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Lexington-3rd Aves-51st St (6, E, V)
Mon-Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.
Sun. 11:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
I've been feeling down and not very yelpie. It's my busy time of year at work and my brain can barely muster the ability to process the cast of no talents on Dancing with the Stars let alone my opinion on anything. Plus the transition to cold weather makes me want to stay home and eat Tater Tots and peanut butter - maybe I should yelp on that savory sweet and salty combo?
Then just as I was pulling out the electric blanket and defrosting another bag of frozen potato wonders Indian summer hit and I visited the Pescatore wine bar - the perfect storm of inspiration to get my yelping fingers a tapping.
Pescatore is a wine bar and was designed to be one (the restaurant is next door). It has charm and a bit of old world glamour in the décor. Plus, there are all types of seating - loved that!!! I could have a date and sit intimately at a table for two; meet new friends at the bar; bring all my friends and reserve the high tables or cozy up with a gaggle in the open area with benches - it was like a sample platter of seating. No matter what your party they have thought of how you want to talk to who you are with. GREAT!
But a love of good seating options was really just the beginning. They have happy hour 4-7 every day (whoo-hoo) that includes 1/2 off wine by the glass, well drinks, beer and sangria. Oh yes, I could see myself with my yelping notepad enjoying a Sunday afternoon happy hour. They have a menu for nibbling and Beth the lovely hostess well, she was just pleasant - thank you Beth I needed you last night.
But the topper - the detail that made me want to inflate my blow-up bed and call this place home was Casablanca playing on the TV located above the open kitchen (with subtitles). So there I was enjoying my 1/2 off glass of sangria, watching a little Bogart and Bergman and thinking this is how life should be - the perfect breather after a very hurried day/week/month.
If you head to Pescatore, you can't go wrong with the dish with the lobster meat in a lobster grappa cream sauce. I have to be honest, everyone else at the table said my dish was the best, and it was delicious. The other dishes though were apparently sub-par.
We sat on the terrace. If you can grab a spot up here, it definitely is much more enjoyable than eating in the regular restaurant.
i have to give it - between 3 stars and some round off decimal but it cannot be 4 or close to 4. i can't be a fan because there are so many italian restaurants that can be better than this restaurant, i just have not tried them all. this restaurant is intimate and classic italian.
I like Pescatore. It's okay. It's open late and a nice spot to catch up with friends. I believe we split some bruschetta and a cheese plate, which is a theme for when girlfriends and I meet to catch up. I'd say it's a nice warm place to bring a date, but it's also a bit overpriced. There are certainly better places but in this neighborhood late at night, there are much worse options as well.
Good, good food. The service was kind of eh, I ended up waiting a little longer than I wanted to for everything, but the food made it worth it. We ordered the meatballs with ricotta to start, now, I love meatballs. And with ricotta cheese? A+ in my book. These were good, nothing to write home about, but good. Something to write home about though?! The pumpkin ravioli. Man, oh man. I could eat those for days. For days! Definitely get them, if you can.
A dependable Italian seafood restaurant with wonderful fresh seafood dishes.
This was our local Italian seafood place when we lived in NY. The pasta and seafood dishes, whether the salmon and pasta, the linguine with lobster, calamari, scallops, clams, mussels, and shrimp (their house special), or anything else, it was always tasty, fresh, and huge. Plenty for takehome.
For lunch, Pescatore is a great place to take out of town visitors and clients. It's busy and intimate, and the menu can make anyone happy.
After a bad date here years ago, I swore I would never return here. I didnt know if it was the food or the company. Alas! I came here the other night, not knowing the fish part expanded and had some yummy italian next store. I had the caprese and a lobster pasta which was very good, paired with a very nice chianti. The staff was helpful and unobtrusive and took us right in without a reservation. My only gripe was that it took a pretty long time to get the appetizer, but I can overlook it, since the food was very good.
A solid 3.5 rounded down because I like it, it's good and it's better than OK, but I don't want to go so far as being a "fan". I guess we're not practicing correct math here and maybe it should be a 3.4, but I'm making up my own rules.
Good olives. I'm not a fan of olives, but Boyfriend ate all of them, which I imagine means they were good. What is also nice is that they give you a whole plate of bread accompanied by olives/olive oil, cheese and meat (just a small, but nice sampling). There's a simple and tasty selection of wines by the glass with a white and red special every day. The Mediterranean Salad came out almost uncomfortably fast, but was perfectly chopped into bite-size pieces and tasted nice and fresh (the plate wasn't cold like it had been sitting in the fridge... everything must be pre-chopped). The Carbonara was tasty and satisfying and the Farfalle con Salmon was too, with juicy chunks of salmon.
