Chicken Caesar in Upper West Side

What people say about the caesar

"Major let down on almost all fronts. Had a reservation, arrived early, and were seated on time. The place was absolute chaos though, getting to the host stand was a challenge. Quality of service fell off completely after this. We ordered the caesar salad to start and had the chicken parm with spicy rotini and carbonara as mains. Additionally we shared the Italian fries with our entrees. The caesar salad was a let down. We had differing opinions on it, one thought it was boringly standard for $17 and the other found it to be fish-ier than a typical caesar dressing to its detriment. The croutons were great though - not that, that saved it. The chicken parm was okay. The chicken itself was too salty but the texture was nice and tender. The rotini was obviously old - sauce was clumsy not smooth. It was also loaded up with pieces of onion which was unexpected and a let down. The carbonara was alright. Loading up with more pancetta than I needed, but I can think of few words to describe the sauce - it was just boring and unremarkable. According to the menu the fries were coated with garlic oil, but for whatever reason they reminded us both of cheap, bad truffle oil. Their form is the type of fry I like best, thin and crispy, but the flavor was lacking. The restaraunt is so loud that it's unpleasant to try to have a conversation across the table. I really hated everything about the atmosphere. I guess the servers help each other out or by design you don't have one person serving you because we never actually figured out who was helping us. One guy took our order and dissapeared. Food was brought out. Same guy cleared a plate or two. Another lady cleared the rest, and I asked her if we could pay. That's the entire list of interactions we had with staff after being seated - no attentiveness whatsoever."

"Had a reservation for 6 on a very busy Saturday night. Place can get loud and crowded, but we were tucked into a lovely corner in the back room, so didn’t have much of a problem talking. Our waitress was super attentive and friendly. Food came out fast and portions are huge. We joke that this place is “ American Italian” - so if you like parm, this is the place to go! Our table had an eggplant parm ( for the vegetarian among us) and it was good/ if a tad bland. Two orders of shrimp penne were delicious and packed some heat from the red pepper. We had a lively, fun meal. One of my favorite things about this place: large bottles of fabulous NY tap water placed on the tables and replaced often. Free! Only minor complaints: the croutons in the Caesar ( which is not served chopped) were so large as to be ridiculous. They weren’t eaten. And the fried calamari had more fried green peppers than actual squid, so wouldn’t recommend. ( though two dipping sauce options were appreciated). Wine by the glass was also average. But listen- this place doesn’t claim to be “fine dining”. We had a large hungry group in NYC, and it was nice to be able to get a filling meal without breaking the bank. We’ll be back when people visit again."

"the food here was pretty good. the garlic bread was nice, but a little too crispy. the caesar was great. the vodka rigatoni was pretty good but not show stopping. the garlic brocolli was fine. the bolognese was very good as well. they were sold out of the s’mores ice cream cake though and had a rather small dessert selection. also; i put “birthday” in my reservation and no one acknowledged it.; the shirley temples were very flat. overall it was pretty good and i would come back but they have areas they could improve on"