The Village Trattoria

Initially nice service but ultimately disappointing.
Got our food 15 – 20 min after the ppl next to us who arrived later.
Calamari tastes bad. Lasagna tastes good. Mushroom ravioli tastes o.k.
It’s decent but wouldn’t really recommend it to a friend who was looking to eat Italian.

The food was great and the service was quick. The specials were amazing! I like the décor and the feel of the restaurant.

Stopped in here with some friends after a movie and was really pleased.
The atmosphere is cozy, La Dolce Vita was playing silently on a wall behind us and the whole room felt very casual and relaxed. The menu is simple and creative, with extremely reasonable prices and a wonderful selection of wines.
I had the carpaccio, which was served with wonderful fresh arrugula (which was nice and crisp and peppery) and shavings of parmesan cheese. Very good. For my main, I had the fresh fall veg Pappardelle plate. The caramelized garlic mixed with fresh vegetables and the fresh pasta was absolutely wonderful. Garlic should pop in your mouth when cooked like this, giving you a delightful punch of flavor, and this had that exact texture. Perfection!
The staff was attentive and sweet, definitely a place I will return to again and again.
TLDR: Great all around. Go there for dinner and be amazed at how much you get for how much less than you will expect to pay.

Brought my girlfriend on a Thursday night and had an awesome experience. The service was exceptional, the food was incredible — a truly authentic Italian experience — loved the atmosphere…
I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

I am only giving this place two stars because I had a really great waiter. I came to this place because I needed to kill a little time before seeing a show. I almost went to an Italian place near by that I’ve been to before (and know is good), but I saw this place and thought I’d try something new. Mistake. I ordered a Caesar salad and the lasagna. I can’t believe how disappointed I was considering the fact the two things I ordered are so hard to mess up. The Caesar salad is made with «charred romaine,» which is the dumbest culinary innovation I’ve ever come across. It just makes it taste (and look) like the lettuce has gone bad. I ate about 3 bites before asking the waiter to take it away. Then the lasagna came, which was mediocre at best. I could easily make as good if not better lasagna at home with sauce out of the jar.
Having said that, my waiter could tell I didn’t like the salad so he didn’t charge me for it. He was incredibly attentive and friendly.
In short, DO NOT EAT HERE. The service is great but can’t make up for how overwhelmingly average (that’s a compliment to this place) the food is.

I went to the Village Trattoria on Saturday night with my girlfriend and we had a great time.
We started w/​the bufala ala caprese, which was uniquely presented (I think you can see a picture on their website) and included a touch of excellent balsamic. We then had the spicy rigatoni and the pappardelle dish. The spicy rigatoni was well balanced all around and simply great… I’ve been to many of the popular italian restaurants in NYC they haven’t nailed down a simple dish like this. The pappardelle dish was also delicious (although I only had a bite… but I really liked it). To finish we had a panna cota and a tiramisu. The panna cota was incredible and a waitress told us it was actually made there (as opposed to being purchased from a local bakery)! Very impressed. Also — we ordered a relatively inexpensive red, and I was pleasantly surprised when the waiter brought out a slightly chilled bottle, just like it’s supposed to be served! Countless restaurants in NYC serve red at room temperature and it always gets to me.
In summary, an overall great time. Great food and service, and affordable to boot. Highly recommended to bring friends and family.

The food here is fabulous and well as the wine and dessert! Came with a party of 4 and we all really liked our food. I had the sea bass and it was cooked perfectly. For dessert I had the Pana Cotta, which was the best I ever had — seriously! The only reason I’m not giving 5 stars is because while my beat salad was good, I wasn’t blown away by it. But I would definitely recommend trying this place out. It’s not BYOB and it’s not for tourists… I don’t know what these other people are talking about.

My wife and I happened to stumble on this place randomly after an afternoon of shopping in SoHo.
We were tempted in by the offer of a free drink and a $ 5 happy hour appetizer menu. Ended up ordering an array of appetizers and a couple glasses of wine.
The house montepulciano wine was very good. They kept it at a good temperature and it had a nice finish.
As we waited for the food, we noticed that while the décor was interesting, the selection of music just clashed with the décor.
As for food, we went with:
1) Sliders — overall, they were very good. The buns are nicely buttered, but a little too crispy.
2) Scallops (w/​blueberry) — interesting… didn’t expect scallops to be cold, but it was pretty good
3) Mac and cheese — I liked this one, my wife thought it was just ok. Pasta was nice al dente and the cheese was flavorful.
4) Meatballs — the ingredients seemed fresh, and the sauce had good flavor, but the meatball itself was a little bland
5) Crabcake — the breading was a little too salty, but the pesto sauce was good
6) Panna Cotta — EXCELLENT!
Overall, service was quick and attentive– not sure why the other reviews said it was not. Perhaps they overahauled the service along with the restaurant. My understanding was that they just relaunched and got their new liquor license. We met David (owner?) — he was a very nice guy.

