Taormina of Mulberry Street

«John Gotti’s favorite restaurant» (oh, please) was the single worst dining experience I’ve EVER EVER EVER had in the city. I was scammed by some guy hovering outside (presumably the owner) convincing folks to come in and dine. Being that my experiences on Mulberry St have been can’t-miss, my wife and I agreed. He sat us by the window to make it seem it to outsiders that it was crowded, which it was not.
My food was obviously frozen and microwaved and my wife’s was the same. I must have had two or three bites of the inedible garbage before I couldn’t eat anymore and my wife didn’t finish her disgusting meal either. $ 65 later, I couldn’t be more angry and disappointed in the experience.
Also a word of caution: they built an 18% «service charge» into my bill, which I was not expecting.
Avoid this place at all costs — ownership/​management are grasping at straws instead of focusing on making good food, so they’ve resorted to sleazy sales methods to keep the doors open (which should be slammed shut, barricaded, and never opened again).

Hands down the worst restaurant I’ve ever been to in New York. Worst service I’ve ever came across. From the hostess to the servers. And the food was god awful. The veal parm came out watery and the lasagna was sour. I would give them 0 stars if I could.
Ps. We asked for bread after waiting about 30mins and was told it was baking and to chill out its «free» LOL. Oh and the bread came out cold. Nice try.

My girlfriend and I almost always use the Unilocal App when we’re about to walk into a restaurant we don’t recognize. On this occasion we decided to just walk through little Italy and take a chance. We came across this place Taormina and it seemed welcoming. The guy mentioned in many other reviews that is loud and pushy did seat us, but I’m not much of a talker when I feel that vibe from someone so I just said thanks and we sat down while he continued talking a bit and left. My girlfriend is nicer than I am so she amused him a bit.
I had to use the restroom so I told my girlfriend to order whatever she wanted as an appetizer and order me water. While I was waiting for the restroom I couldn’t help but notice the place looks like a health hazard. I’ve managed several restaurants in my lifetime and still do, so this made me a bit uncomfortable. When the restroom finally became available I walked into a restroom with cracked floors and dirty floors and walls. A bunch of paper on the floor and a desk. The toilet bowl cover was not on the toilet and was on the desk instead. I peed and when I tried to flush nothing happened. There was also no soap to wash my hands.
When I got back to the table I asked my girlfriend what she ordered and it was the calamari. I immediately opened the Unilocal app and checked the reviews for this place. As you can already see their low and I wish I would have checked before going in. The calamari came and looks nothing like one of the pictures posted, instead it looks like calamari bought at a grocery store frozen. There was no color, just white circles. The sauce was nothing but tomato paste in a paper plate. A paper plate… I told the waiter to give us a second to order which was when I told my girlfriend to check the reviews on this place. We decided to leave.
When the waiter came back I asked for the check and it took him a while to get it. Once I gave him my credit card he said I would have to order something else because for credit cards the minimum is $ 20. The fake calamari we received was $ 14 and there was already a 18% tip automatically included by the way. I told him to show me where that’s posted. He said it’s not posted but that’s the policy. And knowing what I do about business I let him know it’s illegal to tell me so and not have it posted.
He left and returned saying the owner said it would be fine and he would be right back. I could tell he was bothered, and the fact that it took him a while to come back was a clear sign he was trying to be an *ss. We left feeling disgusted. Please, do not waste your time here, do not give it a chance. I hate knowing places like this exist that treat people this way and are in business. I don’t even know how it’s still open unless it’s with the help of unsuspecting tourists walking in. Again, do not waste your time or money here.

I dont usually write reviews but i had to write one this time.
By far it is the worst italian experience i had.
Since entering the place we had a feeling that we are not wanted here, through the awful service and the can made souces it is clear that this place is definatly a tourist trap.
Please for love of god be parient and go to the place across the street.

