Rafele Reviews Summary

Food Quality

Pros:

• "The food was all wonderful - traditional Italian with fresh ingredients and well prepared."
• "You must try their award winning cheese cake, which is the best!!"
• "The bread with the eggplant and peppers was out of this world and flavorful."
• "Entrees were very good: gnocchi, taglioline with mushrooms and a hint of truffle, pasta with pork cheek, and pappardelle with wild boar ragu."
• "The food at this restaurant is what always brings me back and I have never had a bad meal here."
• "The food is exceptional - just like Italy."
• "The food was incredible: pizza, octopus, brussel sprouts, clams, swordfish, scallops."

Cons:

• "The wild boar main course was ok excepting the pasta was gummy instead of AL dente."
• "Food was ok but price. It didn’t taste like authentic Italian restaurant."
• "The fried cucumbers were a little bland."
• "The homemade pasta was amazing, but cooked quite hard."
• "The bolognaise being a little too meaty and one note."
• "The dessert of panna cotta was absolutely dreadful and tasted like vanilla cream jello with yet another raspberry glaze."
• "The mozzarella was okay..... just not the same as burrata, the flavor is so much more mild and bland."

Service

Pros:

• "Service was really attentive but not intrusive."
• "The staff there is SO attentive and they take care of everything before you even ask."
• "The Maitre D' is welcoming, the waitstaff are all attentive and wonderful especially outgoing and friendly Victor, who also doubles as a bartender."
• "Service is friendly."
• "Everyone was so polite and the food was astonishing and we didn't have to wait a long time to be served."
• "The service was fantastic."
• "The service is attentive without any rush and the pasta is perfection."

Cons:

• "Service was very spotty."
• "I have visited Rafele a few times, but the service has always been underwhelming."
• "The waiter didn't even care to look at my dish and check to see what it was that he served me."
• "The service was really slow and annoying. Our waiter kept disappearing and was nowhere to be found."
• "They were short staffed so service was extremely slow."
• "Unfortunately they missed on the service, taking (intentionally?) 1 and a half hours literally for our main course."
• "Service was not attentive nor friendly."

Ambiance

Pros:

• "Nice open dining space with an enclosed outdoor area."
• "Ambiance is beautiful."
• "The restaurant is very popular because the food is delicious, the service excellent and the prices reasonable for NYC."
• "Nice outdoor seating and a big open kitchen."
• "Great Italian restaurant in the West Village. Cozy ambiance."
• "The general atmosphere is stunning."
• "Welcoming, cheerful atmosphere."

Cons:

• "The restaurant is a little small and our large party of 13 had a hard time fitting around the one large table they have."
• "8/10 ambience- okay vibes a little intimidating."
• "6/10 Interior design, too much wood and weird plastic thingies."
• "The atmosphere was nice, but really noisy."
• "With an 80% empty restaurant they tried to seat three of us at a two-top despite a reservation made a week in advance."
• "Front of house staff was extremely cold and placed a damper on the evening."
• "The decor is beautiful - light and modern but with an Italian country homey feel."

Price

Pros:

• "The price was reasonable - not expensive or inexpensive for what we had."
• "The food is way above average for the price."
• "The food was really good and I think it was priced appropriately."
• "The prices were fair and absolutely loved my main dish."
• "The food was well-portioned and is very reasonably priced, especially factoring in the location and ambiance."
• "And a price that by NYC standards came out shockingly low."
• "Good portion size for the price."

Cons:

• "Warning is that it is very very expensive, $45-60 per person, but it is an excellent restaurant."
• "However, prices are a bit steep."
• "The spinach ravioli was probably my favorite dish I tried although the crab cake is good as well. Just feels a bit overpriced."
• "A little bit on expensive side though."
• "Just feels a bit overpriced."
• "Honestly the food was so bad. For a place with 4.5 I had high hopes but all the food was genuinely flavourless."
• "Overall, this is an overrated joint to skip."