Giorgio's Wine Bar

Came here with hubby for Pizza and Wine. I bought a voucher that included two personal pizzas and a bottle of wine. We got lost trying to find the place and by the time we got there, it looked as though they were closing but they were really happy to allow us to dine if we could order quickly. Hubby had the BBQ Chicken and I opted for the Margarita Pizza with added Goat Cheese. It was awesome and the wine was great.

While we were eating, a gentleman at the bar who obviously drank too much, started acting belligerent and one of the staff member, Eddie, very calmly took control of the situation and ended it without a big commotion.

When we were done, we were surprised with a couple shots of our choice and went on our way.

I am so happy that I bought a second voucher for dinner for two. I didn't even realize that the voucher as also for Giorgio's but I know that I won;t be disappointed. It was a great night.

I have been to this place numerous times since it first opened and I like it. Very nice people who work there, and Tony the manager is very friendly, courteous, and will talk to you for hours. Cool guy and he is very much into wines, and loves to discuss it. Nice crowd of regulars there, and girls who work behind the bar are very nice too.Nicely decorated with a downtown loungy kind of feel. Always seems to be a good wine special going on. Only ate there once and the pizza was very tasty.

Only drawback is the 2nd Ave subway contruction is right in front of this place. Not pretty, but does not take away from the experience here. They have not been getting big crowds because of this, in my opinion, as many of the businesses are struggling because of it. But try it out if just to stop by and have a glass of wine after a long day at work.

Well, obviously this place has a coupon/promo on every site ever, and we were the only ones who didn't know about it. Oops!

Walking around the East 90's, and being hungry, we figured we would saunter into whatever place struck our fancy first. This wine bar seemed cozy, and didn't seem overly crowded, so we figured, why not?

Upon walking in, the hostess/waitress asked if we had a promotion. It seemed a little tacky to ask that question right off the bat, so I said, um, no? She looked down at my shopping bag, smiled a little, and led us to our table for two. When she handed us the menus, I'm pretty sure she called me beautiful. Nice compliment, but made for another awkward situation.

It's really small here, and so all the tables are thisclose to one another. We sat alongside a wall, but we both felt that something would fall off the table at a moment's notice. Well, my companion knocked his knife off the table at one point, but other than that, everything remained in place.

We got this pathetic joke of a bread basket. This kid just dropped it on the table, sans butter or oil. We ordered two glasses of merlot. The waitress responded with a weird, "Oh, ookayy, ahhh, the merlot." I wasn't sure if she was really excited, if the wine was really expensive and she thought we were ballers, or if she thought we were both under 21. The reaction was so confusing! Talk about awkward.

The food we ordered was rather bland. I ordered another chicken dish, but they didn't have it. Okay, then why is it on the menu? So, I got the milanese instead, which was chicken cutlet hidden underneath a crap-ton of arugula and onions. Yeah, not worth the $15.95. He got penne, which was a bunch of pasta, spinach, and garlic.

We were asked a few times if we wanted more wine. We said no. We were asked a few times if we were done eating. We said no. We also never got our water glasses re-filled. After being asked a few times if we wanted anything else, I knew it was time for us to leave. We were talking too much, I suppose, and clearly, they wanted us out of there since we weren't downing any more of their spicy merlot.

Long story short, I would not have gone here had I known a bit more about it. Then again, sometimes it's good to just try a place without all the research.

First of all...I felt like it took me forever to make it here. Seemed a bit like no man's land. Yes, I am referring to the Upper East Side. No offense to those who reside there. It just seems...soo...far...away. Alas, we were invited to someone's good bye party, and 2 trains and a taxi ride later, here we were.

Ambiance wise, cute place. Looks very cozy for supper.

Service...less that desirable. Now, I do understand that this is a wine bar. I do realize that wine is their strong suit. But if you are going to serve liquor, I was amazed at the limited mixers they had. Case in point, I wanted a vodka grapefruit, but they only had OJ. Not to say it's a big deal, but it's a bit limiting on what you can order. And when my friend wanted a glass of whiskey on the rocks, he got served Jack Daniels on the rock. And got attitude for the wrongful pour. Thumbs down.

