Straw And Hay
Forlini's

Forlini's

93 Baxter Street New York, NY 10013, United States

Bars • Full • Casual • Italian


"The last time I wrote a review concerning Italian cuisine, I referenced that the dish I had lacked character. To me, character in a meal means that it has to have multiple dimensions and qualities, something that brings out the best in a dish. At Forlini 's, when you order the Chicken Luigi, this is a dish that has lots of character, from the peppery chicken, to the porky sausage, to the aromatic garlic linguini, and then bring them all together to form one satisfying flavor. It is something that seems to lack in today 's Italian restaurants. They all want to try and be cute by going too original, or too zany. This one takes the risk by staying true to originality, but throws in a few sparks of uniqueness to make them stand out from just being that casual restaurant out of a Billy Joel song. The service is pretty typical of that, a down to earth owner who is more confident than a Wall Street banker that you will enjoy something. Intelligent, audacious, and an ability to understand what the customer wants without being too braggadocious about his offerings. It worked on me. It will be the best meal of your life. He said as he dropped the beautiful plate of food in front of me. Is it? No. But is it a good meal? No. It is a *great* meal. Try one piece of these succulent pieces of meat, and it will work well. Combine all three and throw in a few strings of pasta and you have to take another bite. When it gets too dense, eat a roasted red pepper that is in the sauce. It will clean out your pallet so you can reinvigorate yourself for that next bite. The portion size is so that you will be able to finish it all without feeling all the guilt that comes afterwards, so enjoy this with no shame. After all, it takes a lot of character to make such an experience here so special."

Piccolo Paradiso

Piccolo Paradiso

150 South Beverly Dr. Beverly Hills, CA 90212, 90212-3018, United States

Tea • Pasta • Italian • Seafood


"What a mediocre meal. Can’t say any food was bad, just nothing great. To start off a nice lady sat us, was a nice crowd not too crowded. That’s when it got not great our server was TERRIBLE I mean TERRIBLE!!!!! Anyone can see most of my reviews are deserved 5 stars Piccollo gets 3 star for food and ZERO stars for service!!! We sat and waited and waited and waited again not too crowded, but normal nice crowd. Finally waiter came and I was just a bad communicator and could care less. I asked for a taste of a 2 red wines took forever he came back with one (the most expensive with such a tiny taste) then he took forever to come back. I asked for a taste of another and he came back with a full glass no taste. I was thirsty so I took it. But again bad communication he did not listen at all. Then he asked if we want water didn’t offer filtered house just brought us a bottle and popped it open and poured pretty presumptuous! And a fee he did not even ask about profit bottle. Which I often order but sure is nice, professional, and respectful when we are at least asked. We waited and waited and waited to place our order got some bread THANK GOD WE WERE STARVING!!! The bread was mediocre at best what Beverly Hill restaurant doesn’t have awesome bread????!! As we ordered, asked about veal and he points to duck I speak VERY clearly and veal means veal not duck. Order in, chopped arugula salad, eggplant app, pasta, veal. Over an hour from the start our food came no check ins from our waiter or anyone was terrible service TERRIBLE we were invisible and we’re a nice, kind, we’ll dresses polite couple who eats out a LOT! Salad was ok, not bad, ok. Eggplant app delicious!!!! Wine “good”. Aperol very good/normal. Pasta homemade good, not great, but pretty good. Veal huge portion with old school potato’s and veggies pretty bad, tasted like Lysol like canned mushroom sauce no salt or anything special on veggies VERY OLD SCHOOL *Chef this is Beverly Hills this meal should be amazing but was far from it. In summary food was “ok” but far from good, service was HORRIBLE AND VERY SLOW. WAITER please train this guy. Others look up “service”. Price very fair, assuming food would have been good. We’ll never get these 2 hours back. If you want a mediocre Italian place like you’d find in a strip mall you got it. If you want delicious LA/Beverly Hills good and SERVICE this is not the place."