Per Lei

Love the atmosphere, and the service was excellent. The white linen covered tables and modern artwork– very pretty. And the host and server were very attentive soon as I walked in and throughout the meal.
But I was underwhelmed with my drink and some of the food.
— Extra dirty martini did not taste to my liking so I ordered extra olive juice. Even with that we realized the olive juice was not salty and was diluted — the server came back with another but it was also still not salty …
— The grilled octopus appetizer which is a favorite of mine was just ok.
— Beef carpaccio appetizer — also a favorite — was very well presented and excellent though I prefer not grated Parmesan cheese…
— Tuna steak was served in 3 pieces and while the center piece was delicious the 2 smaller triangular side pieces were not tender … I’ve never had tuna steak served that way but cooking them in smaller pieces I think resulted in them being over cooked.
— The chocolate lava dessert with coconut covered ice cream was absolutely delicious and my favorite part of the meal.
The first time I was here a couple years ago with a friend, and everything was great– no complaints — we ate outside … And I have passed here many times since wanting to dine inside …
I would give them one more try because the atmosphere is great and it was the day after Christmas when many restaurants were empty — so maybe an off night for the chef but — was disappointed as I had been wanting to come back here a long time.

I really liked the food here! Came for lunch with a friend, and found it mostly empty. It’s a bit pricy for lunch, but the quality is definitely there.
1. Scallops: Amazing. You get 3 large sea scallops that are cooked really well, but what actually makes the dish is the abundant slices of mushrooms. The texture and flavor complements the scallops.
2. Cauliflower: I always love a cauliflower, and this dish was no exception. It was simple, lightly cooked cauliflower, but had an excellent texture.
3. Truffle butter gnocchi: A very generous portion, I took part of this to go and had it for another meal. It’s quite excellent and the truffle butter was strong.
4. Lamb chops: YUM!!! Four tender pieces, perfectly cooked on a bed of zucchini. Flavorful. Get medium or medium rare.
Service was good. So sad I didn’t get to try the desserts here, but based on the quality of items I got here, I would think it would be good too!

Here’s the facts.
My wife and I ate the same meals all day Saturday Dec 12, 2015. Saturday night, we ate at Per Lei, I had the minestrone soup (it was more a bean soup, minimal pasta) and the beet salad (which was good).
Sunday I felt ill, queasy stomach and then boom, semi-​digested food started exploding from both orifices. Food Poisoning. Fortunately a 24 hour thing, but it seems to me the most likely culprit was Per Lei, probably the minestrone soup (as my wife ate some of the beet salad too).
I said it to a neighbor who said that her daughter was sick with food poisoning after eating there too.
I will not be back.

I was unimpressed. I came with a large party and most of us agreed that it was just an okay meal. I ordered the spinach ravioli which was barely stuffed with anything. It was beyond al dente and just tasted undercooked. Also, because we were a large party and they served us all together, my food was not very hot.

The dinner I had was first class. Will be one of my first choices for Italian whenever I’m in NYC. Luca is the best. Ask for him and make sure he gives you a hug!

I had my brunch yesterday. It’s pretty place. The grilled skirt steak I had is so delicious! The only disappointing us which is they don’t serve pasta on brunch menu. Service overall was good. I also like their sitting area outside, I’ll be back!

A+ service
A– food
Every meal at Per Lei is a treat. The food is always good and tastes incredibly fresh. Perfectly cooked pasta, flaky fish and solid chicken Milanese make this a place you will want to keep coming back to! Start off with a classic Caesar or the perfectly seared beef carpaccio and you will be happy and satiated. The A– comes from the food not being that inventive or interesting, BUT that is not what everyone is looking for anyway. Per Lei should be a must for anyone looking to dine and have a meal they can know will absolutely be top notch on the UES.