Another friend ordered the pizza. At least that was encouraging to hear that it was very good!

Considering location, I doubt I may venture that far up (yes, I am spoiled!). But I do want to try the food, so I guess I would have to wait for another opportunity to venture out yonder!

deception all-around.

This place will charge you $40 for a wine tasting class for two (with no coupon). If you happen to be a lucky owner of a rare Internet coupon ... you will pay $39 and be told that the "value" of this experience is $108.

That is deception 1: there is no $108 regular price.

Deception 2 - the "platter for two" - There is no platter for two. The two people in your party will receive a few scraps of cheese, maybe 1 or 2 tiny slices of a cold cut, and two super-duper mini cheese pizza slices.

Deception 3 - the $10 "Tax" referred to previously by other reviewers. This is the most infuriating deception as it involves tax fraud (which, last I heard, is a serious offense). The maximum tax you could rationalize from this experience is about $3.50. Not $10.

Note to State Tax Department: Check with this establishment to see if they submitted the $10 tax for every 2-person sale. You could subpoena Groupon and Travelzoo for coupon records and multiply each coupon by $10. Groupon says they sold over 1,000 such coupons. Combine that with Travelzoo and you're looking at at least ten to fifteen thousand dollars of state tax revenues.

Given that this establishment offered no receipts ... the NY State Tax department won't see much of this revenue.

Caveat Emptor.

Vic.

I didn't even go here but I can already say, don't bother. I purchased a deal on Living Social for a wine class for 2 and 2 bottles of wine. A few weeks before it was about to expire, I called to make a reservation. They were booked solid every day until the expiration, so the man I spoke to said he'd squeeze me in on Tuesday, the 8th. I said thank you SO much for accommodating us, see you then.

It wasn't until days later I realized that the 8th was a Monday. I called today to ask if my reservation was for today, the 8th, or tomorrow Tuesday. I was told by a woman that they didn't even offer wine classes on Mondays OR Tuesdays, that I wasn't on the books, and that there was nothing she could do for me. I said that's impossible, I spoke to someone just a few weeks ago who promised to honor my reservation. She said sorry, no, but if I had come in yesterday I could have at least picked up the wine bottles. Had I known that they would not honor my reservation, I would have gone to pick them up, but alas, I was told that I could come in this week. She tells me that I was not in fact told that, essentially calling me a liar, and to have a nice day before she hung up.

Don't go here! If their hostesses are this nasty and unaccommodating, I can only imagine how the rest of the place is run.

If only I could leave 0 stars.

We went to Giorgio's after purchasing a Wine Tasting Class voucher from TravelZoo that sounded great --- 10 tastings, a small pizza to share for two, as well as a meat and cheese plate and bottle of wine to take home. Great deal, right? Nope! Obviously this was too good to be true.

The "plate of cheese and meat" was really a plate of cubed supermarket cheese with toothpicks in it that had been refrigerated (probably uncovered) so long that the cheese was stuck to the plates. Not to mention this one plate of cheese and 1 plate of sliced pepperoni was to serve the room full of 25 people. It was not replenished.

The tastings themselves were so-so, no fantastic wines. The wine teacher even served us a bottle of RANCID wine that he let us drink although we complained it didn't smell right. He attempted to cover by saying this was a lesson in what happens to wine when it is not stored properly. It was really just an old, cheap bottle of wine that made me sick. It was absolutely disgusting and we had to exchange for new glasses because the wine in them smelled so bad.

The "pizzas" were also just 1 pizza sent around the room for 25 people. It didn't taste good, either.

The icing on the cake was that in order to leave and take the complimentary bottle of wine included in the voucher, we were made to pay $9 in tax and "whatever tip was up to us." How on earth did we get to $9 worth of tax? That is at least 25% on the total of the voucher.

I will never, ever patronize Giorgio's again and we have issued a written complaint to Travelzoo. If you still have a voucher, try to get your money back! Skip this.

