Manducatis

I came here for dinner last week
I have to confess that I do not like the concept of Italian restaurants in the US, they tend to be drenched in sauce and be really heavy. Manducatis is probably a good restaurant for that type of food; unfortunately it is not my favorite
I had a brick oven pizza which was not very good. The dough was a bit undercooked, Given the stiff competition in the area for that particular item, I was shocked.
I also had the gnochi bolognese. I don’t think that the gnochi was made with potatoes; it tasted weird. The bolognese was very good in contrast. My girlfirend scrapped the gnochi to get all that sauce. Was a funny scene.
The service was subpar as well. Had to wait 10+ min to get the check

The best chicken parmigiana. Authentic. Perfect. No one can top it. I’ve searched high and low near and far and it remains the best. It is so delicious with the right balance of sauce and cheese on a beautiful pounded lightly coated chicken breast. It’s accompanied by pasta with outstanding homemade real southern Italian red sauce. The antipasto is a great starter. The cheeses are excellent. If you do not want the chicken parmigiana there are many other Classic Italian dishes such as Marsala and pasta carbonara. The meatballs are exceptional too. This is a homey old style family place. The décor is the same as the 70s and that is part of the charm. Ditch the fabby overpriced places one night and come eat Ida and Vincent’s real Italian food. I promise you will not be disappointed and you will be back!

I have been coming here for over 20 years and Ilove this restaurant. The food is delicious and the family that runs it are delightful in that old world Neapolitan manner. Whenever I come with a large group, Ida and her husband are always there to thank us when we leave.
Especially recommended is the roast pig and any macaroni special. The eggplant rollatini are delicious as an appetizer. The wine list is incredible since the restaurant occupies at least 2 buidlings and it seems the entire basement is the wine cellar.
My California relatives refer to this as «the restaurant in a house» and that’s exactly what it is in more ways than one. The newbies in the nabe seem to have a problem with this place — Hooray!

I want to rent out this whole place and get married in it. I loved the entire experience of eating here – and the food was so dreamy. I love love love love Manducatis so much and want it to be alive for forever.
The antipasto salad was off the chain, so were the prawns, and so was the bolognese.

Walking by Manducatis you question if you are at the right place. The outside does not lend you many clues. We walked inside the bar area, that seemed like it was someone’s office and parlor. Walking by the stuffed sheep, listening to the tv shouting the news, we were uncertain as to this dinner journey. As we descended into the dining room we were amazed at how vast the restaurant was, and how many rooms were available to dinners.
On to the food, shall we? The waiter kindly mentioned a long list of specials that all sounded fabulous. While sipping a nice sauvignon blanc and eating warm bread, we decided to start with the baked clams and New Zealand mussels in a spicy tomato sauce. The sauce was delicious and the mussels were hot and tasty. The baked clams had a nice lemon flavor to the stuffing, and the clams were whole clams. Holy cow, I’ve finally eaten a baked clam that was not chopped and full of stuffing. I almost burnt my tongue as I was clearly expecting lots of stuffing and small particles of chopped clams. Suffice to say the appetizers were lovely.
For dinner we had calamari in a marinara sauce that was tender and delicious. The entrée came with garlic toast that was delicious. The garlic toast tasted of fresh, warm olive oil that had a nice grassy green flavor. We kept dipping the garlic toast into our yummy marinara sauce. We also had veal picatta with lots of fresh sliced mushrooms. The veal picatta was tender, juicy, had amazing flavor, and finished with lemon zest. For dessert we enjoyed their homemade tiramisu and a cappuccino.
There were moments during dinner when I thought I was dreaming of eating great Italian food in Italy. We were full and our palettes were satisfied. We did not feel like we ate a heavy meal and we were not stuffed. The perfect dinner in LIC’s best kept secret restaurant.
The owner and his family are incredibly generous, kind, and share their interesting stories with you. The owner told us he opened this restaurant in 1975, and we believed him! No, not because he is from Naples, because the charm of that era is everywhere around you, minus the hipsters.

This was my first experience at this restaurant and it was a great one. If you expect a very fancy place this is not the place for you. When walking in it’s like you are walking into someone’s home, and your Italian family will be cooking for you. The food was awesome. I would definitely recommend this restaurant.

Very much enjoyed every single dish from this brilliant and welcoming restaurant.

From the tasteless décor, to the poor service, to the utterly inedible food, I can only recommend that anyone looking for a good dining experience in L.I.C. avoid this place like a louse ridden rat.
Manducatis is an institution in L.I.C., but based upon previous reviews and its current performance, one can only assume that it has slipped from its lofty perch. Dinner began with an unremarkable fresh mozzerella appetizer, consisting of two sizes of fresh mozzarella, and cluster of jarred roasted peppers. My wife’s stuffed shells, and my chicken parmigiana entrees were utterly drowning in sauce, rendering them completely unappetizing. Accompanying my wife’s entrée was a green salad with oil and vinegar (on the side), yet the greens were wilted and unpalatable. Accompanying my chicken, was a reasonably acceptable side of penne.
After a thoroughly awful dinner, my wife and I were forced to wait 20 minutes before our waitress was able to flagged down from across the establishment. We declined to order desert and left.
Based upon the reviews here, I would speculate that the restaurant is either failing financially, or due to the aging staff. This is a family establishment with a long and proud history, and it is unfortunate that it is expiring in this fashion.