Trying to pick a last minute Italian place for a friend visiting NYC we headed to Mulberry St. Overwhelmed by reviews we decided to just pick a place that could seat us right away.
What a terrible decision.
Food:
Free Bread — great, except not. It was Sarah Lee style white bread that was at least a week gone stale.
Calamari — overly breaded, salted and over cooked.
Marinara sauce — watered down tomatoes. No flavor.
Gnocchi — was ok. much better then anything else we tried.
Service:
Horrible. Waiter ignored our table for 20+ minutes. When I finally flagged him down he said «the kitchens backed up I cant put in any more orders right now». I had to convince him to at least take our drink order.
Then he finally takes our appetizer order, it takes another 30mins for the food to appear. Meanwhile another 3 tables have been sat around us and their orders taken.
He finally takes our dinner order and its another 30mins before our dishes start to arrive. While the 3 «new» tables are already getting their checks.
To top it all off when the check came their was a 16% gratuity fee already tacked on. When asked why, the waiter responded «this is standard in all of little italy»…
Not worth it in any way, save yourselves and your wallets. This is a disgrace to Italian food and the NYC dining our experience.

Ordered the chicken wrapped in asparagus and the chicken wasn’t cooked … They still made us pay $ 26 for the raw chicken .
Besides that, fried mozzarella& calamari were delicious. They make a yummy red sauce to dip in that is absolutely amazing.
If it weren’t for the chicken slip up — I would of recommended this place to anyone.

Well, the place is not bad but aren’t that great either. The waiter explain everything well, only one thing like other viewers said is they are really giving enough time for you to read the menu.

I would also like to not give a star. The picture of the bread that I’ll post says it all. They call it focaccia bread and told me that is the kind of bread it was. Did he think I don’t know what that is? Hardly any dressing on the salad. Red onions on pizza. Unheard of. Can’t express the anger when being served this food ! I wish I read the reviews first !

If I could give zero stars I would. The most disrespectful service I’ve ever seen with a call guy cussing at other restaurants across the street, having a waiter who asks your order three times in five minutes as if you’re a new table, no bread because it’s «in the oven» then comes out freezing cold. Also, 18 percent gratuity so don’t worry about not leaving a tip.
Caller outside will literally sit there and yell out Italian songs, spitting food over your table while you sit there with nothing that you ordered, a water pitcher with no glasses and a $ 60 check for a 10 inch pizza and pitcher of sangria you ordered three times.

THE MOST RIDICULOUS SERVICE/​ATTITUDE EVER
This is my first time writing a review on Unilocal– I usually don’t bother myself to do this, but today I just had to.
First of all, while I was eating the free appetizer bread, I chewed on a STAPLE. Very luckily, I chewed on it with my teeth first so I didn’t get my mouth hurt. but it scared me how I could have had chewed on it vertically.
I felt like I had to talk to the manager. I wasn’t angry at this point because accidentd can happen, but as I was talking to the manager, I was disgusted with his attitude.
I explained, «There was a staple in my bread. I think you should be more careful from now on. just letting you know.»
And he replied with the most ridiculous answer:
«The bread is free anyways so…»
I got so angry and said, «So, you are saying that the bread is free so it is okay to have a staple in it?»
And he gave me an even more shocking answer: «So what do you want me to do?» «You guys still want the food? Or wanna leave? You guys can leave if you want.» (and he was already grabbing the food on our table to take them away.)
I was angry as fuck and told them sarcastically «The BEST service I’ve ever had» as we were leaving.
I couldn’t believe how the manager never even said sorry, not even once. In fact, his attitudes, his facial expression was so impudent.
If you want to be treated badly and leave the restaurant feeling terrible, then go ahead.

Keep going, move along. Nothing to see here. Don’t even consider eating here.
Deserves a zero. I complained to Unilocal that someone had the unmitigated audacity to give this place four stars. But that was based on glasses of wine.
Touristy and awful. They count on patrons never returning while making money off of over priced horrible food.
Unless you are planning to only drink a glass of wine apparently, avoid avoid avoid. The service was poor, the food terrible. Disgruntled patrons upped and left mid-​meal as others pushed their unpalatable food around on their plate with a look of disappointment and disdain on their faces. After waiting so long for their order, they must have thought that rearranging their entrée would somehow miraculously make it okay to eat. No such luck.
If this was John Gotti’s favorite restaurant than he must have been happy to go to prison.
My niece wanted Italian food and I thought, oh Little Italy then, not realizing it’s a bunch of overpriced tourist traps for the most part. There are better Italian places just up the street in Nolita.

I rather eat my own shit than coming back to this awful place. Their lasagna tasted exactly like horse shit. This restaurant gave me cancer.

