Sotto 13
“Of the 2 brunch plates we ordered, I didn't have any of the tuscan egg, but the french toast was so fluffy and sweet.”
“We were seated centered under the skylight at the long table to fit our party of 10.”
“We all opted for the $25 brunch special which included either a pizza, or 2 tapas plus a side, and unlimited drinks for 1.5 hours.”
Sotto 13
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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Tucked away on a cute street in West Village, Sotto 13 is a lovely restaurant that serves delicious, fresh Italian fare. We made reservations, but it wasn't very busy when we stopped into dine. The service was fast and our waitress was super friendly. This is a great spot for dinner in one of the cutest neighborhoods in the city!
We ordered several items off the menu – my favorite was the Grandma's bolognese! The sauce was sooo yummy and pasta perfectly cooked. I also really loved the duck & zucchini salad – a special – the combination of textures was really interesting but delicious! The cacio e pepe pizza was just ok to me – wish they offered cacio e pepe as a pasta dish instead!
This is quite a walk from the nearest subway stations, but perfect for a light dinner. The interior of this restaurant is just so, so pleasant. I love the difference in atmosphere & vibe as you traverse from the patio to the dimly lit bar, and finally to the back with high chairs and comfortable benches.
The food, while a bit pricey, is great. First off, even the bread and olive oil is delicious: the bread is soft, unlike that found in other Italian restaurants, and the olive oil leaves an amazingly strong but good aftertaste. The pizza pie is small but very soft, crusty, warm, and has just the right amount of cheese. The pasta dishes all sound interesting on the menu; I tried the one with veal in it and was not disappointed.
I spent less than an hour at this place because I was in a rush, but it was a nice experience overall. Would love to try the prix-fixe menu + dessert next time!
I'm giving this place 3 stars more for the atmosphere and lighting, which I absolutely loved, more than the service or food, both of which were just okay.
I came here with a group of 5 other friends for Saturday morning brunch. I had made the reservation earlier in the week and was able to snag a spot at 11. Some of my friends were running late, but after 2/3 of the group arrived, they went ahead and sat us in this cozy little booth at the opposite end of the restaurant, near the skylight.
Our server did not do a good job of explaining the concept of social brunch to us. At the end of her explanation, none of us realized it was all-you-can-eat, and we were all super confused as to why it cost $35. Hence we opted to order a la carte instead after clarifying with our server that it was possible to order separate dishes from the social brunch menu too.
I got the pulled chicken hash because it was the item with the most meat, but I didn't enjoy all that much. The chicken meat tasted dry, and I wasn't a huge fan of the sweet sauce they coated it in; it tasted like bbq sauce which I don't like.
My friends who got the eggs benedict said it was amazing though. And I tried a bite of another friend's butcher's scramble which was pretty much a huge pile of soft scrambled eggs in this tomato-based sauce, and that was pretty tasty as well. I guess I just ordered the wrong thing.
Just watch out – the portions for the items from the social brunch menu are pretty small. After finishing our meal, we were all not quite full, so we split a prosciutto pizza afterwards. It came with 6 slices which was perfect for the 6 of us, so we all snagged a slice and happily munched on that. Unfortunately the pizza wasn't the greatest either, but at least it filled us with some much needed meat and carbs!
The restaurant let us sit around for a while even after we finished our meal without rushing us, which I thought was nice. We didn't leave until close to 2:30, which means we were there for over 3 hours!
Overall we paid about $20 pp after tax and tip. Not bad!
I really wanted to love this place. The venue itself is cozy, beautifully adorned, and simply lovely. There's a skylight in the middle of the dining area with a bunched group of pearly white balloons hanging from the ceiling. The place looked like it could be featured in an engagement party photo shoot!
But as much as I tried to, I couldn't love Sotto 13.
*Note for fellow Gluten Free eaters: Don't do it. Sotto 13 is famous more for its pizzas, and there aren't many gluten free options here.
I came with a group of 6 for a Sunday brunch. Although we had reservations (make reservations!!!), we had to wait at least 10-15 minutes to get seated. It took another 5-10 minutes for our waters to be filled, and get this – it took about an hour for our food to come out. We did all note though, that the pizza orders from tables around us came out much faster – as luck would have it, no one in my group ordered pizzas.
Our server did apologetically try to explain to us that our food was taking longer to come out because while dishes from the "Social Brunch" menu section could be pounded out quickly, dishes not from that section naturally took longer. We were left quite confused because we had all ordered a plate off of the said "Social Brunch" section….
