Gaetana’s
“Fantastic owners (Frankie is a neighborhood guy and personally manages the place) and the food is awesome with huge portions.”
“the bread basket included some warm pieces of onion focaccia bread perfect for dipping and supplementing our orders of seafood linguine, cheese lasagna and sea bass with asparagus and rice (mine!).”
“The owner went out of his way to make us feel very taken care of and we left feeling like we were on cloud 9.”
Gaetana’s
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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My husband and I came here to celebrate our anniversary with some pre dinner cocktails. He ordered the old fashioned and I a dirty martini. My martini was the best I have EVER had. Prepared perfectly. The Sinatra atmosphere is very NY. The bartender was so sweet and personable (wish I could recall his name but I do remember him saying he was from New Orleans). The cheese and olive plate was an unexpected pleasant surprise that paired perfectly with our cocktails and was just light enough to guiltlessly nibble on before dinner.
Gaetana's is an adorable neighborhood Italian restaurant. All the people working there were very nice and I felt removed from the chaos of New York. The bread was delicious with the cheese provided. The sangria was made without soda water, and it tasted like a refreshing juice, which was exactly what I wanted. For the entree I got the seafood linguini, and there was more seafood than pasta it was awesome. I tried a friend's bass, which was lovely. Another friend got a special that had flank steak and that was yummy as well.
I eat a lot of Italian dishes and a lot of squid, hence I've acquired what I would think to be a fairly good yardstick for purposes of comparison and found theirs to be good, but not nearly as good in preparation or in presentation as I've had elsewhere, especially in New York. Couldn't they have used fresh herbs? Flaked parsley doesn't really do much for flavor or make much of an impression. So, without further detailing, three stars for their squid dish. However, I must say that it was a huge, more than sufficient serving, being much more than I could eat.
For ambiance, the place is rather cute, sort of laid back, easy on the eye and comfortable enough with a sort of old city type of charm about it. Four stars on that.
For service, the waitress seemed pleasant enough, but in the restaurant at the time it was just myself and at another table a party of six. Obviously the party of six deserves and needs more attention than me, but did she really have to tell me that she had a "large" group, repeatedly, with no apology for not attending to my table? Two stars on that.
Wandered in here to kill time before a dinner elsewhere & boy am I happy I did! The chocolate Martini is AMAZING! So smooth and refreshing. Frankie was a delight — very personable and even gave me a snack of olives & bruschetta! Great atmosphere and music. Coming back here for DINNER next time 🙂
my goodness. Came here with a party of 4. Upon walking into the restaurant it smelled as if it had just been mopped, but you get used to the smell. There were christmas lights strung in the windos and on a ledge with hess trucks – is it christmas?
There were a few other diners at tables and some patrons at the bar, but it was not as crowded as some of the other restaurants in the area.
Service was prompt for drink and food orders. We were given a plate of lives and cheese, then bread, then they delightully brought over a salad with fresh mutz too. Score!
It took a little bit for the food to arrive, but holy the portions were massive. The food was good, (2 orders of linguine fruitta di mare, 1 order rigatoni arrabiata, 1 order of the lamb special) but it wasn't the best ever.
What took the cake, however, was the server, Michelle. She was entertaining all night.
And they brought out an extra dessert for us too.
Italian rating Italian:
Truly cant enough good things about Gaetana's! High quality, sinfully delicious Italian food; friendly, down to earth prompt service; fantastic decor and ambiance make this restaurant one of my favorite in the city. I stumbled upon the corner one night after meeting friends and family for drinks in the Village and let me tell you, it was the greatest tipsy stumble ive ever had.
I planned on sitting at the bar to have a glass of wine and when i saw the menu i was ruined. Literally, spend 20 minutes trying to decide between the gnocchi gorgonzola and pumpkin ravioli. I went with the gnocchi and MY GOD it was incredible. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the sauce was rich, thick and creamy. Frankie, the owner of Gaetana's later on told me he had this dish in Europe on his travels and had to replicate it. The gnocchi is made with egg whites to counter the heaviness of the gorgonzola.
Even the complementary extra virgin olive oil with bread is out of this world. Its aromatic and has little pieces of rosemary and basil in it. The bread is made in house and served warm and when dipped in the oil – per l'amore di dio!
The partition between the bar and tables is topped with Hess trucks and white lights. It reminded me of Christmas morning, growing up in the 90's and is such a wonderful accent to the restaurant. Above the bar hangs framed pictures of Frank Sinatra, an Italian flag (REPRESENT!) and Frankie's family. The bartenders are awesome – just down to earth, funny, easy to talk to and help make this place what it is.
Gaetana's is just that warm, Italian restaurant that i would bring family, friends, a date, coworkers – everybody & anybody to.
Randomly dropped in here because we were starving and needed a bite to eat. Gaetana's has a pretty dark interior, with wood paneling and the dim mood lighting.
We came here on a Sunday evening and it was completely empty – literally not a single person was in the restaurant outside of the staff. However, the menu was reasonably priced and the portions were very generous. The olive oil that came with the bread was very good, and overall I'd have to say I was pretty satisfied with the food. The pasta was a bit on the greasy side – there was a layer of oil on top of the cream sauce – but it definitely hits the spot when you're craving some good old filling Italian food.
The staff were all pretty attentive – I wouldn't say they were necessarily friendly but they got the job done and weren't in our way, which I appreciated. Being the carb-hungry city girls that we are, we requested quite a few bread refills with no problem.
Gaetana's is definitely a place I could see my parents coming to pretty often – I didn't see too much of what the crowd is like usually, but judging from the ambiance and the few parties that came in, it definitely sees more patrons on the older side.
If you're look for contemporary Italian cuisine, this might not be the place for you, but if you like delicious traditional Italian favorites in a cozy old-school spot, you will enjoy Geatana's. The place feels like the sort of restaurant in which you might have dined 30 or 40 years ago. (Yes, I'm old.) Service is warm, and the ambiance is almost nostalgic. Prices are fantastic, too.