South Bay is a favorite with very good food & drinks, attentive service, and a convenient location in downtown New Haven near parking and theaters. The ambience is generally great but I gave it only 3 stars due to the extreme closeness of the tables and restroom shortage. But we still love it and will be back.
John Haugabook
Great food , service and beautiful atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Edda S.
amazing place to eat, good service 100% I recommend
The food was better than I remembered. Can highly recommend the squash blossoms, bolognese, and duck. Last time we were there it was packed. Fewer people this visit. Prices seem to have increased. If you are sitting at the high tops, it is always cold during the cooler seasons from door opening. All that being said, it is the perfect place for dinner before the theatre.
The service was just unbelievably slow, and the food was ridiculously overpriced, we ordered mussels it did not taste good at all, chicken scarpariello seems that was hearted on the microwave This is NOT worth it and I would not recommend wasting your time here, food served was far from satisfactory. The only thing nice is the location closed to the theaters but it truly is not worth your money. Save your time, energy, and money and eat somewhere else.
RachelN
Amazing service, incredible food and the perfect atmosphere. I came here for a date night with my partner and we were treated so well! I hope to come back and would definitely bring my family and friends with me.
Colleen Thompson
Food was good but the evening was ruined when the hostess came to our table and basically asked us to leave. ( yes it was a Saturday night and crowded but we had a reservation!) We had been there an hour and a half and we still had wine in our glasses. Not cool.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
CJJ612
Everything was pretty good with the restaurant was pretty good, except for the wait time for us to be seated. We had a 6:30 pm reservation, but we were not seated until just a little bit after 7:00 pm. It appeared to be only one hostess, and she was also assisting setting up and cleaning tables near the hostess stand. Again, not a huge deal as this may been due to the theater crowd. Anway our server was excellent, and the food was delicious. I had the Chicken Scarpariello which was done to perfection. The crab cakes as appetizers were spot on.
JBH44
The food was delicious and the service was great. The restaurant is small, and diners are very close together so it occasionally gets very noisy and some of the seating is in the middle of a narrow, busy main room. Probably not the place for a quiet, romantic dinner but definitely good if you're looking for a fun atmosphere and don't mind the noise level.
DavidB
This was our second time at South Bay. It was again outstanding. The food was fantastic, service fine, and price fine. My only concern was the music was too loud; it was difficult to have a conversation at our table.
Delicious food. My husband had the filet and I had paella. We shared crab cakes as an app. Drinks were also outstanding. It was quite loud when we arrived but there were two large parties. They left before we finished out app and it was much quieter. Recommend for date night or night out with friends
ChadC
Some good food, some not so much. Unfortunately, the paella lacked the signature crispy rice bottom, and the squash flower blossoms were buried under a salad, losing their crunch. The Tartar and the artichokes were pretty good, however the desserts were utterly forgettable.
Dena Hall
My wife and I came here for date night. We loved the ambiance, but it was terribly cold inside the front room of the restaurant. This could have been because it was 10 degrees outside, but I do feel like something should be done to ensure heat is focused in the front dining room.The service was great. I have nothing bad to say about that aspect of the restaurant.We enjoyed the Mediterranean lamb chops and the surf and turf for dinner. The surf and turf was very tasty, I asked for my lamb chips to be cooked medium, but they were rarer than I wanted. Other than that, we enjoyed our dining experience. We also had the duck spring rolls, which were amazing and the half dozen oyster, which were very fresh and tasty.The drinks were very tasty as well, BTW. Great place for a girls' night or date night. We would go back to try more items on the menu. I gave an overall 4 stars because of how cold it was in the restaurant.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Suzanne
Our group greatly enjoyed our cocktails, tapas, dinner, wine and desserts. It was everyone's first time there and we'll be back soon. Our service was polite, efficient and we were not rushed.
Anthony Savoy
Cons: All high top seating which is uncomfortable. Served us stale bread.Pros:Great serviceGreat FoodAppetizers (meatballs and squash blossoms) were 5/5.Entrées bolognese and tagliatelle were very very good.
