Anton's — Restaurant in New York

Feb 5, 2025 Warm and comfy? That's how they present the place. Not at all! It's winter here. Who would imagine they'd book tables on the sidewalk? They didn't ask if we wanted a scenic outside seat when we reserved.

Last evening it was about 30F and fair. We were lucky. What if it had been 15F and windy? The sidewalk is separated by a seen-better-days plastic curtain from the bare elements. There are openings everywhere. One of them behind our table, another a few feet away. There are heaters hanging from the building, so the tables against the building are warmer. AT our table it was, at most, 55F, behind our table, against our backs, it was blowing in at 30 degrees. We ate in this posh, trendy, welcoming and delightful NYC restaurant in our coats! Sooooo trendy! So cool. So totally unethical.

The is a place in the Rezdora, Lillia, I Sodi mode, but with better food than those dreadful joints. The three of us had 5 appetizers and 5 entrees. We were not full, but freezing, and maybe eating to stay alive!

The fresh pasta? Excellent, so sayeth this professional pasta-maker. The lamb ragu on fettuccine was our top pick. The bucatini baczynsky was good, but a variant on the great sauce from Amatrice it is NOT! Tasty yes, but with uncooked onions (wha?), and lots of grated cheese mixed in (huh?), it would have made a Roman wail in sorrow. The much vaunted angel hair francese, was just okay. You can see a pic on the front page of their site. What we got was about 1/2 that much pasta, and a flood of overly-garlicked brodo. (No clue as to what happens to all the chicken meat itself). So it was pasta in brodo with breadcrumbs on top. It wasn't bad, just stupid. Spaghetti Anchoiade was awful. Clarified butter and pasta with vague aromatics of anchovy, but nary a bit of the little beloved fish to be seen. The scallop dish was very good. Great scallops (3), seared and plump and browned, a few (a precious few) small leaves of very tasty spinach, several large bites of baczynsky bacon. All good, but the subise sauce underneath was a thick, starchy sludge. What they hell were they thinking?

After 2 hours in the cold, we prevailed upon them to find us a spot indoors for dessert. Apple crisp--very tasty but really applesauce not apples, and a pecan pie that probably came from the supermarket (a few days ago).

If they want to be the warm and welcoming NYC local pubby place they fancy themselves, they need to set aside the greed that comes with the fame, and seat people inside only until the days turn long. And maybe the, err-hmm, hard-working chef should be there often enough to make sure the food actually comes out as he designed it.

March 20, 2025. Addendum: Since I wrote these comments I learned that the chef/owner may very well have been working hard instead of being a lazy SOB. But if he was, it was at his new place. We got the B-team's best efforts at making copies, plus the A-team's avaricious seating plan. Hey, somebody has to finance the new place.

To avoid this scenario in my own career, I resisted every temptation to open another place myself. In my 39 year, NYT 3-Star chef-life I was monogamous with my patrons. But maybe it's not virtue, maybe it was just that I can't f--k that many people at...

Honestly the bartender Davit K really put a bad taste in my mouth. A friend and I went in for the 25 cents martini/manhattan lunch special like everyone else dining. My friend ordered an espresso martini which wasn't a part of the special, (we knew that) but felt the need to announce that it wasn't “complementary.” I understand that the drinks are basically free but I don't need you to announce the price of every item dropped in front of me. The verbiage he used was quite strange, why would anyone say “complimentary” when there's still being money spent. After two martinis the bartender completely ignored us and refilled everyone's drinks around us. At one point he even came over and requested that we order food to continue to sit at the bar. At 2:30 when I requested another drink he told me it would be full price (the special ends at 3pm) Nowhere does it say that there's a two-drink minimum but we went with it. Being someone who works in hospitality I think this is completely unacceptable, especially when he was handling all glassware by the rim. Moving forward I think it's very important that the company and staff are on the same page to make sure every guest receives the best...

We recently had our anniversary lunch at Anton‘s on Labor Day, and we had such a great experience. It’s very non-auspicious, but still giving respect to both food and drink, and it’s offerings. My roast beef sandwich was exquisite, much easier and enjoyable to eat than many of the “viral“ French dips that you hear about- from the bread, to the horseradish, to the perfectly caramelized onions of different varieties, to the amount of meat making it actually edible. The au jus was also rich in flavor. My wife loved her Hand-cut Angel Hair Francese, in fact, her raving about the pasta was the majority of our conversation. Once we received our entrées – incredibly deep in flavor, and the garlic breadcrumbs were a delight to me. We actually started with dessert, and some chocolate rugelach- somehow better than fresh Zabar’s, and double in size - my wife said they almost had a croissant quality to them. Had a few glasses of my favorite pilsner for special occasions- Rothaus Tannenzäpfle, and my wife enjoyed the rose by the glass from Provence. All in all, I think we found a new favorite spot in the...