Da Nico Restaurant
Category: Restaurants [Edit]
Neighborhood: Manhattan/Little Italy164 Mulberry St Frnt
New York, NY 10013 (212) 343-1212
- Nearest Transit:
Bowery (J, M)
Spring St-Lafayette St (6)
Canal Street (J, M, Z, N, Q, R, W, 6)
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
38 Reviews for Da Nico Restaurant
I recommend the mozzarella appetizer dish! Sssooo good! Service was great, we were seated outside on a lovely, sunny day. They even gave us a free dessert plate at the end!
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I am amazed at the good reviews of this place. We went here on a Saturday night with a big group and I had possibly the worst meal I've ever paid 18 dollars for.
For appetizers, we got the mozarella sticks as well as some other items. Completely unimpressive...basically what you might get at bar but a little bigger.
For my main course, I ordered the Fettucine Ala Porcini Freschi which is Fettucine with Porcini mushrooms, pancetta and olive oil.
Completely bland and tasteless, the pasta was underdone, there was a pool of soupy broth in the bowl and carelessly chopped up pancetta and porcinis. Absolutely no presentation.
The tip of the iceberg was when I asked for parmesan cheese. The waiter impatiently snapped "its on the table". And there before me was a bottle of old, possibly even Kraft brand parmesan.
Everything about this place screamed tacky chop shop. They usher you in quickly, throw you into a table, serve you poor food with waiters that can't be bothered and then you take off.
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Da Nico is incredibly undeserving of the 4-star yelp rating (as of this review).
I hadn't been to Da Nico in years and thought I'd give it a shot, remembering that it could handle large groups.
In general it looks like the owners just don't care about the restaurant anymore. The interior is a nightmare. It's a mixture of harsh fluorescent lighting, tacky European sculptures, and specials blackboards that are framed by a life-size cartoon woman looking like they came from chucky cheese. The worst part of the place is the bugs. There were flies all over, and it was a pretty big embarrassment to have brought a group of guests here, and then watched them swat at flies throughout the meal.
The waiter was pushy with expensive items, he had no clue about the wine list, and he spent most of our time there occupied chatting with some guy in a lynrd skynrd t-shirt at the table next to us about eastern Europe. We had to "interrupt" his conversation to get basic service.
The bus service is terrible. They set the table with dirty dishes and plates (leftover food stains, etc), and they they chuck your cutlery all over the table when they take away plates. On top of that, one guy argued with us when we mentioned that one person didn't have a plate.
The food was pretty bad. It was sloppy, and although they tout "always the freshest ingredients" on the menu, nothing was even close to being fresh. The Caesar salad was soggy, and the Parmesan cheese looked and tasted like it went bad. The pasta dishes were edible, but nothing was really enjoyable.
We were there on a Thursday night, and the place was almost empty. I have a feeling that Da Nico's days are numbered.
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alright, so i've been to da nico twice now. the first time i had an entree "calamari with white wine sauce over linguine," which was supposed to come with pasta or a salad. when i inquired about the whereabouts of my salad, the waitor says, "but you got pasta." what the hell? i thought my pasta dish was SUPPOSED to come with pasta. after that the waitor hated me, especially when i asked for more water. the pasta was delicious and had a ton of calamari on it though so i had to return. but yes, next time i'll be sure to order a SMILE from the waitor.
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The BEST Tartufo served here!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I stumbled into this place on a bitterly cold night during my now-ending east coast tour. My dining party and I had been looking through little italy (somehow, nonsensically, thinking we'd come up with decent italian, which I'd been missing throughout my stay in NYC so far). Mostly, we were just happy to be warm.
The Zagat review outside boasted Da Nico as "the Best of Little Italy", with "breathtaking views" etc.. Sounds ok to me. We're ushered into a tiny, scuzzy room with nasty styrofoam decorations on the walls, and given a menu of mostly overpriced options. We ask about the "garden seating". "Closed for winter", they say. At this point, we were so tired and cold we gave in anyhow. Our mistake.
