New York Grill — Restaurant in Waitematā

tl;dr: A lovely subdued, stylish space, splendid food, attentive and friendly staff, and two outdoor spaces to enjoy the warm summer breezes. /tl;dr

I was feeling in need of a gustatory treat, so headed to Westfield Newmarket to check out the restaurants. Some wandering around occurred, but I wanted, as the English would predictably say, "proper food". And then I stumbled across the "New York Grill". Menu looked good, decor looked good, ok, finish the reconnaissance, and then maybe back for the lamb.

Back I went, a little before 7pm. After memorising the menu and the drinks menu - up to the end of the red wine - I ordered: A Long Island Roast rump of Lamb, touted as "medium-rare" A glass of Elephant Hill Syrah with the main And I warned my waiter that I may need a beer after the cocktail, so don't rush the meal. My waiter, Ollie, clearly knew how time worked, for the meal turned up precisely when he said it would.

I didn't have time to finish the Founders' pilsner before the meal arrived....but while thus attempting urgent rehydration, one has to peer at the decor. The bar has green granite panelling, and mid century curved ceilings. The seating in the restaurant includes subdued green buttoned bench seats, fittings in warm browns, and part of the venue has semi-cylindrical cream ceilings, reminiscent of a train station. The floors a mix of polished concrete and parquetre, and there are dollops of brass and copper, and it's all warm and relaxing, and effuses stylish ambiguity, is it art-deco, is it mid century, is it something earlier? It is, in any case, a successful mélange that makes me want to sit with the rat-pack and play cards, and drink bourbon. The rat-pack would be drinking scotch, but I, of course, prefer bourbon.

The lighting is also worth mentioning, but before I do, let's see what the menu provided; "Roasted Lamb Rump - served medium rare. Vanilla carrot purée, silverbeet, potato au gratin, jus".

Oh, and the lamb was perfect. Obviously well bred, fresh, and probably fed on chamomile and sage or some other exotic ground-cover. To be fair, you would have to go to home-kill to rival those amulets of baby sheep. And I savoured them slowly. The spud-au-gratin was fair up there on the potato dish ladder of fame, for someone, thank the Lord, knew how to use a mandoline and wasn't shy to add the perfect crispness.

Since I am completing this review some weeks later, I cannot remark on the silverbeet, but that is a good sign. The vanilla carrot purée maintained a tension between delicacy and strength, and if they had force fed me another 3 cups, I would have gladly suffered through the ordeal.

Now, back to the lighting. There's hemispheric fluted lampshades on the brick wall. And Copper disk lampshades above. The great thing is that someone has bothered to put in LED's that exude the gentle amberance of an incandescent filament lamp. It is this attention to detail that justifies everything. Some reviewers have complained about cost, but even a casual survey of the fitout shows that the price per head is actually extraordinarily good value. Once you take into account the staff costs, it's a whole new order of value. Remember, it's 2024, not 1982!

I was so happy with my food I had to order an affogato, and then follow it up with a Martell VS Brandy.

Overall, a splendid treat, with Ollie the waiter being enthusiastically engaged in his role, the food awesome, the staff dynamics appeared spot on, and Olive the maitre d' and I had a lovely post-meal chin-wag. Ollie and Olive provided the front-of-house spunk, but remember, it's a team effort, and big shout out to y'all there behind the scenes.

Highly recommended.

Visited 17/12/2023 Review...

December 2019 - Omg. Love, love, love this place. If you love steak this is the place to go. Have been to many steak establishments and this outclasses all of them. Have been here 3 times already and the staff remember us every time. I have absolutely not one bad thing to say about New York Grill, and this is my go to place for a steak. For those of you that complain about it being slow, as the saying goes - all good things, comes to those who wait. Steak needs to be rested so be patient. A must have is the Butchers block and for someone who didn't like macaroni. I now do . ps - the porcini and truffle jus is to die for. This place is Meat Heaven.

