Sofia's

Although we're native New Yorkers, somehow we've never made it to this theater district mainstay. I wish I could still say that this morning. The food wasn't bad - typical theater district pedestrian Italian - but the (non) service was atrocious. I have run theater district restaurants as GM, and rule number one is if you are going to admit people post-theater, you welcome your last guest as you would your first. No one told us the kitchen was about to close until we were seated and had ordered our wine. The ridiculously rude server ORDERED us to order right away, as the kitchen was closing. I explained that I had no desire to be rushed and we would go elsewhere, but he assured me that he just needed to get the order in and then we could relax. Against my better judgment, we stayed. I had ordered two apps and my wife an entree, and everything was almost thrown on the table at once. The server dropped the check after our first bite. I was furious and asked for the manager. He listened and obviously hears this complaint nightly. He said he would discuss it with the owner and went back to the bar. I'm a restaurant person and I start with a 20% tip, increasing it as warranted. This idiot server actually went to his manager at the bar, and loudly enough for us to hear him at the table, laughed and said ""See, she tipped 20% anyway!"" Ok, honestly, I freaked out. I told the server Tomi and the (probably assistant floor) manager that I heard that, and couldn't believe he was putting me down for tipping properly. This was the worst experience I've had in a restaurant in years, and it left a truly sour taste to end what should have been a great evening. Way too many restaurants in New York to EVER put up with this kind of nastiness.\r more

Audiences of the Hit Off-Broadway show, My Sinatra, can enjoy a delicious prix-fixe meal of Italian fare upstairs in the restaurant, before or after the performance, as part of their ticket price: $105 premium and $85 general admission. The ?devil-may-care,? style and incomparable charm of Frank Sinatra surge through the microphone once again at Cary Hoffman?s ?riveting? show, My Sinatra. This one man musical explores the sometimes strange, frequently hilarious, and always interesting life of Hoffman himself; A Sinatra idolizer with an unparalleled ability to channel the voice of Ol? Blue Eyes. Throughout My Sinatra, Hoffman interweaves his personal tale of musical obsession with the star, telling his own hard to believe larger-than-life story, highlighting it with ?mesmerizing? (The LA Times) performances of Sinatra?s greatest hits. www.mysinatra com more

From the very first time we ate there, it was just pure luck! Our parking attendant(who by the way is a gem) raved about Sofias. We were 6 women going to the theatre and decided to just play it by ear! Boy were we lucky. It's hard to get 6 women to agree on anything, but we were all pleased by the food, ambiance, attention by the waiter and just a general feel good place. When in doubt it is always our go to place, especially on a cold winter night when you don't feel like fighting the crowds, and mot theatres are right there. Food is always top notch, plentiful, and when you want to share a meal it is always plated in the kitchen. They are always willing to do a separate ""bar bill"" as some people don't dink and don't want to pay for others. No problemo! I don't understand the ""tourists"" reviews and just felt that as a native I had to ""defend"" one of our own. Even a native Italian had nothing but high praise-and boy is she hard to please-espcially when her pasta is no aldente. Great choice for pre theatre or just if you want a great meal and don't want to pay big bucks! In fact we will be there this week pre-theatre with eight of us! Mange, and enjoy-you don't get to stay a NY restaurant or over 30 years for nothing! more

I know nothing of the restaurant at street level. However 221 w. 46th st. is also the location of Sofia's Club Cachet which is downstairs from the restaurant and accessible thru the lobby of the Edison Hotel next door, So pardon me for setting the record straight to avoid confusing the 2. This old, fairly well maintained nightclub is one of New York's greatest bargains. On Monday and Tuesday nights from 8-11 they have Vince Giordano's Nighthawk Orchestra, THE best hot jazz and dance band worldwide, his band being featured in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire. Additionally the food is fairly inexpensive averaging $15.00 for an entree, which is also the cover charge. Well worth it in my opinion, for where else can you listen live to an 11 piece 1920's style hot dance and jazzband!!! Fortunately there is a decent sized dance floor, a great bar at the farther end and courteous waitstaff with none of the attitude mentioned regarding the restaurant above. No, I'm not a club owner, nor do I play one on TV, just an enthusiastic fan of live jazz. more

