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With the prices this place charges, you would expect a pleasant dining experience and excellent food. We took out of town friends here recently and got neither. From the beginning, the waitress seemed devoted to getting us to finish and get out as quickly as possible. The busboy kept peering over our shoulders and trying to take away dishes that we hadn't finished. Not that we were eager to finish, but the food was mediocre at best. The menu said the special of the night was baby lamb chops, but the waitress said that wasn't available and the lamb was lamb shank. When my friend ordered it anyway, it hadn't been cooked long enough. My pasta was mushy and the sauce lacked any flavor. A real outrage considering the prices. I will say that the appetizers were pretty good, but that hardly made up for the rest. The restaurant wasn't even full, which made the waitress's conduct even more puzzling. I never before have had somebody ask if we were going to order anything more and when we said no, just plop the check down on the table. This was about 8 in the evening, mind you.

The food and wine are fantastic. Unfortunately the hostess, the bartenders, and the waiter were pretentious, condescending and rude. We sat at the bar for a glass of wine to start and clearly the bartender was annoyed at our presence. The hostess was snooty and acted like she was doing us a favor by putting our names on the list and the waiter brought all the food and wine to the table at the same time. It is really a shame because the food was good, although very expensive considering the poor service.

I just came back from dinner at Cesca, and it was one of the best meals of my life. (The place is rather pricy, but whatever, my parents paid for it.) All the other people on this site who left negative reviews...I seriously don't get it. Let me tell you about my experience there. There was a bread basket waiting for us when we said down, the contents of which were soft and warm and flavorful. I had the parmesan and prosciutto appetizer -- little fried balls of heaven. Then I had the spaghetti with tomato sauce and mozzarella, which was as fine a pasta dish as I can remember (and I've eaten pasta in Venice), though the portion was a bit small. And finally, for dessert, I had the mascarpone cheesecake, which probably contained all the calories I'll need for the week, but who cares? That's what exercise is for. The service was outstanding. Everyone was incredibly friendly. My 84-year-old dad flirted with one of the hostesses (which was embarrassing and hard to watch), but she rolled with it and kept a smile on her face. The place is beautifully decorated, and it was packed with customers, but not in a crazy overwhelming way. It had a perfectly warm, bustling vibe. I was in a group of six people, and everyone loved their food. In fact, that was the basis of part of our conversation. One woman (a foodie from Paris) said that her veal chop was the best she'd ever had. Anyway, just wanted to set the record straight because some of the reviews on here are like...damn...WTF?

I finally tried this restaurant with a friend after having read about it for so long and it was a big disappointment. We both ordered from the pre-theater 3-course menu for $31. When the mixed green salad arrived, it looked like 1 salad had been divided into 2 portions, delicious though it was. Then the salmon arrived and it was laughably teensy. At that point the size of the dinky portions dominated our conversation (including with the waiter), and we were still hungry when we left . . . and we're WOMEN!! (Was that why they gave us such tiny portions?) Anyway I would hesitate to come back to this restaurant for fear of being EMBARRASSED in front of a friend, like I was. And too bad too because the restaurant seems great otherwise.

When my husband and I dine in NY we look forward to a wonderful break from the ordinary. Selection,flavor and favorite dishes bring us back time after time

I was shocked at our experience at this restaurant. it was very highly rated but the waiter that we were given from the first moment was insulting and lousy and hostile. we were at a business dinner and we just tried to ignore him. one of our party had a dish that it had to be returned (don't usually like to do this at a business meeting,but this dish was not good at all. The food was served by a busboy that threw the food on our table, not even the waiter, and at average of $38.00 per dish this seems like an insult. The second dish that we were given as a replacement for the first rotten dish was undercooked, but we were too late into the meal to continue to complain and that was that $28.00 down the drain. In all fairness, most of the other dishes were very good, but this restaurant needs some serious tweeking. Beware if you eat here it is over priced with lousy and hostile service.

The food of at this restaurant is excellent, but my experience was completely spoiled by the extraordinarily staff. It's the worst service experience I've ever had in NYC. The bartender was temperamental, the bar waiter rolled his eyes when we asked a question about the wine list and the manager of the restaurant was actually hostile. She scolded us like children for turning off a light standing directly next to our table. It's been 20+ years since anyone has talked to me in such a disrespectful, patronizing manner. Her behavior and attitude were so awful we decided to leave the restaurant and order desert somewhere else because we couldn't stomach spending a dollar more with them. This would have been a great neighborhood find, but I will never return - unless I hear it is under new management.