An Off-Night at ‘Covo’: Hugo’s Review
Disclaimer: Covo in NYC has no affiliation to ‘Il Covo’ in Chicago.
Saturday night was fight night! Klitschko and Ibragimov were competing for recognition of heavy weight championship. In honor of my friend’s birthday we decided to forgo the usual delivery order from King’s Pizza and decided to eat out. UF had posted about Il Covo and there were some promising comments (not to mention the rave reviews on Yelp). I decided to go take a look for myself. First of all this is located on 12th Ave and 135th street in the Viaduct Valley. It is further north of Hudson River Café. Despite all the new construction there that particular area of the strip still needs better lighting. Even being from “the block” I couldn’t help but feel some trepidation walking down there. I remember as a kid the place was replete with negative elements. The street nowadays has a complete face lift. But the lighting issue is still a problem. Once you muster the courage to walk closer to the restaurant, though, you are pleasantly surprised at what’s inside. The place was packed! I mean wall to wall!This is the equivalent of going to some spot in the desert and finding it overpopulated!
The crowd of people eating there painted a perfect picture of great food and great fun. Upon entering you’re olfactory is welcomed by a beautiful brick oven where the pizzas are made. My friends and I were promplty directed to our seats right next to the semi-open kitchen in the back. Sounds great doesn’t it! Sitting by the kitchen we were assured prompt service. The restaurant itself is wonderfully decorated and lit with plenty of eating space. I didn’t get to see the lounge upstairs so the jury is still out on that one.
Our waiter handed us the menus and walked away. We started scanning through and noticed the prices were quite, quite comfortable! Reminded me of that Times articlewhere some commenters were calling for more normal priced restaurants/bars in Harlem. After looking at the menu I said, “Yes! This is how it’s done! Regular pasta dishes went for 9-12 bucks. The bigger entrees went for a couple bucks extra. Quite excited (and not to mention famished) we started to make our selections. 15 minutes went by before we noticed that we still had not gotten any water or asked if we wanted to drink anything. We flagged down our waiter and asked for water. We then placed our orders. We also asked for some sodas. When the drinks arrived we noticed that each of our glasses had exactly 2-4 ice-cubes. It looked a bit weird so we simply asked for more ice. Another 15 minutes passed by and a thought hit us. Don’t they have any type of bread to start? I peeked around and noticed breadbaskets on every one’s table. Our table? None. So we flagged down our waiter again and asked for some bread. Struck me as odd that we had to ask for that.
The appetizers came some minutes afterward. On the culinary end, everything tasted fine. About 20 minutes after that our plates arrived. We asked for another round of drinks and once again we got the glasses with 3 ice cubes. At this point we were feeling quite uncomfortable. Especially when we saw our waiter spending a good 10-12 minutes telling other diners about the specials and the wines with quite the smile. We never got that speech…or the smile. Furthermore, another group sat down behind us and their tables had water glasses and bread within 3 minutes of sitting down. All these little annoyances started adding up to a bad taste in our mouths (figuratively, of course). The food itself was on point. My friends we had fettuccine, lamb, rabbit even. Everyone was happy with their food. But this wasn’t enough to remove the discomfort of feeling snubbed by our waiter. Dessert was out of the question at this point. We wanted to pay our check and leave.
As we were exiting my brother asked to speak to a manager. The host tried to lend her help in resolving the situation. My brother was more frank that I would have been. But in not-so-many-words he told her that it seemed (at least on the outside) that there was some kind of discrimination occurring in the way we were treated versus everyone else in the restaurant. My brother pointed out the lackluster waiter to the host. He came to attention and started to apologize profusely. None of us were satisfied by the apology. They made no other attempt to rectify this than by simply saying
sorry. And as far as we were concerned the manager never came to speak to us.
I personally felt quite offended by the treatment we received. Especially since no reviews seemed to indicate anything less than a fine eating experience. I cannot say in all honesty that I would recommend this place. I will try to return once more when the weather is warmer and I’ll chalk this unpleasantry to a fluke for now. I hope to be proved wrong. It’s quite a shame because this particular area in West Harlem really benefits from a good, reasonably-priced Italian restaurant. It seems I will have to stick to Café Largo and Pisticci for now.
