Bocca East

Food had too many bitter flavors, and bland. So-so at best. Service lacked knowledge and was unpleasant: could be growing pains, but waiter was beyond pressed, and downright rude (after we eventually went to bar for help, waiter became obsequious - also unpleasant!). Wouldn't go back. Ambiance (from the outside looking in) was best thing about this place.

I've been to Bocca west and loved it but it's far from my hood. Now that they have opened on East side it's great! The food is so fresh and incredible! Love the fresh herb pesto with bread they serve at the beginning and everything else I've gotten is yummy! Reasonably priced as well. The other great thing about having the east and west Bocca is that their menus are different. Love this place!

place was jammed and noisy beyond belief-it is a Bar centered not Food centered restaurant- so if you like scenes and ordinary high priced food and drinks as well as poor service then this is your place- all others- find another italian restaurant

It is attractive and very very noisy- bar centered- not restaurant centered- food is acceptable and high in price- especially the drinks- want to be seen then this is the place- want a pleasant meal in a medium quiet restaurant- then forget about it

I was excited to try this restaurant since I walked by on their opening day. The ambiance and decor is beautiful. We made an 8:30pm reservation, and were kept waiting 10 minutes before the hostess even got to us. By that time, we had watched her give away the two open tables for 2. She told us that they were just clearing off our table (in actuality the diners had not even left yet) and that she would be sure they comped us 2 drinks for the inconvenience. We waited by bar the bar for our table to be ready, a total of 30 minutes from our original reservation time. We started with the mini meatballs which were just ok. Both meals (fettuccine Bolognese and chicken paillard) were also ok at best- the pasta tasted a bit like chef boyarde. It was difficult to get our waiter's attention, and there were many a time that our drinks were empty and we had to call him over. The manager came over at the end with a free tiramisu which would have been nice except this was apparently instead our free drinks. When we asked the hostess about the drinks, she replied that they wanted to comp our dessert instead. We said that would have been fine, however we did not order dessert. They ended up taking two drinks off our bill but this made us feel very awkward about the entire exchange. Overall, the atmosphere is one of the most beautiful restaurants I have ever seen, but it is obvious that everything else has taken a backseat to the decor.

Great wine list for wine by the glass and by the bottle. Our reservation was for 7 pm and we were seated immediately. The service was chaotic. Waiters were running all over the restaurant and we sat quite a while before our wine order was taken. Arugula salad with shaved fennel, orange segments and olives was excellent. The tomato, mozzarella and basil salad was too cold, having come directly from the refrigerator. The waiter helped us order, but the assistant waiters wandered all over the restaurant before getting our courses to the table. My entree, orata with potatoes was served with asparagus instead of thebroccolini that was on the menu. The orata was a very small fillet and our waiter never checked back about the main courses. The pici was delicious. The menu is creative, but the noise level is just too high, especially with the background music that seemed to become louder. With so many good Italian restaurants on the Upper East Side, we probably will not return to Bocca East.

I was excited to try Bocca East as we are in need of new good restaurants on the UES. I went with four people and had a good sampling of the food. The meatballs were very good. The rice balls with lemon, had far too much lemon. Artichokes were just ok, had fries mixed in with them, which was weird. I think they were probably prepared with the same oil. Fries were good. I had the roast pork entree and it was partially perfect, partially completely dried out. Our waitress was cluess and often times disappeared. We overall liked the food and will most likely return. Fettucine Bolognese was good as well.