Bar Bête — Restaurant in New York

I truly do not want to dismiss the hard work of the kitchen staff, but our experience at Bar Bête was deeply disappointing. The food was overwhelmingly salty. At first, it was noticeable but still tolerable. As more dishes arrived, the saltiness kept increasing and eventually became unbearable. We asked the server to reduce the salt because we could barely eat what was being served. Each person at our table took just one bite and stopped eating.

Despite our repeated and polite requests to go lighter on the salt, the main courses such as the cod and duck were incredibly oversalted. If I had hypertension, I genuinely believe this meal could have been dangerous. I could not taste anything except salt. Not the meat, not the sauce, nothing. Even Katz’s Deli’s famously salty corned beef tastes mild in comparison.

To be clear, I am not someone who prefers bland food. I enjoy bold, seasoned flavors, but this went far beyond that and completely ruined what could have been delicious dishes. Honestly, a more accurate name for some of the plates would be “Salt with a Side of Romaine.” It is unfortunate because the ingredients and presentation looked promising, but the execution was careless.

What made the experience worse was the lack of acknowledgment or accountability. We raised our concerns multiple times during the meal and left our plates mostly untouched. Still, there was no offer to remake anything, no apology, and no adjustment. Our feedback was clearly ignored.

This left us not only disappointed but also wondering whether our table, which happened to be the only Asian group in the restaurant, was being deliberately dismissed. I truly hope that was not the case, but the staff's complete lack of response made us feel that way.

Unless you have an extremely high salt tolerance and do not mind being ignored after raising valid concerns, I cannot recommend Bar Bête. I totally wasted my money...

The atmosphere is great and so is the service. The food is good and didn't disappoint, but not mind blowing either.

We started with marinated feta with pickled blueberries and tarragon($10), milk bread with nori butter ($7), and duck fat potatoes with garlic and parsley aïoli ($9). The feta was delicious and soft and amazing, especially with the blueberries and tarragon; it's better to eat it alone than on bread. The milk bread was good but expect an intense nori/seaweed flavor from the butter. The potatoes were crispy and salty—way too salty—but the aïoli was great.

For the mains, we did the salt-baked halibut with grapes (and some kinda greens, never asked, but guessing it was spinach; $28), and the haché ($19). The halibut, if tasted alone, is too salty; the spinach was good but plain; the grapes sweet: but all together in one spoonful, makes a wonderful melody of flavor. I do wish there were more grapes on the plate though, they add a lot. The haché was amazing—the spices, the coriander, the onion, and the yogurt all blended perfectly and popped with flavor—no regrets.

We finished with the beignets and Scotch whiskey butterscotch pudding. The pudding has a strong, smokey flavor and was better when mixed with the crème fraîche. The beignets were delicious and much better enjoyed on their own. I do wish there were more of them.

The accomodations indoor since indoor dining has been allowed was comfortable and felt appropriate. There was enough room between tables, everything felt clean, servers were respectful of distance, and the doors were all opened wide to allow plenty of fresh air. The outdoor seating looked pleasant as well...

I came here on a hot summer night for dinner. Usually do have to get Reservations to come here because the space is small inside and can get full very soon. We came on a Sunday evening as well. They have a huge outdoor space now thanks to Covid, but it is on the pavement. I will say that there was very little traffic on the street, perhaps it is not permitted? I do not know. We started with getting seated, we were seated almost immediately even though we had no reservations. The wait service people are really friendly and make great recommendations. I will say that the service itself is low, that would probably have something to do with the kitchen though. The wait staff is very personable and very friendly.

We tried the oysters which were delicious and we also got the duck fat fried potatoes, which if you like duck fat, are amazing. The oysters come with a little bit of chili oil and garlic and they taste amazing as well. They don’t come with any sides so you’re pretty much getting the oyster served as it is to be eaten. After that we got The way to skip asparagus which I don’t really recommend, and I also got the skates which was crispy fried with a very thin batter and the rabbit and crawfish sausage. If there’s any dish that you should get it is probably this one, it is extremely well-made and very delicious. They have it down exactly right.

We also did try the strawberry sundae for dessert, which is really well prepared as well. I do recommend this place and I will come back when I’m craving...