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UPDATE:
I had the opportunity to return here on Friday night. Fortunately my entourage wasn’t interested in having dinner. We wanted to go up to the lounge area, get some drinks and a couple appetizers. As we walked in I spotted the horrible waiter that served us the last time but blew past him as we made our way upstairs. It was the first time I went upstairs. The place was nicely decorated and very spacious with some funky couches all over. For a friday night it seemed a bit empty but my guess is most people were busy checking out Talay and dancing it up at Body. We had a good time nonetheless. The drinks were good. I had one of the oven baked pizzas which tasted awesome. There was enough to go around for a couple of us. We left around 2AM and closed down the joint. I would’ve hopped over to Body but everyone else was already pooped from a fundraiser party we attended earlier. I’m glad I had a much better experience this time around.
My friend and I went by this place tonight (seemed the thai spot next door was open now too) and thought it was pretty good. Was not blown away by the quality of the service, but it’s a nice space and good food, so 2 out fo 3 ain’t bad, especially at their reasonable prices.
Grazie!
sorry for that. i am actually fluent in Italian and hence my need for being grammatically correct made me insert “il”. good luck in chicago!!!
That was suppose to say “it is affecting my business”
Hey, can you fix your review to properly name the restaurant? I own il covo in chicago and your review is popping up all over. The restaurant you reviewed is “covo”. It is affecting my and if one more of my smart ass friends calls and asks if my ice machine is broken I’m going to scream. Seriously, if you come to Chicago, I will give you a five pound bag of ice with your drink and amazing service but your little typo is affecting me, indirectly.
Grazie!
Carol
and i said before…given the generally warm reviews about the place i think this was just a rare bad experience but an experience none the less. by the time summer gets here i’m sure any of these “bugs” will have been worked out.
ok, that was funny i admit. but it wasn’t the water. it was the soda we got. we got luke warm cans. and on top of that a glass with the “3 cubes” to chill the entire thing. also, even if i had had water…if a rinky dink pizzeria on broadway could pull of a cup of ice water i’m sure it’s not beyond an “authentic italian” restaurant. regarding the lighting. i usually write these articles with the idea that not everyone is familiar with the area and in their shoes some things might present a problem. we were a group of guys and a police officer so i had no issue about walking down there. but the fact is that once it gets dark the place looks like you’re walking to an abandoned warehouse.the street lights are lacking. I lived right above that strip and i can tell you stories of things that occurred right there where everyone is stuffing their faces. not pretty, man.
fyi: shrine is a restaurant and bar/lounge with live music
Has anyone been to shrine yet? is it a restaurant or just a “lounge”?
Thanks for the review. I’m gonna have to check this place out. I’m always game for a good restaurant in Harlem.
wow…the body bar/grill place looks really really nice! looks to me like it’s behind covo. on the side directly facing the hudson
OMG, for 3 ice cubes?!!!
In authentic italian restaurant you don’t get any ice with your water!!!! (and I much prefer it this way!)
Been there, had no issue. So nice to have more options in the hood.
Also the lighting, oh pleazzze?!! Sounds like you are scared even with street lights anyway, right?!
PS: Lounge area upstairs is cool, you should check it out too.
We’ve been once to Covu and food was decent – especially for the prices. Really nice atmosphere but also found the waitstaff to be pretty green. We didn’t notice any attitude from them but made mistakes you’d expect from a place that just opened. Upstairs bar seemed cool too – pretty big space overall.
I’ve also been a handful of times and have had nothing but wonderful experiences. The staff and owner have always been really pleasant, although one waiter was a little bit inexperienced (though very nice). And the food is amazing and reasonably priced. I too wish there was a better way of getting there after dark because those stairs through the park are poorly lit and a bit scary. That block is going to be hopping this summer once the other new places next to it open. Check out http://www.bbgnyc.com for some pics of one of the other places that is going to open.
I’ve been to Covo three or four times and have had really positive experiences. The food is excellent and reasonably priced. I’ve never thought the wait staff was rude, but they still seem a bit “green” and unsure of themselves. I share Hugo’s complaint about getting there though. The walk from Fairway down to Covo is sketchy, and there’s a weird alcove on the East side of the street that seems to be a rendevouz point for hookers and pushers. A better route is to go West on 136th all the way to the park and then down the stops. That plops you right in front of the restaurant. This stairway is poorly lit though. I think all the restaurants here (Body and Alma) need to work to make this area more accessible. Currently, the neighborhood is neglected and only people who drive to the place have a convenient means of getting there.