Da Marcella

I came to Da Marzzano for a relaxed dinner with a group of 7. We had made a reservation for Thursday at 7pm and the table was ready when we arrived.

Food: To start us off they brought us complimentary bread w olive oil, and little pizza bites, which were absolutely delicious. I tried the Cacio e Pepe and it was perfectly creamy and cheesy! My friends had the Gnocchi with shrimp, and the Paradelle alla Florentina, which they absolutely loved. The waiters come around and shave fresh parmigiana on your pasta which is a great touch. The pasta was super fresh and the prices were affordable, but the portions are some of the smallest I've seen at an Italian restaurant. I think 6 out of 7 of us were still hungry after our meal.

Service: The staff was was very slow to take our order, but the bread and little bites kept us content.

Atmosphere: The restaurant has an elegant, romantic vibe and is great for groups or a date. The AC was blasting the day we came, so I would definitely recommend bringing a sweater.

I made a reservation for 10 people on a Saturday at 8 PM through Yelp Reservations and it was pretty easy!

It was for my friend's birthday celebration and she loves Italian food so judging by the reviews and the price range of Da Marcella, I knew I had to book this place! I used to go to high school around the area and knew it would be a great spot. It's close to majority of the train stations, in a pretty hip area.

The day of the reservation, 2 people in our party couldn't attend and I called Da Marcella to let them know of the change and they were super accommodating! When I arrived, the birthday girl, her boyfriend and another one of my friend and her boyfriend were there. Unfortunately, one of my other friends would be 45 minutes late, but the wait staff did not rush us at all!

We all caught up and decided to order some appetizers first before our entrees. Right when we finished our appetizers, our friend came and we quickly ordered our entrees.

I had the cacio e pepe and my boyfriend had the carbonara. We got the $15 pasta dish but I knew there was a larger option however I wouldn't have been able to finish it. The cacio e pepe was super creamy and delicious and the pasta was cooked super well. I tried a piece of the carbonara and I loved that dish! I wish I had ordered that instead but the cacio e pepe was still super yummy.

Overall, our experience was amazing and everyone loved the food! It was probably one of the best Italian places I've been to and for the price it's so worth it!

As someone who eats out fairly often (~2-3 times a week) you would think it would be obvious to make a reservation for dinner at prime time on a Friday night in the city. LOL nope, my friends and I all made this blunder and found ourselves standing outside in the cold browsing Yelp and calling restaurants in the hopes of being seated before 9:30pm.

After searching for 20+ minutes, we finally came across Da Marcella in desperation and our party of six was able to be seated around 8:15pm. Da Marcella is a fairly small restaurant with tables being placed very close by to each other in order to maximize space. It proved to be entertaining to us as we were able to listen in on the sagas of the couple sitting less than two feet away from us, but it's probably not the restaurant to go to if you're looking for a more intimate dining experience. But they do offer coat check, which is nice I suppose.

I ordered the Raviolo Della Casa Ai Funghi Selvatici (homemade spinach and ricotta ravioli with wild mushrooms), and all I can say about this dish is that it was just sad. It looked sad, it tasted sad, and I felt sad while eating it. The dish was literally six pieces of ravioli with mushroom piled in the center and no garnish or anything on it. Once some cheese was grated on top of the dish, it seemed to have more life to it, but I was still less than enthusiastic about trying it. Once I tried it, I knew my initial impression was correct. The ravioli pieces hardly had any spinach and ricotta in them; each piece looked so deflated. The mushrooms were tasteless, and the grated cheese really didn't help at all either.

I honestly think I would have been better off purchasing a $4 premade ravioli packet from Trader Joe's because I would have had more pieces of ravioli and it would have tasted better than what I had at Da Marcella.

Let this be a lesson learned: always try to make a reservation for the restaurants you intend to eat at -- if not, you may end up eating somewhere you probably would not have gone to of your own accord and be disappointed by the end result.

This place is very much just an okay restaurant. I wouldn't really recommend it if you're looking for authentic Italian cuisine, nor would I even recommend it just if you're looking for a basic Italian dinner because quite honestly, you can just make the food they have yourself.

To start, the place itself is very squished. It looks more like a pizza parlor than a go-to Italian spot. It doesn't seem like they invested that much in the interior as even our candle holder on the table was cracked. They also had brown pieces of papers serve as the tablecloth which is just kind of tacky and cheap.

Secondly, the food itself is something you can just cook in your own home with store bought pasta. My friends and I ordered the Fried Calamari to start and it was tough to chew and honestly had no seasoning to it to merit any praise. As for my personal dish, I ordered the Penne Zoe Alla Siciliana and there were barely any eggplant in my dish. I didn't really see the red peppers either. Just overall not very impressed. It ended up tasting like penne I could buy from the store with store bought tomato sauce dumped over topped with unmelted mozzarella cheese.

At least our waitress/hostess was attentive. As of the date that this review is being written, the grade of the restaurant is also currently pending.

Wouldn't really come back, the price is relatively cheap though.

