Sicily Osteria

I consider this restaurant to be the perfect spot for Italian food if you’re near Times Square or heading to a Broadway show. From the moment we arrived, the experience was excellent. The host was extremely friendly, and we really appreciated hearing the backstory about the restaurant, its origins, and the family that owns it, it added such a personal touch. All of the staff was absolutely fantastic and very knowledgeable about the menu. Our server made excellent recommendations, and everyone in our group thoroughly enjoyed both the food and drinks. One staff member even offered us complimentary shots at the end of the meal, which was such a fun and unexpected gesture. The complimentary bread service was incredible, easily some of the best bread I’ve had in New York. You can truly tell t

Great pre-theater restaurant. Attentive staff didn't rush us while also serving us in a timely way to get to the play on time. Two of us had the restaurant week specials, and one had a regular meal. The shrimp scampi was fabulous, as was the eggplant rollotini appetizer. (I would've been happy just sopping up the vodka sauce!) Loved the mini olive oil can for the bread. And the desserts were delicious! The minestrone in a bread bowl was the only disappointment: it had zucchini, onions, and carrots....no beans or pasta so I'm not sure how minestrone was defined.

We stopped in for dinner before our show, and they’re clearly well-prepared for pre-theater crowds. Most guests were also heading to performances, and our server made sure we stayed perfectly on schedule. We went with the $45 Restaurant Week menu. The tuna carpaccio was quite bland and lacked flavor, but the meatballs were solid. The short ribs were missing some juiciness and seasoning, while the lasagna was enjoyable. Desserts were excellent, and the $25 bottle specials for Restaurant Week were a nice touch. Overall, it worked well as a pre-show spot.

The pasta dishes are very unique. The potato croce were good but they needed something acidic. The pesto didn't do it. The arancino (note it's not plural as it usually is seen) was tasty enough and big for being 1 bell shaped rice ball. The spaghetti chittara had a decent amount of crab meat and am interesting combination of textures: cream sauce, flaky crab, spaghetti noodle, and crunchy pistachio. The casarecce sauce was delicious and very meaty. The limone sicilia dessert was gorgeous and delicious. It's very tart, which I like in my lemon dishes. The only disappointment was the pana de casa. We paid for the bread because it looked amazing, but everyone around us got a different complimentary basket of bread. The pana was smaller than expected and very dense and very floral with rose

Despite what it says on Google, it’s Best to make a reservation if you’re dining pre-theater. Be aware that the NYC Restaurat Week menu is NOT available from 5-7pm. The food was very good, though not necessarily Italian, let alone Sicilian. My dinner companion started with the crab cakes. There were two decent sized crab cakes with a corn salad — something I’ve never seen in Italy. Just polenta. The crab cakes were excellent. I had the grilled octopus which also was a generous portion. It was grilled and simply dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. It was over a salad of wild rice and dried cranberries, again something I’ve never seen in Italy. For a main course, my companion had the shrimp scampi which was served with broccoli rabe. He had expected linguine or some pasta. The food wa