L'Ottavo Ristorante

Tonight was their last night open and my first time here. It was an absolute pleasure to celebrate my sister’s birthday here with our parents. The service was so welcoming, and the atmosphere was wonderful. I’m truly sad to be seeing this restaurant go, but I’ll never forget this place. Good luck to the owner on her future endeavors, and thank you for having us on your last night.

I just finished a fantastic meal with my wife and daughter. The food was simply delicious and my only problem was that I ate way too much. However, it wasn’t simply the delicious dance of flavors — the staff made us feel totally at home — if home was some villa in Tuscany.

Highly recommended!

L’Ottavo seems to be trying, but the attention is not on details. They serve bread and packaged butter to start; it reminded me of a grocer bread and was not warm, but it was soft. It was served with the gold package individual butters so nothing exciting.

The seafood risotto is delish if you in the mood. The shellfish needed to be rinsed better though- to many bites into grit, but flavor was otherwise really amazing and rice perfectly cooked. I did ask for food on the wall to be cleaned because it was bothersome in the corner of my eye. My daughter had fettuccine Alfredo; neither of us were offered any fresh cheese gratings.

When we left, they had 13 parties seated at tables. The whole time, they had only two front of house people! One busser and one host/server. This meant waiting for refills, ordering new drinks or even being asked how things are. There’s potential here if they take care of details and share wealth with sufficient staffing. I learned an Open sign in the window is a measure of a place still trying to make it in the big city.

For a few bucks more, I’ll be trying the Italian down the street next time.

This seemed like a nice restaurant but it made you think twice. When calling to make the reservation and to confirm it, they answered ‘hello’ and with no business name. 🤔
The location is just a few blocks away from Union Square, a short walk but one that you need to keep your head on a swivel for.

I liked how the restaurant was decorated and it certainly had a nice ambiance with all of the dim lights and wine bottles. We were sat to our tables and the wait staff was super attentive and able to keep everything and everyone going. We ordered a veal parmigiana and then another dish that had a half breast of chicken, an Italian sausage and (2) small shrimp. The food was just meh but the service was great. These people work really, really hard and it shows. That alone, will bring me back again.

They had a nice selection of wines and a few beers, I think a full bar too.

Only four stars for me, because I only got (2) shrimp with my dinner. I’ll be back though!