It's a good, reliable restaurant to go to for undisappointing food and a good crowd, atmosphere and price. I've been here 3 times and I'm sure I'll be back. Also, when it's warm, they open up the front windows/doors and you can eat out on the sidewalk or at one of the tables in front, which are practically outdoors too (call me high-maintenance, but sometimes I just don't appreciate sitting at a table and eating in the middle of people trying to walk on the sidewalk).
MJ's Star : 3.5
Price : Linguine pescatore for Two in lunch $38 (except tip & tax)
I can't say I've had much on Pescatore's menu, but I will say, EVERYONE has to try their Linguine Nero (squid ink linguine. It's black colored). I can't count the number of times I've walked by restaurants to catch a glimpse of diners eating black linguine in a red tomato sauce, only to then have my mouth completely water. When I finally had the black linguine at Pescatore, I was blown away by how delicious this dish was.
The noodles, first and foremost, were cooked perfectly. In fact, this was the most well cooked pasta I've ever had. It was either that (the very number of nano-seconds the pasta boiled in hot water), or the quality of ingredients, technique in which it was made and the freshness of the pasta itself that contributed to that "wow" sensation I got when I took my first bite. Secondly, the sauce is purely phenomenal. It was the best "spicy tomato sauce" I've ever had. The texture was almost creamy even though there was no dairy/cream in it. It had a deeply rich, slow-cooked and savory quality to it that stood well against the delicious pasta. The shrimp was plentiful and fresh, and the spicy arugula released yet another layer of flavor into the thick and very smooth tomato sauce.
If I could rate just the linguine nere, I'd give it 5 stars for sure. It's a dish I'll randomly crave for a long time to come...
I was not that impressed.
Seating for lunch was done in seconds, but I felt like we may have been forgotten about as it took a long time to get someone back to put in an order. Getting a glass of Gewurstraminer took nearly 10 minutes--it seemed a bit ridiculous, to be honest.
After which, the one single slice of bread and oil came out--which helped make things a bit better, as I love bread. But it was also a bit ridiculous, again, because it came out at the same time that the appetizer (bruschetta) I'd ordered came! So the time to get the standard bread and my appetizer took the same amount of effort? I'm concerned.
My Penne Primavera was so bland that I honestly was disappointed I'd even ventured here on a whim. Normally, no matter how bland, I can get over it with atmosphere, but I could not here. The price of the $10 glass of wine plus a $12 pasta and my antipasti? It was just too much to overlook when I thought about how the waiter did not even remember what antipasti I'd ordered when I had selected our wine.
I think you can do better if you just head down the block to Lasagna Ristorante. Sure, Pescatore looks absolutely posh and so gorgeously lazy-afternoon-lunch-with-friend on the inside with that beautiful red leaf fabric...but I'm not eating the decor. And the decor isn't waiting on me.
This rustic little Italian restaurant came highly recommended by a friend who lives near there. The restaurant feels very authentic and I was pleased with them for being able to seat my party of 8 very quickly. Even thought it was on their outside balcony overlooking the street. I just thought it was cool that they had a balcony- very European.
Don't be fooled by the tiny storefront, it's actually huge inside.
However, they lost stars because their service was horrible! It's like they threw us outside and then promptly forgot about us. They gave us an incredibly awkward table that resembled a conference table (Read: Everyone sitting on one side).
So we asked if we could move things around which they did for us but literally it took us over half an hour to get properly seated. Then they closed the balcony doors and forgot about us for another twenty minutes.
We had to ask twice where our waiter was.
Regardless, I usually try to judge a place mainly on food because that's what people care about right? Service can be extremely subjective.
So here goes:
Their menu was average although their pasta tasted pretty homemade. The portions weren't overly large. I shared a pasta dish with my friend and it was definitely too small, luckily we had an appetizer. We tried the Tuscan Plate which was a mix of prosciutto, pecorino cheese and sopressata with cantaloupe. Your average mix of meats/fruit and cheese.
As my entree, we got the Fettucine D'Aragosta- which was fresh lobster meat, tomatoes, and basil with fettucine in a creamy brandy sauce. The dish wasn't very saucy but did contain nice, fresh chunks of lobster.
Obviously it didn't speak highly of their menu if all 8 of us opted for this dish. Yes, NOTHING else stood out that we literally all got the same thing.
I heard they used to have a lobster ravioli (which is what drove us there in the first place) but they've taken it off the menu.
Good job.
I thought the fare was good but nothing was memorable.
As much as I love sitting on a balcony overlooking....the street.
I definitely would prefer to dine al fresco elsewhere.
