Duped by Dopo Teatro
Written: Feb 15 '04
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Pros: Pleasant light rock music plays, and not too loud. Tasty appetizer.
Cons: Too expensive considering staff's attitude, and ambience. Food is decent but not outstanding at all.
The Bottom Line: Not a bad restaurant but I'm going to have to not recommend it due to its priceyness. There are higher quality restaurants that are less expensive.
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| BillTK's Full Review: Dopo Teatro |
Located in the heart of the theatre district Dopo Teatro is a mere block away from The Producers, and if you time your exit just right (around 11:15 PM) you'll walk down the block and encounter Matthew Broderick exiting the theatre and signing autographs for the throng of waiting fans. In the spirit the neighboring houses of entertainment, Dopo Teatro boasts having a piano bar inside but it seems they prefer to play music from tapes for their ambience. I might have bemoaned the lack of lively gaeity a piano bar atmosphere provides if not for the fact that I really enjoyed their taste in music! Mostly Light rock pop music along the lines of Norah Jones, The Pretenders, Gordon Lightfoot, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Lindsey Buckingham, and Sly and the Family Stones (whose "Hot Fun in the Summertime" one of my all-time favorites, was on the playlist).
From the outside you would never guess how expansive the interior of this restaurant is. The exterior is a relatively narrow façade but inside toward the back the eatery widens out into a room including a large open burning oven. And then downstairs you discover room after room opening into one another. There are veritably endless caverns of rooms. In essence the establishment spreads itself pretty wide and perhaps this may explain the less than stellar attention you are sometimes paid and the detection of slight snippiness that the staff at their weaker moments lets slip out into the open.
For instance, when we first walked in the hostess asked if we'd like to check our coats and I mentioned that I was fine with simply hanging it up on the rack that was near our table. The hostess, a milder version of a kind of whip snapping Aryan drill sergeant snapped, "Yes, then you check your coat there!" indicating that same rack was their actual coat check rack as opposed to some check room. Fair enough, but jeez, tone it down a notch will ya? A calmer smaller young lady then sidled up to us to handle the coat-checking. This same hostess continued to impatiently ask customers both entering and leaving to close the door. Granted it was a cold wintry night and perhaps one can argue she was looking out for the diners inside, but I think there are ways to ask people in a polite way and ways to ask them in away that barely disguises one's displeasure. Besides I get the feeling she was looking out for herself more than anyone else. I guess that's why at the end of the evening I sensed a hint of glee in myself when informing her that the men's room had no paper towels inside.
The staff of a restaurant that expansive must face a great deal of stress that bubbles up in subtle ways. I say this because even the nicer of the two hostesses working the front was behind me at one point when I was ascending the stairs after checking out the downstairs, and she said chirpily, and somewhat urgently, "Excuse me darling!" I turned expecting to find her right on my heels but instead she was a good 5-6 steps behind me, but on top of that I was definitely not lollygagging. In fact, I swear I'm one of those people who is almost incapable of walking up steps slowly. I often take them two at a time, it's just my nature. But here's this Little Miss Impatient with her "Excuse Me Darling!" And she wasn't even walking quickly at all. So I think it was one of her chances to let the steam out of the pent up pressure cooker these hard-working folks endure.
Our waiter also had this sort of friendly and yet somehow, "I've got better places to be and better things to do" demeanor. He wouldn't even make eye contact when taking our orders. I felt like I was interrupting his girl-watching out the front window which we were seated by. Also I think a waiter should tell you when he hands you the menus that an entire section of the menu (The Raviolos) isn't being served. So instead, when he came back to take our order I had to decide on a back-up when he delivered the bad news. The Ravilos must have gone the way of the piano bar.
I'll tell you who was on the ball though was the water server. Our fellow a gentleman from Ecuador who's been here twenty years was swift, attentive and kind. I don't think my girlfriend's water glass was ever less than three quarters full.
The décor is relatively pleasant looking. The walls are a peachy beige color in that sponge-applied technique. And red bunting sweeps all along where the walls meet the ceiling. The walls have many framed sets of black and white photos of Italian movie stars.
Drinks are roughly $7 each (an Absolut on the rocks and a Captain Morgan and Ginger Ale that tasted inexplicably faintly of mint). No dark beers, so I went for a Samuel Adams to accompany my meal.
There is a nice assortment of entrees with a fair number of dishes in each of the fish, meat, and pasta categories. Many more entrée entries in the pasta section actually. And there are several appealing sounding salads and appetizers with two soups listed. For $8.50, I had the Crespelle con fughi disottobosco e salsa al formagio (crepes stuffed with wild mushrooms and topped with melted cheese) and it was really quite delicious. It was actually the best part of the entire dinner, but then again I'm a crepe fanatic. It had perfect taste of savory creaminess. They were maybe on the sightly small side.
For my entrée I thought the $17.50 Orecchiette al coniglio (orecchiette pasta [a kind of small clam-shell shaped pasta] with rabbit, with sage, rosemary in a light tomato sauce) sounded tempting so I ordered it. It was a little disappointing however. The pasta was cooked very expertly, but I thought the rabbit was a little on the tough side. (A Portuguese restaurant in SOHO called Pao serves several dishes that include rabbit and they are outstanding).
For $16.50, my girlfriend had the Fusilli primavera al formaggio (fusilli [spiral shaped pasta] with zucchini, peppers, eggplant, asparagus, goat cheese, and diced tomatoes). She enjoyed it thoroughly.
But y'know, one of the tests that I like to gauge the yumminess of a pasta sauce is whether or not you want to sop up the rest of with with bread after your meal is finished. She didn't go for it, so I did. But then again she had already had a few samples of the bread and rolls and I hadn't. The bread assortment isn't very special--standard stuff including a plain foccacia, but also one curious type of roll that tasted like a soft pretzel, the kind you might get from one of the many pretzel and hot dog vendors that if you looked out the window you would see on the corner of that very block.
The dessert listing doesn't contain any surprises. The sweets include the same examples that it seems every restaurant has: tiramisu, cheesecake, fruit tart, carrot cake, etc. They do have a dessert special that I suppose changes day to day and tonight, for Valentine's Day was a Chocolate mousse pyramid. It looked almost fascinating when it arrived. From looking at it you would think the consistency of the pyramid was a powdery chocolate cocoa. But sure enough it was a mousse which you discover upon plunging your spoon into one of the geometric pyramid facades.
The coffee was so-so, and I don't know, I expect better from an Italian restaurant don't you? Shouldn't the coffee be much better than what you'd order from any old quick take out deli?
Dopo Teatro translates as "after theatre." Indeed there does seem to be an influx of customers between 10 and 11 PM, an unusual flow for most restaurants but not one here in the theatre district where shows end also between 10 and 11. From the way the staff sometimes treats you though, you'd think it translated as "Dopes! Just Order and Don't Bug Us. We've Got Unrealized Theatre Careers of our Own to Brood Over."
Recommended:
No
Kid Friendliness: Yes
Vegetarian Friendly: Yes
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Try and be seated far away from the hostess station.
Best Suited For: Friends
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Epinions.com ID:
BillTK
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Member: William Kozy
Reviews written: 139
Trusted by: 32 members
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