Rafaella Cafe

The food was good, but the whole experience itself was a bit weird.
To be honest, I was never going to enter into this place. I peeked in and only saw one small family on a Friday night around 6pm… which I found a bit weird. The waiter was really friendly and told me to pick any seat I wanted. Handed me the menu and I ordered their pumpkin ravioli in their pink sauce. It was delicious. The pumpkin was sweet, and the sauce was just the right amount of saltiness. The plate itself was just the right portion, so overall, the food experience was very food.
What was really weird was during the wait of the food. The bartender had one of her friends at the bar. The bartender didn’t give a shit about me and just shared a pasta with her friend. Bit rude, but whatever. The waiter came and asked if I wanted some bread. I said yes, and he brought me back these 3 tiny pieces of white bread; I’m talking like those pieces of bread that is smaller than an iPhone. It didn’t look fresh at all either, but whatever I was hungry, so I ate it and asked for another… I don’t know what happened this time, but the white bread came back smaller.
Anyways, so after I finished my ravioli, I had some sauce left. Since the sauce was really good, I asked the waiter for more bread… This time he came back with 3 tinier pieces of multigrain, whole, and white bread.
20 dollars with tip for the whole meal seemed a bit too much for me too, but the bread tho. I don’t know… that really threw me off.

Inattentive servers, we had to ask for water twice as well as menus for all members in our party. Waitresses didn’t smile!
Food was good. Eggs poached well. Home fries nice, crispy on the outside, not too dry.

Omg. We ordered a margarita pizza from here and got this. They refused to refund us so the just sent us another effed up one. Smh never again!

New treats at last night’s visit!
First of all, thanks to slow business, an outgoing bartender, and our boisterous energy, we received lots of personal service and conversation from our bartender, and some lovely professional conversation (which is always par for the course) with our server. It was such a lovely experience.
The red sangria? Some of the best I’ve had in the city. And, when the bartender realized he’d accidentally put too much ice in the pitcher, he topped it off after pouring our first glasses, which never reached bottom until the pitcher was empty, thanks to our attentive server. They really were a fine pair.
The Merguez Platter was excellent, as always. The Buratta was fresh and perfect. A very generous bed of sliced tomato and basil, a drizzling of olive oil, and extra on the table.
The rigatoni? LOVELY! A touch of sweet tomato when you first taste, then the subtle spice, the meat, and the pasta with perfect tooth. LOVELY presentation.
The Steak au Poivre was also lovely! Generous sirloin. The medium-​rare cooked properly in the heart of the piece, though more to the side of medium on the ends. I would’ve preferred a creamier potato over the more rustic (and more of them ;-), and perhaps broccolini or rabe. But the sauce was beautiful. And I finished EVERY BITE!
The pumpkin cheesecake? Lush. The lava cake? Made my mouth do things which I cannot post here, as it would be in violation of Unilocal policy. And when washed down with a bit of that sangria??? A perfect cap to a perfect evening!
All said and done, a generous pitcher of sangria, two apps, two entrée, and two desserts for only $ 150 (including tip) in Chelsea. None too bad!

This review is for brunch only .
I’m not going to lie this is my back up plan when Le Grainne across the road has a long wait. But wait this is definitely a worthy number 2 and I never have any complaints .
The brunch special is great value for money, entrée, mimosa and coffee for 15 usd you cant score a better deal than this in Chelsea .
The place is cute and staff are ever so friendly .
Brunch for 2 including tax 35 bucks boom. cant beat that !

We got the $ 15 brunch with coffee, orange juice and a lamb burger. The coffee was very weak and the «juice» was thick, a little slushy and without a trace of pulp, most likely concentrate straight from the freezer with a few drops of water in it. However, the lamb burger I ordered was quite tasty, but was served on dry bread together with an unappetizing salad that seemed old and some booring home fries.
The décor aims for the crafted industrial look that many places have around Chelsea, but it comes off more like a nice looking cafeteria than a hip restaurant due to uneven execution.

I am very pleasantly surprised by experience here!
I came here right before going bridal gown shopping. I had a rather large posse of 6 ladies with me, and I wanted to have some mimosas and brunch before saying yes to the dress down the block.
I called about a month ahead of them and asked if they could accommodate 7 of us at 9:30 am. There was some confusion because their website states that they open at 9:30, but they told me 10 on the phone. I called again to alter to number and then the night before to confirm. When I spoke to them the night before, they had no recollection of my reservation, and stated that they would be open at 10. So, naturally, I flipped out. They apologized and promised to be there at 9:30. I nervously agreed.
True to their word, they were open when we arrived. The waitress was a delight and managed to open the place up and take care of everything herself. The mimosas were great, and the food was delicious. Everyone was quite happy! She apologized again for the confusion as we left, which was not necessary.
I’m very happy with my experience here. If you’re looking for a delicious and reasonable brunch in Chelsea, definitely check this place out!!!

