Bea — Restaurant in New York

We had a shockingly bad experience at Bea. Our reservation was lost, despite confirmation 6 weeks ago, so that was a fun start, but they were able to seat us at least, in the back room. The back room was frigid--the waitress even commented "it's freezing in here!"--and I guess it was also out of the way for the wait staff's walking routes, as service was atrocious. Every step of the process took ages, but the lowlight was the 20 minutes our table spent with dirty plates waiting to be bussed, followed by another 20 minutes after asking for the check before having to call the front of house over.

The food came out--well, half of it: the other two dishes needed to be specially queried 10 minutes later when the server finally came to check on us--and what did we have but a bunch of errors! My mother's eggs were missing the sauce present on my sister's identical order, and my son's tiny $20 cheeseburger, requested with the vegetables on the side, also came with the cheese on the side, a sad flap of American, wrapper marks still present, half melted into the plate from the 10 minutes spent under the heat lamp waiting for delivery.

Portions were tiny, and prices extraordinary. Two slices of "candied" (drenched in syrup) bacon cost an astounding $9. Avocado toast with one small slice of bread and a shy dollop of guac rung in at $12. And a microscopic cappuccino with three inches of foam to hide the shame was $6.

What could have gone right in this meal to even garner two stars? The food was actually good. It was quite good. But what good is it when you make great food then provide it with awful service, tiny portions and obscene prices for simple dishes? Four adults and a child ordered three plates of eggs, some avocado toast, a burger and a few coffees and it took us 1 hour 40 minutes from seating until we were free to leave, still hungry, $135 poorer. Our reservation was lost, the kitchen made multiple errors, our order half filled for a painful 10 minutes. Bea...

We wanted to grab dinner in the neighborhood of the Broadway play we were seeing for our anniversary, and liked what we saw on Yelp of this place. We enjoyed it and definitely plan to return! Everything in the menu looks tasty, and appreciated that there are some healthy (but still yummy) options. We ordered and liked the Lavender and the Anything Goes cocktails, the beet salad and the pear salad (we preferred the beet one, although it had very little blue cheese or candied walnuts), the manicotti (the depth of flavor was a surprise and delicious) and the scallops. I loved the scallops, though they were smaller than in used to. The sauce was absolutely delicious. To finish, my husband ordered the apple pie a la mode and I got the super yum lemon custard pie (key lime is my fave and it tasted almost identical to that) along with coffee.

Marcella was our server and checked in us just the right amount.

We enjoyed our little marble table directly next to the big, live tree! I had secretly hoped to get that table but didn't mention it when I made the reservation, so it was a fun surprise. I did feel like the room with the tree in it would be more romantic after sundown, since there's a huge sunlight in it. The back of the restaurant (not that room) feels more romantic during daylight hours.

All in all, we very much enjoyed our date here and would be...

Named after the owner’s grandmother, Bea (pronounced BEE-A) is located on 43rd Street in Hell’s Kitchen and looks like an old speakeasy featuring one large room with a bar. Two smaller rooms with one having a tree and sky light inside complete this establishment where we came for our pre-theater dining yesterday. Reservation was easily made via Yelp which worked perfectly,. Upon arrival, the atmosphere comes alive with classic movies silently screened on the various exposed brick walls. It’s bit loud, but not uncomfortably so. The menu is limited made up mostly of small plates and pizzas. Our server was Jonnathan who was attentive. Known for their craft cocktails, we started out with their ANYTHING GOES (beach plum gin, pomegranate syrup, lime juice, blanc de blancs sparkling wine.) It was light and fruity. As an appetizer to share, we got the House Ricotta (grilled bread, rosemary honey, sea salt). It was tasty with the honey as ricotta by itself is tasteless. As a entree, we ordered the gnocchi (tomato and roasted peppers sauce, thyme, cream, basil, spinach) and Herb Roasted Chicken (airline cut chicken breast, toasted farro, spinach, mushroom creme sauce). The food was well seasoned with the right portion, service great and reasonably priced for the area. Can't wait to return to this midtown gem which we...