Babbo

My boyfriend took me to Babbo for my birthday, and we got the pasta tasting menu. It was amazing!! The quality of the food was undeniable, and we got to try so many different things! The service was great, though it was hard to understand the waitstaff at times because the restaurant was so loud. It was an amazing meal, and I would definitely recommend it to pasta lovers!

I went to Babbo last Thursday with my best friend. Yes, we had the typical 1 hour wait at the bar, but we ordered some good wine.I had Gavi di Gavi (excellent!!) and she had some good Umbrian red wine (fantastic!!). While waiting for our table , we observed the bar crowd. As usual we were the best looking gals, but we also saw some other very attractive men and women. Where was Parker Gregory (the hot model!!)? I heard he often goes to Babbo. After 2 bottles of wine, we could care less about the food (Great beef ravioli!!) or the waiter. We had a fantastic time and will definitely go back! Thanks Mr. Batalli!!!!

Yes, I live in NY. Yes, I eat out quite frequently. And I find it obnoxious when reviews assume anyone having anything negative to say simply doesn't understand NY dining etc. Maybe, like me, they just didn't like the experience. After having waited the mandatory month for my table, I could not have been more disappointed at the overall experience. I don't care about waiting a bit for for a reservation - that happens. I do care that the obnoxious front of house acts as if they are doing you favor by allowing you to wait. Somellier was they worst, starting to open a second bottle of wine before we'd even ordered it! Lamb tongue was the only thing we had that I would consider outstanding. Rest good, not great. Subpar experience where pretentious staff made good but not great food a highly disappointing overall experience. I've had better pasta and service in the East Village.

Went to Babbo the other night for the first time and WOW!! Amazing! The service is perfect as is the entire experience. Appetizers we had the cockles which were very light and nice and the orichette pasta with greens and meat (also great). Main courses were a special crispy orata in blood orange sauce with pine nuts -yum! and the rack of lamb (just perfectly done and again....YUM!) Sides were the broccoli rabe with roasted garlic and the brussel sprouts. Dessert we had the tasting of sorbet that was just the best ending to a wonderful meal. Have fun and I can't wait to go again to try more things

I'd love to know what you had that was so complicated and made the dish mediocre? Almost every dish on the menu is simple Italian cuisine and if you lived there you should know. Lots and lots picky nonsense in these reviews. I just don't understand and for you to say that most of the diners were not New Yorkers is ridiculous, I am a regular at Babbo and there are so many people that I see weekly it's insane. The restaurant has not been open this long and doing this well with "mediocre" food.

For a restaurant that took us months to book with celebrity-status hype, we were expecting much more. I don't consider myself a food critic, but having lived in Italy, I know the difference between good Italian food and great Italian food. Apart from the tripe, which was phenomenal, the rest of the dishes were poorly cooked, or just mediocre. I understand there might be the occaisional sub-par dish, but when only 2 out of the 6 we ordered were good, this causes some problems. I thought many of the dishes were trying too hard or too complex. Not to say the food was bad, but for the money we paid, we would've been better off someplace else.

Boy did I toil over these reviews. I think I read just about every single one... now it's my turn. My boyfriend took me to Babbo for my birthday (this month Jan 2009). I had to be pretty military about making the reservation- and got one for 10pm.. on a Tuesday. I felt bad making my boyfriend suffer through my desire to try the place. I should have listened to the reviews and gone somewhere else- something low key. We sit down upstairs and right away we knew we were the only people from NYC in the room.. I got the hen- both pieces were all fat and dark meat. I wasn't going to complain about anything- because I didn't want to be "one of those" people. What were they going to do? I already ate... I just know not to go there again. The salad with goat cheese and roasted veggies was fantastic, could have had 4 more of them... pumpkin dessert was fine. I like anything with sugar...