I’m surprised at how poor the ratings and reviews are, because I had a pretty good time at this place! Maybe since the restaurant is fairly new it was off to a rough start? And to be fair, 5 stars is a little much, but I had a nice experience that I thought I’d help boost them up. I’d say 4 to 4.5 would be more accurate.
We reserved a table for 6, and by some horrible force of nature all of us were 30 minutes late. We tried to call ahead and give them warning and they didn’t give us any grief at all. The place was nicely decorated, nothing too over-​the-​top but still elegant. It would be more appropriate for a «nicer» group dinner that you still wanted to be casual.
The dishes were portioned on the smaller side but cooked well. I got the linguini with clams which was good, but I was jealous of my friend’s lasagna with meat sauce! The owner (David?) came around all the tables to check in on everything,
Also, this place is BYOB (for now, and no cork fee) despite having empty wine bottles as décor. They were attentive in making sure our wine bottles were opened and didn’t seem to mind that we brought beer cans in also. Capped the meal off with a DELICIOUS tiramisu, MMM. We stayed until closing and they didn’t give us any trouble for lingering. Overall a pretty good time!

Friend wanted to try this place and also this was also BYOB. The décor is nice, looks like an old school italian restaurant in brooklyn. I brought 2 Napa wines thinking it would pair up great with the food. The best part about this meal was the WINE! I tried the pre-​fix menu starting with Buffalo Mozzarella. The appetizer took a whole 20 minutes to come out. How hard is it to cut cheese and tomatoes? By then ¾ of the first bottle is done. I was drinking more to make myself think the food will taste better.
The main course came out. I ordered Linguine Vangole, which is Linguini with clams in a pesto sauce. Looked great on the plate but when I tried it the pasta was RAW! The whole clams tasted fine though. I understand cooking pasta to al dente, but this pasta tasted like it was blanched in hot water!
Somebody needs to add another 4 minutes to the chef’s kitchen timer. This was ridiculous.
We told the waiter that the pasta was totally undercooked and see what he can do. They brought back 4 plates which already had bites taken from them and brought them back again slightly more cooked.
So what the genius kitchen staff did was take all 4 plates. dump it together and cook everything on a pan again. also all 4 plates had different amount of clams on them. nobody touched the food again.
Do not go to this place. How is this place still in business?

Came by Saturday night for early dinner. Pros: BYOB. They request (understandably) that you leave the hard liquor bottle out of sight, so at the restaurant bar or underneath the table. Cons: Food. Their food wasn’t terrible by any means, but I wouldn’t choose to go back based on the food alone. The calamari was rubbery, the dressing on the frisee was too sweet. The pasta was a bit too al dente for our tastes. Definitely edible and better than what I could have made, but still below average based on what else you could find in the area. Having said all this however, I would choose this place again for a casual group event. The ambiance was group-​friendly, our waiter was amazing and really, who cares about how the food tastes once you’ve had two bottles of grey goose.

A friend of mine recently held an engagement dinner at this place. It was a small affair, about 12 of us total. Here’s my impression of the restaurant:
–Rude service. We were ordering a bunch of appetizers and I figured it might be better to split a pizza with my date because she wasn’t that hungry. I asked the waiter if it’s enough for two and he replied, «No, it is not!» and walked away abruptly. He made us feel as though we were being cheap (even though we had 12 people and a bunch of appetizers ordered already!)
So after his snide remark, I ordered an entrée and she ordered a pizza. When we got her pizza it was DEFINITELY enough for two people. Thanks for the advice!
–Horrible food. Pizza crust was either soggy or «frozen» tasting. Nothing was interesting about it. Very bland and boring. Really, Ben’s down the street does a better job and they’re a pizza by the slice joint. My Ravioli (presumably hand made) was decent, but the sauce tasted like salsa and they put too much of an ingredient akin to lemon zest (something I don’t like to have with marinara.)
My friends’ food weren’t any better either. Mushroom risotto (soupy, bad consistency), Gnocchi (over cooked), and a tomato less pizza that tasted like rubber. The only dish that was «good» was the bass and pasta dish, but that was also a bit more on the pricing scale compared to everything else.
–Décor. Paper napkins … OK, seems like a small complaint, but the prices aren’t cheap nor expensive, yet I’m used to a better napkin than I get at a bagel place. The color scheme was nice, I’ll give them that.
Overall, we had a table of bland, tasteless entrees and a waiter who’s convinced he serves the Queen of England on a daily basis. I’d stay away. There are better places in Manhattan and in some cases they’re not necessarily more expensive, just more in tune with what people want to eat and how they should be treated.
Update: A friend of mine wandered in here a few days ago and said it’s still one of the biggest dumps in NYC. I’m not sure who these people are that bumped up the stars, but I’m suspecting it’s friends of the owner or perhaps the owner himself! Click on some of these 5 star reviews and you’ll see they have 1 or 2 reviews only. FAKES!