Definitely would not return.
I have been in the area several times in the past couple of months on business and have been looking for a comfortable Italian joint that balances all the factors. They do a pretty good job here.
I grabbed the Carbanara and really enjoyed it. The salad was slightly oxidized, this may not have been apparent to anyone else but I am a stickler on this point.
The table gets a nice plate of bread, olives, olive oil (I would love to know what brand), and Parmesan chunks. The Chianti I got when I asked for their house was a bit more cost wise than what I was looking for but the 2 tasty glasses took the sting out of the itemized check. I took a pass on dessert.
The service was good, but not fantastic. They could handle a lesson on picking up empty plates and filling up glasses, it would help them take it to the next level.
Overall I would suggest it for a nice dinner with a friend.
Went here for a group dinner. They have a big upstairs space which is perfect for a small party. San Pellegrino and white wine on a early summer night... perfect...
The food here is straightforward Italian. Caprese, brusquetta, pasta... the whole bunch. But nothing special. The taste, everything is normal and I think I can cook up a better meat sauce than these guys.
Having said that, the downstairs bar is unbelievably crowded. It is not a chi-chi place but maybe that casual ambience is what attracts people?
If you're looking for a solid Italian place in Midtown East, then this place should work for you. It isn't a scene, just a friendly neighborhood place. My friend and I came last night and got a good meal for a decent price. Each of us got a small salad, a pasta dish, a glass of wine, and we split dessert - with tip, cost us about $34 each. In this city, that's pretty good. I heard they reduced their prices a little bit and I say that is a good call on their part. It's also why I gave them four stars - I love walking out of a restaurant feeling satisfied and that I got a lot for not a crazy amount. The service was also really friendly. The only annoying thing about this place is that for a Saturday night at 9pm, there were too many families there with kids. When I grew up, I was in bed at 9, not out on the town with my parents. And the parents at one table were oblivious to their kids being loud and running around. But minus the kids, I'd recommend the joint.
My friends LOVED their dishes at Pescatore. Alas, I, the pastaphile, was the one who ordered a letdown of a dish. I ended up ordering ravioli, something pretty basic... & basic is what I got. So sue me. I mean, don't get me wrong, it tasted good, but there were approximately 8 ravioli on the plate & they took me approximately 7 minutes to finish, at which point I recommenced being absolutely starving. This was totally not a meal. I was hugely disappointed. Luckily, I was with close enough friends that I could steal stuff off their plates -- classy, I know.
Also, the ceiling was dropping onto our table, occasionally splashing me on the arm or cheek. OK, so we never complained (I assume they would have been amenable to moving us to another table), but it was totally unexpected-slash-lame.
I would go back, maybe, if my office were paying for the meal again, but I wouldn't pick this place on a hungry evening out of my own pocket.
I like and dislike this place for the following reasons. I love the seating, decor, people and locations here, but the service was incredibly slow and when our waiter was actually found near our table, his service wasn't helpful. Our drinks were often empty and apps and en trees took forever to arrive.. Martinis were good when they did find their way to our table. I did find a little piece of plastic in my Linguine Nere, but the manager apologized profusely and told me it was definitely a piece of shrimp shell (which it totally wasn't, but ok). In the end she took off a round of drinks on our check and apologized for our food taking exceptionally long. Overall, this place certainly has the capabilities of being a neat little Italian restaurant., but from my standpoint after last night, it's certainly not worth the money.
My firm-working friend and I went there for dinner, and I brought my fiance back.
Very good martinis, good service, and GREAT shrimp scampi! Small portions though for girls that like to eat like moi.
Over all really good !
Oh man, I had a deeelicious sunday lunch at Pescatore. Plenty of great pasta and fish options to please any palate at great prices. The Lobster Bisque was the star of my meal and really outshined even my really great main course of fettucine and salmon in a brandy cream sauce. Yummm.
The ambiance is adorable - brick walls, foody pop art and warm tones. Good, friendly service too.
The only downside is that the place is pretty tiny, so get friendly with your neighbors, folks, because you'll be smelling their food and overhearing their conversation during your meal.
My husband and I visited here for Valentine's Day and were very pleased. The restaurant is small/cramped and you have to be friendly with your neighbors.
We shared the Linguine Pescatore for two which was out of this world and seafood servings were fresh and very large. Its just served to you in a big bowl in the center of the table which makes doling it out and eating in a small space kind of tricky. However, there were plenty of other patrons struggling with the same thing as well so we didn't feel bad!
I was in Manhattan on a business trip and scouting out places to eat on 2nd Ave, not really intending to go for Italian food. This place just looked too good to pass up. The open wall to the patio reminded me of many San Francisco restaurants.
