Vero Midtown

Came by with a few friends on a Friday night for dinner a month or so ago. **Reservations are HIGHLY recommended**
Despite having reservations we had to wait for about 30 minutes to be seated.
Extremely loud!!! The music selection was great but wayyyy too loud, as a result people talk even louder to be heard. Most wine bars that I frequent are not as loud and just lively enough where you can have a comfortable conversation with your friends or a date without having to scream OVER the music. Lots of groups & dates at this place.
The service was a bit slow, and the server forgot one of our appetizers & got two of our entrees wrong. Again, had the music not been as loud perhaps she would have actually heard hat we ordered. Not to mention, don’t take memory orders if you don’t have a good memory. Write it down pls.
We had appetizer:
PROSCIUTTO WRAPPED SCALLOPS, BEEF CARPACCIO, CRISPY CALAMARI, BRAISED SHORT RIB TACOS
For entrees:
NONA’S MEATBALLS, GRILLED MAHI MAHI, SEARED NY STRIP LOIN OF BEEF, TRUFFLED MAC & CHEESE
Food was OK, nothing spectacular, and the prices are a bit high for the portion size. Wine list is pretty decent though, typical range of prices.
Overall the place is fine, if only they turned the music down a notch. It’s not a club, so I don’t see the reason for it being so loud. But I don’t see myself adding it to my frequented wine bars.

This place is like a mullet. All party long during the week and quite on Sunday for Brunch.
Lotsa One Star Rewiews, why?
Great food, great cocktails and great wine with prices averaging $ 11 per glass, I am so much a fan of this place.
My buddies and I were smoking cigars next store and wanted to drink a nice Cabernet Sauvignon before heading back to the burbs.
We walk in, took over a table and bought a bottle of wine. No fuss, no muss and great service.
Vero!

I see some bad reviews about this place, but my happy hour experience here was quite lovely. Perhaps it’s the fact that I got there at 6:30 on a Tuesday, but the music was not loud and the place was not yet crowded. Got a nice seat at the bar and had a couple of decent wines. I don’t think they had a happy hour special which was kind of a bummer but the bartender was very sweet.

This place is great for a meet up after work. I notice the poor reviews are usually about the later crowd and music. Just get there early for an after work drink and you’ll enjoy this place.

Pretty cool place, with great music, TV’s, a bar and section in the back for lunch/​dinner. A little on the pricey side, with small portions, but filling nonetheless.
Food: We had the Lobster sliders which were 2 small sliders with a side of french fries. They were delicious and I’m glad we ordered them. We also ordered the Pan-​Roasted Organic Chicken, but be advised, they warn you that it takes around 20 min to prepare so keep that in mind! The chicken fell off the bone and was juicy and flavorful. The sauce is what makes the dish, it was accompanied with a side of mashed potatoes and carrots as well. The presentations of the dishes were great too!

First, I’ll start off with the great things about Vero:
1.) The bartender, Karina, was very gracious, friendly and quite patient as it was very loud in there and we could both barely hear one another.
2.) The ambiance at Vero is very nice. It is beautifully done, the colors are great and the lighting only adds to it’s allure, complimented by the large windows in the front that let you look out onto the streets.
3.) The place is a great size with a nice sized bar.
Now, the bad:
1.) The music… For starters, what’s up with the loud top 40 nonsense in a place that should be complimented by classy New York City vibes? I mean, if you want to hear Pitbull, Lady Gage, Kesha and Katy Perry all in the same hour, well then Vero is the place to be… Unfortunately for me, I could care less about these artists music when I plan on sipping on some wine and having a nice time out in NYC.
2.) The beef carpaccio was awful.
3.) The house cabernet was really bad.
4.) The acoustics of the place are completely off as the placement of their speakers cause the sound waves, directed at the glass windows and doors, to reflect right back at you towards the bar, which causes the extra muffled loudness there.
If they can change their music and lower it a bit, or redirect the positioning of their speakers, this place would be a wine bar gem.
The location is decent.

Decent spot but I’m only saying that because it’s decently located to my apt.
My friend and I went there on an apparently very busy Wednesday evening at 8:30. We were seated in the relatively ‘quieter’ back of the restaurant with a lovely corner table. After sitting for oh, maybe 5 minutes we were asked to switch tables so a larger party (sans reservation) could have that space. I don’t like to be moved after I’ve settled into a table and I actually had a reservation. We weren’t really asked to move, but more passively forced to by having the waiter start moving our coats without even asking us first.
On the way to the crappier table we were resigned to, the waiter almost set my coat on fire by trailing it through a candle that was on the ground. There was not an apology or a sincere concern.
Matters proceeded to go downhill…
I had a Unilocal voucher that entitled me and a dining partner to $ 50 worth of food for $ 25. After presenting the voucher to the waitress, she tried to convince me that it had expired (expiration date on the voucher was 4 months away). Then she tried to explain that they no longer accept them (illegal i.e. that would have been a breach of contract with Unilocal). After I asked to see if the manager would accept it, she ran it through and came back with a much more palatable bill…
Speaking of palatable, though the food is fine the portions are SO tiny. The tuna tartare ($ 23 ENTREE) was literally 2 oz. of tuna with a smattering of dried fruit and 2 sad looking greasy, fried won-​ton skins. I could have gone to Whole Foods and bought 2 pounds worth of fresh ahi tuna for $ 23. Rip-​off city. The cheese platter leaves EVERYTHING to be desired. Once again, serving four 1 oz cubes of cheese with some stale bread-​sticks, 10 almonds, and a tiny petri dish of dried cranberries for $ 21 is highway robbery. At least the cheese tasted good, but really, unless it’s Limburger cheese, I’m not too fussy.
Stick with this just being a wine bar and stay away from the mediocre and very overpriced bites (because that’s what they literally are).