Very mom and pop type restaurant - small and cozy inside. Pasta is $15 flat rate for a single serving size, and there's an option for all you can eat $15/person for one pasta selection. Overall, food is decent and there wasn't a wait when we went on a Saturday (we made a reservation for 6 the day of). The restaurant wasn't too packed at 6:30pm and seemed like you could walk without a reservation.

For appetizers, we tried the calamari, baked eggplant, and meatballs. Appetizers were all very yummy, and decently portioned, not oversized like portions at most other Italian restaurants. For entrees we got three orders of the shrimp gnocchi, the short rib, bolognese pasta, and the bolognese ravioli. All were pretty good, the gnocchi was very soft and doughy and short rib was very tender and flavorful. I feel like the portion size of the gnocchi could be a little bigger.

One thing else to note is that the restrooms are fairly compact - I feel like I am a small framed person and still felt a bit claustrophobic in their restroom.

I came here for a family dinner, and we ordered the:
Calamari Fritti ($15)
Insalata Tricolore ($9) **
Risotto All'Astice ($24, Saturday Special) **
Linguettine Alle Vongole ($15)

If you're coming here, I'd recommend the ** Salad Tricolore ** and the Saturday special -- ** Lobster Risotto **. The Salad was small but the endives so fresh and crisp. Plating was also beautiful. As for the Risotto, it was a very generous helping, and equally generous in its usage of lobster (a whole half lobster!) This is not one of those places where they name a dish after an expensive ingredient that barely graces the dish -- no, they bathed it in lobster. Risotto was creamy and the grains nicely chewy.

On the other hand, the Calamari was pretty standard, nothing special, but as a disclaimer I've never been a huge fan of fried calamari. My traditional Chinese dad finished his Linguette Vongole with great gusto, but he does that with everything -- at least he didn't complain!

IN SUM: This is your standard, homey Italian shop. I think in the restaurant scene of NYC it falls short, especially with so many specialized Italian restaurants. What struck me as strange was the slow service, despite eating at dinner at 4:30pm on a Saturday...not quite sure what happened. For flavors and portions, this place is great though!

You really can't go wrong with Italian food, especially pasta. (Okay fine, the pasta could be undercooked). But the food at Da Marcella is right on! Great prices ($15 for all pasta dishes, $20 for a larger portion) and great portions. The service is kind and the ambiance is casual yet classy without being pretentious. They even have a coat check at the entrance.

Before your food comes, a few soft pieces of olive oil bread is served in a small bowl. They offer olive oil and you can top it with salt and pepper. We ordered the papperdelle with pancetta and cream sauce dish and the penne with bell peppers, tomato and mozzarella. Though we were disappointed at first by the "small size," they turned out to be the perfect portions. The flavors were BOMB. I couldn't believe how much flavor could come out of a pasta dish. I was expecting my penne to be like the homemade ones with light flavors but the tomato sauce, which I think is homemade, was so sweet and savory. They topped it with cubes of mozzarella which I hid under the pasta so that they would melt. The whole thing was just unbelievably great.

If only I had space to enjoy some dessert too but I'll be sure to do that next time. I think we'll try the larger portion too, which really seemed to be a good deal!

This place is great in every aspect, food, service, price and atmosphere. It's a small cozy place. We came as a group of 11 people, but we made reservations so we didn't have to wait so I don't know what it would be like normally. Everyone around me ordered something different so I had a chance to taste a little of everything of:

Appetizers:
Canadian mussels $12
Calamari $12

Entree:
Ravioli pasta $12
Black peppered pappardelle with wild boar ragú
Braised short ribs $22
Lamb shank $25
Grilled veal chop $22


The mussels are pretty good, but they are a lot smaller than I'm used to ,almost the size of clams, but the portion size was great! We dipped the bread that they gave us and it was so good. I must say the bread they gave is really good, soft and fluffy! The calamari was crispy and fresh, but for $12 they definitely skimp out a bit.

I want to give a big praise to their meat entrees. I don't have any complaint for any of them. The short ribs and the lamb was so tender and it fell right off the bones. The grilled veal chop, the Thursday special, was so simple and clean dish, it melts right in your mouth almost like steak. The pasta is favorable and reasonable portion for the price you're paying. The ravioli was my least favorite because it was a bit dry. It needs a sauce, but the wild mushroom was good.

I would definitely recommend this place because the food is really good and really affordable and reasonable priced! The service is great, and the waiter joked around with us and made sure everything was good. A super plus is this place is BYOB with a $10/bottle for cork opening fee.

The pasta (parpadelle with pink cognac sauce) was a good portion for $12. Any larger would have been too much. The sauce was interesting but may be too rich for some... I liked it but it wasn't a dish I'd be dying to have again.

The complimentary bread was also decent.

Lovely Italian restaurant on Houston! If you're in the area, I would suggest you to check it out.

They offer pasta dishes at $12 which is a good price and they are all delicious.

I would say the service here is better than the food. Every time I come here, the servers are always beyond friendly.