Maybe 1 star is a little harsh, as it’s possible you might like this place if you 1) are in a coma; 2) enjoy the taste of cardboard; or 3) enjoy puzzles, particularly ones where you have to figure out why the service is so slow in a restaurant that is, except for your table, COMPLETELY empty.
I’ve had the distinct displeasure of eating here twice («distinct» because I cannot imagine anyone who hasn’t been slipped a roofie coming back for more of this horrendous food), so I feel confident enough to give this such a harsh rating.
This restaurant is for stupid tourists who are lost in the village and don’t know any better. If you find yourself hungry and at the front door, do yourself a favor: rotate your body 180 degrees and walk across the street (but look both ways first) to the McDonald’s. That place often smells like pee, but even then it’s more appetizing than what you’ll eat at Village Trattoria.

Extremely friendly staff, the waiter was excellent and the manager came out to say hello, introduce himself. And really, byob in the city is pretty amazing. The food was good, not amazing but still very good, reasonably priced. The only drawback is the décor. When I’m looking for Italian in the Village, I’d like to see authentic, not a giant screen TV over the bar playing the food network.

«It seemed like a good idea at the time…»
So it was for the Village Trattoria, one of New York’s newest and most disappointing little restaurants. I went there recently on a Friday night with a group of friends when we found ourselves in the city, ready for a good meal and a good time. Translation: we wanted a cheap BYOB restaurant. Through a joint effort of Unilocal and the iPhone we ended up here.
On its surface the Village Trat looked promising. When we arrived, there were few customers and we were greeted by the host and waiter, who were both pleasant and cheery. We took out our first bottle of wine and the waiter immediately came over to uncork it for us. The menu was appealing too — plenty of variety, good vegetarian options, and moderate prices (for NYC). This had all the makings of a 4-​star Unilocal review!
Then the food arrived. The salads, proclaimed as «mixed greens» on the menu, consisted of a pile of shredded iceberg lettuce with a bit of goat cheese, walnuts, and what-​have-​you sprinkled on top. This was a harbinger of what followed: runny, flavorless tomato sauce on overcooked gnocchi, cafeteria-​grade sausage with pasta, and pumpkin-​from-​a-​can ravioli. Only the pizza passed muster — in fact, it was delightful.
Still, we had a good time. The open-​door BYOB policy, the courteous waitstaff, and the company of good friends made the evening utterly enjoyable. I would say that at this point, the establishment was looking at a solid two-​star review.
Then we got on Unilocal the next day to find that two of the positive reviews that had brought us to the restaurant in the first place had been posted by management, and subsequently flagged and removed. The 3.5 rating had dropped to 1. Oh, humankind, why must you be so flawed?
So, I leave you with a poem…
When you’re in the Village proper,
Looking for a hunger stopper,
Go on Unilocal,yes yes, do that!
But PLEASE avoid the Village Trat

So my girlfriend heard about this place and took me there to try it out. We sat down and the waiter kept pushing out the lunch special menu. The minute we were ready to order, he just walks away and greets another group of customers. To me that’s a BIG NO NO. If it was busy I can understand but the place was dead and not for nothing, when I looked at the other people he greeted I’m sorry but they didn’t seem that important nor where they famous. All I saw was an old grandma lady with 2 guys. 1 of the guy looked like a total ass clown but whatever. So I got this salad dish and fried calamari in which I’m sorry to say but calamari could’ve been cooked a little longer. As for the salad, I never knew that people eat their salad REALLY dry! For the main I got myself pizza. Too bad it didn’t look like a pizza. I felt like someone just slap the dough on the table, threw sauce and was just being careless. I’m Italian and I know what a decent pizza should look and taste like. Side from that, it was burnt, under the pizza theres a lot of flour. Heres the best part we had a discount coupon for the place and turned out that we couldn’t use it because it was a lunch special. At the last minute they tell us that lunch special should’ve been over long ago but apparently the waiter didnt know? Hmm I guess he should’ve payed more attention instead of chit chatting with other people. I’m sorry but I do not recommend going to this restaurant and for the people who review this place saying its THE BEST EVER! YEA! RIGHT… MY ASS! those people are either friends or workers of the restaurant and how would I know such a thing? pretty obvious when you make more then 1 account and get banned plus not having other reviews but one LOL so its pretty obvious =)
Ps-​sadly to say but I rather go to Mcdonalds or Rollin Roaster then this place