inoteca liquori

I had been meaning to try this place for a while, as one of my friends had been talking it up ever since I moved into the city. Finally I took the plunge, and me and a few of my friends decided to treat ourselves to some wining and dining before going out on a Saturday night.
All it took was one bite of the truffled egg toast and I was sold. Rarely will I seek out truffle, but with my friend’s «inoteca routine» locked rigidly into place, there was really no arguing the matter. The egg melted perfectly over the toast, and the truffle flavor was pleasantly light — I could have gotten the check right then and there and would have been more than satisfied.
The salads and bruschette (so many options to choose from) were great too. And I must admit I was salivating over what looked like some sort of sort of glorified caponata tower over at the next table. Too bad no one at my table liked eggplant. Oh well, there’s always next time.

First date. Planned to go to another wine bar but it was closed! Luckily, inoteca came to the rescue, one block over. Never been to this location and I love the one in LES so why not.
It was a hot summer night and I was nervous. He was a really awesome nerd and I was intimidated by his flip flop wearing, techy stylin’, geek chic talk. But it wasn’t anything I can’t handle with a bottle of wine.
Darn. The wine just made me sweat more and he felt uncomfortable watching me fan myself with the menu. LOL. WOW.
I managed to cool down after 30 minutes or so HAHA. OMG of course I was starving and now he has to watch me eat. Toast with quail egg. Plus the people at the next table asked me what I was gobbling on, geez — as if I wasn’t embarrassed enough.
He called me the next day. I heard angels sing.

If you Google this restaurant you will get the Lower East Side location rather than the location on 24^th and 3^rd which is the one I went to. This restaurant is fairly small (we sat in the bar area) and the food is delicious. It’s sort of Italian tapas style dining so we ordered the three bruschetta plate (pesto, tapenade and gorgonzola and fig) which was delicious. We also had meatballs, fried brussel sprouts and meat pasta all of which were amazing. I would definitely come back to this place. Also probably a little «datey» but fine for a group as well.

Have gone for dinner several times since i live 3 blocks from here. The food is pretty good. Since the portions are not huge, you can try various dishes and share. Service is hit or miss. Some of the waiting staff are clueless of the wines they serve, so it’s better to ask for a sample and decide yourself. I really dislike when they play the club music in the ‘dining room’ where you expect to be able to converse. But the dining room is louder than the bar area!

Maybe more like 3.5…
I really like this place — it’s consistently good Italian food, a good location if you don’t live downtown, not impossible to get a reservation, and a nice atmosphere.
With the changing menu I’ve tried lots of different things, but I always love the bruschettas, anything with their pesto, the pastas, and paninis.
This is a solid place to have in the rotation — it’s no dell’anima, but it never disappoints.

We had a REALLY rude waitress.
She acted like we were bothering her. At the end of the meal, when the waitress (a pretty black woman with big hair) realized our group was only leaving her about a 16% tip, she threw our cc receipts back at us and walked away.
I’ve waited tables for 10 years, and I couldn’t believe her attitude. I hope she reads this post and realizes she’s not cut out to be a NYC server.

I came to inoteca for some small plates and a drink or two, and got exactly what it was that I was looking for.
There is a lot of competition amongst Italian restauranteurs between Kips Bay and the East Village, and establishing a specialty to stand apart from the pack is essential. If I were a waiter at inoteca, I would strongly encourage my patrons to explore the different Bruschette available to them on the menu.
Easy to eat, easy to share, and absolutely delicious — the bruschette that came out on a big platter were all loaded to overflowing, generously covered in whichever combination of toppings were specified. All too often a skimpy toast will come out, but these were far from disappointing. For a light eater, two to three could be a meal on its own.
Be adventurous in either selecting your Bruschette (Gorgonzola & fig!) or the wine that you’d like to have that evening — then ask your waiter to pair the other. They’re very well versed in their offerings, and knowledgable!

Same reason why I can’t compare certain restaurants in London with the ones in NY, it wouldn’t be fair for me to compare this italian joint compared to the ones in London.
It was okay. The bruschetta everyone is raving about, it was okay. Doesn’t blow my socks off… The truffle egg toast — I was a bit underwhelmed. I love truffle, egg and toast but I suppose I first turned off by it because it was so difficult to cut with a fork and knife. The calamari salad was again. just okay.
Other than that, there is an extensive wine list. It’s a good place to go with a group.

I’ve been here twice for dinner now and really enjoyed both experiences. I like how the restaurant is pretty spacious for New York standards.
Truffle egg toast and bruschetta are both excellent. I think this place’s strength are in its appetizers/​sharing plates so unless you really don’t like sharing your food with others, I would eat tapa-​style here rather than everyone ordering individual entrees.