They start you with olives in olive oil with crushed red pepper, and then bring around fresh bread. I always eat too much bread at Italian restaurants, so maybe it was good that they were handing it out one slice at a time.
Next, I had the grilled portobello appetizer, which were served over mixed greens with tomato slices on the side. Excellent.
For the main course, I had "Fettucini d'Aragosta" (Lobster Fettucini in cream sauce), and it was wonderful. I started wondering if perhaps I has missed a better choice, though, because at both tables adjacent to me someone had ordered the Grilled Free-Range Chicken with honey mustard sauce, and one woman said she came back to the restaurant specifically for that dish. I'm going to have to go back sometime and see what that's all about.
I really wish I liked this restaurant more and that I wasn't so disappointed. It was a beautiful, warm NY evening on a Monday and I was with a friend. We randomly picked Pescatore because we were in the area and I heard about it. Plus, the prices were definitely reasonable. We sat outside each with a glass of wine - server was nice enough. It should have been a perfect meal, but the food just wasn't that good. Just so-so. I've had worse, but I have had much better. We started with dinner salads - my ceasar barely had any dressing on it, was flavorless and was a small portion. My friend's dinner salad was nothing special either. I had the linguini and clams and it came with four little clams and the rest minced (it tasted like canned minced clams) and the sauce had no flavor at all. Just very bland. My friend had this pasta with a bolgnese-type sauce and it was also very bland. If it wasn't for the shaved parmesen cheese and ground pepper they put on it, it would have had no flavor at all. I won't be going back anytime soon.
I view Pescatore as a standby - I've had fish and pasta here and never had a bad meal. It's not cheap, but you can pay quite a bit more for seafood in NY.
The only thing really overpriced are wines by the glass. They're around $8-$10. But you can get wines by the bottle for around $28-$35 (and up). I LOVE the Fettucini D'Aragosta and they always have several fish specials as well.
Great local Italian place. We ran into some friends at the Yankee game earlier in the day and decided to have dinner on the east side together. We stumbled on this place because the menu looked good and the hostess was super nice. She reminded me of Jessica Alba :) Food was very tasty and filling.
I have a love-hate relationship with this place; thus, only 3 stars. The food is good and consistent in flavor/quality, the service is good as well, especially when partaking in a large private group dining upstairs. I'm a big fan of the fried calamari, but not so much the mozzarella sticks. Too much stick and not enough/any mozzarella. If I wanted just the fried outer stuff, I'd go to a fast food place. Always plenty of bruschetta to go around - good as a starter for large groups. The linguine nere is yummy, especially if you're into spicier foods. The "hate" is due to the fact that I've frequented this restaurant one too many times due to proximity and lack of elsewhere to go nearby my office.
We were bummed that Zarela next door was closed on the Monday we visited so we went next door to Pescatore instead. The food was good, but not worth the prices they charged. Fresh bread and olives are as always, really good.
An extra star since we don't have the plethora of Italian seafood joints in Austin. We met old friends, table for 6 and I'd say the service was pretty good--essentially better than most in NYC. Also, ditto on the value, our meal with 3 bottles of wine (I think) was only $120/couple and we all had wine, apps or salad and entrees. Oh yeah, most people had dessert too. I enjoyed my ink-squid black linguine dish and they also get props for having a lot of arugula on the menu! Simi cab which runs about $20-25 in the store was $50 here. Typical for any restaurant. The syrah we also tried from Chile was ok, nothing spectacular but not bad. A good experience!
Pretty good overall. 3.75 stars.
I had the goat cheese bruschetta (daily special), shared the Pescatore seafood linguine for two, and the fresh mango margarita.
The bruschetta was very tasty, loved the goat cheese! Very light and not too drenched in olive oil. The seafood linguine was really enough for 3 people, in my opinion (then again, I got pretty full eating all the bread with olive and olive oil, as usual). The linguine came with shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels, and lobster, pretty tasty. Very generous serving with plenty of the seafood.
The fresh mango margarita was ok, but not enough mango-y taste.
We were going to sit outside but moved back inside after a few minutes because it was a little cold. But I'm sure it'll be nice to sit outside once the weather warms up. Inside is pretty nice, but our table was seriously too small (table for two) and could barely fit all of our food.
I also feel it's a little over-priced. But the servings for the bruschetta and linguine were quite generous, so I guess it's worth it.
Good service, friendly and very attentive. The bread man comes over every so often offering either a slice or white or wheat (I'll take both, please!) And another waiter (busboy?) put bibs on us when the linguine came!
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Well, at least the days before and after the…
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