IL Bastardo

I wish I can give –0 to this bastardo place. El bastardo, the name it self sounds like an insult! And the name is perfectly made for this horrible place. They ripped us off, BASTARDo!!!
The food was awful, drinks were awful, service was awful And for this bunch of awfulness you pay $ 40pp. Basically you pay to just party. day club.
Music was loud, loud, louuud. And too many drunk people!
The most frustrating part is even if you dont drink alcohol they still charge you $ 40.

I came here for a birthday brunch and I don’t think I’ll be back again. The food? Subpar. I mean it’s brunch, shouldn’t the food be good at least? Especially if I’m paying $ 60 for my plate. The music was fine, top hits but really loud for such a small place. If you don’t care about the way your food tastes and you’re just looking for booze and a good time then this might be the place for you. It looks like the brunch menu has changed since I’ve been there. Maybe it’ll be better than what I had? I won’t be going there to find out.

Just see Rob J.‘s review. Says it all. While mine was one of the better dishes (literally not worth mentioning) the service was just really bad. Started off good but then it all went down hill fast. One thing Rob J forgot to mention was that after ALL of that, they brought us the check and it had 20% gratuity included (we were a party of 8) TWENTY PERCENT. They clearly count on their Sat and Sunday hot mess brunches to keep their doors open because it was all just bad bad bad. Stay away (and if you don’t, just remember — I told you so!)

Wow, this place has gone downhill and is now a total hot mess. We got our drinks fast enough but then it took ages to get the waiter back to our table to take our food orders. The food took a very very long time to come out and when it did they brought us multiple dishes we didn’t order, then they offered cheese and fresh pepper to people at our table who literally didn’t have a dish in front of them.
When the dishes all finally arrived several were wrong and several were inedible (pasta literally not cooked, etc) and two had to be sent back. My chicken parm was congealed and seemed like it had been sitting out for an hour before they brought it to me. The waitstaff were totally disorganized, barely spoke/​understood English, and all the food was either inedible or barely passable.
Oh, and then our waiter just disappeared and we had to flag down a manager to get the bill so we could escape and run far, far away. Then we discovered that they charged us for the «free» glasses of wine they gave our two friends because they had to send their inedible entrees back. The manager was argumentative and rude but did agree to take the two glasses of wine off the bill (gee, thanks so much).
Never coming here again. What a terrible experience. Do yourself a favor and avoid this trainwreck.
Just…no.

First thought in here «WHERE AM I»
We came for Sunday brunch, about 25 of us. I really thought I was going to hate it. You feel like you’re in a club. Very dark, very loud, very crowded. You definitely want to be seated in the back room, that’s where the fun is.
Brunch is advertised as $ 45 a person but we ended up spending $ 60 each. It comes with a bottle of champagne or a liter of a brunch cocktail and an entrée. Get the champagne. It’s cheap alcohol but you’re paying for the atmosphere not really the food/​drink.
The food and service was not good but that’s OK (can’t believe I’m saying this). They are able to accommodate many large parties at once. Food takes a very long time to come out but you end up not caring because everyone gets up and starts dancing since like I mentioned before, you are at a club (in the daytime). Also, because it is so dark in there you can barely see what you’re eating. I remember the truffle fries being good.
Only come here if you want to have a very excessive, drunken time. NOT if you’re boring. It’s a very specific scene and if you’re not into it then you will not have a good time. Also, this isn’t really the place for small groups. *turn down for what*

Went to brunch here on Sunday. Had a table for 5 people… Had DJ spinning a lot of hip hop early on. Food was avg, and drinks were very affordable given skme of the brunch places I’ve been to in NYC.
Crowd was ok… Bachelorette parties etc
Wasnt a bad experience, a very affordable place… Will check out other spots before coming back.

