Va Bene

I would say Va Bene is the best of the dairy kosher restaurants in Manhattan. The ambiance is nice & the staff is prompt. Personally I love the…
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Food was good. Service was not. The food was novel and overall pretty good. The ambiance was inviting, if not a bit cramped. The service, however, was below par for a restaurant at this price point. NOTE: They will tack on a 20% service fee regardless, so their isnt much of an incentive to be courteous or responsive and it showed. This place would be a quaint go-​to little restaurant had they not ruined it with their matter of fact attitude towards their guests and their needs. I wouldn’t go back — there are tons of other kosher places who will treat you as if they want your business. This place clearly doesn’t.

Great Italian food, great place to hang out, many selections on drinks, I’ve been coming here for many years, Alex, Gabriel, the rest of staff is always great, will be coming back for more

Terrible service, mediocre food
* Waiter and maitre d’hotel were impolite and unavailable from start to finish.
* Arrive; ask whether they have wine. I’m asked if I want white or red — I expect to receive a wine menu. Instead, the waiter brings me a glass of wine. Never seen that happen in any quality restaurant.
* We ordered desert before the official kitchen closing time; we’re told that the kitchen is closed. First, it should not have closed early. Second, in any nice restaurant guests are told that the kitchen is about to close… We asked why we hadn’t been told, and the answer was less than polite.
* Food was mediocre.
* Added 20% tip without asking us. I had to haggle to get it off our bill…
Very disagreeable experience.

Enjoyed a very special occasion yesterday for lunch at Va Bene. The staff and service were exceptional and the food was delicious. All I can say is that if you’re looking for a great kosher restaurant in Manhattan you will not be disappointed with Va Bene. Thank you again to the amazing staff at Va Bene. — Sharon

There are very few kosher options in NYC but the food at Va Bene was poorly prepared — the pizza was made on a «hot plate» and although it looks good it was made with inferior ingredients (the cheese was inedible), the artichokes came out over cooked, the wine was acidic and inferior. The restaurant was crowed and the noise level was deafening, the service was rude including the manager. In summary-Don’t Go!!! Save your money because it is a rip off.

Favorite dairy restaurant in manhattan!
Everything here is so good from the artichokes to the fettuccine Alfredo!
Service wasn’t too bad.
I ordered the ravioli ala guidea and wife ordered fettuccine Alfredo
Both were delicious and worth 5 stars!

We dined at this restaurant recently with our family. The food and service were pretty good, but the prices are rather high. Regretfully, I didn’t fully check the bill when it arrived, and added a 20% tip — $ 80 on a $ 403.00 bill. When I was leaving, the manager asked me for the original itemized bill as they «needed it for accounting purposes». I thought that was rather strange but gave it back to him.
In the taxi on the way back to the hotel, my wife and I worked it out that the total could not have come to more than about $ 365. We called the restaurant, and they told us that there was a 15% service charge added automatically — as you know, very unusual in the US. We told them to remove the $ 80 tip that I added, and they promised that they would.
When I received my credit card statement, the $ 80 was still there — so they have been dishonest on two occasions — by trying to hide the 15% charge, and then falsely promising to remove the $ 80. There are plenty of other kosher restaurants in New York — stay away from this one.

Horrible restaurant the pasta had no taste the service is horrible I don’t recommend. It

If you keep cholov yisroel and you love ice cream you must eat the home made ice cream. There is no cholov yisroel commercially available ice cream in this country that comes close!

It’s been 24 hours after I ate at Va Bene and I still feel sick. I looked up the menu online and based on its high prices, I was expecting much better food. While the restaurant is nice and quant, its food is far below par! I was there with a group of my friends and we all ordered different things to try out, as it was our first time trying the restaurant. We started with pizzas as an appetizers, and while I enjoyed the grilled crust, the sauce had absolutely no flavor and I found myself dumping mounds of salt just to taste something. The cheese they use was also very heavy, not typical mozzarella. For dinner, we ordered a variety of different pasta dishes, salads and a fish dish. The salmon was very smelly so I did not try it. The salads were nothing special, and much too small for the $ 20 price tag! I was impressed with how the pasta dishes looked, but that’s where my positive notes end on the pasta. I ordered the mushroom tortallini with alfredo sauce. It was «ehh.» The mushroom filling didn’t taste like anything. It’s only saving grace was the alfredo sauce. I did not finish the pasta, and dipped the bread from the bread basket in the sauce instead. DO NOT ORDER the penne with creamy tomato sauce (there is barely any sauce and the sauce once again has no flavor). I had heart burn and felt nauseous during the dinner. As soon as we left the restaurant, we went to the convenience store next door for ginger ale and tums.
Save yourself the money and go to Noi Dui Café for kosher italian food in the city instead.

