LUPA was known for specializing at Italian cuisine in SOHO area of NYC. Obviously, as a metropolitan city, NY deserves to have all the best quality food. While impressed with variety food during my short NYC trip, I still have my favorite – LUPA, in terms of quality, ambience and neighborhood.

Thanks to competition in the neighborhood, LUPA is reasonably priced but no skim at all on quality. I was very pleased with their nice presentation of food and attentive service. Portion might be a little small for dinner but perfect for brunch.

LUPA is a alway popular spot and packed all the time. So, Keep this in mind, always make reservation 2 weeks in advance if decide to go dinner; otherwise, you can only squeeze in brunch or bar table.

All the hype about it being Mario Batali’s restaurant, and I wish I wouldn’t have gone. It was jam packed, and we made a reservation yet still ahd to wait 2 hours. While waiting, we shopped in SoHo and instead of calling us 10-15 minutes before our table was ready like they said they were going to, they skipped over us and we only found out when we went back 2 hours later and our table wasn’t ready. Moreover, the dishes (we had the gnocchi, rose pork shoulder, egg/prosciutto pasta and some other pasta) were bland, and tasted like they came either fresh out of fast food/Campbell’s style, or that I could have made it myself. The descriptions were great, but my pasta tasted like Spaghettio’s. And I hate when food doesn’t meet the descriptions and it tastes like something low class. Also, the restaurant was Jam-Packed (not in a good way), and the service was HORRIBLE. In fact, we never saw our waiter until we had to go through a chain of several flagged-down bus boys to get her. I would not go back to this restaurant ever again, even if I were starving.

The food was very good but still over-hyped. I prefer Casa Mono to Lupa.

Lupa-The She Wolf gets it right

We are just back from Rome and where we have essentially ate our way across the city, so going to an Italian restaurant in New York is definitely taking our chances. BTW, there is no bad pasta in Rome, but there is terrible Pizza.
Lupa, the she wolf, symbol of Rome, is wonderful bistro, on Thompson Street, nyc, that gets it right. The waiters are extremely knowledgeable, (do you know the difference between Borsci and Lucano digestifs) and are actually helpful, rare in New York.
Appetizers are served in soup bowls and are tasty and distinctive. I liked the Winter Squash alla Romana. Pastas are bountiful and have interesting twists; the Bavette Cacio has a bread crumb topping. The major compliant is that the selection is small. The main courses fish or meat are seasoned just so. Sorry, Vegans need not apply. While the wine list is not cheap the variety is amazing and half carafes are available. Desserts are definitely Italian style and even the Tartufo, an ice cream bombe, has a certain savior faire.
Italians entertain at restaurants not usually at home and Lupa always has several large groups going at one time. Rather than assign a single waiter to a large table teams of waiters work together and that way everyone gets served together.
Warning the front room is noisy and reservations are not only a must, but weekend reservations are hard to get. Dinner for two with an inexpensive wine comes to about $140.

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How disappointing. The hype is simply that, hype. I was meeting a friend at this restaurant, she arrived about an hour early and waited at the bar. She was told there would be a table open in about one hour, precisely the time I was arriving. We got a table OK but had to share it with a dozen other diners! The bar and front door were too close to the tables. When I had to use the restroom, I had to disturb other diners, in order to get out. Similar to sitting in a theatre. The noise was deafening. We quite literally had to raise our voices in order to have a conversation. Unfortunately, we were forced to listen to everyone else’s conversation. The service was horrendous and very, very rushed. When the waitress was taking orders from other the diners on either side of us, we had to stop talking, as we could not yell above them. Waitress was reluctant so spend any more time than absolutely necessary with each diner. The one star is for the food, which was quite good but due to the din, was not as enjoyable as it could or should have been. I would never return or recommend. Mario had better take stock! And I don’t mean chicken or beef!

great italian, fantastic price and mood. Very worth going to.