We went to this restaurant because it was next to our theater and, with a blizzard raging outside, we didn't have the energy to search further. The food here was decent, but the service was unforgivably rude. Aside from some often-experienced mistakes at tourist restaurants (forgetting to refill the water, taking plates before people were done), our waitor Dominic treated us as if our presence there was an offense to all of his sensibilities. He threw menus at us, when we asked for silverware to share dessert, he tossed down 3 forks for the five of us (they even bounced!), and rejected any attempt at pleasantries. He attempted to be a snob, but despite being from Phildelphia, we were not the country hicks he seemed to take us for and could tell he was mispronouncing the Italian names and knew nothing about Italian wine. In the end we complained to the manager, but after we saw how he treated other patrons he was ""seating,"" I'm not sure it did much good. more

I had the misfortune of going to this place last Wednesday. 7/1/09. The older gentleman ""host"" seemed to act as if we were doing him a favor by eating there. Service was extremely slow, my sister thought maybe because we were two women, but by the reviews I see, it's just the crappy service. The waiters keep the check books in the back of there pants so when I got the bill I also got the waiters butt sweat. I never complained once until I went to the bathroom. It looked like a toilet had overflown, wet toilet paper all over the floor and just plain gross. I said to the ""host"" as we were leaving ""I think you should check the condition of the bathroom"" he literally raised his shoulder and walked by me. I said ""excuse me?"", he then walked by me again giving me that cold shoulder movement. I have never experienced such rudeness - EVER!!! I am sorry to say that after I left I was so enraged by this I went back into the restaurant, spat on the floor and said ""clean this up (explitive)!"" Not my finest moment, but have to say it felt good. I would have rather gone to the pizzeria - the food would have been better, they would have be nicer and the place would have been cleaner. Pros: Not one - oh yeah it was close to the theater. Cons: Rude, Disgusting bathroom, incredibly slow service! more

Alright, well it looked decent enough. Stopped in there before heading to a show. No wait for a table, but we did wait for the older gentlemen posing at the host to acknowledge our presence, and he begrudgingly showed us to a table. It took quite some time for a server to come by, no one ever took our drink orders (it was not too busy at the time). When a server did arrive, he acted odd when we ordered drinks with our food. The drinks came rather quickly, but we were done with our drinks before the food arrived. And when it done, one dish was cold - so they nuked it. We had ordered another round of drinks when the food arrived...the drinks arrived around the same time as the check. The bread - which I normally love... - was stale. chewy. not good. Our server was decent enough, but he did not pay attention to us, and he asked me questions in regards to my mother's order (um, she can speak for herself). All in all, a regretful experience. Did I mention the pink neon lights surrounding the bar???? The only plus that I noticed was that around the time we were finishing up, a bass player and piano player began playing, which would add a lot to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, either due to their placement or to the poor acoustics, you could barely hear them. I say-don't eat there. It's not worth the aggravation. And the food does not make up for the atmosphere. =( Pros: location....I guess Cons: food cold, people unfriendly, service slow...i could go on more

I made the mistake of stopping in for a cup of coffee last Friday night. I also happen to have Parkinson's Disease. The imbicile behind the bar accused me of being ""strung out"" and said we don't serve coffee at the bar as I watched the woman next to me sip her coffee. Pros: hopefully the owner reads this and fires him Cons: should have been fired already more

Only went here due to torrential downpour outside. Food was mediocre. Service was very slow: our water glasses were rarely filled, and it took forever to get the check. The waiter didn't seem to care. We are never going back. Pros: Food edible, clean Cons: Service, ambience more

We had reservations,but I think it didn t matter,the place was empty.When we walked in we were greeted by a dippsy blonde that did not even ask us if we had a reservation.She led us on a tour of the dining room just to lead us back to the same place we started from,one table away.The waiter came to the table and asked us what you like? What a shame that in New York they can t find waiters that speak english.Our waiter looked dirty,his uniform had the whole menu all over him.We waited and waited for our drinks to arrive,by the time they came we figured that the dinner will be at least twice as long.We had our drinks and left.On the way out the dippsy hostess asked us how was our dinner. Cons: waste of time more