Know what your getting into! If you are looking for a loud, alcohol infused, energy pumping, visual spectacle of a brunch then you come to the right place.
Decent price. Good food. So-​so drinks. Great music. Ridiculous energy.
Come dressed as if you are going to a club at 2am even though it’s 2pm and you won’t regret it. This is definitely not a date night scene. Come to have fun. Celebrate a birthday. Or just to turn up. Only warning is you will leave drunk and look like you are doing the walk of shame at 4pm in the afternoon which can be awesome. Be careful of the bathroom area downstairs as it is chaotic and I have seen more than a few fights so hold your bladder and keep it to the first floor and you love your experience.
Weekend brunch that is a club atmosphere complete with a great DJ, drunk groups of hot girls and guys and the occasion showgirl dancer sashaying through the place.

This place is AWFUL. I went for Sunday brunch. The $ 45 pre fixed menu has such bad options. The food in general was really really bad. They make it seem like it’s worth it by offering a litre of mimosa/​screwdriver/​bloodymary or a bottle of champagne. I don’t drink either of these but almost everyone in my party complained about how cheap the vodka was and how watered down everything else tastes like.
Apparently last year there was dancing and costumes but there was absolutely NONE of this. I would stay away from this place there are so many better brunch places to go to! Don’t do it!

Okay so IL Bastardo was literally A-​OK. I came here for my friend’s birthday brunch around late November, and I’m now writing a review 5 months later because I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to take time out of my life to write a review of this place.
For the price of $ 50, we got an entrée and either a bottle of champagne or a mason jar mimosa (your choice). The great part of this option is that if you’re not trying to get drunk, but just a buzz, then this is perfect! You can buy shitty $ 5 shots when the shot girls are floating around, and yes I did buy one but only for the birthday girl. But I could get ‘just a buzz’ for a much cheaper price. I get it though, it’s brunch — the one time we will all overpay for possibly shitty food and ridic expensive drinks unless it’s a bottomless brunch deal which obviously IL Bastardo was not. I did see reviews that people got an AYCD brunch here for $ 45, but we definitely did not have that so I’m not sure how this place is now. The restaurant is literally SO small, especially the dining areas. I give props to the waiters though. We had a large group with us, and instead of having to sit at two separate tables, they let us combine the tables (which is a huge brownie point from me).
After our brunch was over, we got shimmied out and we made it to the bar area where there were other brunchers enjoying their meal. There was literally no space in between the bar and other people’s’ tables, and I actually felt bad for them that I was all up in their area. But like I said, there was literally no standing space! That room was also so dimly lit, I felt like I was inside of a Hollister, probably even worse. They played great music, and I had a great time but I don’t plan on coming back, unless I have no choice.

T’was invited to a birthday celebration and was told it was a «Turn-​up Brunch»… I was intrigued. Easy enough to arrive from Grand Central and you get ID’ed at the door. The environment is just like a club, only during the daytime. We were a group of 14-​ish and they tried to seat us in the back but it was too crowded and hot. A host moved us to a long high-​top table in the front next to the entrance. They offer a $ 45 brunch with 2 hours unlimited mimosa/​bloody mary/​screwdriver OR a bottle of champagne. We immediately ordered a round of champagnes and soon enough, we each had our own personal bottle. Wish they had straws for the bottles!
The food was were this whole place goes off track. The food is scanty, unappealing and will barely fill you up if you’re actually hungry. This place definitely needs more substantial meals for customers who are literally drinking bottles of alcohol. Oh and I had a crusty fork… No thanks.
Fun place, just don’t expect much from the food. If you do come here and get a bottle– you won’t remember the rest of the day, trust me.

This is the kind of place that you don’t want to be even the slightest bit sober for or you might realize how bad it actually sucks! If you are blacked out drunk and with a good group of friends you might have a good time.
Overall: the food is horrible, the service is horrible, the music sucks, and you are crammed back to back with 1000 other people fighting for space.
The only thing this place is good for is to get blacked out drunk on shitty champagne mid day, if you are into that kind of thing.

5 star music. 2 star food. 4 star vibe. 1 star service. So we were here Saturday for brunch and I swear I think our waitress was drunk! The food definitely isn’t all that but I already knew that from my fellow Unilocalies! The music was amazinggg!!! Love the black chandeliers and it’s awesome that they give you a bottle of mimosa or champagne with your entrée! We were all def feeling nice the dance area is super small but we had a good time :)

$ 45 a person brunch with 2 hours of unlimited mimosa, Bloody Mary or bottle of champagne you cannot go wrong. However do prepare yourself for the hangover after brunch.