The restaurant is very cookie-​cutter nothing to really make it stand out or memorable. We had decided on the appetizers, but our waitress told us that they only accept complete orders… I thought that was kind of bull-​shit. This is NYC, if you want your restaurant to be competitive organize your kitchen to be able to accept half-​table orders. It’s not as if we were ordering one entrée and then deciding the other three later, we were trying to order by course.
Shortly after we ordered, I think one of the hosts mistook the restaurant for a club and turned up the music so loudly that I could hardly hear my friends… we actually had to ask the waitress to request that it be turned down. I do realize that that last comment could’ve been from someone twice my age, but when it comes to hearing people you’re talking to then I think it’s a fair complaint.
As for the appetizers, they were large, enough to share… the beets were served with hazelnuts and oranges, I didn’t think the flavors melded well together and the beets were plain and didn’t seem dressed at all. The grilled octopus salad served with celery was bland.
For the entrée, I ordered the eggplant lasette, which was basically a pasta-​free lasagna. I actually enjoyed this, it wasn’t very hot, just warm, but the flavors were good. What I didn’t enjoy were the sides… the cauliflower and brussel sprouts were under seasoned and underwhelming. A friend ordered the oxtail pasta dish, I could not get over the size of the portion, it was so obscenely large… even for a guy who eats a lot it was too much, it was almost unappetizing how much there was.
Wouldn’t go back there and wouldn’t recommend it, there are so many other better Italian restaurants in the city that are better priced and more intimate.

I really couldn’t decide whether to give ‘inoteca 2 or 3 stars. I mean, I was not impressed at all by anything about this place. We sat at a table in the bar area, which was a little crammed and kind of awkward. The décor and lighting was a little off for me — not a good date place in the slightest. better off to just meet friends at, I suppose.
The staff was nice and our waiter was attentive, although the food runner didn’t give us plates or utensils for a good 5 minutes (we had to ask for it. and then he only gave us utensils and no plates. weird). We shared a plate of meat with bread and cheese with bread. The presentation was terrible. The premade ones from Food Emporium look better than what they plopped in front of us. Also, they brought out the meat minutes after we ordered it, almost as if someone else had already ordered it and they changed their mind. The cheese came about 15 minutes later, which was annoying. The only redeeming portion of this night was the comedy of a girl coming back for a loofa she somehow left behind under the table next to us. I swear it was a total Seinfeld moment. really. why not just buy a new one for $ 3?
Mehhhh. I wouldn’t come back, so many better wine bars in this wonderful city.

I had really high hopes for Inoteca but those definitely weren’t met. I will preface– I was with a group of 10 and we did their family style Prix Fixe menu that they suggest for parties over 7 people.
I guess first, the good stuff: the ambiance was pretty cute. The tables were a rustic wood and the place was lit predominantly by little votive candles. They had a pretty large but manageable wine list and the bottles we got were pretty good.
However, everything else was lacking. The service was really slow– it took forever to get each course and our bill. The food left much to be desired– boring and nothing special. i was really looking forward to the beet salad that was one of the appetizers but it was undressed and lacking any umph. The arugula salad was seriously JUST dressed arugula with a little parm. I like simple foods that let the ingredients speak but this was just boring. I imagine if we ordered off the menu a la carte, the food may have been better. the only thing I can remember liking was the eggplant lasagna that came out with the main courses.
I definitely want to give this place another shot with a smaller group and ordering a la carte. However, until then, I’ll give it 3 stars.

After eating at Inoteca I realized: Why have I not had an outstanding Italian meal in NYC? What gives? There are thousands of restaurants specializing in Molto bene italian fare… and yet… the most enjoyable experience is loading up my hot bar plate at Sbarros. And THAT’S PITIFUL.
On the plus side, the 3^rd ave location of the Inoteca enterprises was so charmingly decorated, it looked like the most glamourous lady restaurant on the block! Open, inviting, and relatively empty on a Monday night. We started off with some wine — my champagne was a bit flat but our waiter gave me a fresh glass for free. He also winked a lot at my friend… so…maybe he was just trying to butter me up to get to the gal across from me.
I think the highlight for me was the choose your own Bruschetta adventure. We chose three to split as appetizers and pesto was the real winner here –you could slather that on a boot I would eat it. The fig mascarpone was tasty and sweet as well. But after trying their «toscana» — aka Chicken Liver… at first, we swallowed it and thought «hey, not bad» but then the gamey aftertaste set in and like something out of Seinfeld episode we both started spitting and saying «OH NO, OH NO» at the same time. Our affair with chicken liver was incredibly short lived.
I had the squash cappellacci — aka giant ravioli with smoked butter. This was interesting. It was good… but the smokeyness in the butter… threw me off in a way. I definitely ate the entire thing though. My friend had the chicken which she devoured.
Our waiter was… winky. And laid back. Luckily there was hardly anyone in the restaurant otherwise we may have had a problem during peak hours.
The moral of the Unilocal review: Where’s a dame to get some good italian? I mean, to put it as dim wittingly as possible, picture me In Jim Carrey voice screaming — Where can I get a «spicy meat-​a-​ball-​a???»