It’s a pretty average wine bar with average music and average clientele and it’s average.

Awful. Stuck us in a spot as far in the back of the patio as humanly possible… next to the trash bags lining the street. We waited for 15 minutes (14 longer than we should have… the only thing keeping us there was the hilarious conversation between two table mates a few seats closer to the door) without someone even coming over to acknowledge us.
The bar area was also too loud to possibly hold a conversation.

I recently went here on a first date. I thought this was a great choice for that kind of thing. The bar really has a nice atmosphere and it’s not too loud if you get a table, but also not uncomfortably quiet, in case things don’t go well…
A few negatives: We ordered a bottle of wine to share, before actually picking it, my date asked the waitress about a few of the wines. She actually made a face as if she didn’t understand what he was asking about. I thought this was a little weird. Typically at a wine bar the staff is at least trained a little bit about the wine on the menu, but not here.
Out bottle took a very long time to arrive because they had to go get it from down in the wine cellar and then it was at the wrong temperature, which was apparent when it arrive lukewarm.
I had a great time here, but that was completely independent of the wine. Since it’s a wine bar, I would have expected a little bit better service and knowledge, but maybe that’s just me!

Still here! And still the same. Great patio and friendly staff. Free glass of wine with Unilocal check-​in.
The wines are expensive (start at $ 11 per glass) and seem light-​handed. The are served in large glasses, but still, I was a bartender for 2 years and can pretty much eye a 6 ounce pour.
I always love getting the cheese platter at wine bars but Vero’s is more like a bread and grape platter. For $ 19, you get 4 small chunks of cheese and A LOT of other stuff (bread, breadsticks, grapes, almonds, and figs). I prefer cheese on my cheese platter, but it was still yummy.

Cutesy spot with some bumpin’ music on a Saturday night!
I had their moscato which was absolutely delicious and sweet… just the way I like it! My friend liked their red wine as well.

Went for wine to catch up with a friend that I havent seen in 10 years, on a Tuesday night after work.
The reuinion was great; we sat at the bar for about an hour and a half before being asked to order a glass of wine. We felt bad that it had took so long but grateful that the bartenders did not hound us or make us feel bad about taking up the real estate and not utilizing it! Finally ordered, a glass of Savignion Blanc from France 2011, for $ 10 a glass. It was a wonderful glass of wine!
The bartenders as I mentioned were very nice. They were even trying to help a guy who was meeting a girl for a Blind Date!
The only complaint I have is that, they have to monitor the music volume. There is no need for a Tuesday night at 8PM for the music to be where you have to speak loudly to hear the person next to you. It’s an intimate space so when they pump the music on you, you have no choice but to speak loudly… so loudly that I was able to hear the blind date guy drop the «f» Bomb a few times in front of his new and hopeful lady. I can’t imagine being the person sitting at a table for dinner, having to scream across it. Yikes.
All in all, good place. I like and will be back.

A group of about 10 of us came here for my friend’s birthday on Sunday evening at 7:00…normally a dead time for Midtown East on a Sunday evening. We called ahead and asked if we could reserve an area near the bar or in the back where 10 – 15 people could chill, order food and drink and have a great time. We were told that we had to guarantee spending $ 200 on food alone to be able to reserve a table. On a Sunday evening. In the summer.
We didn’t reserve a table.
When we got there, the place was basically empty except for the bar, which had a person at almost every barstool. A few tables were reserved (and remained unused the entire time we were there) and we asked again if we could take a few of the small empty tables in the back. Again the answer was no.
The wait staff and hostess were put out that we were in their restaurant. The bar tender was a flat out bitch about us being at her bar. My favorite quotes of the evening:
«guys…can you just hurry up and order, I have a whole bar here» (we blankly stare because we have no idea how to respond to this) «hello…I have a whole bar here… can you order?»
I then went to close my check…“card minimum is $ 10″ (I had only ordered 1 beer before wanting to get the hell out of there). I asked her if she could just run it for $ 8 because I didn’t have cash to close my check… and would have ordered more had she not been so short with me and my friends. «I know what I’m doing… don’t tell me how to do my job.»
Nasty.
Bad service, watered down $ 5 sangria and an otherwise overpriced menu. We quickly wrapped up our stay and went down the street to Cornerstone where we were treated like people and my friend could enjoy her birthday away from the nastiness of Vero.

They have such slow service, that does not at all balance out the quality of the food. For the management to impose an illegal $ 20 minimum (in 2010, it was made legal to impose NO MORE THAN a $ 10 minimum for credit cards), especially during lunch hours, is in really poor taste. Not to mention they instill such fear in their servers, so much so that our server really ended up spoiling our otherwise positive lunch.
I will not likely return, especially as I reached out to management about this, and did not receive a response.