Il Mulino Prime

The poor service here was enough to make me never want to come back, and also give a very low review. A group of us came here to celebrate my friend’s birthday. We had the prix fixe lunch menu.
Food: Some of the dishes tasted quite good and were well presented, but the portions were very varied and sometimes WAY too small.
Caprese — The Caprese literally consisted of one slice of tomato and one slice of mozzarella. A little ridiculous.
Ricotta Meatballs — Consisted of one meatball, which I had to admit, was delicious. The meat was super tender and almost melted in your mouth. The tomato sauce and ricotta accompanying it was delicious. Too bad there was only one.
Orechiette — Wasn’t anything particularly impressive. The sauce was broccoli based, which was a little unusual. The portion was large, but the taste was bland.
Italian cheesecake — This was pretty good. The cheesecake was very rich and not too sweet.
Atmosphere: The restaurant was well decorated, with a lot of white and clean lines. That being said, it felt a little stiff.
Service: The service was extremely lacking. We had come in with a larger party, and while we waited for a couple of members of our party to arrive, we weren’t given water for the longest time. We didn’t even receive menus to look at until we asked for them, and the waiter didn’t even ask whether we wanted to wait for the other two or just start ordering. Beyond that, there was only one waiter for the entire restaurant. When we finally got his attention to order, he came to the table, then walked away to help seat other guests who had just arrived. He also had a ton of confusion about what everyone had ordered when it came to dessert, and had to ask each person what they wanted 2 – 3 times. The waiter was standoffish during the whole meal and was slow to respond to anything we needed, whether it was water or to order additional drinks.
We had also brought a cake to celebrate one of our friend’s birthdays. The cake was pretty large and could serve 10 – 15 people. I was expecting for them to cut small slices for everyone, since our prix fixe menu also included a dessert component. When they cut it, they cut up the entire thing amongst 8 people… the slices were ridiculously large, and some of the cake went wasted. Afterwards, we had to ask them about the dessert to our prix fixe menu and they were surprised that we even wanted it after having the cake cake. Wasn’t the dessert included in the prix fixe… As if I would leave without something I would have to pay for. They reluctantly brought it to us.

Dined at Il Mulino prime for dinner during NYC Restaurant Week. It’s a small space, but then again, it IS lower Manhattan. I was seated at a lovely corner table by the window.
I opted for an appetizer of ricotta meatballs, a chicken Parmesan entrée and a slice of chocolate cake for dessert as part of my 3-​course pre fixe selection. Each course was tasty but not out-​of-​this-​world. The chicken Parmesan while light, may have benefited from a bit more flavor. Certain wine by the glass selections will set you back upwards of $ 18 (ouch).
However, I most disappointed by the service. I’m sure Restaurant Week is probably the staff’s least favorite time of year BUT there was only one other table besides me. The staff was not friendly nor warm and didn’t offer any suggestions on menu options.
I had higher hopes for this establishment.

Came here for a restaurant week lunch. The service was quite terrible.
We’ve arrived late, and the manager gave us a look and emphasized we were 20 mins late. For that reason, they couldn’t give us a table because their tables were held for guests afterwards. We then had to enjoy our lunch at the bar tables. There were empty tables during our lunch, so I wasn’t sure why couldn’t be seated in a normal table instead.
Besides the service, the food was just ok. For a $ 25 restaurant week lunch, it wasn’t surprising. The steak was a little overcooked and extremely greasy. The chocolate cake was the only plate we thought was decent.