately deceptive but they should be more attentive. The customer shouldn't have to double-check the prices.
I ordered takeout, but the guy who greeted me when I came in didn't even know if they offered it. Oops. There might have been a language barrier, given his non-trivial accent.
They did throw in a breadstick, but when I got to it less than an hour later it was hard and nearly inedible.
The alfredo was passable in the sense that it gave me the carbs I was looking for. Bland, not particularly creamy. The noodles were quite alright.
Nah brah.