Best Contemporary Italian Restaurants in Cliffside Park

We love this restaurant and love ERICA!! She brings such life to the place!! And the food is great.

We had a great time learning how to make dough, creating different pasta shapes, and then enjoyed a 3 course meal! We left with tons of pasta to make in the future which was an extra bonus. My suggestions would be to provide a handout of all the information discussed in class and to offer a 2.0 class teaching you how to make different sauces! Thanks for such a fun date night activity!! We will be back!

The food, atmosphere, and service were all impeccable one of my favorite restaurants anywhere. I love coming down from Westchester to have dinner with my girlfriend.

We live around the corner and have been meaning to go here--Valentine's day felt like the perfect opportunity. Once you step in, you're transported away from the casual vibes of the Upper West Side and into an elegant fantasy that reminds you to treat yourself. Notable moments: The service here is perfect--our waitstaff were so kind, efficient, and helpful all the way through. They aren't stuffy and are, in fact, very human, but they provide that upscale service all the same. The food is gorgeous. The Valentine's prefixe was $75 a person. My partner got a plate of calamari as an app that was big enough to share, and the escarole salad I chose was lush and bountiful. Our pasta mains were well-portioned, not to mention al dente and seasoned to perfection. We also received two desserts for the pre-fixe price--both of which felt like gourmet iterations of homestyle favorites. It's kind of like this whole restaurant. The ambiance is relaxed yet upscale. My partner and I are by no means fancy people, and yet, we felt welcome! We saw people of all backgrounds and dresscodes come and go. There's a buzz of conversations around you, but it's not so loud that you can't have a conversation. The only slight discomfort we experienced was that our table was kind of wedged next to another table and the main hallway where the waistaff hung out--we assumed maybe they overbooked for the night and had to make new tables--but it was worth nothing more than a giggle and asmile once we realized. And hardly took away from the experience. Instead, it was a great vantage point for people watching and the perfect place for attentive service.

I picked this restaurant by looking at online reviews. I could not have made a better choice. Our reservation was on time. We walked in, sat down and were immediately greeted by our server. Emily was her name. She was without a doubt, one of the best servers I have ever had the pleasure of working with she treated my wife and me as if we were her only customer and we were the most important people in the restaurant. It was truly a special occasion for us. The food was everything that she had said it would be and everything that I read online. It was fabulous. We took her suggestions for some of the dishes we got and every suggestion she made was fantastic. I will go back to Carmines anytime I’m in New York City.