Appetito Ristorante
“I would recommend Appetito for a meeting, casual dinner, date night or pre-theater bite.”
“My boss and I stopped by for an early dinner after our meeting and were one of the few tables there…however, by the time we left it had filled in.”
“The owner's son was working and a complete perfect host and super helpful as what to order – not to mention adorable.”
Appetito Ristorante
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
5 reviews
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Wow…I don't understand why the reviews for this place are so bad! My boss and I stopped by for an early dinner after our meeting and were one of the few tables there…however, by the time we left it had filled in. The service was friendly, the atmosphere was nice and the food was delicious! I thoroughly enjoyed my Penne Appetito – the sauce was perfect! We also enjoyed some cheesecake to round out the meal. Convenient Midtown location and reasonable prices – surprising for NYC!
This place is nothing special and being relatively empty on a Thursday after work proves my statement.
Food was okay. I expect much more from a Manhattan restaurant. Italian food is easy to make well.
Ambiance is below par.
And kind of expensive.
I'll usually get lunch here because it's right next door to my office. The food is very good but a little pricey. My favorite dish is the Pollo Scarpariello. Staff here is very friendly and accommodating. I don't believe they open until noon but sometimes when I'm starving I go in there around 11:30 and they seat and serve us right away.
Last Wednesday, I had 6:45 pm reservations in Midtown…and we couldn't get there in time between the protests and Rockefeller Tree lighting. Bad planning on my part. At 6:30 pm, I was looking up EVERY SINGLE restaurant in NYC that I liked and they were all booked. NYC has a ton of places to eat, but they do not reward those without reservations. I was with a group of people from out of town, so I was sad that i wasn't able to bring them to one of NYC's renowned restaurants.
Finally, my group said they were just starving and would be happy with anything close by, so I looked up what was open on OpenTable. Appetito showed up.
Basically, there's nothing special at all about the place. The place itself, the service, and the food was just blah. It all vaguely tastes like food I could have bought from Trader Joes and made at home. We ordered the cold antipasti (definitely could have gotten better cuts of meat at Trader Joes), while I had the gnocchi. The gnocchi wasn't light and fluffy, but huge dense balls of potato covered in sauce. Seriously, it's like the frozen gnocchi you get at Trader Joes that you boil and them dump sauce on at home.
I could say that it was a plus that dinner was pretty cheap….but it was so terribly unsatisfying that we walked up to 52nd and 6th Ave where my guests had a satisfying meal at the Halal Guys for $12 ($6 a plate).
I came here for a company lunch with a large group of people. Since we were ordering from a set menu, I wasn't able to see the full extent of Appetito's offerings. We all started with the penne pasta appetizer, which was just regular pasta covered in a tomato cream sauce. I thought it tasted alright, but the sauce's physical resemblance to pizza-and-beer vomit turned me off a little. I ordered the filet of sole as an entree – it was a very large & pan-fried portion served with a few chunks of fried potato and a large flower of broccoli. Extremely normal tasting, and covered with a buttery sauce. Dessert was a small square of tiramisu with oddly yellow mascarpone cheese. Again, normal in terms of taste.
Overall, everything tasted ok, but nothing was memorable or impressive. I may also have been turned off because I was sitting at a table with people that had just finished interviewing me for a job that I probably did not get. Service was good. I'm told there was a lack of decent restaurants in the area open on weekends, but this can't be as good as it gets!