Top notch service, great atmosphere, focused wine list. In terms of the decor, fantastic!Really lovely. I started off with the grilled octopus starter, excellent. The cheese dish came next, so creamy and delicate. For Entrees, we got the steak and the cheese pasta, Wow,on both. Our server was really knowledgeable, and the manager came over more than once to check on us.

I recently found out about Emporio from the LXTV Segments in the Taxi Cab and when my friends and I were looking for a place to eat on the weekend we thought we give it a try. I immediately felt a good vibe walking into the place. I love there rustic decor and one of the waiters told us that is was modeled after an old Roman Grocery Store. We decided to sit in there back room which had a huge sky light and since it was still early and daylight it felt like we were sitting in a garden. Our waiter told us that the best way to eat at Emporio was sharing a bunch of things, sort of family style and we decided to take him up on his suggestion. As a starter we had the bruschetta which had rhubarb and ricotta with a truffle honey. Heavenly sweet’ isch taste with all the flavors melting together perfectly. Second we ordered a bunch of appetizers including Squash Blossoms, artichokes, grilled calamari and a water melon salad. Everything was delicious, all of us had different favorites, mine were the artichokes. Pizza was next. I don’t remember the name of it but it had pecorino cheese with sausages and bacon i think. It was very thin crust and it was soooo tasty. Since all the food was so amazing and filling we thought about canceling our next course which were the lamb chops and steak. Our waiter told us however that it was already on the fire so we decided to go ahead and have it. I am so happy we did because the steak so tender and so was the lamb chop. We could not finish our meats and plus we wanted to save room for dessert. Dessert was a home made lemon tart, amazing amazing amazing, so was the chocolate tart we ordered. I am so happy that we went and will for sure be back.

Came here with a group of 3 to get an early bite before a late dinner. We decided to split the spicy sopresatta pizza. After a half-hour wait (the restaurant seems a little understaffed, especially when it comes to the floor personnel) we got a horrendously blackened pizza – pitch black on the bottom, as if someone had taken a propane torch to it. We actually tried it but the taste was acrid and sooty.

The waitress nicely offered to have the pizza remade, and 45 minutes later we were treated to yet another burned, black disk. This time we just apologized quickly to the waitress, got up, and walked out of the restaurant. There is plenty of mediocre pizza in Nyc but rarely is it actually bad. They have some serious work to do if they want to claim any kind of Roman authenticity. I’ve had pizza in Rome and this is far, far, far from it.

I am Roman from Italia and was expecting good Roman food at the Emporio. However, I would say food did not live up to expectations. Especially noteworthy is the oil, which would not be served plain in Italia, it is not the high-grade oil to serve with bread, maybe for the dishes, ok, but not plain. The service was very friendly, but too rushed. Pizza was Ok, definitely reminds me of pizza back home, but it is not quite as good ingredients. Only good thing was espresso, which was tasty. But overall, restaurant is no really good.

I have pretty mixed feelings about Emporio. On the one hand, the decor is kind of funky and silly, and our service was great, but our food was obviously just assembly-lined out of the kitchen and it didn’t look like any time or effort had gone into it. Maybe my expectations were too high (the place has gotten some good buzz) but I personally thought it was just mediocre and unoriginal. We had a nice experience but probably wouldn’t bother going back unless we’re in the neighborhood.