Antica Ristorante
“Overall, Antica made my grandma's birthday lunch absolutely lovely.”
“We had to push our reservation back an hour at the last minute, and Antica was very accommodating.”
“The bar area was lounge-like and made us feel like we were on a mini vacation (the restaurant is in the Sheraton Hotel).”
Antica Ristorante
Takes Reservations: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
6 reviews
Rate and write a review Cancel reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Antica is one of those restaurants that makes upholding my reputation as my family's "restaurant picker" really, really easy.
Came to Antica for my grandma's birthday lunch and was so impressed. My grandma, who isn't exactly the easiest person to genuinely "wow," was, well, wowed. And my extended family, with all their *quirks* and food preferences, found themselves completely spoiled by the doting staff and menu.
This is true, white-table-cloth-traditional Italian. The waiters are dressed to the nines, funny, and passionate about their work. And you're almost guaranteed to be sitting near some older gents with faint Godfather-esque accents, if ya know what I mean.
The portions aren't massive but still shareable. We were served complimentary antipasti right when we sat down, including sweet and spicy red peppers, salami and cheese, fresh bread, and grilled, thinly-sliced eggplant. Oh man, that eggplant. A part of me wanted to just order a bowl of it and call it a day, it was that good.
But we put down our bread plates and munched forward! We ordered:
-Baked stuffed clams
-Insalata di Arugala
-2 orders of the the branzino special (whole fish), filleted table-side.
-Mushroom risotto
-Salmon a la griglia
-Lots of red wine
All of it was delicious, but before I go into details there, I've got to point out how thoughtfully the kitchen split certain plates we mentioned we'd be sharing.
For example, my aunt and uncle wanted to split their salad, so it came on two plates, each beautifully wrapped with cucumber. It's that kind of extra care that sends any meal over the top.
Now, onto the flavors! My favorite dish had to be the branzino. Watching the waiter fillet the fish in front of us was so awesome. That kind of finesse is way underrated/unappreciated. And the fish itself was delicate and flavorful; everything branzino should be.
The baked stuffed clams were juicier than what I'm used to; typically the breadcrumbs are firm and browned, but I actually didn't mind the extra liquidity seeping out of the clams since the flavors were all there.
I will say, I wish the mushroom risotto had more complex flavors. Don't get me wrong, it tasted great, but it wasn't extra special. It had a prominent chicken bouillon flavor that threw me a little. Perhaps I've just been spoiled by Risotteria, but I think this dish could be taken up a notch.
For dessert, they brought my grandma a delicious crustless cheesecake (with her name and candle and all that birthday jazz) and an equally tasty tiramisu.
But the best part of the dessert round was easily the complimentary house-fermented liquor (of course). Holy wow. If this stuff doesn't inspire you to make your own moonshine, nothing will. They make all kinds of infused flavors, from raisin to apricot, though the house-made anisette and sambuca completely stole the show. I could drink that anisette after every meal.
Overall, Antica made my grandma's birthday lunch absolutely lovely. Not only did it leave her beaming, but it solidified my reputation in the family as the "one who knows good restaurants." Which, you know, is obviously the most important part (I need a hobby.)
Will absolutely be back!
I'm not sure why this place is so dead. The food is pretty good and I've had my fair share of eating in Italian restaurants in NYC. They do offer wine by the glass although its not listed in their wine menu. I had the farfalle with salmon which was delicious. My friends had the rigatoni with veal bolognese and it was so amazingly tasty and meaty sauce. Service was attentive, in fact, they shared their grappa with us which is pretty delicious.
We had a great work dinner there. The service was great even though we arrived a bit early for dinner and we couldn't find a waiter to greet us but later on the person we had really knew his stuff and was of great service. The place is a bit "hidden", not that many seatings but it's intimate and quiet which is exactly what we needed after a busy/intense work meeting. I had an arugula salad that was lovely then home made ravioli, they were pretty amazing. My coworkers had great dishes as well, we shared a bit and it was really authentic in my opinion. Nice spot if you're in the area and are not in the mood for Chinese food.
We had flown in from San Francisco and it was getting to that time in the night that it was going to be tricky to find a good meal nearby. So we looked at each other and thought we would brave the hotel food….and yep, this time that was one hell of a good decision.
This place is a little gem. We opted for a seafood emphasis, choosing the calamari and the seafood linguine. The former was really tasty and generous in it's portion. The seafood linguine had oodles of squid, clams and mussels, and the pasta was world class. The salad was so fresh….and not over done with dressing. We enjoyed it so much we had another!
Our sever Tony was pleasant, truly helpful and even shouted us an extra drink each…..such an enjoyable experience when frankly it was not anticipated at the start.
We will definitely be back and realistically the hotel is likely to be the future beneficiary of our custom as Anita's is the true attraction….
This is one of only a handful of places where IWTWANBO (I Wish There Was a Negative Billion Option).
The food actually wasn't bad at all. We had calimari, mozarella (appetizers), and then veal, gnocchi, and rigatoni (with veal sauce). So far so good.
But then it was time for dessert. One of us had an ice cream dish with hard chocolate shell and noticed she couldn't quite chomp part of the "shell." Part of the shell turned out to be a 1 sq-inch piece of black-colored gauze/rubber!!! What if she had swallowed it?!
We brought this to the attention of the server who nonchalantly said that the chocolate was "imported" in a package ergo some of the packaging might end up in the dessert. Uh, what?! When we asked him to take it off the bill, he kept pushing this case, even after agreeing.
Most food comes in boxes with nails. If you find a nail in your food here, bet on their saying that the food is "imported" in a package, and so therefore it's cool for you to have a nail in your food and I guess down your throat if you swallow it.
AVOID, AVOID, AVOID. Best part: when we complained about the gauze, dude said: "Sorry for the inconvenience." That's one way to put it, sure.
Absolutely the worst dinner ever. Slow service, even though our table of 9 was the only one in the restaurant. Lamb that was ordered rare and medium rare came out severely overcooked. Vegetables were clearly frozen and not fresh. Drastically overpriced wine, with menu prices far above what is advertised on Yelp (our meal cost approached $100 per person!) Stay away at all costs