Fantastic meal. Able to accommodate a large group at last minute. Loved our waiter.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Vincent
We've stopped in for the last few grand openings. Our favorite was when it was first opening as Bar Parioli, they had $5 glasses of house wines.
The Parioli vision was good, a casual Italian restaurant/bar that's more of a hangout spot than a full blown restauraunt. The space is perfect for a place like that. And that's how it felt at the start casual with cheap wine and tasty small plates, but as time went on, it ended up just feeling like another botte restaurant.
We were hoping for some good changes after the grand re-opening as Botte, but unfortunately we were left disappointed.
For starters, the prices; we got the chicken parm, bolognese , and 1 negroni and it came out to $76 + tip. I get that inflation and prices are up, but the quality just isn't there to justify these prices. Cocktails were $18, and ill gladly pay $18 for a quality cocktail, but I had a hard time believing they were worth $18.
The tomato sauce is an over-emulsified, over-reduced red goop. There's no texture, flavor or love in this sauce. They way they've prepared it makes it taste jarred. The Parmesan cheese was cheap pre-grated stuff. The bolognese just tasted like ground beef cooked in tomato sauce. The crust on the chicken parm was actually really good, but the sauce didn't do any favors here. The service was great, our server was excellent. The pasta itself was pretty good, it tasted homemade.
Overall, we're sad that the Parioli vision never really had the chance to come to fruition. Normally I would wait a few weeks after opening and trying again before posting a review, but based on the social media posts and the identical post on the front door, the owners seem to want to pass the blame off themselves onto another individual and publicly air their dirty laundry. I found it very off putting and really paints the owners in a bad light.
They claim to know so much more about owning a restaurant but after publicly shaming and passing off complete blame to some individual, they ended up opening a tired concept that completely out of touch with what the Ditmars area needs. The owners need to drop their ego and take some responsibility if Botte is ever going to thrive on Ditmars.
If the owners want to succeed (Though I'm skeptical the owners would listen): - Have a really good happy hour, a house red and house white, no more than $8. Better yet, have a cheap house wine all of the time like the greek restaurants do (Taverna kyklades has a 29$ full carafe that usually fills >5 glasses) - Shrink the menu, nail down a really good bolognese (Meat forward, not ground beef in sauce). Toss with pasta water and real parmasean/peccorino before serving. - Fix the sauce. Use whole canned tomato and don't blend it into oblivion - Use high quality ingredients if you're going to charge high quality prices. Shrink the menu offerings if you need to. - Alternatively, lean into a more casual concept (Ultimately, this is what Ditmars needs), small plates, cheap drinks. The space is perfect for a casual spot, cheap wine all the time, good happy hour, small plates. It would do especially well in the summer). - Add an anonymous QR code survey on the receipt and get real customer feedback
Nobody wants to feel like they're getting ripped off, customers aren't dumb. Breathe some love and passion into this place, its a great space and the staff is great. There's a lot of potential here, but if the owners don't drop their ego and take some responsibility, it will be a slow walk towards closing their doors.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
Yiğit Balkış
Italian restaurants are always a favorite of mine and I love trying new spots. It had been a while since I’d had a Margherita pizza this good and the rigatoni pasta was just as amazing. A solid 10/10 across the board 🧿
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cliff Laird
Dined during the restaurants soft opening. The food was absolutely delicious, service top notch augmented by conversations with the owners who were hospitable and kind. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Mariana Resende
I stopped by at saturday morning for lunch, and I ate a the rigatoni vodka and was fantastic. Fresh pasta and delicious sauce. Great recommendation by the server Ibrahim. Drink was also very good, I had one called made ya blush, bartender said is the best seller. Definitely will be back for full dinner
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Veeta L
While the service and atmosphere were nice, we didn’t enjoy our food. Considering that they have multiple locations, we were excited to drop by.
The food overall was mediocre/okay but lacked creative flavors. We enjoyed the Arugula salad the most, though it would be nice if they added another element like walnut or peach. The octopus was tender but lacked flavor, especially when paired with seasoned potatoes and olives, they made this dish too salty.
Pastas were bland and meh but it was cooked al dente. Found a fettuccine in my spicy Rigatoni 🤷🏻♀️ Pasta’s portion is huge and will fill you up.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
Emmet Clarke
We made a last minute NYE reservation here and this place saved our New Year! Our server Sofie was a delight! This place might have the best espresso martini in Ditmars. The spicy rigatoni and ricotta matcheta are must orders. All in all a great experience I’ll definitely be returning.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Robert Stack
Andrés was the best bartender. Our server Sofie was absolutely wonderful. My food was great from start to end. I would recommend the whipped ricotta appetizer, and the spicy rigatoni. Botte on Ditmars is awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Loukas Kyprianou
One of the worst experiences ever. Staff are clueless, half our food came, got cold and then the other half came later. I ask the waiter to check where it is he says ok and then he walks outside. Total disregard of customer service. Do not go here.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Jamane Warner
Just a great place to come for brunch or dinner. Good food, fantastic drinks and nice cozy place. Ariana is the best bartender and super friendly. Will be coming back many times for sure.