The rigatoni in vodka sauce was pretty edible, but the pizza funghi was uninspired at best, and the pizza bianchi was a nasty, choking cloud of molten ricotta with zero flavor. We ate our food glumly, wondering how on earth the owners nailed that perfect "VA hall battles gradeschool cafeteria in frump competition" look. All in all, the food *did* keep us from starving, and we were glad to get warm, but man, what a depressing experience.
When I was in New York land... Let my people go....
For future reference, if I ever walk into another place that has a giant wall hanging with putrid cartoons of the Rat Pack cavorting around the restaurants' logo, I will run, not walk, for the door. Red flag!
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Free zeppole and bruschetta yay! Prices are decent, food is good. Service leaves a little to be desired, you would think with so many restaurants on mulberry staff would be over eager to please. Over all definitely worth it to check out.
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Yelpers say whaaaa-aaaat!?! This is the first time I've felt mis-steered by Yelp. My first day of jury duty, I was seduced by the reviews for Da Nico, but was thoroughly under-whelmed by the experience.
I ordered a basic spaghetti with marinara sauce w/salad (a lunch special). The salad was basically a pile of iceberg lettuce with a wilted tomato slice and some grocery store dressing. Stale bread, cold butter. It didn't matter, though, because before i had had two bites of the salad, my entree arrived with no apology from the server for the overlap in courses.
I'm giving two stars because the waiter was charming and it was cheap. The special (with a glass of wine) came in somewhere around ten bucks. And I will say that the marinara was delectable. And it IS Little Italy so what was I expecting?
I'll go to Bread Tribeca next time I'm doing my civic duty.
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The only thing that would make this place better was if they charged $1-2 less per plate, but I walked around a bit and realized that Da Nico was right on par price wise with everything else in the area. The pasta was great and the canolis were to die for, I could tell they were totally fresh. I will continue to patronize this lovely family-owned establishment in the future. It actually reminded me of an italian My Big Fat Greek Wedding, but less diner like.
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Fantastic italian food, cute place, good service, and decent prices.
The mozzarella appetizer is so good - its like little fried triangles of mozzarella layered with something like phyllo - I'm not sure exactly how they make it but my god is it good.
The gnocchi is also excellent and everything that I saw around me looked to be just as good. The free dessrt is also a bonus. For authentic fresh and delicious pastas, this is the place to go.
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"Free fried dough! We gots the dough, it's fried and it's free!"
So that's what the people at Da Nico should have been shouting from the rooftops to get me in their front door on a recent lunch visit to Little Italy. Instead, I went in based solely on instinct and the fact that there were lots of smilin' and droolin' faces filling their sidewalk seating area.
Inside, the place impressed based on size alone -- much bigger than I'd anticipated. And the garden seating area was a really nice touch.
The food was cheap and hotdamnlightningfast in a somewhat scary sort of way -- scary like, "how long has this been sitting out, and why is it so cheap?" But everything was fresh and tasty, from the bread to the salad to the lasagna to the veal parm.
And getting back to the fried dough... it was a nice touch that our waiter brought complimentary Italian zeppole, a powdered sugar covered beignet-like treat, to close a true deal-of-a-meal.
In summary? I was in and out in a flash, floating on a garlicy-powdered sugary haze. Perfecto!
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Having lived in Rome, Italy for 4 months I can say that Da Nico's comes relatively close to the real thing (although Italian in Italy is almost a different cuisine its so good). After much deliberation I decided on 5 stars, as it pretty much satisfies all my desires for this fare and then some. I came here on a recommendation from my sister and brother-in-law (who is Italian) and was surprised when I received the bill and saw how cheap it was.
We had to wait awhile for a table, but that's never something I mind, if I feel the quality was worth it. If someone were to ask me for a recommendation for Italian, this is where I would send them.
