Friday, September 27, 2013

House of Lasagna

Just a neighborhood place, I wonder if they even have any reviews

Unfortunately for me, I am old enough to remember when Manhattan had a lot of places like this one that actually had pretty good food at decent prices...I sound like my parents talking about how you could get all this great food cheap during the Depression

Let's see--this seems to be the other Fagiolini place they talk about

Good enough reviews, not great --some really AWFUL complaints-- and  also has some pretty loyal customers I notice

Fagiolini Restaurant

3.0 star rating
52 reviews Rating Details
Category: Italian
334 Lexington Ave
(between 39th St & 40th St)
New York, NY 10016
Neighborhoods: Midtown East, Murray Hill
(212) 883-9555
Nearest Transit Station:
Grand Central - 42 St. (7, 7X)
Grand Central - 42 St. (4, 5, 6, 6X)
Grand Central - 42 St. (S)
Hours:
Mon-Fri 12 pm - 10 pm
Sat-Sun 5 pm - 10 pm
Parking:
Street
Accepts Credit Cards:
Yes
Price Range:
$$
Attire:
Casual
Good for Groups:
No
Good for Kids:
No
Takes Reservations:
Yes
Delivery:
Yes
Take-out:
Yes
Waiter Service:
Yes
Outdoor Seating:
No
Wi-Fi:
No
Good For:
Dinner
Alcohol:
Beer & Wine Only
Noise Level:
Quiet
Has TV:
No

Review Highlights   What's this?

  • "...fresh pappardelle and the cuscinetti (pasta stuffed with all kinds of..." In 3 reviews
  • "Great little Italian in Murray Hill." In 4 reviews
  • "...for a restaurant that's a hop, skip and jump from Grand Central." In 3 reviews
Rating Distribution | Trend
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52 reviews in English

  • Review from

    • 3 friends
    • 68 reviews
    Los Angeles, CA
    8/26/2013
    We must have ordered at least one of everything on the menu -

    so the bill wasn't cheep -

    Great Italian - a lot of northern dishes with is refreshing to see - Service was very attentive - SUPER ATTENTIVE

    Nice location - small and cozy -
  • Review from

    • 9 friends
    • 10 reviews
    Ithaca, NY
    6/27/2013 1 check-in here
    This italian restaurant honestly is not one of the better ones i've been to. The waiter service was alright and were not always on top of everything considering it is such a small restaurant.

    This place is also called the "House of Lasagna" so I had to try the lasagna. It wasn't all that great. I probably would have had better luck ordering something else like spaghetti. The lasagna Bolognese that I ordered was very dry and bland, and the plate was heated indicating that it may have been microwaved prior to being served (explains the dryness)

    I wouldn't come back here...
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 147 reviews
    Manhattan, NY
    7/26/2013
    Honestly I am appauled by this place, how can they exist and still continue to do business. Things started to go wrong right from the time we stepped in.
    1. It was peak lunch hour and we were left standing at the door for 10 minutes waiting for someone to seat us.
    2. We had to ask a couple of times for the Menu.
    3. The guy who took the order could not remember it and when he was asked to repeat what we had ordered switched the saland ( we insisted that he better write it down and he then walked to the reception and brought a apen and paper and wrote all our orders down )

    The salad was some un appatizing stale green mess which I conveniently skipped. The water that was served wasn't cold on a warm muggy day.

    Quickly the orders arrived, I had the Lasagna with tomatoes and my collegue had the Penne alla vodka and ther had salad with chicken.

    My order was the worst, dripping with ricota cheese that definitly looked like they had nuked an already prepared lasagna where the cheese had solidified and burnt on the edges. The marinara saurce was sour and the whole dish was tastless, if this was served in italy these guys would be crucified by the pope himself. My collegue dumped half the penne alla vodka and said it had a funny taste and the penne was watery and over cooked with no texture/flavour. The salad was terrible also.

    The complmentary bread that was served was cold and old and crumbling, no idea how old that was... Overall a terrible experience & I would suggest anyone who had the fortune of eating good Italian food to stay away & if you are like me and had the real deal visiting Italy -- RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, STAY CLEAR OF THIS DUMP!

    It was overall 12$ each for this dumpy gue on my plate, I could have cooked some mac and cheese on the pavment in this heat wave outside and it would have tasted better !
  • Review from

    Cambridge, MA
    2/18/2013 1 check-in here
    One tends to temper their expectations when a restaurant is able to accommodate a reservation for a party of 7 within 30 minutes on a Saturday, and Fagiolini was nearly exactly as anticipated.

    I was envisioning a sprawling menu reminiscent of the Olive Garden, but Fagiolini is admirably restrained with the number of dishes available. We started with a couple orders of meatballs (3 balls per order) which were tender and moist, but the accompanying marinara was watery and somewhat bland. I was pleased to find the house salad was mixed greens instead of iceberg, but the scant amount of vinaigrette was not evenly distributed evenly over the greens, resulting in a single balsamic heavy bite and the rest dry lettuce.