Had a problem with a food delivery service and Leo the manager made the delivery himself. An excellent add to the neighborhood and the food was incredible
Food: 5
Service: 5
Steve Strates
Botte of the barrel. Terrible service, mediocre food.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 1
Fatmir Dervishaj
Service - I went on a date with my girlfriend here last week and it’s safe to say we found our new favorite restaurant in Astoria. We were greeted by the manger Leo who was an absolute gentleman. Our servers name was Sofie, not only was she a sweetheart but she was also super knowledgeable of the menu.
Food - The Salumi & Formaggi was the perfect start to our dinner they definitely do not skimp out on the portion size for this one. I got the chicken parm and she got the spaghetti Alla Carbonara. Both were cooked to perfection. Safe to say we will definitely be returning soon.
This was just my experience. I walked in with several people waiting with no host to be found. Staff was running around and not one greeted us at the door. Given the space there was no where to move when someone else walked in so people had to wait in the cold. After 10 minutes, the host came out of the back and sat a party of 6 that was there after me. When he came to me he asked if I had a reservation. I asked if the table of 6 he say before me had one and he said yes. He never checked the computer and put two tables together to accommodate them clearly lying. I was just a table for two. He said he had to figure things out before I was seated. The restaurant was half full. Then we got the food. I ordered the gnocchi with seafood. The sauce had no flavor, the gnocchi was so overcooked it was like mashed potatoes and the seafood was all chewy. My friend got chicken which had no flavor at all. The bartender did not know how to make a proper martini and when asked told us we were wrong. Meanwhile we frequent so many restaurants high and low end we know what to expect. And this bartender is clearly just not interested in caring about the cluent. Then the bill came and when we had a question about being over charged for something and I was told that it's the way their system does it but uktimately I was wrong. I did the math on my calculator which showed the discrepancy but he didn't even bother to hear me out. I will never go back to that place again. The only great thing about the place was the woman who brought us water and bread. She was the only attentive staff there. So thank you to her otherwise it would have been 1 stars across the board.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
Rebecca Pizarro
Love this place. Food is great. But do yourself a favor and don’t go here for the salads. I feel like that’s a waste. The cocktails are good. Annoyed that the mocktails are only 2 dollars less than the alcoholic drinks but they are tasty. 🤷🏽♀️ Overall great atmosphere and food, recommend.
Fantastic meal. Able to accommodate a large group at last minute. Loved our waiter.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We've stopped in for the last few grand openings. Our favorite was when it was first opening as Bar Parioli, they had $5 glasses of house wines.
The Parioli vision was good, a casual Italian restaurant/bar that's more of a hangout spot than a full blown restauraunt. The space is perfect for a place like that. And that's how it felt at the start casual with cheap wine and tasty small plates, but as time went on, it ended up just feeling like another botte restaurant.
We were hoping for some good changes after the grand re-opening as Botte, but unfortunately we were left disappointed.
For starters, the prices; we got the chicken parm, bolognese , and 1 negroni and it came out to $76 + tip. I get that inflation and prices are up, but the quality just isn't there to justify these prices. Cocktails were $18, and ill gladly pay $18 for a quality cocktail, but I had a hard time believing they were worth $18.
The tomato sauce is an over-emulsified, over-reduced red goop. There's no texture, flavor or love in this sauce. They way they've prepared it makes it taste jarred. The Parmesan cheese was cheap pre-grated stuff. The bolognese just tasted like ground beef cooked in tomato sauce. The crust on the chicken parm was actually really good, but the sauce didn't do any favors here. The service was great, our server was excellent. The pasta itself was pretty good, it tasted homemade.
Overall, we're sad that the Parioli vision never really had the chance to come to fruition. Normally I would wait a few weeks after opening and trying again before posting a review, but based on the social media posts and the identical post on the front door, the owners seem to want to pass the blame off themselves onto another individual and publicly air their dirty laundry. I found it very off putting and really paints the owners in a bad light.
They claim to know so much more about owning a restaurant but after publicly shaming and passing off complete blame to some individual, they ended up opening a tired concept that completely out of touch with what the Ditmars area needs. The owners need to drop their ego and take some responsibility if Botte is ever going to thrive on Ditmars.
If the owners want to succeed (Though I'm skeptical the owners would listen):
- Have a really good happy hour, a house red and house white, no more than $8. Better yet, have a cheap house wine all of the time like the greek restaurants do (Taverna kyklades has a 29$ full carafe that usually fills >5 glasses)
- Shrink the menu, nail down a really good bolognese (Meat forward, not ground beef in sauce). Toss with pasta water and real parmasean/peccorino before serving.
- Fix the sauce. Use whole canned tomato and don't blend it into oblivion
- Use high quality ingredients if you're going to charge high quality prices. Shrink the menu offerings if you need to.