So yummy, came here for brunch with some girlfriends. Where else can you get a brunch for only $ 15 bucks? That comes with an entrée + choice of coffee/​tea AND OJ/​mimosa/​Bellini? THIS PLACE.
Most of us ordered the brunch special and I had the steak and eggs. Delish! My poached eggs were cooked perfectly. slightly firm yet runny in the middle. Same with my steak. I saw some of the entrees my girlfriends ordered and everything look tasty. If I’m in the nabe on a weekend, I would come back here in a heartbeat! My only qualm is that it’s small on space, but if you don’t mind sitting on the outside bench for a spell, it’s worth the wait.

Good veggie pizza!
Decent wine selection.
Spotty service… my boyfriend was waiting for someone to come by and ask if he needed another drink… there were like 3 people sitting at/​behind the bar looking bored and 2 waitresses walking around with maybe 4 or 5 tables in the whole place and nobody noticed his empty glass. We just paid the bill and left.

hmmm… how many stars to give when the food is good but the service is terrible? I’m currently working right down the street, so have been here twice now for lunch. Different servers, same experience.
Let’s start out with the positive: the food. They have a lunch special which is $ 9.95 for a cup of soup and a sandwich/​salad/​or crêpe. Both soups I had, black bean and corn chowder, were tasty, well seasoned and perfect for days that don’t feel quite like we’re done with winter yet. The salmon and avocado sandwich had the right amount of salmon. The rosemary chicken sandwich was tasty — the pesto was underwhelming, but not bad.
However, both times, my experience was the same. The café wasn’t busy, but the server seemed totally disinterested in helping the customers. I saw multiple people, after trying to flag down the server, have to get up and walk over to ask for their check. Now I’m fine with service taking a while if a place is busy, but that wasn’t the case… these servers just had no desire to do their job.
Maybe it’s worth delivery if you’re in the area — but the dining experience is a bust.

This is my new favorite place for brunch. The staff is friendly and laid back. The $ 14.95 brunch includes coffee, mimosa or sangria, and an entrée. I ordered the Shekchouka Wrap — grilled vegetables and baked eggs with spices, mixed greens and home fries. It was deliciously flavorful and filling. I would highly recommend Rafaella for an intimate and casual weekend brunch!

So I usually don’t write reviews on Unilocal but this place really deserves it!
I came here spontaneously with my boyfriend and we were immediately seated, the waiter was really friendly and helpful. I also love the ambience and decoration, the lighting was perfect for a romantic dinner but I can also see myself having a great girls-​night out here!
The FOOD: What else can I say than YUMMMM!!!
Oh my god, we had the soup of the day as appetizer — a butternut squash soup (vegan so not with toooons and tons of cream *thank god*) and it was absolutely wonderful. Seriously one of the best soups I’ve ever had. If you go there for one reason — the soup alone is worth a visit, especially for $ 6!
Main course:
My boyfriend ate the Filet Mignon with mashed potato, spinach, cranberry-​mushroom sauce and goat cheese. Sounds a little weird as combination but I have to say: it was delicious! The cheese and cranberries went so well together, the cream-​free spinach was spiced so well that I would immediately order a large plate and eat it as main dish! SO GOOD!
I ate another appetizer because I really wanted desert. I had melon with prosciutto and it was really good as well, especially since the prosciutto was very nice and lean, but yeah, there is not much to cook about this recipe.
Desert:
My boyfriend ate a mango-​raspberry mousse (I think it was raspberry but I’m not sure. The mousse was yellow-​pink^^) and I had a pear-​pie. WOW. The mousse was so light and so good, unbelievable. I also really liked the pie, however, if you don’t like marzipan then don’t take it, the marzipan flavor was pretty strong. Otherwise, go for it — it was DELICIOUS!!! Especially with a cup of coffee (Which was also really good coffee! WAAAAY better than anything I’ve ever had at starbucks!)
This was definitely one of the best dining experiences I’ve had so far in NYC and I will for sure come back! I just found my new favorite restaurant!

Decent, but unmemorable brunch. Very cute place with interesting artwork on the walls and a neighborhood café feel. Brunch is about $ 15 and includes an entrée and a drink.
I ordered the fruit pancakes and sangria. The sangria was pretty decent, but kind of weak and nothing spectacular. The pancakes come with a choice of two fruits (or chocolate chips) that are baked right in, which is a nice idea. I ordered them with bananas and blueberries. They were tasty. I mean you can’t really mess up pancakes. But I’ve had so much better elsewhere. The serving size was also kind of small.