We are from out of town but had purchased a Travelzoo deal for a wine tasting, pizza and meat and cheese plate. After reading all of the scathing reviews regarding the wine tasting *deal*, I began to worry that we'd wasted our money.

But, we made our rezzies and went with an open mind.

We were running late and got there after the back room was full - so we ending up having our wine tasting at the actual bar, along with about 12 others who also trickled in late.

Honestly, I think that was the best thing that could have happened!

Our bartender/host Tony was friendly and knowledgeable. We tasted ten wines - five wines and five reds. Most were very good and we were excited to taste a few wines we hadn't heard of before. Tony took the time to describe the wines and answer questions about them and we never felt rushed. The tasting pours were generous and after tasting 10 wines - amounted to 2-3 full glasses.

The meat and cheese platters left a lot to be desired - it was cubes of Cheddar and Gouda, the meat was thin discs of salami - all of which could be found at your local supermarket. No crackers which would have been nice, but there was plenty to go around.

The pizzas were delicious - very thin crust, flavorful and delivered piping hot right out of the oven. Again, plenty to go around.

We went home with two bottles - one white that was included in the deal, and one red that I won by answering a wine question correctly. The wines were poor quality and have since been banished to the refrigerator to use for cooking.

The normal price of this experience is $108 - which is certainly not worth it. But, for $39 (which is what we paid) in NYC, it really wasn't THAT bad. While I wouldn't go out of my way to purchase the wine tasting deal, we did have a pleasant overall experience there.

The place is very warm and cozy and has a nice wine selection. If I lived closer I could see myself popping by here for a glass of wine at the bar and making it my local neighborhood hangout.

I had gotten a groupon for a wine tasting class at this place for my sister's birthday. After being hung up on after calling to place a reservation-I was quite turned off. I called on a monday morning at 10am and the rude worker on the other end sounded so annoyed when I asked for his name. Like he just hated his job. Dude, its the 1st day of the work week.

I then began reading other reviews on yelp to learn that this place of business did not have many good reviews. I thought about just using the voucher and buy a bottle instead of having to deal with the rude and sub-par service.

I just wanted my sister to have a good time. We decided to go anyway and check it out and jump ship if the experience sucked.

Lo and behold, we went to a Saturday 5:30p tasting. The last day before the groupon expired. The place just is tiny and the class was held in a back room. It was pretty packed. Several tables seating around the room. About 26 people attended. We sat with some people cool who were there like us to enjoy. A cute couple, a nice lady with an infectious laugh from Westchester.

We tried and were schooled on 5 whites and 5 reds. With cubed cheese, mini slices of pizza and 4 pieces of salami. Throughout the tasting, the wine teacher was a charming but stern bolivian lady who shared some interesting facts about certain wines.

Pleasantly surprised we had a good time and enjoyed the company at our table. I actually found that I do enjoy certain red wines like the Chianti and Malbec.

The class turned out fine and though the deal was supposed to come with a complementary bottle-groupon forgot to mention that we would have to pay a $10 tax on the bottle plus gratuity. So really you're buying the bottle that could be less elsewhere.

The first thing out of the waitress's mouth when we were seated was, "do you have a coupon?" We were apparently in a small minority that did not. Something about having a billion different Groupon-type deals active at the same time makes me distrust this place - it suggests that they don't have any confidence that people would be willing to pay full price for their food. Or they're massively overcharging for their food so that they can still turn a profit if every meal purchased there is deeply discounted. (Full price didn't SEEM outrageous, but maybe it was for what we were getting and we didn't know it.)

The food was pretty good, though their pizza oven could stand to be a little hotter and their crust a little thinner. Although I know a true pizza purist might balk at the topping-packed specialty pies, we really liked the ones we chose, and the toppings and sauces were all fresh and delicious. The wine list was lengthy and impressive, though they were out of the wine we originally wanted and the waitress attempted to upsell us to a bottle costing about $20 more. She was pretty inattentive apart from that - she wasn't rude, just seemed overextended - and it seemed to take a very long time for our food to arrive. The place was full and she was the only one working. I'm not sure there was enough business there to have an additional waiter working, but it was definitely too many tables for one person.