Welcome to the most expensive food court in the known world. Otherwise known as the Time Warner Center. And while A Voce isn’t the priciest of the bunch, it is certainly up there as far as reasonably generic looking restaurants in high rises go. We went to this joint on a Wednesday night after enjoying a rousing rendition of one of those European dead guys’ classical music at Lincoln Center. I think the reservation was more a matter of convenience than anything else, which seems like a funny thing to do considering the cost of the joint. Generally if we’re going to blow that kind of cash, it’s going to be at a restaurant that Ms. Hipster and I actually have an urge to go to. And not on a Wednesday. But we were making of evening of it. So it kind of started out rough when they made us wait an hour for our table. We did one of those things where we got up five times to leave and just find some shitty Irish pub to grab a burger, but the bartender kept plying us with comped drinks and continued to badmouth and berate the hostess. It was awesome. And by awesome, I mean real uncomfortable and infuriating. So we finally get seated, and the manager comes over and gives us his card and comps us something else, apologizes profusely and tells us to call beforehand next time and ask for him, so he can make sure we’re happy. Yeah, like we’d come back after this shit. And, despite his whole song and dance, the service sucked as well. Slow and inattentive. The wine was decent from what I recall, and the soft-shelled crab in the photo was just all right. To be honest, I’ve tried to erase the whole experience from my memory, so I barely recall what it is I ate. And Ms. Hipster, who always remembers what she ate down to what kind of seeds are on her bun, also recalls nothing. That speaks volumes. Italian restaurants are as numerous as rats in Manhattan, so why waste your time and money at a place that respects you so little? [MF]
10 Columbus Circle
212/823-2523