Va bene un sitio para exigentes en paladar y buen gusto, desde las entradas focaccia perfecta! sopas exisitas!, pizza ala piedra finita, pasta casera con gusto perfecto, no dejar de probar va bene en tu estadia a new york un 10 en todo sentido en restorant lacteo

Food wasn’t majorly good. Nor was the service. The front desk guy and person who sets and cleans tables are very nice. Now the waiter is a jerk. Answers like a moron any question you ask him about any dish. Like if it’s hot or cold what it includes etc. now when it came to pay the bill was sky high compared to service and the taste/​amount of food we got it was 127 and change for two people. I paid in cash. Then upon leaving that same jerk was now standing at the register and telling us «you guys paid. But u forgot to pay tip. The most important part» I wanted to punch him in the face after the service I received I still need to pay tip??! I asked him how much is the tip he says NYS law is atleast double the amount of your tax. I’m like really?! I told him a couple of high end restaurants I was recently have given me the option of 5 10 or 15 percent of my original order cost as a tip he was like oh. They are not even a restaurant. «La marreis, is a dessert place compare to our place we have lawyers and doctors coming in here» as if others don’t.
I would not recommend you to go there unless ur a lawyer or doctor or u want to over pay for same quality food that you get at ur local restaurant or u put emphasis on being served by a jerk.

Not good quality food I was with a few people we all ordered different things none of us liked our meals.

Very disappointing meal. The food was fair — we ate two pasta dishes — mushroom tortellini and potato gnocchi and lentil soup. The soup was pedestrian. The pasta dishes were pleasant, but not terrific. However, the service was abysmal. Perhaps they didn’t care for our casual attire — but that should never be an excuse for poor service. We had to «beg» for waiters to fill our water cups, to take our orders, to get us a dessert menu and even to bring us the check! Servers were disinterested to the point of rudeness.

1. My drinking glass had lipstick from a prior customer.
2.The biller ads a 20% tip and then gives you a credit card slip which already has preauthorized the 20% and has a line requesting a gratuity as if to imply that a tip was not already charged.
3.They have to be reminded to refill drinking glasses with water.
4.The email address to which to send comments came back .
5. The food was excellent especially the Tiramisu.

Super PO’d at what happened at this restaurant tonight. My family and I went for a nice family dinner. We got the check at the end of the night and glanced at it quickly. All of a sudden I noticed that the amount on the signature slip was about $ 20 higher then the actual itemized bill! We brought it up to the attention of the person behind the cash register and he quickly apologized and made up some BS excuse about desserts being added to the bill which made absolutely no sense because there were no extra desserts on our itemized bill nor did we order any. He quickly «adjusted» the bill to the correct amount. I have a feeling that this was no accident. Lesson learned: make sure you check that the amount on the bill and the amount on the signing slip is the same next time you eat here.

Ugh… stay away!
The worst staff. gonifs…over charging… all the time
Check your bill carefully
Nasty maître d… will never go back
I think he secretly… or not so secretly hates Jews!
We have been going for over 5 years. never pleasant… never a smile
This time we are through!
Can’t take it anymore
Heading to all the new delicious kosher restaurants that have nice honest people working for them

I don’t normally write reviews but I feel compelled to after my dinner at Va Bene last night. I went to dinner here with my parents, aunt and cousin who was in town from Israel. She keeps strictly Kosher so this restaurant seemed like one of the only viable options in the area.
Turns out this place is a huge rip-​off. They completely take advantage of the fact that there is a shortage of kosher food in the area and you’re going to pay for it. For 5 people our bill came to a grand total of $ 300 after tip. Our bill included: 4 soups (at $ 10-​$ 15 each; it should be a crime to charge this much for soup), 4 simple pasta dishes ($ 25 each), 3 coffees and one dessert. We had no wine. No fish. There is no world in which a meal consisting of soup and pasta should cost $ 300. To top it all off the food was actually terrible– tasteless and bland– and the service was poor. I’ve worked as a waitress before and this was just bad service. For what we were paying for bad food the least we could expect was good service, but instead they brought out 2 dishes at a time and made us awkwardly wait for the others at our table to receive our meals.
All in all, this was a very poor dining experience and I feel terrible for my father who was stunned by the bill. For $ 300 we could have gone to an upscale steakhouse AND gotten wine. Only recommended if you’re truly desperate for kosher food, don’t have sticker shock, and are ready for a poor meal.

Love VaBene!
Great food!
Fast service with barely a smile!
Nice ambiance!
Large wine list!
And again great food!

Pretty good kosher Italian. Enjoyed the pizza to start, after hitting up the carbs in the tasty break basket which had flatbread and bruchetta.
I had sea bass for my entrée which was very fresh, well prepared and enjoyable.
One of the better kosher restaurants I have tried in the city.