This ‘inoteca is an excellent choice for a cocktail, a shared bottle of wine, a plate of charcuterie and cheese, a full meal or all of the above. As I am a greedy man, I chose the latter.
The bartender (Bill?) was better than good. I wasn’t taken with anything on the extensive menu of busy cocktails, so I asked for a Manhattan with Elijah Craig, the first bottle that caught my eye. It may have been simple flattery, but he called it his favorite drink, with his favorite bourbon. And when he made it, it became mine as well. I greatly appreciated the enormous glass, accompanied by an enormous ice cube, as did my dinner companions when they finally showed up.
We shared bruschettas, cheeses, meats, wines, pastas and more. And although they ranged from excellent to merely average, none of it truly disappointed. The Murray Hill crowd, while distinctly different from the downtown location’s, was still young and attractive, and all in all, I was thoroughly impressed with the establishment as a whole. I would gladly return, and plan to soon enough.
But seriously, why do all your servers wear jorts?

Good pasta, and the server we had seemed to know their wine and regions well. They could have been blowing smoke up our arses, but who knows.
May be a bit on the pricey side, but far cheaper than most other comparable wine bars in New York.

Walking into this restaurant is like walking into a lesbian porn shop!
My girlfriends and I came here and all we did was moan and groin over how wonderful their food was. Seriously, we could barely talk because we were too busy stuffing our faces while looking at each other and making all these retarded noises. I know this description sounds beyond silly, but the food was definitely good, better yet, it was amazing, actually no, it was ORGASMIC!!!
I highly recommend their beets, orange, pecorino, mint & hazelnuts salad. It is down right yummy and their fig mascarpone, pesto and fennel bruschette are just as good.
Honestly, that day, I felt like I made sweet, sweet, love to the chef, himself (metaphorically speaking of course!)
Thanks Eric Kleinman! Thanks for making me such a happy girl that night :)

I really don’t like this place. It’s so pretentious but doesn’t back it up with anything. First of all, the whole menu is in Italian with a glossary in the back. Unless you speak Italian, you have to sit there and translate each dish, word by word. I told our waiter I was struggling with the menu and he said he would give me more time. What I really wanted was for him to stand there and translate it for me. Instead, I was forced to look for keywords of tasty things like «mushrooms» and «cheese» and hope for the best. I ended up with a very oily panini :(
Also my table was right in the middle of the room, and everybody kept bumping me. 90% of the people here are getting drunk off wine, which is ok, but it distracted me from eating my oily panini because people were getting loud and my chair was constantly banged.
BUT the waiter didn’t charge me for my soup. I was like «Thank you. Have a great evening,» so I could see if it was a mistake or a freebie and I think he winked. So I forgive him for not translating the menu for me

I’m a little torn between 3 or 4 stars… but at the end decided it was a 3 star experience.
Our waitress was attentive, polite and knew her stuff. She was helpful in suggesting items and she was right.
We split 5 different bruschette: pesto, caponata (eggplant), butternut squash, tonna (tuna) and toscana (chicken pâté) — all were full of flavor and great selections. If I were to order them again, I would substitute the pesto for the pepperonata (roasted peppers).
The truffle egg toast came on top of some asparagus. I couldn’t eat the toast, so only had the asparagus and it was soaked in truffle oil — yummy!
We also split a pasta dish: taccozette con ragu di anatra (duck). Although we told the hostess no cheese on one plate, it came with cheese on both. While I scraped the cheese off, my friend waved the waitress over and my plate was quickly swept away. The manager appeared a short time later to inform me another dish is being made. Too bad the dish arrived after my friend was done (for a while) and then I ended up eating by myself. The pasta was too al denta for me and the duck too salty.
Overall, the service was the highlight of the evening.

You know what i don’t get… when places are empty and they have a problem with you having «just drinks.»
The place itself is nice. The attitude of the waitstaff on the particular night I went — not so great.
I would be willing to give it another shot though. Maybe i’ll come hungry next time so as not to attract the wrath of the waitress because I don’t want a damn meal with my booze.

I wanted to meet a friend near my hotel (staying at the Roger near Madison Sq Park) but it was last minute and I hadn’t made a resi, doh! Called ahead to ask about the wait and I caught major attitude. It was 7:30 and I asked the hostess what it might be like around 8, she proceeded to lecture me on how she couldn’t possibly know. I actually had to cut her off, very annoying.
My dining experience (resto was packed so we ate at the bar) was less eventful. Their sliced meats (affettati) were nice, but I think it’d be hard to get that wrong. Our spaghetti with aglio olio was much less impressive since it was way over salted. On a more positive note the bartenders were quite helpful in selecting a wine and overall provided great service.
Not sure it’s worth the hassle… Rated: Meh.