- Alternatively, lean into a more casual concept (Ultimately, this is what Ditmars needs), small plates, cheap drinks. The space is perfect for a casual spot, cheap wine all the time, good happy hour, small plates. It would do especially well in the summer).
- Add an anonymous QR code survey on the receipt and get real customer feedback
Nobody wants to feel like they're getting ripped off, customers aren't dumb. Breathe some love and passion into this place, its a great space and the staff is great. There's a lot of potential here, but if the owners don't drop their ego and take some responsibility, it will be a slow walk towards closing their doors.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
Italian restaurants are always a favorite of mine and I love trying new spots. It had been a while since I’d had a Margherita pizza this good and the rigatoni pasta was just as amazing. A solid 10/10 across the board 🧿
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Dined during the restaurants soft opening. The food was absolutely delicious, service top notch augmented by conversations with the owners who were hospitable and kind. Highly recommend!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
I stopped by at saturday morning for lunch, and I ate a the rigatoni vodka and was fantastic. Fresh pasta and delicious sauce. Great recommendation by the server Ibrahim. Drink was also very good, I had one called made ya blush, bartender said is the best seller. Definitely will be back for full dinner
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
While the service and atmosphere were nice, we didn’t enjoy our food. Considering that they have multiple locations, we were excited to drop by.
The food overall was mediocre/okay but lacked creative flavors. We enjoyed the Arugula salad the most, though it would be nice if they added another element like walnut or peach. The octopus was tender but lacked flavor, especially when paired with seasoned potatoes and olives, they made this dish too salty.
Pastas were bland and meh but it was cooked al dente. Found a fettuccine in my spicy Rigatoni 🤷🏻♀️
Pasta’s portion is huge and will fill you up.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 2
Service: 5
We made a last minute NYE reservation here and this place saved our New Year! Our server Sofie was a delight! This place might have the best espresso martini in Ditmars. The spicy rigatoni and ricotta matcheta are must orders. All in all a great experience I’ll definitely be returning.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Andrés was the best bartender. Our server Sofie was absolutely wonderful. My food was great from start to end. I would recommend the whipped ricotta appetizer, and the spicy rigatoni. Botte on Ditmars is awesome.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
One of the worst experiences ever. Staff are clueless, half our food came, got cold and then the other half came later. I ask the waiter to check where it is he says ok and then he walks outside. Total disregard of customer service. Do not go here.
Atmosphere: 1
Food: 1
Service: 1
Just a great place to come for brunch or dinner. Good food, fantastic drinks and nice cozy place. Ariana is the best bartender and super friendly. Will be coming back many times for sure.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 4
Service: 5
Restaurantji Recommends
Had a problem with a food delivery service and Leo the manager made the delivery himself. An excellent add to the neighborhood and the food was incredible
Food: 5
Service: 5
Botte of the barrel. Terrible service, mediocre food.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 2
Service: 1
Service - I went on a date with my girlfriend here last week and it’s safe to say we found our new favorite restaurant in Astoria. We were greeted by the manger Leo who was an absolute gentleman. Our servers name was Sofie, not only was she a sweetheart but she was also super knowledgeable of the menu.
Food - The Salumi & Formaggi was the perfect start to our dinner they definitely do not skimp out on the portion size for this one. I got the chicken parm and she got the spaghetti Alla Carbonara. Both were cooked to perfection. Safe to say we will definitely be returning soon.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Lasagna, Ricotta Mantecata, Chicken Parmigiana
This was just my experience. I walked in with several people waiting with no host to be found. Staff was running around and not one greeted us at the door. Given the space there was no where to move when someone else walked in so people had to wait in the cold. After 10 minutes, the host came out of the back and sat a party of 6 that was there after me. When he came to me he asked if I had a reservation. I asked if the table of 6 he say before me had one and he said yes. He never checked the computer and put two tables together to accommodate them clearly lying. I was just a table for two. He said he had to figure things out before I was seated. The restaurant was half full. Then we got the food. I ordered the gnocchi with seafood. The sauce had no flavor, the gnocchi was so overcooked it was like mashed potatoes and the seafood was all chewy. My friend got chicken which had no flavor at all. The bartender did not know how to make a proper martini and when asked told us we were wrong. Meanwhile we frequent so many restaurants high and low end we know what to expect. And this bartender is clearly just not interested in caring about the cluent. Then the bill came and when we had a question about being over charged for something and I was told that it's the way their system does it but uktimately I was wrong. I did the math on my calculator which showed the discrepancy but he didn't even bother to hear me out. I will never go back to that place again. The only great thing about the place was the woman who brought us water and bread. She was the only attentive staff there. So thank you to her otherwise it would have been 1 stars across the board.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 2
Love this place. Food is great. But do yourself a favor and don’t go here for the salads. I feel like that’s a waste. The cocktails are good. Annoyed that the mocktails are only 2 dollars less than the alcoholic drinks but they are tasty. 🤷🏽♀️ Overall great atmosphere and food, recommend.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Calamari Fritti \u0026 Zucchine
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