Cipriani

New York, New York, United States

Cipriani Downtown

Cipriani is an overpriced chain of restaurants with a couple locations in New York and other major cities around the world. They offer a full bar, mediocre Italian food, and good service. We decided to come here because it had heated outdoor seating and it was a fairly warm evening in January. The food was OK, but there is much better Italian food in NYC (at much better prices).

Dress

It's a somewhat upscale place - smart casual is appropriate

Cost

Most entrees are around $30

Reservations

Reservations are probably a good idea. We managed to get one of the last outdoor tables when we visited (on an unusually warm evening in January)

Items Ordered

Mixed Green Salad

Mixed Green Salad

The salad was OK. It was quite plain - it was just a lettuce salad with a light vinaigrette dressing. There were a couple of small slices of radish in the salad, but otherwise it was just mixed greens.

Spinach Ravioli with Butter Sage

Spinach Ravioli with Butter Sage

The spinach ravioli was quite plain. The ravioli were covered in butter and cheese which gave them a fairly pleasant (and mild) flavor, but this dish still felt a bit lacking. It wasn't anything special.

Choice of Homemade Dessert

Homemade Dessert

I got to pick a dessert along with the fixed-price "All Day Menu". I chose the cheesecake. It was a pretty good cheesecake - it wasn't as creamy as most cheesecakes. Instead it felt like a mix between a normal vanilla cake and a cheesecake. We found a couple of raisins in the cheesecake which was a bit odd - there were maybe 3 in the whole slice. It was probably the best item of the evening, but it was far from the best cheesecake I've had.

Risotto with Mix Mushrooms

Risotto with Mix Mushrooms

Strangely enough we were given both a plate of the mushroom risotto and another dish on the side. The waiter made it sound like the kitchen made extra (for some reason) and we got to take advantage of that. I don't know why or what the occasion was, but this turned out to be a very large portion of risotto - I was eating it as leftovers for multiple days. It was very creamy and mostly tasted like wild mushrooms.