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One of the best restaurants in Little Italy I have ever been to! The wait staff was courteous and had a great sense of humor. I coordinated a dinner for my friends birthday here and they were accomodating with our large party and served the cake with much enthusiasm! The wine list is extensive and the wait staff is happy to make recommendations. The food was amazing and very reasonably priced. Dishes are big enough to share so I suggest 2-3 dishes can feed 4-5 people if you get appetizers, this will allow room for some dessert!
I will definitely will be visiting here often!
**In addendum to the above, as I was going through photos from 7 years ago I was surprised to see that I had eaten at Da Nico on a previous trip to NYC before moving here! And from what I can remember it was really good that time too!
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I've had the pleasure of eating here twice in the past year and both times were with out of town guests looking to have the quintessential Little Italy experience. Outside of timing their visit with San Genero, Da Nico provides a lively atmosphere, good service and hearty, delicious food.
I've had a variety of appetizers, pasta dishes and a few of their specials and they are always a hit.
Truly, there are many solid Italian restaurants in Manhattan (and I actually prefer the selection in the W. Village over Mulberry) but Da Nico has great food (at better prices) than most of its Little Italy neighbors. I can't say the atmosphere was as intimate as I'd like, and the Sade over the speakers was a strange choice, but all five dishes we ordered tasted amazing and were generously portioned. Nota bene: skip dessert and walk south on Mulberry a block or two to find excellent hole-in-the-wall coffee and cannolis. You'll save some cash and get the chance to mingle with a more boistrous, local crowd.
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the food here was so good that we didn't have room for dessert and i left more stuffed than on christmas day.
I ordered the seafood linguini with garlic white wine sauce and it was oustanding - so much fresh sea food! they put lobster in it upon my request which was good, a little chewy but i'm probably just spoiled by the fresh new england lobster i grew up on.
we also ordered the carbonara which had so much pancetta in it, it was great. My dad had a ravioli special and loved it, can't remember what my mom had, but i remember we all had leftovers that my roommate and i took to work for the next few days. best restaurant i've been to in little italy, hands down.
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Gosh, another place where I felt VIP here.
We were a group of seven and we thought we would have to split up, but they had an upstairs that could accommodate us. Out of the seven, three ordered their special of linguine frutti de mari. We also ordered a bottle of wine. Then the server brings out two bruschetta appetizer on the house. I was like wow, this place is awesome. I never had that happened to me at a restaurant before. They are so sweet! haha
BUT THEN...the specials came out! OMG SOO HUGE. No wonder, they were so sweet. We ordered a good portion of seafood straight from the sea. GEEZ! The BEST part is that Liz K and our other friend that got it are like BIRDS! hahaha they can't handle that ISH! They were like looking at ME asking for help hahaa. Jenny, have some of my muscles.....Jenny, eat some of my lobster.....NO, don't eat hers eat MINE...hahaha sooo awesome! I got three meals that night. So delicious!
I wasn't looking for no dessert after that feast, but they started setting up dessert plates. I was like.....oh hell no I'm full I ain't ordering no dessert, but the server brought out fruit and Italian doughnuts on the house! MADNESS! How much was that special....!!!
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I went here for lunch upon the recommendation of my travel book...Wow! Great food + very affordable! I got the salmon with a side of pasta. They brought us free dessert, too! I'll def. be going back!
It's easy to find cheesy Italian food on the streets of Little Italy. But Da Nico is different. There's a lengthy menu of options--from thin crust pizzas to homemade pastas. The wait staff is straight off the boat and more than friendly. And with the new upstairs there's plenty of seating so you probably won't have to wait. In warmer months sit out front for first-rate people watching, or snag a table in the back garden, where white plastic tables and climbing vines make it feel like you're in a country backyard, rather than one of NYC's biggest tourist traps. Definitely go for the fried mozzarella, which puts those greasy fried cheese fingers to shame, and gniocchi that's homemade. Nothing is finer.
I went here for lunch the other day. I ordered a Pesto Linguini, a house chianti and after that, an espresso.
I found the chianti to be pretty "eh." But, okay, its just a house red, maybe not too big of a deal.