We got some wine and some plates to share — the merguez platter, the bruschetta. You can’t really go wrong with merguez, but overall nothing was memorable. What was memorable was that the waitress was not very friendly. Another waiter (perhaps the owner?) WAS friendly, until we mentioned we had a coupon deal, at which point he proceeded to ignore us and left us to the whims of the hard-​to-​flag-​down waitress.
It’s unfortunate because this place is charming in a nice (albeit generic) way, with sunlight glinting in and artwork on the walls. None of the food offended, but it’s not really worth a trip with so many other options around.

Decent price, not great service… at the price though, I would have expected better.
Went in for a dinner around 8. The waitress was relatively attentive, and was prompt enough in getting us our drinks. When ordering a lamb burger, she totally neglected to ask what kind of bread (3 different options), that my mum wanted. The burger came in a timely fashion (~15 minutes), but was not that great. They attempted to add some spices to the burger, and thank god she asked for the Chipotle sauce on the side. It actually tasted old… kind of a weird, alcohol flavour. Kind of reminds me of the time I had old salsa/​chili lying around and the gasses had built up… I accidentally tasted it, and it was seriously nasty. That sauce was NOT good.
I had the steak salad. The salad itself was decent enough, but many of the slices of medium steak just had chunks of fat. One or two bits I can understand, it’s a cheap cut of beef for the salad. But HONESTLY, I actually had to start cutting off the fat :(
The seating at some of the tables is a bit tight, and was definitely a problem for a larger woman who tried to squeeze into the seat. I agree that the menu LOOKS great, but there are many other options that I would try before coming here again.

The atmosphere shouts Parisian (mismatched furniture, two top seating arrangement, random modern paintings hung on the brick-​exposed walls), but the menu spoke more towards the Mediterranean flavors, aside from a short list of sweet and salted (??? Really should use the word ‘savory’ instead) crepes. The brunch menu (a deal at $ 14.50 with a boozy beverage and coffee/​tea along with a brunch dish) is the usual suspects, but the lunch/​dinner menu includes pasta, sandwiches, entrée salads, and appetizers ranging from hummus to prosciutto with melon. It’s an intimate space, as in the opportune of rubbing elbows with your neighbors, so just be prepared to eavesdrop into some unavoidable conversations.
The kitchen cooks up decent, comfort foods. We had the vegetarian lasagna (hot and plenty of diced vegetables) and the vegan tofu sandwich on multigrain bread. Substantial portion without driving you go into food coma, but we ‘wanted’ to dive into a sweet coma today, so we finalized our brunch with a sweet crêpe filled with a mixed of fruits. Sadly, the strawberries and apple slices were cut too small. Think they used the fruits that were meant for the alcoholic drinks.
Service was brisk and hurried, but that is probably because the waitstaff are so overworked by the consistent crowds. Not a deal breaker, but just be aware that the service won’t be overtly friendly, but they get their jobs done nonetheless.

It was a hot day. The AC at the restaurant either wasn’t working or they didn’t turn it on high enough. It was just as hot inside.
French toast was extremely dry. I took one bite and didn’t eat the rest of it. One was even slightly burnt.
Service was really slow and not friendly.

I can only speak to their brunch menu. Love their French Toast w/​Fresh Fruit – it’s like no other ever tasted. Extremely light and airy, not heavy at all. The strawberry butter spread on top is divine. Not a drop of syrup is needed on these loaves of bread! And let’s not forget the glass of Mimosa/​Bellini that accompanies it.
Service can be hit or miss. Glad to report that as of late it’s been better. When the owner is around, things run smoothly. I have brought several out-​of-​towners here for brunch and they are always pleased with their meal.

Meh. I’ve experienced better.
My lamb burger was mediocre. My friend’s chicken sandwich apparently was bad enough that he had to send it back (dry).
No reason to go back.

Pretty solid brunch in the heart of Chelsea. They had a table for us right away, no reservation, which was pretty amazing. Their brunch menu is very nice, reasonably priced inclusive of a drink (yes, Mimosas as well), and chock full of all the goodies we want like Eggs Benedict and Baked Eggs.
The benedict was fine, and passable, as far as I can recall. The charm of this place was the amount of conversation the setting can stir with the interesting art on the walls and the gumball containers (we really wanted to take a gumball but didn’t know if we could). The servers are pretty nice, and are attentive in terms of ensuring that glasses are full, water is being replenished, and food is served at equitable times for the entire party. Lighting in the space is great due to large glass windows facing the street.
I’ll be back.