Update - January 2023. After going to New York Grill on numerous times i was disappointed and sad to see the difference in New York Grill on our latest 2 visits. I do not like to be negative but this 2nd latest experience was nothing but. On previous visits we have had the pleasure of Emily being our Server and she was what helped make the experience a great one. She always remembered us and would even come over and say hi if not appointed to our table. It's people like Emily that make your experience a great experience. 90% of our visits were lunch time to avoid the crowds so this was the same. I Had checked the menu online to check for any updates and noticed that the reviews had gone from near 5 to lower 3's. Despite this we still went as couldnt believe the latest reviews. Upon arrival at lunch we were asked to sit near the entrance to which I said can we have our usual table which was a booth. The waiter who I had never seen before didn't seem friendly at all or like they wanted to be there. The bartender on the other hand was great, friendly and at least had a smile. We ordered our usual Butchers Block and macaroni. This time we had to wait over an hour which we've never done before and considering we were the first to order as only ones there at that time and 2 other tables since arriving. The food finally arrived and there was what can only be discribed as a purple decorative powder around our steak. Has never been like this before and it quickly became a big mess from steak juices so obviously they were not rested long enough. The sauces we have, all tasted the same to which has never happened before so another disappointment. The who I think is the Manager or owner as we have seen him nearly every visit was circling like he always does, still not smiling or interacting or at least smiling at his guests or staff, was there. I can understand times are tough but this is why we continued to support our favourite steak restaurant. But when you spend near on $200 every visit you expect continuity. Our next Visit to Newmarket Westfield lunch was next door at The Barvarian where everything was great. Went To The Barvarian again and was excellent again and consistent. I won't give up on New York Grill but unless you get staff that actually can cook in a timely manner and want to be there then sorry it is not worth it let...

We arrived for lunch service to be greeted by a smiling waitress. We asked could we get a booth and she said yes...but then just stood at the front and did nothing so taking some initiative I just walked over to the booth with my wife and 2 kids and sat down. We ordered 2 bottles of still water, 2 grainfed scotch fillet steaks, an eye fillet steak and a half rack of st louis ribs with 5 different sides accompanied by 3 mocktails. The restaurant was nearly empty albeit less than 10 other diners in what is a large space however despite being this quiet No one took away all the excess knives and forks after we were all given steak knives and an extra fork so I had to put the 4 sets up behind us on the booth plus the empty 1 litre bottle of still water to make room for all the food. I really feel for the owners here and am wondering if they have any idea what is going on in their business. Waitstaff just standing waiting by the kitchen etc instead of repouring water at tables asking if any one wants another drink etc, just extremely poor service. Our 90/100 day grainfed steaks were reasonable but nothing amazing however on par with the likes of oyster and chop viaduct( I should know I own 4 meat export and import companies in Australia that specialise In beef amongst other proteins). A little on the pricey side @ $59 for 350 gms however i have bought steaks for 100s of dollars so its acceptable but you expect a certain level of service even at a $59 steak. All up our meal was a little over $300 and I'm not worried about the price of the meal but the service was disgraceful. One of the waitresses even saw me put the knives behind us and then just kept walking. We dine out 3 to 4 nights a week and for lunch every saturday and sunday and we just spent a week in Melbourne dining out every night as well as dining globally year round so I think my assessment is coming from someone who dines out alot and has a good gauge on restaurants. Overall the food was passable but due to the lack of service we wouldn't return again which is a shame as its a nice venue for a shopping centre and we go there shopping regularly so if it was good we wouldve changed from baha betty and inca and made it our weekend lunch regular whilst out shopping. It got me to thinking If the service was this poor with such an empty restaurant it scares me to think how bad it would be if busy or understaffed and Now I can understand why it's so empty. It's pretty simple to see the place is not viable running as it currently is with such a large space meaning high rent, lots of staff doing very little and hardly any customers and i assume it will soon be another restaurant casualty. The owners need to get back on the floor to lead the way by example...it's not always pretty but in business if you want to survive you've got to be willing to do whatever it takes. If the owners were indeed there today.....then unfortunately I think it's a lost cause as I saw no leadership whatsoever and this is where most of the...