We wondered into Trattoria Pesce Pasta 262 Bleeker Street, New York, NY 10014 last night after we saw the wait at Keste. TPP is one of the worst Italian restaurants in NYC. The bizarre thing is that it has pretty good reviews. What gives people? Just look at this antipasto. Half of it was canned food. Other parts just tasted old.
Lon spent some time asking our waiter about recommendations and he said the seafood is great. Not! Lon asked if everything in the Mixed Grill was grilled and he said yes. Look at this. I can assure you nothing on this plate ever touched a grill. Everything was covered in so much lemon and oregano to mask the poor quality of scraps and ends used. When a manager/owner (not sure) asked Lon how his meal was, Lon did tell him he was unhappy and that none of it was grilled. He tried to argue a bit about it being grilled and then offered to make him something else. Lon declined because he already started feeling sick. Lon’s dish also came with a side pasta where he chose Linguine and meat sauce. It was on par with pizzeria stuff.
The waiter recommended a Seafood Linguine with a Spicy Red Sauce. I said I’ll take it. While the portion is generous, the frozen lobster tails were pretty gross. I actually spit some out. The sauce was very salty but not spicy (as described). I will give them that the pasta was al dente.
In the end, they took Lon’s dish off the bill which was really nice, but appropriate. Seriously, I am concerned about how little people care about the quality of the food they eat. I just read an article about that actually, and that most Americans weren’t even able to identify when food was rancid. Lon went through most of this meal muttering how this restaurant should be ashamed of itself but quite frankly, I think the people who eat there should be ashamed of themselves. The place exists because people eat there. Come on NY!
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Yup, doesn’t seem that those asparagus ever touched a grill…
Pardon my ignorance but “Pesce” means fish, right? How would you translate “Trattoria Pesce Pasta”. Anyway, I love seafood but gotta be very careful and make sure it’s super fresh. ohh otherwise you’ll get an upset stomach. Were you ok after this? You should email them your post, that’s the only way things’ll change!
It really scares me that people don’t know rancid food!
At least the meal was comped. How much was the pasta dish? The sauce doesn’t look very appetiting. Italian dishes aren’t that difficult to recreate (compared to other cuisine IMO), so I think the chef just isn’t classically trained.
Jackie, trattoria means casual Italian eatery and pesce is fish. I have an iron stomach but Lon was very nauseated and had gingerale and rest.
Kim, my dish was $19.95 and the antipasto was $7.50, neither were worth it. I agree that casual Italian is very easy. The biggest problem here is bad ingredients.
Gah. Even the photos of the food look unappetizing. I share your frustration–why do so many give great reviews to places like this?