When our food finally arrived, we were all underwhelmed ("Underwhelmed" being a bit of an understatement. "A bit of" also being an understatement). The dishes were all the standard, brunch dishes you could get everywhere else. I myself got the chicken hash (chicken, fried egg, garlic, onions, potatoes) and found it rather salty what with the thick bbq-like sauce. It would have been nice if they had sprinkled some more arugula and herbs on top!
Our server gave us six pieces of "bag of bomboloni"s (fried doughnut holes with warm nutella sauce) to apologize for the wait, and as much as we appreciated her gesture, no one was appeased. I think we all would have preferred to cut down the wait.
Gorgeous restaurant, great service. The menu is small and some of the dishes are small. You won't be full with an entree so treat yourself to a 3 course meal when you get there. I had the pork shank and was pretty good. The bass was small. The desserts were ok. The pana cotta was just yogurt and that was disappointing but the waitress took it out of the menu and she was very apologetic about it.
My friend had reserved a large table for her birthday dinner last weekend. Starting this off with stating on how amazing the service was for our dining experience for a group of nine. We were seated in the brightly lit dining hall area with a window-paned roof that looks up into the sky. It was pretty empty for a Saturday night but also probably attributing that to the Kentucky Derby race was going on and Sotto is tv-less.
Another thing I wanted to make note of before I break down everything I sampled, bring back unlimited booze brunch! Never actually got to try it here but that was the main reason why I initially remember bookmarking this place. Now I believe they do carafes of brunch cocktails with a limit of one per two guests. Lame. I guess it really takes only one drunk asshole to ruin a great deal that they had before.
The cocktails: I mostly sampled an array of different things people at our table ordered. Their wine is delicious too! But I knew it was going to be a long night and wine makes me sleepy. Favorite was definitely the Fig Old Fashioned with smooth amber old scout bourbon, fig, maple syrup, and a booze soaked real cherry on top. So sweet, strong, and decadent. The strawberry chamomile margarita my friend ordered was as well one of the better margaritas I've tried in a long time. Gin cocktails were okay but a little herbaceous. Definitely go with the bourbon, margs, or wine.
Appetizers served after fresh focaccia bread came out with rosemary olive oil: We split among a group of us their wood-fired meatballs with ricotta, pomodoro, and toasted pine nuts. Incredibly delicious and the pine nuts accent it well but $11 you are paying about $4 a meatball (only three per serving). Yellowfin tuna tartare with green olives, capers, chili oil, and toast. This was so fresh with just a hint of heat. I could eat five plates of tuna tartare. Simply stunning.
The entree I ordered was carbonara with duck pancetta, cured egg yolk, pecornio and parmigiano. Really enjoyed the al dente bucatini noodles (expected linguini but this was better). Portion was decently sized for a medium fancy restaurant which was pleasing. Not enough duck, but great on flavor. Hard to flag down our waiter for some more parmigiano to be added, lending to my food growing cold. I still really enjoyed this dish though.
I tried the meat sauce of one of my friend's grandma's fettuccine in bolognese sauce and noted made with some extra love. The sauce was surprisingly a bit sweet and could imagine an entire bowl would go down quick. Also tried a piece of someone's butcher's cut piedmontese beef with salsa verde. OH MY GOD. Melt in your mouth tender, well seasoned, amazing cut of beef. But also marked up with a $33 price tag.
Bottom line, the place isn't cheap but they make a great cocktail and have excellent wines. Food is fairly expensive if you don't order a pasta dish or pizza but it is cooked quite excellently and worth its value. They brought out tiramisu in the end for the birthday girl and complimentary donuts with warm chocolate sauce for the rest of the gang.
Also, take note if you want a good deal to sample their menu they do have a tantalizing happy hour I'd totally come back for: Weekdays until 7pm – 2 for 1s on select cocktails, beers, and wine, and marked down snacks (which include some of their pizzas and those divine meatballs).
Really really fabulous local restaurant in the west village. I've dined here both outdoors (so cute in warmer months) and also recently tried the inside part and was so blown away by how much space I actually back there and how well everything is decorated! Even on a Monday night the space was pretty full, but we had no wait at all to sit down.
Food is top notch. Always get a pizza- will remind you of the super fresh thin crusted pizzas you can only get when in Italy. All their other food and salads I have tried have been really great as well in both presentation and in taste.
Highly recommend!
Amazing
This is a gem! The rustic Tuscan atmosphere, top notch service and full flavor profiles will be long remembered.
We sampled almost all the appetizers and pizza. They handled our large group of 30+ with ease. The wine never stopped and the food was not far behind.
I highly recommend Sotto 13 for a quiet date or a very large noisy group.