We’ve been coming here before the new high rises and hipsters, when the pasta dishes were $ 5.95 — this was and continues to be a terrific place — I’m sorry some folks feel otherwise, but to each his own. We’ve just come back from a trip to Italy, and we thought the food here was better than anything we ate in Milan and Florence. If there’s a better family run Italian restaurant in New York, please tell me what it is.

Just had an outstanding evening at what may be the best Italian restaurant in the five boroughs. The antipasto, wines, pasta, main courses, and dessert were all consistently outstanding. The secret ingredient at this LIC institution? The LOVE that the family behind this iconic gem puts into every aspect of the experience. Don’t waste your time in Little Italy. Do yourself a favor and head across the river. You’ll thank me. Vincent, Ida and Anthony deserve kudos for the authenticity and warmth of this rare find. Make a reservation ASAP.

I stopped into Manducatis for lunch with some co-​workers. When we arrived, they weren’t exactly open yet, but they seated us anyhow and took great care of us. The interior of the restaurant is quite large, much bigger than it appears from the outside. It is cozy and quiet, with many different dining rooms. Service was prompt, though not exactly friendly. The servers were short with us, but in that charming New Yorker way. Our food came out pretty fast. I ordered homemade spaghetti with sun dried tomatoes and garlic, lots of large chunks of whole garlic. I like garlic, but I don’t want to bite into a whole chunk of it. The tomatoes added a lot of flavor, but the dish was a bit buttery for my taste. My co-​workers all seemed to enjoy their meals, but I thought it was just average. And that sums up the whole dining experience for me, just average.

LIC’s best kept secret!
After moving to LIC six months ago from London, and after visiting every other Italian in the area, we were finally referred to this family run restaurant a week ago.
After a weekend of spending a fortune on meals that were quite frankly disappointing as we showed visiting friends from London around the neighborhood, this afternoon was quite easily the best restaurant we visited.
Traditional, Italian food, in a relaxed Italian restaurant where toddlers and adults are just as welcome as one another.
The food was simple but tasty — exactly as Italian is meant to be.
The host, Anthony, well he quite simply made the meal. How he can keep up that level of enthusiasm after so many years is astounding.
Well done guys, good show.
See you again, very, very soon!

This is one of Long Island City’s best kept secrets. It has been in existence since 1977 when this family first opened its doors. It’s a small family owned establishment and you can walk by it four times per day and still not know it’s there. Even when you walk in you think to yourself, all righty then. wondering to yourself am I in the right place.
This is an old fashioned, straight up, no frills delicious Italian dining experience. The menu is not pages long however, it’s a perfect menu. It covers all the bases and of course, wonderful specials.
My friend ordered a fish that was quite exquisite, although the name escapes me at the moment. I ordered broccoli rabe with sausage that was out of this world and we both drank the house wine. Dessert was the classic, tiramisu, scrumptious! All in all, this is a wonderful place to eat. Low key and wonderful.

one star because the staff was nice. one star because if you are hungry and had no other choice but to eat here, you could eat. The entrance/​bar area is a few years from an episode of the TV show Hoarders, if I wasn’t meeting friends at the place I would not of gone in. I had the homemade pasta, over cooked and bland. With six other friends half left there plates full. Good place to eat on Halloween, place gives me the creeps!
see Steve B review for more details. he laid it out correctly.
Sorry Manducatis, close a day or two and clean the place up!!!

Why it’s worth it: From the outside, Manducatis doesn’t even look like a restaurant, but as you will learn, you don’t go here for a trendy or romantic vibe; you go here for the pasta and the history.
Vibe/​layout: The front room contains a bar and looks more like a rec room with a bunch of boxes than a restaurant; however, the rest of this restaurant feels like one big living room, complete with lace curtains, houseplants and a wood-​burning fireplace. This restaurant has been hosting curators, sculptors and painters from P. S. 1 Contemporary Art Center for over 30 years. Usually a place would frame photos of famous/​favorite customers on the wall; however, in Manducatis’ case, the reverse happened: P. S. 1 exhibited 11 candid black-​and-​white photographs of the Cerbone couple taken by Howard Gross.
Ideal meal: Ricotta gnocchi with pesto or red sauce and mozzarella ($ 18)
The story: Operated since 1977 and owned by Italian immigrants, Vincenzo and Ida Cerbone and now their son, Anthony, Manducatis is as unique as it gets. Ida, the cook, learned her skills in Italy and makes her gnocchi with ricotta, not potato. The food comes out on large plates that bear the black-​and-​white childhood photograph of chef and co-​owner, Ida. When the Cerbones got married, Vincenzo had the plates made, so customers are essentially eating off of the Cerbones’ wedding dishes. Talk about a personal touch.
Tip: Check out a Moma PS1 Warm Up party, then head to Manducatis for a bite to eat and then to Dutch Kills, the speakeasy down the street, for a drink.