We were going to the theatre across the street so we stopped in for dinner.We ordered drinks and waited at least twenty minutes for them to arrive.The waiter looked like he was a cab driver and smelled like one to.He didn t even hand us the menu,he just threw them down in front of us upside down.After ten minutes he came back to the table and just stood there.When the food came to the table two out of five dishes were wrong.We looked for our cab driver-waiter and he was standing along side of the bar picking his NOSE!.He finally came to the table and we asked for the owner.He told us the owner is not here and he does not know who he is.We asked for the manager and he replied why? When we told him of all the bad things that were wrong and him picking his nose in the dining room,he replied that this is his problem and not the managers.We got up and started to walk out and he came yelling and screaming like a wild animal from the Taliban.My wife started to scream and my friend started dialing 911.I grabbed him and pushed him away.It was a street brawl at this point.When I called the restaurant the next day to complain,the person said I would have to talk to the owner about it.When I asked for the owner,she replied you can t.When I asked why she replied because he would not believe this story.I told her I would write the New York Times she replied don t waste your time and she hung up the phone. Cons: EVERYTHING,NOSE PICKING WAITER more

this is by far the worst resturant i have ever been too. the ppl in there were albanian/french, (which is fine, if they had some descent tasting food) the food tasted like it was from a 3rd world country. there was a bone on my chicken breast, for what it looked like, decoration?!?!?! very bad food, terrible service. me and my husband thought it was brand new by the terrible service. my main question is.. why on earth did they call it an italian resutrant?! it was far from that. my husband said that he would have perfered a #1 from mcdonalds, while at the resturant (true story) PS: the bathroom was the best seat in the house!! Pros: nothing Cons: everything more

Went to Sofia's after an evening show due to the proximity to the theatre (across the street). The service was slow and quite rude. I considered leaving no tip it was so bad. I was a server during college so I usually tip well but this was very poor service. Food was bland and small portions for the price. I wouldn't go back. Really, there are so many better restaurants in the city don't waste your time. The only (and I mean ONLY) positive was the atmosphere. There was some band playing soft instrumental music. Pros: It seemed clean? Cons: Small portions, poor service, bland food more

My husband, daughter and I visited Sofia's on December 3 before going to see Movin Out. The staff was rude and service was terrible. We were told they had no coffee because ""there was no bus boy."" I would not return to this restaurant. The play, by the way, was excellent. more

My husband and I visited Sofia's before a Wednesday theater matinee. We were seated promptly and our orders were taken quickly. The service was slow, but the food was excellent. Our main complaint was the service - our waiter was surly and slow. But the other servers seemed to be great. more

We have never been disappointed. You get good value and an above average dinner. It is perfect for a before theater dinner. Pros: reasonably priced, service is friendly, food is good Cons: , service can be slow more

Took a chance on this restaurant based on the reviews listed on this website, which are completely split down the middle. Bad idea. The interior had no ambiance whatsoever. I was the only Italian in the place and the Indian waiters were no go-getters. We went for Sat. lunch and ordered off of the special menu (soup/salad-entree-coffee). Dessert was not part of that menu, a real disappointment, until you looked at the dessert cart. The cakes and pies looked like they had been there awhile. The chicken in the dishes we ordered were all dark meat. Overall, a bad decision on our part. Pros: Close to "Movin'Out" Cons: Lousy interior, Parla italiano,, cameriere?? more

Our group of seven had made a reservation, and we were seated promptly. Unfortunately, that was only thing ""prompt"" about the service. The place was only about half full, but we were basically ignored. We had to flag down the waiter even to refill water glasses! My husband's steak was prepared incorrectly, and the rest of us were almost done eating by the time they got his meal back out. Our waiter never once checked back with us, except to bring the check. The food was okay, but not worth the hassle. We will not go back. Pros: Decent food, Nice decor Cons: Bad service more

My husband and I dined here once. It was bitterly cold outside and Sofia's looked inviting and warm. We were seated promptly. However, our table was directly in front of the door which they had propped open so that the maitre'd could ""rope"" in customers. The icy cold air just poured in from outside and they didn't seem to notice. I ordered pasta with pesto sauce. What I was served bore no resemblance to pest. It was alfredo sauce colored green. When I questioned our waiter about it, he just looked at me as if ""how could I not tell this was pesto."" This restaurant is no better than the Olive Garden for authentic italian cuisine. There are so many better restaurants in the area, don't waste any time here. more

For our anniversary, I was taking my wife to a show and overnight in the city. After checking out the different restaurants, I decided on Sofia's. It was the right choice. The food was execellent, the service very professional and all at a good value. I heartily reccommend it for dinner anytime! Pros: Food, Service, Value more