Gennaro Restaurant

03/17/08

Worst customer service ever experienced in a Manhattan restaurant

by JenniferMM

Our night at Gennaro actually started out very well. The waiter was friendly and the rest of the staff was acommodating for our large group. The food was very good--nice portions and everything was pretty tasty.

Unfortunately, when the check came and there was a very obvious error (the check is handwritten and if you have a big group it's pretty difficult to find mistakes when you can't read handwriting) the waiter and owner were not helpful in the slightest. The bill said that our group of 18 people ordered 16 bottles of wine--that was a pretty ridiculous mistake considering we had only ordered 7 and after the 7th bottle the waiter told us they were out of the type of wine we were ordering. Not only did the dr. jeckle and mr. hyde waiter give us a hard time about correcting the bill (friendly went out the window at this point), the owner got involved and took 45 minutes to finally settle on the corrected amount. They were rude and condescending...and crazy enough to leave 18 people sitting at tables that they could have turned over to new customers.

The lesson to the owner of this restaurant: 1) handwritten receipts are a thing of the past--that's why we have computers 2) keep a closer eye on your inventory because you shouldn't have to rifle through your recycle bin to figure out how many bottles of wine your customers drank 3) don't waste your customers time questioning them because they will go on websites like citysearch and tell the rest of the world how bad your service is

01/07/08

Left Hungry

by stephantaub

I know that seems odd for a neighborhood italian joint but its true. Had heard this place is not as good as it used to be and I can see why. I wanted the Osso Bucco Risotto but asked our waitress before if this was a full size portion as risotto dishes are usually apps or on the smaller side.....she reassured me it was so I went ahead and ordered. BIG MISTAKE.....it was a joke and at 25 bucks, it was a bigger joke. THere was honestly about 7 or 8 nickel size pieces surrounded by a big bone. It was tasty dish....but gone in 3 seconds. Maybe other stuff is better and bigger but I was quite annoyed by our waitress as well as the fact that since we didnt order apps and bottles of wine to pump up the bill, we never saw her again until it was time for the check.....our busboy literally asked us if we wanted dessert or coffee. Another thing that was annoying was the fact that their are tons of specials that the waitress tells you about but doesnt tell you how much they are so you feel like an idiot asking for prices on 10 different specials.....would be nice if they had them written down somewhere as they are on average 50% more than the entrees on the menu. Overall the food is not bad but the cons make it not somewhere I would go again anytime soon.

• Pros: Food
• Cons: loud and cramped, small portion size, misleading prices, still hungry

10/13/07

Very poor customer Service

by margienyc

Extremely disappointed. They were not accomodating. Won't seat an incomplete party. When I asked to be seated at my table and have a drink until the rest of my party arrived., They simply said, "No, their policy is to have the complete party ready to be seated". I explained that there would be 4 and coming from different parts of the city but they refused to accomodate me. Fortunately Manhattan is not a desert island. There were many other restaurants in the area. When my party arrived we went across the street to another Italian restaurant and had a GREAT dinner. The staff was very attentive and treated us decently.

• Pros: None
• Cons: Treated badly by the wait staff. Very small room. No reservations. Long wait

09/22/07

Real italian food.Real italian food in New York...to tell you this it is a real 48 years old genuine italian man.Living in Milan.

by pirlone

The food is something uniqe,defenetely different from fake italian food. It's really an italian enviorment and quality food.A must to try eggplant as a desert.

• Pros: great Italian Real Chef
• Cons: tables are too small like Japanese style

03/05/07

Use to be remarkable....now just good.

by robertmc

I have to agree with Hollywood3's review below. Having eaten here for many years, the food just doesn't have that special zing it once did. Since the menu has hardly changed it's easy to say the, for example, the grilled baby lambchops had a wonderful, smokey, pungent intensity they no longer have. Even the signature lamp shank with couscous seems a bit bland compared to the older days. Still, it's great to have dinner with a nice bottle of wine and not break the bank. There's good value for the cost here, which is why I still recommend it. The noise level, however, is insane - don't come expecting a nice romantic interlude - and ironically the place is more cramped now than it was when it was less than half the present size! The place is always packed, so be prepared to wait.

• Pros: Good cost/taste ratio.
• Cons: Noisy. Cramped.