Worst. Place. EVER. i don’t know where to start. The manager/​host is the worse. Service was terrible. While we were waiting, many people were leaving the restaurant complaining. This should have been my first hint not to stay and eat there.
He sat other customers in front of us. Then he blamed the cooks for the the mess in the restaurant. The menu maybe had 15 items all together that including bruschetta being 3 of those items. When he handed the menus he screamed «No Pizza!»
It took 15 mins for a server even to come over. We asked for a wine list and never got it. I had to get up myself and get it. While we were waiting for the waiter another table got into a confrontation with the manager. They were mad because they had been waiting for 2 hours for food. While this is all happening the table that sat after us already had their order taken and drinks brought to the table.
When I asked the host for the wine. He got angry. And screamed at our waiter from across the room. This is what really bothered me. I then asked for the manager and he told me he was the manager. I run a restaurant myself and this is UNACCEPTABLE! One of the waiters actually came over and apologized for the manager. The manager should be doing this and not the server.
Now our food comes out but they don’t know where the food goes. Finally makes it to the table and it is wrong. When I tell the manager he then again gets confrontational and even leans in to yell at me. I had to walk out. He is a scumbag restaurant owner. How does he even have a restaurant?!? What food we had wasn’t good either. The sauce was orange. Nothing seemed to be authentic. He tried to say garlic bread is the same as bruschetta. I am Italian and I am pretty aware of the difference.
Explain to me why he is blaming the cooks when you have about 15 items and your sauce is already made. Pasta only takes about 10 mins. I get it was San Gennaro but you should have planned better but that is not what is really bothersome.
The part that bothered me is how he yelled at his waiter from across the room. I told him right there don’t do that! As a manager, he should have been going around apologizing for the wait and making sure he is keeping his guest happy. Instead he thinks you yell at them.
Then when he yelled at me about the orders that was it. I actually feel bad for the servers there. NEVER EAT HERE! If I could give it no stars that would be a truer rating. Go to Angelo’s across the street. Food is always good and well as the service.
I doubt this is John Gotti’s fav restaurant.

Holds my record for incorrect orders being placed on the table in one sitting. Actually pretty entertaining after a while watching the waiter do it to other customers.
Orecchiette was served with bland sauce I had to dowse with salt and pepper to get some kind of flavor out of it. Same for my girlfriend’s Farfalle Salmone which was basically my dish with a few small, hard chunks of old «salmon». Also, if I order a $ 14 glass of Chianti, don’t bring me something that’s fruity with the essence of Carlo Rossi.
Gotti must have had poor taste. Great accordion player tho.

My friend and I came in here during the San Genaro feast. We were walking down Mulberry st and saw the sign for $ 5 happy hour. The restaurant is big, but it was pretty empty when we came in.
We went to the bar and ordered two glasses of wine. They gave us the wine in plastic pabst blue ribbon cups, which I thought was a bit weird that we weren’t given a wine glass, but I didn’t mind. We also tried their sangria which was good.
The staff was very nice and welcoming. I’m only rating this place based on the atmosphere and experience with the staff being that I didn’t eat or try the food while there.

Seriously ??? 2people, 2 plate dinner with automatical gratuity 18% total $ 50.
When we went there, i wanted to everyone to go somewhere else.
I dont blame the servers.
Food is the worst thing I ever had in my entire life.
Worse than microwave food.
Hey Chef and the owner, you gotta do something.
This place ruined my whole trip in New York.
Most people are traveller that is why they dont care about the quality and taste of food.
Please do something.

the legend continues:
–mandatory 18% tip
–sub par staff
–incredibly expensive
don’t come here, seriously

Should be zero stars…
As a tourist, I depend on Unilocal to help me find good places to eat. Today, after a long day walking around, I found myself in Little Italy. No wifi around and very hungry, I went to this place without a quick Unilocal-​check. Big mistake!
The foccacia bread we got when we sat down was absolutely dry, so we asked for new and freshly cut bread. Rather than just doing so, the waiter actually started arguing that this is how foccacia is supposed to be. Seriously?!
The starter, melanzane alla parmigiana, was not good. It was tasteless, overloaded with bland tomato sauce and not a hint of parmigiana cheese.
Main courses were even worse. My friend had spaghetti carbonara. The bacon was undercooked and 90%fat vs 10% meat. The dish didn’t taste of anything. I had spaghetti alla vongole. No taste whatsoever and very over cooked clams. I had 5 bites and then gave up and went home hungry.
The 2 dollar mango I bought on the way home was miles better than the dinner I had at Taormina.
Needless to say we didn’t tip (even if the cheeky place had auto-​added 18% tip to the bill total).
If you like food, do not go here. Get mango instead :-)