This place makes me impatient for the day when the trend of brunch and a party together die once and for all in New York City.
I came to Il Bastardo for a friend’s birthday party. To my knowledge, I was going to brunch in the Meatpacking District; I was excited to dress up, as I envisioned the venue to have a certain aura of sophistication characteristic of many places in that area. Wrong. This feeling hit me as I approached the entrance at 4pm and the bouncer was throwing out a rowdy young man, screaming at the top of his lungs that he «didn’t want any problems».
Brunch consists of a meal — paired with your choice between a liter of mimosa, a liter of screwdriver, a liter of Bloody Mary, or A BOTTLE OF CHAMPAGNE. This last choice is an immediate favorite with their patrons. It adds to the visual soreness of the place to be surrounded by twenty-​one-​year-​olds chugging their $ 5 champagne bottles to post on Snapchat.
I digress.
My friend made a reservation and had arranged a package beforehand, as she wanted to add more bottles to the party. This arrangement would allot special seating for our party. The host and staff initially disregarded the arrangement and sat our party of fifteen in the general seating area. After roughly half an hour subjected to inebriated folks flashing their calves at our own eye levels, we were moved. It wasn’t much better. They brought us the additional bottles a few minutes before the lights were turned on, music turned low, and everyone left.
We paid $ 70 for mediocre food and cheap alcohol in a dark, loud place crawling with drunk people.
Never again.

This place should not be evaluated on its food… Ever… They should just not make it actually… It’s like a club in here during the middle of the day which is fun but know what to expect… Dark place with shittily made drinks, some really cheap bottles of mimosas, loud music lots of screaming lol it was fun… Me and a few friends sucked it up as we came here for a birthday brunch. Got extra bottles of champagne and poured it heavily into our pre made mimosas… No one has anything good to say about the food, this was the consensus amongst all of us … Except the caprese salad, that was good.
Rigatoni ala vodka, omelette w veggies, veggie panini … None of it was good… I guess they don’t believe in seasoning. Like even salt and pepper? Whatever, know what you’re in for… Don’t come thinking you’re going to have a fine dining experience. A fun one where you act like an ass after u make the best of it… Indeed. Come here with a few peeps for some ratchet activity … Don’t come in here on a date, for a quiet brunch, or with your parents lol… The music was the best in here also. They played 3LW, TLC, and some other hood shiaaaat.

Went here with a group of friends to grab a bite to eat for dinner on a Saturday night. Though it was the night before Easter and many of the restaurants were packed, this place was pretty empty when we arrived.
To start off, they brought a basket of bread – one type that had raisins in it and the other your run of the mill white bread – it came with no oil and no butter, so I was confused if they had forgotten or that’s how they normally serve the bread.
For my appetizer, I decided to get one of the salads off of the specials menu that was decent, but nothing super memorable.
For my entrée, I went with the salmon dish. The salmon was cooked pretty well, but I have to say that I wish the skin had been a little more crispy as it still had some oiliness too it.
Overall, this place was good enough for our group, but nothing that I had has me rushing to come back. It was also a bit hard to track down the waitstaff at times, even though there weren’t too many other groups in the restaurant. Needless to say, there are other Italian spots around the city that you can get more bang for your buck.

First and foremost, the food here is absolute garbage. New York Public school lunches are probably a step up from here. The burger that I had here must’ve been cooked in a microwave.
With that said… this place is A LOT of fun. The music is great, and the liter of booze they give you is a nice bonus. Each additional liter is $ 25. There’s a girl walking around serving up 5 dollar shots. No idea what was in it, but I don’t have any memory after drinking two of them… Literally can’t remember a thing that happened.
The seating area in the back of the restaurant literally looks like a club.

boozy weekend brunch where it’s like a club party in the middle of the day (they check id at door, there’s a bar and dance floor when you walk in
and they forced us to coat check for $ 3 when other ppl had coats hanging on their chairs?!)
If you want to have a normal conversation over brunch forget it because they blast loud club music.
The brunch is $ 39 for one of the entrees and your choice of a pitcher of bloody marry, mimosa, or screw driver OR bottle of champagne but the «pitcher» is just a large mason jar not actually a pitcher (After tip & tax with a large group it was $ 52 per person! Ridiculous for a mediocre brunch)
–steak & eggs: my «medium rare» steak was well done, my over easy eggs were over medium, the potatoes we’re more like stewed potatoes than crispy home fries… Nothing special basically
NOTE: there’s a 2 hour time limit but I’m not sure it’s really enforced, I mean it’s not all you can drink after all
NOT WORTH IT!

