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All Reader Reviews of...
Sfoglia
1402 Lexington Ave., New York, NY, 10128
at 92nd St.
212-831-1402
| 6.5 | "Recommended" Average Reader Rating on a Scale of 10 |  |
The Big Wet Fish in the Little Pond of Upper East 90s Dining
MaryHelen from 10014 | Posted on 3/19/09
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Raw lamb sausages. Overcooked signature "Sfoglia" chicken with soggy skin. Add to this, a surly waiter who begrudgingly replaced these entrees after warning us it would take at least another 5 minutes to fix (not a big deal after we'd waited nearly an hour between the entrees and mains). And all this after we had been made to wait 20 minutes for our Wednesday night booking. It might be perceived as one of the few decent places to eat in the area, but with such blase service and sloppy cooking you'd be better off making a trip to Hoboken.
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Walk due south one block to Lex Restaurant. . .
ntenzer from 10025 | Posted on 3/13/09
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Ok, like many on here, I really wanted this place to be fantastic, I live a block away. The food here is the typical rustic italian fare, the zeitgeist of 2007 foodie pallets (writ Peasant, Otto). It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's not special and for the price, you expect it to be so. I really don't begrudge the menu, but the fowl was forgettable, the pasta was a very small first course portion with a quick toss tomato sauce. I regret the $12 I spent on some watermelon, cheese and balsamic vinegar, at the server's urging. More asinine was the waiter's wine suggestion - always be suspect when they recommend the two most expensive bottles on the menu. Bottom line, average food for exorbitant prices. Avoid Sfoglia and head south to Lex Restaurant where the classic italian food is consistently excellent and well executed from one end of the menu to the other and you can walk out not feeling like you have to save on brunch the following morning.
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Great White Hype
tie730 from 10128 | Posted on 2/12/09
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I really wanted this place to be the BEST but sadly it was not. The best part was the Bread. Unfortunately the baker was "Out sick" so we could not eat more of it. Crab cannelloni to start was solid. There signature dish, Taglitelli (sp?) with Bolognese was just OK. Very Meaty and not enough sauce, very dry. Tasty but not the best. It is certainly worth a try if you have a reservation. The Decor is great. Old and wooden tables. Has a great Old school Italian feel to it, even offering you to drink out of the standard Italian wine glasses and not some lame Stem wear. They must have been having an off night. The waitress was Amazing. Picked up on the fact that we were there on a BDAY and the dessert came with complete with Candle. At first it took some time to order but once she got to us she treated us like royalty.
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Quick trip to Italy
Orthochick from 10128 | Posted on 4/20/08
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What a delight to have Sfoglia in our neighborhood! The atmosphere is warm, relaxing and transports one to Italy. The food is delicious and beautiful. Standouts are the gnudi (literally "nude" ravioli), the pasta with ragu of lamb, mint and pistachio, and their perfectly prepared fish. Be careful, though; the portions are on the large side so don't fill up on the antipasti. The wine list is reasonable as well. A perfect night for a date or with friends. Worth the wait for a reservation.
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Top dollars for average food.
ste from 10044 | Posted on 4/3/08
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A friend of us visited from Europe where he heard about this restaurant. We went for dinner, prepared to pay top dollars for a fine food experience. The ambient is cosy, but overcrowded. Tables are tiny for a party of four, we could hardly fit our dishes on the table. The wine list has a small selection of decent italian wines. However proper glasses are not provided (I suspect they won't fit on the table) so you won't enjoy much your 80 dollars bottle. The "antipasto della casa" was excellent, but that was about it. The mains were just ok, not better of what I can normally prepare at home. The pie was overcooked and the cassata ice cream was overfrozen and hard as a rock. We ended up paying about 80 dollars each for an appetizer, a main and dessert. Nothing went horribly wrong, but there are at least a dozen other places where you can eat as good at a third of the price.
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Reservation?
Yale2002 from 10705 | Posted on 3/27/08
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With a reservation for lunch (2 people), we eagerly awaited to be seated--eagerly as we had heard good things from friends about Sfoglia. Unfortunately, we had to continue to wait for 25 minutes beyond our reservation. One can only assume that the trite mumbling of the "hostess" was an explanation for the delay. However, what appeared to be regulars were seated promptly, despite arriving 30 minutes before their reservation. The other party with whom we were waiting were considering other options as well. We left. The space itself is cozy, if a bit quaint. It's rather unfortunate that the restaurant seems to be more fastidious with their menu rather than with their reservations and service. Most unprofessional.
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Sadly not as great as I had anticipated!
Ilovegoodfood from 10035 | Posted on 2/20/08
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It saddens me to say that Sfoglia was disappointing! I am an Italian from Rome who knows what really good Italian food is. Unfortunately I can only praise the decor of Sfoglia: lovely and welcoming. The young staff should be told that if you are having walnut tagliatelle with wild mushrooms, parsnip and pecorino (romano cheese), when you ask for more cheese then they should grate on your plate more pecorino and not parmigiano! Yet the tagliatelle were perfectly cooked, the parsnip blended nicely with the mushrooms and the dish was nonetheless the best one of my night. The potato gnocchi with American caviar, pickled shallots, mascarpone were terribly overcooked. They collapsed in my mouth... I was too stunned to even send them back to the kitchen! I had to try another dish, I had to like Sfoglia! So I had the pappardelle bolognese. The actual sfoglia of the pappardelle was very good, but the sauce was a tremendous disappointment, it was too creamy (in a bad way) and not meaty enough. After my first visit, Sfoglia amounts to not much more than yet another "above average but nothing to die for" Italian restaurant in the city.
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Casual/Upscale Rustic Italian
Brown1998 from 10128 | Posted on 2/12/08
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I recently had lunch with my wife at Sfoglia's on a Saturday. I certainly found the ambience/decor to be sophisticated, warm, rustic Italian (antiqued wooden tables, mismatched (intentionally of course)) We started off with the 'antipasti della casa' which was a nice light yet hearty mix of cured meats, cheeses, and vegetables. I had the paparadelle bolognese and my wife tried the gnocchi. Both dishes were fresh, flavorful and simple. Rustic/country cooking is what comes to mind. And it's the simplicity of these dishes that truly make it. Overall, the food was superbly prepared, the decor was unique and warm. The service was average --- our waitress neglected to inform us of the specials (which we subsequently heard when she told the table next to ours) and she was a bit disengaged. When I came back into the restaurant after answering a page from the hospital where I work, the hostess assumed I was one of the "kitchen help" (i.e. Mexican busboys) which is never a good thing. Honest mistake though ... except that I'm Asian and I was a customer. In spite of it, we certainly enjoyed the food.
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Broken Contract
bowieinspace from 10028 | Posted on 12/19/07
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I believe there is an unspoken contract between waiter and patron. The simple rule is that a waiter should be bound to direct the dinner to to order the appropriate amount of food. At a recent trip to Sfoglia, the waiter totally took advantage of an unexpecting group of hungry dinners. He totally directed us to over-order - 4 antipasti, 4 pastas and 4 secondis, 3 side dishes THEN 2 of the largest desserts i have ever seen ($18 each!!). A dinner for four came to $400 (tip tax and no wine). The food is not terribly expensive, but we were clearly encouraged to overorder. We all felt exploited upon departure. The food is delightful but not extraordinary.
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Slightly above average
mmgojcaj03 from 48042 | Posted on 10/18/07
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Most people think this is the best Italian because critics say it is... I found it to be quite bland and service to be slow... The food was not memorable nor cheap... If you want really good Italian on the upper east side my choice and also (Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin) choice is Spigolo..
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