A friend was in town for a concert at Bowery Ballroom, and she parked near Little Italy. We cruised from restaurant to restaurant based on Unilocal reviews, but all of the three and four star spots posted pasta prices that were a little more than I was looking to spend that night. Finally, I was sick of looking at my phone. We spotted this place and the prices for pasta were under $ 20 a plate. The man outside pimping the menu offered us a free glass of wine. We were sold. We were seated, we ordered, I checked in on the Unilocal app, then I saw the Unilocal reviews for this place.
Now, I hang my head in shame. NEVER. AGAIN.
Like I said, we were drawn in by decent prices, an expansive menu, a rustic and cute décor, and said free wine. Our waiter was nice and charming, speaking predominately in Italian. Admittedly, it was a bit swoon-​worthy. We ordered an appetizer and two pasta dishes. The mozzarella with bread was almost like a deep-​fried grilled cheese sandwich with a piping hot marinara sauce that caused us both to burn our tongues. The focaccia bread was a bit dry; the olive oil glasses were like the glasses Chinese restaurants serve soy sauce in, so the oil dripped onto our bread and plates in a very slow and small stream. The Parmesan cheese shakers weren’t much better.
We got our meals; my friend ordered pasta in a ragu sauce, and I opted for the gnocchi with Gorgonzola. Mine tasted great… until I looked down and saw a piece of gnocchi with hair sticking out of it. I mean, it just wasn’t in the sauce or on the gnocchi. The hair was inside of the gnocchi, sticking out in two different places.
I actually gagged as I wrote that preceding sentence. I also gagged at the table and spit the food into a napkin, much to my friend’s amusement, and later to mine once I got over the trauma of that incident.
Service was bad. Straight up. I hate saying that, but I’m merely speaking a truth here. Our waiter kept walking outside to talk to the guy pimping the menu. He’d go behind a partition. He’d pop over to another table. Between the time we finished our meals and finally paid the bill, it was 30 minutes. We had a show to get to at 9 p.m. and were cutting it rather close. We tried getting his attention on many occasions, but, conveniently, his eye line never met ours. Mind you, there are roughly two dozen tables in that establishment, and only five had customers by the time we left. This place was empty. At one point, we were given two more free glasses of wine instead of a check.
We could not get out of there fast enough as soon as we signed the credit card receipt.
Also, AUTOMATIC ADDED GRATUITY! UGH. That is, literally, illegal by New York State laws for a party under six people, as far as I know. After a dining experience like ours, that was kind of the last straw.
I feel I failed both my friend and myself by ending up here. I should have kept checking Unilocal reviews on my app instead of putting my phone away. CURSES! Who says you can’t be on social media too much? It would have led us to much better options. I apologized to my friend profusely and promised her a better meal at a well-​rated restaurant the next time she’s in town. Ha!

Meh nothing to rave about and certainly not to ever come back again.
Ok first off, so I love strolling down little Italy but to me ALL restaurants here are very overpriced, not very good and pretty much a tourist trap (I mean almost 5 $ for a cannoli? Come on!!).
I’m usually pretty easy to please, although I admit I have a Napolitano mother and know good Italian food.
We stumbled on this place on our way to Chinatown where we we’re supposed to eat lunch but the mother in law decided she needed food NOW and chose this place. It was her treat so if it made her happy heck let’s try it. Both the hubby and I regretted stopping here but she seemed happy so at least that’s good.
The hubs’ bolognese (a pretty simple dish) was watery, bland and honestly just gross. He barely ate a few bites and I could see why after tasting it. My farfalle with salmon was ok but nothing special. The only good thing here was the stuffed chicken. So if you absolutely must come here, get that. Otherwise save your money.

Es gibt bessere Pizzerien, vermutlich sogar in der gleichen Straße. Der Service war in Ordnung und die Auswahl auch. Die Pizza war mittelmäßig.
Das einzige was definitiv einen deutlichen Abzug gibt ist das die Kollegen sich erdreisten sich pauschal 18 Prozent Trinkgeld zu geben, welches auch direkt auf dem Bön aufgewiesen wird. Für ein derart hohes Trinkheld erwarte ich deutlich besseren Service, besseres Essen und Wasser ohne Chlorgeschmack.