Cute little place with a good enough looking menu, but gotta say, the food was terrible. Gluey globby tasteless. We couldn’t finish our food and three of us felt slightly sick for a day after, like we had accidentally eaten a box of play-​dough (sp?). Waiter’s timing was stupendous. Every time we laughed or leaned in for the most important part of a story, he interrupted us. This happened so many times we wondered if we were on candid camera.

The service here is so friendly and Daria (I don’t know if that’s how you spell it) makes really fantastic drinks. I love it!

I had the best brunch at Per Lei restaurant. I ate one French toast with blackberry marmelade and one nice spritz Aperol, delicious.
For sure I will be back.

Came here last night on a Gilt deal. $ 85 for dinner for two. We got a bottle of wine, 2 appetizers, 2 entrees, 1 dessert to share, and a plate of cookies and biscotti’s. Totally worth it!
The service was really great and the food was an ⁸⁄₁₀. I ordered the rabbit. It was a tad too salt and a bit stringy. My boyfriend ordered the cornish game hen. Hen was wonderfully cooked, sauce was amazing. Highly recommend this dish, sort of wish I got the same one!
The dessert was my favorite. It was a «thousand layer» cake with custard and raspberries. Fantastic!
Overall a great place, will definitely be going back!

Came in for brunch and had the octopus salad and as for dessert we have the mixed berry mousse that was today’s special. Loved it! Food is fresh, comes quickly and the staff is courteous. I also love that they have an outside seating area which makes it an amazing spot for the summer. So, definitely coming back. :-)

Very disappointed! I was going to try per lei and then baraonda next weekend but think I will change those plans!
Pros– service was great and the atmosphere was really nice. Felt like the staff really cared and wanted you happy.
Cons– the food unfortunately was pretty bad. We had the mussels to start and we almost couldn’t eat them. They were completely overlooked, tough, and the sauce was thin with no flavor.
Our entrees were at least edible but just nothing special and I though my fish dish was bland and the spinach was doused in oil.
Especially for a dinner that turned out to be 160 for just two entrees and one appetizer, we were not impressed.

I live near Per Lei and had been meaning to try it for a couple years, and finally spontaneously walked in the other night as we were walking past. I’m quite glad we did.
The food here is simple contemporary Italian, and rather than trying to wow you with some creative interpretation of a dish, they just give you high quality ingredients perpared perfectly.
We started with the baby artichoke salad. It’s a combo of arugula, mushrooms and baby artichokes with parmesan and a light vinagrette. I’d never had baby artichokes before, but I absolutely loved their flavor, more concentrated than artichoke hearts people often toss into a salad, and the dish tasted very fresh and healthy.
For entrees we had the linguine al vongole (clams) and the tagilolini al gamberi (shrimp) and both were very pleasing. The clams were fresh and plentiful, there was a generous portion of perfectly cooked shrimp in the taglionlini, and the pasta was the perfect al dente you want, with a slight pop but not cooked even 15 seconds too long.
The service was fast and attentive, and the lighting of the restaurant (an oft overlooked but very important component) was also very inviting.
My only criticisms were that they misunderstood our request to take home leftovers and only included one of our dishes rather than both, and the vegetables in the tagliolini were slightly overcooked (I like my veggies to have a little crunch left in them), but that’s being a perfectionist. Overall I was happy with my experience here. Lastly the price was lower than I expected from how the place looked on the outside and the location (upper east side). We’ll definitely be back.

Gnocchi alla crema tartufata was delicious, wine was good as well. They tricked me with a bottle of San Pellegrino water for 8 $!! But that was my fault. After all it is a excellent!!!

Service is horrible. Waitress had no idea what anything on the menu was.
A 2 year old can make better brunch on an easy bake oven.
Table cloth had wine stains and we had to ask them to swap out a few dirty plates.
I would not come back here. There’s plenty of good brunch spots in the city to not waste your time here.