The pasta was fine, but not very full of flavor. I felt like I was eating pasta with some oregano and olive oil rather than a real pesto sauce.
The service was fine.
The pasta came quickly.
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Larger than I thought. The outdoor dining area is beautiful. The food is simply exquisite. (less than three) Penne ala Vodka. When you order takeout, they provide you with so much food!
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We stumbled into this gem by luck. I think Da Nico found us instead of the other way around. We passed up on La Mela because of the crazy crowd, I'll save the Italian food shenanigans for next time.
Had the Vitello Rollatini, dunno what my friends had, my temporary oral fixation kept me occupied, only the sound of the Merlot being poured into my glass and an empty plate brought me back to sanity.
Quiet, classy, unpretentious atmosphere, good place to bring your date at, and be all romantic and sh*t yo'......
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Definitely a good choice by my friend mikey. We went into the restaurant, not packed at all, which is good for me, I love when a restaurant is empty. We were greeted by one of the waiters, which sat us down and offered us wine. I politely declined and ordered a ginger ale. Looking at the menu, I spotted Rigatoni Ala Vodka. Yummy, no? There came the yummy bread and butter (which I completely devoured by the way). It may seem strange, but their ginger ale is awsome. It was insanely carbonated, and fountainish. I loved it... Anywayyyyy... Finally the food comes after me pigging out on the bread, and it was godly. It was delicious, and just what I expected. I enjoyed it very much so. Waiter was very pleasing, attentive and kind. After that, we had gotten a complimentary desert... ZEPPOLES! Yummy! I loved it. Hands down my first and favorite restaurant in Little Italy.
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This is one of the best Italian restaurants I have ever been to. My mother took me here when I was visiting the East Coast about three years ago. I have been there several time since and have never been disappointed. The service is great, the food is fantastic and the wine selection is pretty decent. I highly recommend this restaurant if you are looking for nice I Italian restaurant and are VERY hungry - the portions are huge!
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Have you ever played "Kick Him Outta Bed"?
Well nothing is more fun than sitting outdoors eating yummy pasta, salad with fresh veggies (which is so damn hard to find in NY) and a glass of red wine while playing this game with your friends as folks walk by.
The rule of course being you can use the "Drunk Card" to count the guys you are sorta-kinda attracted to that you would normally kick out of bed but won't if you're trashed.
Fun food, fun times. Try it.
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If indeed a science exists behind serving up tasty, affordable Italian food, the good folks at Da Nico have perfected it. My girlfriend and I hit this place at about 9 on a Saturday night, and were seated immediately in the busy, but not-too-busy upstairs area, which was mostly couples or parties of four. Our food--some of the best gnocchi (mine with pesto sauce, hers with marinara) I've ever had--came after what seemed like only about ten minutes. (Note: If you're ordering the gnocchi here, DO NOT EAT ANY BREAD BEFORE!) The house red wine was excellent, and is a great way to go if one person wants white and the other red. Service was good enough, the food was great and I'm going back to this place for sure.
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I had the pleasure of eating at DaNico's while in NY for my sister's birthday last year and we had a great experience! Everything was FABULOUS-the atmosphere, the service, the food and drinks-all of it. The highlight of the evening was when my G-ma ordered the special-the Lobster FraDiavlo-OMG! I have NEVER seen a larger entree in my life-I think we made the mistake of not asking how many people it served cuz it could easily serve 2 or 3!! I will post a pic and you'll see what I mean! It was delicious as was everything else-make sure you visit if you have a chance!
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Consistently good Italian. I wouldn't say their food greatly differentiates them from anywhere else in Little Italy (which is to say it is still very good), but somehow I always end up there.
The service is always good, the prices are reasonable and there's a lot of selection. They always have good "specials," though they don't change much.
What truly brings me back is that they have a great outdoor garden in the back. Definitely a place to escape during the crowds and noise of the San Genarro festival.