South Bay is a favorite with very good food & drinks, attentive service, and a convenient location in downtown New Haven near parking and theaters. The ambience is generally great but I gave it only 3 stars due to the extreme closeness of the tables and restroom shortage. But we still love it and will be back.
Great food , service and beautiful atmosphere.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
amazing place to eat, good service 100% I recommend
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Harvest Brussel Sprouts Salad with Parmesan Risotto Cake, Eggplant Burrata, Paella
The food was better than I remembered. Can highly recommend the squash blossoms, bolognese, and duck. Last time we were there it was packed. Fewer people this visit. Prices seem to have increased. If you are sitting at the high tops, it is always cold during the cooler seasons from door opening. All that being said, it is the perfect place for dinner before the theatre.
The service was just unbelievably slow, and the food was ridiculously overpriced, we ordered mussels it did not taste good at all, chicken scarpariello seems that was hearted on the microwave This is NOT worth it and I would not recommend wasting your time here, food served was far from satisfactory. The only thing nice is the location closed to the theaters but it truly is not worth your money. Save your time, energy, and money and eat somewhere else.
Amazing service, incredible food and the perfect atmosphere. I came here for a date night with my partner and we were treated so well! I hope to come back and would definitely bring my family and friends with me.
Food was good but the evening was ruined when the hostess came to our table and basically asked us to leave. ( yes it was a Saturday night and crowded but we had a reservation!) We had been there an hour and a half and we still had wine in our glasses. Not cool.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 2
Everything was pretty good with the restaurant was pretty good, except for the wait time for us to be seated. We had a 6:30 pm reservation, but we were not seated until just a little bit after 7:00 pm. It appeared to be only one hostess, and she was also assisting setting up and cleaning tables near the hostess stand. Again, not a huge deal as this may been due to the theater crowd. Anway our server was excellent, and the food was delicious. I had the Chicken Scarpariello which was done to perfection. The crab cakes as appetizers were spot on.
The food was delicious and the service was great. The restaurant is small, and diners are very close together so it occasionally gets very noisy and some of the seating is in the middle of a narrow, busy main room. Probably not the place for a quiet, romantic dinner but definitely good if you're looking for a fun atmosphere and don't mind the noise level.
This was our second time at South Bay. It was again outstanding. The food was fantastic, service fine, and price fine. My only concern was the music was too loud; it was difficult to have a conversation at our table.
Restaurantji Recommends
Delicious food. My husband had the filet and I had paella. We shared crab cakes as an app. Drinks were also outstanding. It was quite loud when we arrived but there were two large parties. They left before we finished out app and it was much quieter. Recommend for date night or night out with friends
Some good food, some not so much. Unfortunately, the paella lacked the signature crispy rice bottom, and the squash flower blossoms were buried under a salad, losing their crunch. The Tartar and the artichokes were pretty good, however the desserts were utterly forgettable.
My wife and I came here for date night. We loved the ambiance, but it was terribly cold inside the front room of the restaurant. This could have been because it was 10 degrees outside, but I do feel like something should be done to ensure heat is focused in the front dining room.The service was great. I have nothing bad to say about that aspect of the restaurant.We enjoyed the Mediterranean lamb chops and the surf and turf for dinner. The surf and turf was very tasty, I asked for my lamb chips to be cooked medium, but they were rarer than I wanted. Other than that, we enjoyed our dining experience. We also had the duck spring rolls, which were amazing and the half dozen oyster, which were very fresh and tasty.The drinks were very tasty as well, BTW. Great place for a girls' night or date night. We would go back to try more items on the menu. I gave an overall 4 stars because of how cold it was in the restaurant.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 4
Service: 5
Our group greatly enjoyed our cocktails, tapas, dinner, wine and desserts. It was everyone's first time there and we'll be back soon. Our service was polite, efficient and we were not rushed.
Cons: All high top seating which is uncomfortable. Served us stale bread.Pros:Great serviceGreat FoodAppetizers (meatballs and squash blossoms) were 5/5.Entrées bolognese and tagliatelle were very very good.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 5
Service: 5