This is a lovely brunch spot on the UES :)
I came here with my mom after purchasing the Gilt City voucher offering a bottle of champagne, choice of coffee/​tea, two entrees and a dessert… the experience was definitely worthwhile.
We were welcomed at the door by a very friendly manager and escorted to a table for two by the window. The space was a little cramped, but not at all a game changer… and to be fair there was a large 30^th birthday brunch that took up a good portion of the restaurant.
The charm of the place is definitely in the intimacy and décor — the space is not huge, but beautifully decorated with very eclectic and colorful portraits that I absolutely loved! Plus, the staff is very attentive and never left us hanging for an unnecessary amount of time (one of my biggest pet peeves!!). Our champagne flutes were constantly topped off ;)
My mom ordered the Lobster Benedict, which she seemed to love. Unlike other brunch spots I’ve been to, there was plentyyyyyy of lobster in her meal! Points right there. I ordered the prosciutto, mushroom and cheese crêpe entrée, a solid entrée choice. Side note, I’ve had this before and ordered it again because I remembered it to be quite tasty — it didn’t disappoint the second time around! We ended our meal with a rather delectable tiramisu dessert (see pictures below). A+ for presentation on this course.
Overall, a wonderful Sunday brunch! I will definitely be returning! (I also live right around the corner haha! — definite «neighborhood gem.»)
Bonus — in the summertime this place has an adorable wrap-​around outdoor seating area! Definitely keep that in mind :)

I had a fantastic brunch here with one of my friends (fellow Unilocaler Randy)!
Service was attentive and patient with our indecisiveness. The atmosphere is very bright and chic, it reminded me of the brunch spots I used to frequent on South Beach when I lived in Miami. The food was delicious. I highly recommend ordering the Pancakes alla Ricotta for brunch. I am usually disappointed with restaurant pancakes (as I believe mine are better at home), however Per Lei’s pancakes were perfect. Not too fluffy and with just the right amount of ricotta.
Prices are moderate for the area. We had a bottle of champagne and some tea at the end of our meal. Per Lei was a great way to spend a few hours on a sunday afternoon. I will return.

Per Lei is so uninspired.
Breaking it down to food… I had the Per Lei salad which was underdressed and a hodgepodge of day old salad greens. I had a lot of wilted greens in there. I also had the swordfish with the eggplant caponata. I will state the fish was grilled well but the caponata would have been so bland had it not been for the 187 olives they threw in there.
The service was awkward and disorganized. I still don’t know who my waiter was, who my server was… To be fair, I don’t think they knew who we were either. They messed up on our order. To cap that, a random tall gentleman, who I assumed was the manager, kept walking up (every 10 min) to check in on our meal for a total five of mid mouth check ins. He’s lucky I didn’t choke.
Its rare for me not to finish my meal. I left my meal half eaten. I will leave Per Lei to those who are into overly decorated places with poor service and mediocre food. I also wished my lemon wasn’t a cement ball so I could have squeezed some reality into my boring dish.

Per Lei is great for dates and birthdays.
One time, we saw waiter bring out fireworks popping candles on a slice of cake for a boy with his parents and music in restaurant changed to birthday song. Patrons at the other tables clapped, too. It was just very nice.
On Valentine’s Day some years ago, they gave unlimited chocolate covered strawberries to each table. Oh my god. It came with main course. I ate one and waiter gave me another. I ate it, and he gave another. What’s going on? At the 4^th strawberry, I finally asked. He said, «We’re going to keep refilling your plate of strawberries tonight.»
At evening’s end, the owner or friend of owner’s came to give a surprise, bravo performance of Italian opera. Mother of god. Per Lei. You win my heart.
For once, I’d say just let go of your critical attitude for food as a foodie, if you claim yourself to be one. It’s going to be average here. Although, I’d recommend their pastas over carnes and peces entrees. The pasta with duck ragu is probably my favorite. Just enjoy the waiters’ friendly hospitality (and Italian accent), restaurant’s easy and romantic ambiance, and mostly importantly, your company.