Falai Panetteria

07/18/10

Authentic Italian Cafe

by oogabooga7

When my boyfriend and I wanted Sunday brunch, I suggested Clinton Street Baking Company. At 2 in the afternoon though, we were told to wait for an hour, so we walked on and eventually found Falai. It had eggs, it was cheap, and it was FOOD (we were starving).

We sat down and there were Italian-speaking men in loafers and nice pants drinking illy espresso - we knew we were in someplace good. It delivered.

I ordered baked eggs in tomato sauce with spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and goat cheese. He ordered home-made fettucini with beef bolognese. It arrived piping hot (much hotter than we're used to as Americans) and it was AMAZING. Even the boyfriend, who *never* expresses emotion over food, let go a "wow. This is really good."

Cheap, delicious, and NO wait! Just anticipate using that spare time to wait for service - it's typically European-style and slow.

Bonus: stop by Donut Plant on the way home and get a creme brulee donut. Mmmmm!

• Pros: Feels like you're actually in Europe
• Cons: Service is slow

12/08/07

Great dinner spot

by n_max03

Love coming here on the weekends for dinner when the place gets bopping... friendly staff, good wine, delicious food and amazing desserts... what more could you want?? Fun atmosphere without ridiculous prices.

• Pros: awesome italian food, reasonable prices, dessert wine specials, fun staff!
• Cons: gets crowded

07/13/07

Spotty Service... sometimes great, sometimes way off!

by rcavvy

Pretty good food... We visited on Thursday for lunch and had a great panini, but couldnt help but be turned off by the server's bizarre behavior. He did not seem to know much about the food when we asked some basic questions and we constantly had to search for him. He was MIA most of our meal, and when he was around he spent most of his time fiddling with his phone. Other times service has been great... what's up with this new guy?

• Pros: sometimes good service, always good food
• Cons: sometimes bad service!

05/16/07

hotties

by jdunneny

my friends and i go to falai paneterria just to visit all the hot girls.. and get cheap coffee that actually tastes good

• Pros: ladies

03/29/07

great bruch, long wait

by mperez56

I went for brunch on a recent sunny Sunday afternoon only to find the place packed. Although the waitress seemed overwhelmed, she was as friendly as I would have expected and cheerfully pointed me to the one free table in the cafe. Although the table was dirty (the previous customers' check was still on the table) the waitress assured me I could grab it so no one else could take it. A friendly busser immediately cleared and cleaned the table and gave us menus and water (good to see someone helping the flusterd waitress!) The waitress managed to take and deliver our drink orders very quickly, although I could see she was just keeping up with the demanding crowd. Never lost her smile though. She even found time to give me a bit of a history lesson about the neighborhood (Im new to Manhattan)

Anyway, the baked eggs were surprisingly good, I liked the mozzerella best. Although the wait for the food was as longer than I would have hoped. We never wanted for bread, water or more coffee though, so the overall experience was very pleasant, despite hte noisy crowd.

• Pros: Cheerful, if slightly overwhelmed, staff. Good cheap eats.
• Cons: Noisy crowd, long wait