    Since it's house specialty, I ordered the lasagna melanzane for my entree. The thin, fresh pasta sheets were the best part of the dish. Even though the eggplant was well fried, it was completely devoid of seasoning, impossible to correct with the salt shakers on the table as it was layered throughout. A small ladle-full of the marinara served with the meatballs was under the lasagna, but not enough to salvage the eggplant. I tasted the Penne al Arrabbiata and finally discovered a flavorful tomato sauce with spicy sausage.

    Despite the seasoning difficulties, Fagiolini offers an uncomplicated menu at extremely reasonable prices, with entrees not exceeding $20, making it a good choice for groups with picky or budget conscious diners.
  • Review from

    • 14 friends
    • 11 reviews
    Los Angeles, CA
    6/26/2013
    Bitter waiter+bug in your plate= A shrug don't eat here! Avoid this place like the plague. In a dimly lit restaurant it's hard to see but we found a bug in the food and they gave us attitude about it. It was disgusting don't come here.
  • Review from

    • 2 friends
    • 27 reviews
    Provincetown, MA
    6/3/2013
    Very good place.  The spinach lasagna was more spinach than pasta or cheese, making it more healthy than one might expect having lasagna.   The pasta layers were thin and not drowning the plate.   Service was great, and the price was right too ($12 for any of the lasagna dishes - they don't nickel and dime you over the ingredients.   I will go back
  • Review from

    • 6 friends
    • 41 reviews
    Red Bank, NJ
    4/23/2013 1 check-in here
    Good service.  Good food.  GREAT deal.  The portions are satisfying and not overwhelming in size.  The food is good, especially for the price, but not amazing.  The most impressive part is the price, because the atmosphere is rather plain, but sometimes that's what you're looking for when you just want to chill out and relax.  I would go back when that's all I want.
  • Review from

    • 1 friend
    • 77 reviews
    Manhattan, NY
    5/19/2013
    This is an affordable place to get pre cooked, frozen then defrosted lasagna for dinner under $15.  Other then that, not much to write home about.  Wine is straight up Yellowtail grocery store special.  Staff was kind considering the price point here.
  • Review from

    • 77 friends
    • 219 reviews
    Lockport, NY
    7/4/2012
    I liked it very much. Made a last-minute rez for seven (including three kiddos) and were seated promptly and with a smile, even though two of the three kids were on the young side, including Hurricane Kiyora (my 4 year-old niece) and my nephew who is adorable but is about 11 months-old and is kind of a screecher.

    So. We got the dirtiest looks from a few of the other diners. We weren't even the loudest group in there though - there was a table of 10 or 12 celebrating something and they were really whooping it up. However, maybe because some people hate babies (?) we did feel a little uncomfortable. There are only about eight or so tables in the whole joint and there were other parties seated with kids, but none with an infant. One party of four actually left after being seated, but not before shooting us the major evil eye. I apologized to the hostess but she laughed it off. My sister was really, really upset but I made her drink some wine and she eventually felt better.

    The food was great. I ordered a pizza with polpettini as an app for the table, and I had the bechamel/bolognese lasange for my meal. Not 100% sure what everyone else had exactly, but everyone looooved their food. We had all eaten as a group in Little Italy the night prior and we all agreed that this place was much better, and was a better deal to boot. Dirty looks aside.

    I paid the bill, and the total was $160 - that included the pizza appetizer, meals for everybody (not Hurricane Kiyora - she had a small order of meatballs) and two bottles of wine. I gave the waiter an even $200 b/c he deserved the extra gratuity and b/c I felt bad that I kind of gave some attitude to the people who stomped out. I asked them if they wanted to hold the baby before they left. Surprisingly, they did not want to.

    Losers.
  • Review from

    San Diego, CA
    5/2/2012
    Great price point.

    Fantastic service.

    Inviting atmosphere.

    Perfect portions. Not for the over indulgent.

    Downfall? They definitely don't fly by the NYC hours. They close at 9!

    Another disappointment was the "House Special" that they raved about. Sauce was heavy and tasted microwaved.
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 32 reviews
    New York, NY
    7/6/2013
    Great affordable lunches and yummy too. Love the penne alla vodka, meatballs, and bruschetta!
  • Review from

    • 0 friends
    • 1 review
    Bloomington, IN
    12/25/2012 Seated via OpenTable
    We went there for the last dinner of our honeymoon. Neither my wife nor I had been to NYC before, and at the end of 5 wonderful days in a hotel on 42nd St., we were tired and looking for a quiet, welcoming place to enjoy a good meal. We enjoyed Fagiolini very much. The food was just delicious and reasonably priced. Best of all, the space is quiet and a very pleasant escape from the hustle of the big city. We particularly enjoyed the sign admonishing patrons to not use their cell phones ;-). When we go back to New York, we'll certainly return!
  • Review from

    Manhattan, NY
    3/26/2006 First to Review
    I should review this if not for anything else, for the many late nights of work that have seen me order in from here.

    If you catch them at the right point in the delivery cycle, the food can be yours to consume within 5-10 minutes of ordering.  The farfalle pasta doesn't disappoint and the tartuffo can be a fitting follower to that.

    Now the rating.  One star comes off for lack of distinctiveness in the menu or the quality.  And another for the lack of ambience for the eat-in experience.



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