Il Cortile

FOOD POISIONING

by pciro424 at Citysearch

DO NOT EAT THE FAVA BEAN SOUP! The beans were old and the cheese was sour I got food poisioning 5 mins after I ate it. I was throwing up all night sick to my stomach. Besides this when I walked in and requested a table they told me it was taken, well i was in the restaurant until closing and nobody ever sat at the table. Also it was a satarday night and the place was empty. The waiter was cold and had no emotion. I am an italian cook and this food was NOT italian. If you want italain food then go to arthur ave in the bronx, but definitely not little italy which is a huge tourism trap. I grew up in new york cit y and would luv to see this place shut down.

Horrible, cheaters!!!

by Carla lamb1 at Citysearch

We had been to Il Cortile for a nice family dinner. The restaurant looked okay from the outside so we went in. First of all, the people helping, serving there are horrible. They dis give us a menu for beverages. We asked for a bottle of wine and was served some thing else. We did not The food was horrible, inedible, not cooked, no taste.. NOTHING.

the food is extremely expensive, and such a waste. We returned hungry and $200 less.

I would not recommend this to my enemy.

• Pros: NOTHING
• Cons: Everything

Good Service, Food Just OK

by paulo1 , Citysearch Contributor at Citysearch

OK, anyone thinking about restaurants on Mulberry St has to know that they generally are geared towards tourists. In my opinion that is why the service is often sketchy - the restaurants know that you are probably not a repeat customer since you are probably a tourist so why go the extra length and cost to dazzle you? Besides, you know to have your guard up when the restaurant has to post someone out front on the street to hustle in customers.

I was in SoHo looking for a good Thai restaurant (and lamenting the closing of Kin Khao on Spring) when my friend's husband decided to inform us that his conservative palate would not allow him to eat Thai that particular evening (I think he lost the desire to be "experimental") . He knew we were close to Little Italy and convinced the rest of the group to head there for dinner.

Walking up north on Mulberry you see Il Cortile on the left - it has an attractive facade, especially when compared to many of the other restaurants. The restaurant had the obligatory customer-hustler out front but he had a twist - he offered free dessert and coffee if we ate dinner there. Casa Bella next door was packed while Il Cortile had ample open tables but my friend was convinced that we couldn't go wrong with free dessert and coffee.

Our waiter was very good, the high point of the evening. He took care of us, and me being the cynical one, thought that our order of 2 bottles of Chianti had something to do with it since that bumped up the bill quite a bit. I should be more open-minded though, he was very attentive, It's just that my last experience in Little Italy found an inverse relationship between the amount of alcohol you order (to increase the tab) to the amount of attention you receive from the wait staff.

All the attentiveness of our waiter couldn't hide the average food that we were served. Appetizers were tiny - each was barely enough for one person let alone to be shared with another. I guess the mistake was to try something other than the obligatory fried calamari (which looked to be of decent portions from what I was at other tables). My chicken with artichokes tasted fine, though there was nothing else served with it, not even a small side of pasta. All I was served was a plate of chicken. One other in my party ordered a chicken dish as well, theirs too was just chicken, no sides. I really need to remember this the next time I dine in the area. The other 2 had pasta dishes - they were on the average to slightly small size-wise, no complaints really except that the Alfredo sauce came out a bit thick, perhaps due to the fact that we were eating later in the evening - it might have been sitting around for a bit if it was made early in the day.

Dessert - our free slice of cake (no options) was OK, nothing special, but our cappuccinos, also free, were very nice. That nice ending did wonders to alleviate the ho-humness that was characteristic of the meal up to that point (as did the bottles of wine).

Il Cortile is an OK place, perfectly presentable, nothing spectacular or out-of-the-ordinary, a solid Little Italy restaurant that just happens to have very capable wait staff. You really can't go wrong here.

• Pros: Service was surprisingly good
• Cons: Food is just average

really awful

by anthonypizzaz at Citysearch

I went in April and just feel compelled to write a review of the experience. We had been there before a few times for celebrations and such so decided to go for my birthday. I never really thought the food was spectacular, but this time it was literally inedible. to begin, I ordered the eggplant rollatini as an appetizer which my friend and me split. I should have grabbed him and left as soon as I tasted it. the sauce tasted funny, too bitter and greasy and the cheese was nothing short of spoiled while the eggplant itself was stringy and full of seeds. there was nothing delicate about it at all. part of the beauty of good Italian food is the way its handled and prepared, the way the ingredients meld and merge and marry. nothing in this dish was right. my stomach immediately turned. to boot- it arrived about half an hour after we were seated. again, should have just left. but no. troopers, we decided to stick it out and wait even longer for the entree. if the appetizer was bad the entree was heinous. it was supposed to be swordfish, but it looked like a gray mass in the middle of the plate. the grill marks were not real, they were like painted on with food coloring, it just came that way from the frozen fish people. it was almost tasteless except for a slight putrid lemon fish broth taste and because of the very bad fish smell, the color, and taste I simply refused to eat it knowing I would be sick from it. we tried to eat the greens that come with it (unidentifiable) but they too were sour spoiled and inedible. we told the waiter the food is inedible and as a consolation prize he offered cappuccino and dessert on the house. the dessert was the lamest thing I've ever seen-bad raspberries in "custard" but the custard looked so gross. we just walked out after paying the bill , my friend trying to make me feel better but I was so insulted it just ruined the evening. it was the most insulting dining experience I've ever had. the slowest service for the worst most disgusting food.

• Pros: the ghost of lost grandeur
• Cons: what they consider to be edible

Not worth the horrible service!

by allthingsfood at Citysearch

THE CHECK WAS RIDICULOUS. Our server tacked on 20% for himself because we had a party of 8. I'm used to 15% or 18%, but not 20%. It didn't say that anywhere on the website or the menu. On top of everything, the service was TERRIBLE. I will never come back here.

It's a horrible feeling to be on pins and needles with out of town guests, knowing that everyone is starving and restless because your server never comes to check on you.

I get it, there will always be customers in Little Italy. The service doesn't have to be great-but it should be.

I know Italian food. And this is good Italian food, BUT not worth the horrible service and cost.

I chose this restaurant because of wonderful over-the-top ambiance for out of town guests from MI. There were 8 of us and I heard Il Cortile is great for groups.

We waited 20 minutes over an empty bottle of wine before anyone took our order. We ordered appetizers and entrees at the same time because we were all starving.

The apps took about 20 minutes and the portions were small. The mini calzones were good and the antipasti was nothing special. The entrees came about 20 minutes later. Again, small portions but pretty good food.

We waited another 20 minutes after we were finished eating to hear about dessert but it looked tired and lame so we headed to Ferrara instead.

This place is not worth it.

• Pros: Decor, Food
• Cons: Service, Audacity, Portions