Has to be one of my favorite restaurants in LIC still family owned still great food not very big inside perfect date spot ask for the table rite by the fire place

Disgusting Italian food, would not wish it on anyone, plus super-​strange décor and atmosphere makes Manducatis a 1-​star. Rancid Chicken Francese
For the last 1.5 years, my girlfriend and I have lived 3 blocks from Manducati’s, walking past it but never entering. No menu displayed, no idea of pricing from any site anywhere, and it did not look anything like a restaurant from outside. We love Italian food, but it was always too off-​putting to come to, until we decided to finally give it a shot tonight.
We entered Manducati’s through what could be construed as a service bar, an office, and a greenhouse. No menus in this large front room, but a strange bar with bottles lined up ON the front of the bar and the back bar. There’s a table covered in papers, like if this was your home and you used the dining room table as an office, but it was Friday night. We come to two people sitting at a large round tablr in this office/​bar/​storage room/​dining room and ask for a food menu, of which there were none in this room. Friendly staff, but an extremely unwelcoming entryway had us almost heading for the doors.
We went into the dining room (s), were given a menu, said okay and sat down. Meat/​chicken entrees were $ 19 – 22, which seemed fair — no reason why those prices couldn’t ever be on any website ever, but Manducati’s wanted to make it difficult for people of our generation to decide to come. She ordered her favorite Chicken Francese, I ordered the Veal Marsala.
While awaiting our repasse, we received a giant slab of warmed & toasted bread, which ended up being the tastiest thing either of us ate. In the dining area on a Friday night at 7:30pm, the average age was 75 before our arrival, and ¾ of the tables were empty. The décor felt like a strange old man’s lodge combined with a ton of random wine bottles all over the place. The brickwork on the wall was sloppy, stucco was around the beams, and the bathroom would be nice for a gas station. In general it is an awkward, uncomfortable restaurant for most anyone of our generation.
After 25 minutes, the food came. She took one bite of her Chicken Francese and gave me a look I’ve seen but once before — the food she had eaten was one of the foulest things she’s ever eaten. The sauce was runny, broken, and rancid. The chicken had this strange soggy, fatty, pseudo-​fried exterior on it that tasted particularly vile.
My Veal Marsala was. .. okay. Some pieces too tough, some okay. The veal was small pieces, like it was the ends from a larger cut. The mushrooms were okay, and the sauce was about as good as my first Marsala sauce I made when I was 19. The pasta that came with mine was mushy, with a red sauce that tasted like it came out of a giant can that had been opened a week ago.
In the middle of all this, the service was subpar as well, because of course it was. Nobody ever asked «how is your meal?» because I feel that, deep in their hearts, they knew the answer. They were nice enough, but there’s nothing they can do here.
Combined, one of the worst and weirdest dining experiences we’ve had in forever. My food was a 2.5 star, hers was a –1, and the screwed up décor makes it a 1 net.
If you’re young enough to use Unilocal to look up restaurants, you don’t belong here, and your taste buds aren’t dead enough to think it’s any good.

I came here as a guest of a business dinner. Before arriving, those who took us here raved about the entire menu, and how it was just a hole in the wall hidden in Long Island City. He said the owner was always sitting in a suit in the front part of the restaurant, watching Italian TV… and that his wife was an amazing cook who made the best homemade Italian food ever. Andy yes, everyone I ate with that night was Italian. And we’re all in the restaurant business.
Suffice it to say that this place exceeded my expectations. As soon as I walked into the restaurant, I felt like I was in a little casual Italian restaurant in Italy. The owners’ son waited our table — it was truly a family business that lived up to its reputation.
Don’t let the entry of the restaurant throw you off. As you enter, you will see much wider seating areas in an intimate, traditional brick-​walled interior. Service is excellent, food is fantastic and authentic… I didn’t know about this place before, but I am very, very glad I found it.

I’ve been here many times with my straight off the boat Italian friends and family for dinners and even a bridal shower, and can say that it does not get much more authentic than this. Pasta sauce is bland — the original recipe is just tomatoes and basil. What do people expect?
I’m shocked at the negative reviews. The service has always been stellar, and the food is fresh, delicious and traditional. My friend’s family owns a successful Italian restaurant and bakery, and this is their go-​to spot.
The ambience is also cozy and romantic.

This is a favorite of my husband’s boss. An old school favorite in the LIC scene. Delicious food with no frills.
The seafood platter appetizer is a must. They also have a large wine selection so treat yourself to a glass.
Located right next to the subway stop this is conveniently located with lots of street parking