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My stuffed rigatoni a with tomato cream sauce (special of the night) was DELICIOUS! Cute al fresco dining in the front of the restaurant. Good service.
The biggest plus... You don't really need to order dessert because they give complimentary beignets with powdered sugar at the end of your meal!
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This place is the bomb!
Huge Huge portions on their specials.
I ordered the linguine frutti de mari, one of their specials for the night and it was awesome. A whole lobster, lots of shrimp, clams, mussels....and so much pasta all in a white wine garlic sauce! YUM! In retrospect, I should have shared. BUt who knew that one plate could feed a small family? Not I. Not anyone. I was actually pretty scared of the plate. So intimidating! I don't know if it was because three of us in the group ordered the special, but they gave us free bruschetta appetizer and free fruit and Italian doughnuts for dessert!
Pretty good service, no?
If you're getting just a regular dish off their menu, it shouldn't amount to that much. However, the specials can be a bit pricey. If you order wine with your meal, it all can add up fast.
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I was looking forward to dining here after reading all great Yelp reviews.
I had dinner there on a Tuesday night with PG, my co-worker.
For a starter we had a veggie pizza. The crust was very good, but neither of us liked the sauce. A little too tart for my tastes.
PG had a bowl of minestrone, which was just OK. The peas in it tasted a little freezer burnt.
For my entree, I had a breast of chicken stuffed with cheese and spinach with potatoes and a lemon butter sauce. Again just OK, nothing stood out.
PG had the spinach ravioli, which we though were good, but the vodka sauce was bland.
PG did love the Zeppole that came after. I didn't care for it, but I am not a fried dough kinda guy.
The space is nice, the service good. They seemed to think we were a couple which was amusing (I got the bill even though she was expensing). A little disappointing, but not bad.
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Authentic italian is hard to fing these days. The seating choices are sitting out front, inside, upstairs for groups and an "al fresco" rear that was very accomodating (outside but privado). What a pleasant surprise to find such a sweet spot.. The service was on point and the food was delicious. Good luck finishing your entree...WOW what portions!
We came across this restaurant during an Italian Street Festival. The service was top notch. They accommodated us so nicely when we wanted to change tables due to the heat.
We ordered the Tortellini Romagnola. Half-way trough our dinner, the waiter kindly offered more fresh Parmesan cheese.
To top the evening off, dessert (Beignets) were offered at no extra charge. They are lightly fried pastry squares and coated with powdered sugar. Our compliments to the chefs and waiters!
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some of the best eats in nyc. they have aback yard. so much food that it is hard to finish. must try
in my estimation, this is the best restaurant in little italy, hands down. the atmosphere is nice without being stuffy, and the food is unreal. entrees can be described as near obese, and the wine selection is quite robust as well.
i've had the veal chops here and i think they brought in half the baby cow. i also ordered a seafood pasta dish that included lobster, mussels, clams, calamari and the fish du jour on a bed of linguine in a slightly spicy tomato based sauce. both dishes were perfectly cooked, with more flavor than you can shake a spoon at.
i never tried the desserts because i always passed out after the entree, but i can't imagine it would be anything less than divine.
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good service, cute restaurant, and decent food for the price. my boyfriend and i were starving and very hot by the time we got to little italy, so we went to the first italian restaurant that looked good, and we ended up here. i've had better italian food--the bread didn't taste too fresh and the butter was refrigerator cold, but the portions were generous--i got the chicken marsala, which had two pieces of chicken covered in mushrooms and sauce/wine with a bed of pasta. i couldn't even finish my meal.
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The best Italian restaurant in Little Italy. They have a great tented courtyard in the back. They offer excellent seafood and steaks. The grilled vegetable appetizer with goatcheese is an excellent choice. They offer a huge selection of wine. Do not eat in the front room....the last time I ate their they sat me near the stairs to the restrooms and it smelled like that cheap pink liquid bathroom soap...totally ruined the experience!!!!
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I agree with Andrew W., I loved the outdoor dining area. Food was good, as was the service.
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