Caffe Falai

I imagine that on the right day, Caffe Falai could be an excellent place to grab brunch. We did not come on that day.

The meal certainly started off promising, as the avocado salad we decided to start with was DOPE. The avocado was perfectly ripe, the dressing stellar, and the truffle a perfect touch.

However, when our entrees arrived...they didn't, actually. Four out of the ten of us didn't get our food. That's 40% of us, if my math is correct, who just had to sit around and watch their compatriots eat for about 15 minutes before they were served anything. Well, I suppose they wouldn't have had to watch, if the people that got their food weren't frightfully rude.

So I was one of the people who got my food. "Lucky," I suppose. Having opted for the baked eggs with mushrooms, I was really quite excited. In my experience, restaurants rarely serve baked eggs unless they know how to do them well;* it's just one of those brunch staples that everyone and their incompetent chef of a brother makes, regardless of whether or not they can do it well. Like Eggs Benedict.

But these baked eggs were so very disappointing. I'm assuming that the kitchen was just woefully unprepared to deal with a party of ten people, and they timed everything incorrectly. My eggs were probably just done first, and then left in the blazing hot ramekin to cook and cook and cook as the kitchen tried to get the rest of the [60% of the] food ready to go out. Instead of being fluffy and wonderful, the eggs were just hopelessly overcooked, hard and dry. The paninis around the table were simply uninspired, but these eggs were actually bad.

I might return for that avocado salad, but only with a very small party.
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*See Arcane, Spoon, abistro and I hear, Cafe Gitane.

House made chitarra spaghetti w chicken liver and bottarga. This caught my eye last Friday when I was dying of starvation at 5PM. All I had the entire day was bacon and eggs for breakfast. So when this dish came, I inhaled it in 5 minutes. It had a good balance of richness and saltiness. It was absolutely divine! I loved it.

The combination of outdoor seating, sipping iced coffee, cracking jokes with friends and stuffing face with this heavenly pasta made my crankiness go away. Whew!

This was a way better dining experience compared to last visit. The server was charming and eager to please. " I come, I come."
That's what she said! Haha.

I took my beautiful wife here for Valentine's Day one year and it was great. Eclectic, a little funky, all white, cozy with cool somewhat ornate chandeliers, customer service was good. There are about 20 tables and a great assortment of pastries that you can take to go too. They have the usual fare of fresh pastas and some meat dishes. We had one of the salads that was really good, sorry don't remember which one, but they all sound great on the menu. Entrees are in the $13-$25 range.

If you are looking for a good place for coffee its usually too packed to get a table to sit and enjoy a cup there, but my suggestion would be pick one or two pastries to go and a coffee and head to a "park" in soho with some benches at Spring and Thompson to enjoy. Park = basketball courts with some seating around the fence. Good people watching place.

You could certainly walk down Spring or Prince and there will likely be bakeries still open somewhat late night that will have desserts to go, but they won't be as good as Cafe Falai and likely just as expensive. $5-$8 ea.

Group stats: That's always a fun thing to do with a group ....everyone grab a dessert and head to the nearest park to sit, chat and talk about your favorite dessert/pastry or ice cream.

I want to go back soon!

I loved the feel of this place and the food was delicious. Everything is white and bright and crisp yet warm and inviting. I loved the chandeliers and the coziness. Friendly and accommodating staff. Yummy Italian wines!

Great Place !

Awesome service and the pasta is excellent !

The portions are a bit small so you might wana a few entrees are share

Blinding white theme: circular white tiles, clear plastic chairs, large chandeliers, white walls, mirrors with white frames: the decor looks like a showroom more than a cafe. Beautiful shiny place with mostly beautiful people. Most of their patrons have more creative and more beautiful attires than people you would find in other parts of Manhattan. Boas, feather vests, Japanese inspired clothing, CLs, black sheaths, and silk gowns were a sampling of what I've seen (and this is just for lunch).

The food is delicious and pretty. I came here twice for their lunch special because is such a great deal. The prix fixe includes secondi or primi with antipasti or insalata for 20. I've had their polipio: octopus with fingerling potatoes, fried capers and squid ink sauce. Who knew fried capers could taste so good? The fingerling potatoes are cut into adorable circles, and seared so they are golden.Once you place these dime sized bits of sweetness on your tongue, once the sugar reaches your brain, you are hooked. Now you will have to work ungodly hours at your job to afford to keep eating here every time a craving for their fingerling potatoes hit.

Their squid ink linguine is homemade, cooked al dente with fresh squid. They are generous with their seafood portions, so each bite results in some form of seafood, whether it be cockles, squid or clams. And their veal meatballs have a beautiful crust; they are soft and tender with tomato sauce and cheese. Their frutti di mare is a plentiful appetizer with a briny sauce; it includes clams, muscles, squid, shrimp soaked in saffron sauce. Yes- this sauce is lick-the-plate-clean-with-your-tongue good. We used all the bread that they gave us for the sauce, so we took bread from our bread basket to soak up every droplet of the sauce.
My friend who recommended this place to me, came to Cafe Falai three times this week.
I'm afraid I cannot look at Italian food in the same way ever again. I'm afraid frutti di mare will never measure up to Cafe Falai's standard. I hope I am wrong.

Came here on the eve of America's birthday, after having worked a very slow brunch. Leland and a few of the other angels were in attendance, and we did what we usually do: ordered a drink each, and passed them around so we could each get a taste. Our glasses drained, we came to a consensus: we just had the try the one at the bottom of the list that no one had dared to order initially. We were so apprehensive, we ordered just one for the five of us to share.

The Firenze Palermo: chef meets owner, back-of-house meets front-, in a crazy concoction named after the cities nearest and dearest to the folks behind this branch of the Falai empire. Vodka, Fernet Branca, fresh spinach, squid ink, ginger beer, and olive oil. Not as scary as it sounds. Quite tasty, in fact, if you're into savory drinks. It's one of those magical concoctions that truly showcases cocktail chemistry: you can't necessarily pick out each ingredient individually (not by taste anyway; the drink is the color of spinach, with a black smear of squid ink along one side of the glass, and unmistakeable pearls of olive oil dance at the top) but when it all comes together.... wow. I would have added a touch of salt, personally. But nobody else in town has the balls to put a drink like this on their menu. This one really takes it to the next level.

I'd stopped by here in the past for a glass of wine or a cup of coffee, before they got their liquor license. And the pastries are sublime, of course. But who knew I'd be blown away by Falai's... cocktails?

Overrated and overpriced.

I have been to Falai on Clinton Street which is now closed, and it was one of my favorite meals. So since I had some guests in town, I thought Caffe Falai would be the next best option. Everything was mediocre and the service was beyond sub par. I looked for the waitress several times throughout the meal as she just disappeared and never asked if we wanted another bottle of wine, which is just weird and bad service. The food was all non memorable and portions were tiny. Won't be coming back here.

I went here for dinner twice or three times two years ago. I stopped by here recently to pick up their phenomenal flourless chocolate cake as a present to my mom. I was really disappointed to see that they don't have it anymore, nor do they display their decadent, pretty desserts inside the restaurant.

From what I remember, the pasta here is really good and I love the modern, classy feel to this place.

Really liked the modern all white interior of the building. We were seated right away which was nice :)

We had
Pappardelle Alla Zucca Con Cinghiale --- loved the pasta with squash
Linguine Al Nero Di Seppia "squid ink black linguine, with baby clams and orange zest"--- very interesting to try once
Spaghetti Al Pomodoro--- classic tomato sauce spaghetti

of the three definitely liked the pappardelle with squash the most! recommend it :):)