I was honestly scared to come here when I found out my friend was going to be hosting her birthday brunch at Il Bastardo. The reviews are not wrong. $ 39 for an entrée and bottle of champagne sounds like a good deal until you realize that your getting the cheapest champagne money can buy, your eggs are cold, and your steak tastes like, well, a combo meal. This really is a novelty spot. It was fun, packed, there was a DJ playing and plenty of people up out of their seats and dancing for a Saturday morning. But I couldn’t hide my disappointment in the food. Especially after tax and tip you end up paying double.

the food is lacking. I saw saddest looking eggs Benedict at the table next to me so I held off on ordering it. I got chicken and waffles which was basically one large waffle with barely fried poorly made chicken thrown on the plates. looks like something you’d make for dinner at home in a rush. Not something you would ever ever pay for!
The Bloody Mary was disappointing. way too spicy (and I usually like spicy) and it was watered down. Yeah it’s awesome to get ur own bottle of champagne but are you really gonna drink it all yourself? Best to get one and split it to add to mimosas.
The good part about it. The music. The atmosphere If you’re looking for a day club. Definitely dress up to go there. It would be more fun if it were bottomless mimosas or something instead of 1 liter of a drink.

2^nd time being here! 1^st time the waffles and chicken was awful!!! This time the security/​bouncer told my friend we need to move from where we are sitting… She told me (a little after he told her) and he expects for me to move within 3 seconds! He cursed at me saying «I’M BEING VERY FUCKING NICE» «YOU NEED TO FUCKING MOVE» as I was already standing at this point… THEN HE CALLED ME A BITCH! When I challenged him to repeat himself he called for backup security INSTEAD OF APOLOGIZING! At this point I decided to leave being that I would never stay at a place and be verbally abused by their staff… Head of security happened to be nice and kind (Craig) but I couldn’t stay at this point even before being called a BITCH I shouldn’t have been cursed at!

I went twice, the first time on a Saturday, the second time this past Sunday. Both times have been AMAZING. The most recent time was on the Sunday and it was the better of the two.
The DJ was the best I’ve heard in a long time. Although it’s not bottomless the liter’s are plenty (and trust me i’m a lush), and any extra or bottles of champagne are $ 20. Preferably made a reservation for one of the tables in the back section.
The manager the day i went (jan 31^st) was EXTREMELY accommodating and generous.

I haven’t even been here yet and I’m giving this place 1 star. They DO NOT answer the phone/​call back/​answer emails. I have literally tried to get a hold of this place for a reservation I had that needed to be rescheduled. I have no idea how these people stay in business. I’ve tried to get ahold of them for almost a week and no one picks up the phone. I tried calling multiple times a day thinking maybe they were closed sometimes. It’s very frustrating and I will now be going somewhere else for a brunch birthday party of 15 + people!
This is an update to my 1^st review; I just went this past Saturday and had a BLAST the music was awesome and blasting, the food was good, and the atmosphere is perfect if you’re looking for a day drinking party place to dance. I am still leaving off one star bc they are impossible to get ahold of.

I went on Sunday at 3pm to celebrate my friend’s bday. We had the 39 $ brunch menu. 20 percent gratuity was added because we were a party of 5, so our bill was 200 hundred plus. The food was not bad at all but the music was so live. We were a group of 5 girls and when I tell you as we ate we danced.
This place was like a day party. We ate in the backroom and really danced all night, after brunch we went to front room and party as well. We left at 7pm, feeling so tipsy and great!
This place really was beyond fun. It was a mix crowd and you can dress up or down. Everyone seemed to be having a hell of a good time.

This review is specific to the food and service: both sub par.
I should have known better since people come here for the party.
I made a reservation via phone for 12:30pm and they made no mention of needing a hard stop at 2pm, until we were already at the restaurant. As a result, our meal was super rushed and the server had to push us to order and then had to badger us to complete the check and get up from the table.
The crowd is a bit trashy too. Don’t get me wrong, I love to party but there have to be better options in the city for day parties/​clubs…

This review is going to be so blah just like my experience here. If you like day drinking, and paying $ 39 for a drink and an entrée that sucks and «enjoying» this over super loud music then come here. This experience was a club experience from start to finish. Name on the «list» but still had to wait in line for about 30 minutes with 3 bouncers controlling the door. Got inside and loud music blasting so I can’t even hear the person next to me. Sat down, and ordered a mimosa and chicken panini because there was nothing else that appealed to me and this tasted horrible. There are soooo many spots you can have a good time at, with good booze and good food… sooo why come here? I went to the restroom and it’s unisex by the way and the lines are soooo long… but there was a fight between 2 girls while we waited so that was super entertaining!

For dinner: Out of ⁵⁄₆ of us were thrilled with our food! Great for groups, fast service, cheap great house wine, great value and they don’t kick you off the table when the foods done.
Stuffed mushrooms ⁵⁄₅ so much flavor!
Lamb ragu pasta ⁶⁄₅ so amazing 3 of us ordered it!
pork chop — ⁵⁄₅ incredible
filet mignon ⁵⁄₅ with superb mushroom sauce
il basdardo sangovese was amazing

Best place ever for boozy birthday brunch!
$ 39 with 1 bottle of (Californian) champagne and a meal (burger is great !)
Rey have a nightclub at the bottom which is really fun!
The only criticism would be that they close at 4pm which could be too soon when you want to have a real fun!

My friends and I purchased VIP tickets to Il Bastardo after enjoying brunch there. They promised an open bar, private table, private bathroom, private bar, and bottle service.
Unfortunately, the «VIP» tickets we purchased didn’t mean anything to Il Bastardo.
We arrived early to maximize the open bar, but were kept waiting outside. After finally being allowed into the building at 8:30 (for an 8pm open bar) we were funneled into the basement and told that we had to check our coats for an additional fee. The coat check staff was unbelievably rude to us, basically yelling at us to tip them before we even dropped jackets off.
After that, we tried to find our way to our VIP table, but had to wait by the bar until we could find someone who was supposed to be working. When we finally were seated, we were seated at one of the smallest tables, even though we had a larger group. After speaking to a manager, we were moved to a larger table, and decided to put the troubles aside and get ready for a great New Year’s Eve.
As if on cue for our night of horrors, our waitress finally came to our table at about 8:45 and told us that we had to pay a cash tip before we could receive the bottles (that we had already paid for). We tried to put up a fight, but because of the time at that point, we reluctantly paid for «service» that we hadn’t received. We finally got our bottles, and tried from that point to have a good night.
The private bathroom we were promised was laughable. It was a back entrance to the normal bar, so every time we went we were forced to deal with extremely long lines, and people accusing us of cutting them. The private bar we were offered was even better. It was advertised as an open bar, but the bartenders refused to serve anyone who showed less than $ 20 before they ordered.
Finally, the «VIP» section wasn’t regulated at all. We paid $ 160 each for a private New Year’s Eve with our friends, but were forced to deal with people constantly trying to sit at our table, and drinking from the bottles we paid for.
After all this, we were kicked out of our table by management at 12:15. We asked to speak to a manager, and were basically passed around between people who couldn’t care less until finally one person told us there was nothing we could do.
To top all of this, two of my friends left Unilocal reviews which have since been removed. Il Bastardo asked me to send them a direct message about my experience on Twitter, but immediately blocked me so I couldn’t send it.
This entire experience was a nightmare. My friends and I paid for a night that we were hoping would be a great memory for years to come, we were left with empty wallets and terrible stories. We expected so much more from Il Bastardo, but we were so let down.