Benoit New York — Restaurant in New York

We recently visited Benoit for their Valentine's day 5 course tasting and opted to include the "experience" wine pairing. We found this place to be well staffed with a very charming interior. Below is a breakdown of our meal and our overall thoughts:

For the first course, we were treated to duck foie gras, which was paired with a crisp Riesling. In regards to the pairings, this was our favorite. Overall, a nice start. Course two featured lobster nage with caviar. While the dish itself wasn't lacking in taste, we found ourselves searching for the caviar only to settle that it's existence (in our palette at least) was purely as a visual garnish. I'd say, these two courses were pleasant, but did not wow. After finishing the lobster, we settled into the ambiance and the idea that the dining was best viewed as a full body experience and not necessarily a culinary one. At that point, we were brought our third course: sea bass with swiss chard. Before continuing, I'll start by saying that sea bass would never be my choice (but I am typically a big fan of swiss chard) but my fiancé, my date for the eve, was looking forward to this dish. That said, neither of us could finish this dish. We did see others around us finish the plate, but for us, this was a hard pass. Even the experience of this dish, which had the waitstaff pour a sauce over the fish after it was set in front, offered little flourish. The wine pairing was hit (me) or miss (my date). Back on track for course four, which was beef sirloin and broccoli rabe. This was our favorite dish. The cime di rapa was cooked well, and the steak was nicely medium rare with a decent sear. My two pieces did have a bit more fat and wasn't as buttery soft as I had hoped, but the flavor was there. Finally, on to the fifth course, which (as a fan of dessert) I was looking forward to. It featured hibiscus apple and granny smith sorbet. I was underwhelmed by this dish. The granny smith sorbet was limited in quantity (and thus flavor), but I the taste of the hibiscus infused apple was certainly evident, overall, turns out that this wasn't my cup of tea.

As a fun note, my fiancé, who cannot have raw apple, was offered a different dessert - vanilla millefeuille, which was really pleasant.

At the end of the day, for the overall cost of this experience, I'd leave these final notes... This place is very cute, I highly recommend it for the ambiance and interior aesthetic. Very cute date night spot. For the food, based on what we had in this 5 course meal and considering the price point, we won't be rushing back to try more items on the menu. It should be noted, that we did feel the chef and sommelier did great work developing a diverse but cohesive dining experience; it's just that the flavors didn't resonate with us.

I leave with this: we may try again in the future, purely for the ambiance and staff, but considering we were both underwhelmed in 5 out of 5 courses it's just going to be hard to convince ourselves to come back in the...

Came here for lunch. The atmosphere is wonderful despite being in a dumpy avenue, French expats and tourists dine here as well as the more tasteful of American tourists and locals.

It was my first time so perhaps I was as cold as the service team. But they were cold in a clinical sort of way, and quite attentive. This isn't the Louis XV but it was fine. The blond woman who waited on me is so poised and first class. So kudos to her. I ate in the wine bar area despite the beautiful dining room, I think the true experience of a brasserie is dining near a window or outside if you are dining alone even better if you were allowed to smoke (although this is no longer tres chic in France). Later in the year they have such outdoor options for dining but the wonderful wine bar area is stylishly adorned and shows a great selection of liquor and wine.

THE MEAL: Sommelier was not in for lunch. Not a big surprise. I should have given opportunity to the service staff to recommend but I had been eyeing up the Pierre Peters before I came to the restaurant. For lunch the prix fixe was only $45. So I grabbed this beside the famous Pate en Croute. This came out with a trout tartare on crunchy greens and a I believe a kind of citrus gastrique. With the champagne, this was so harmonious. The Pate en Croute on the other hand is incomparable to that produced for the Parisian Benoit. It is quite obvious that steps were skipped in making the Pate en Croute as the aspic did not line the entire edge of the pastry and fell apart too easily. It was okay though. The tartare was the most interesting course of the meal and was certainly elevated by Champagne.

MAIN COURSE: Stuffed chicken with salsify and a savory sauce. The chicken was not perfectly cooked but eating a bite of salsify and a bite of the chicken with the sauce was very good. The by-the-glass here has a nice Pommard pinot noir I would have liked to try with this dish and once again I wish I would have been able to order wine with this meal and let the wait staff make a recommendation but sadly I had business in the city. Overall, the dish is traditional but the chicken, which should be the feature here, was not well-sourced or cooked in such a way that didn't show its quality if so. That being said it was better than anything you'll find around Fifth Ave and I just love salsify.

DESSERT: A passion fruit pannacotta showing off the chef's Italian roots. This was quite delicious and memorable. Nouvo cuisine moreso than traditional style and perhaps that is where this chef shines. I missed out on the rum baba but maybe next time. There was a Madeline cookie freshly baked to close things out.

Any restaurant will fetch a series of complaints. This one is certainly a New York-take on the Parisian Benoit. I don't get the sense that Alain Ducasse has neglected it though. All in all, I'd go again in a heartbeat but I think I'd trust the service people more for honest recommendations to avoid some of the more mediocre...

I have been coming to Benoit with my family for over a decade (since I was 12 years old), and I have recommended it unfailingly to my out of town friends for years. But after the experience my friends and I had on December 29, 2022, neither I nor my family or friends will be coming back.

Some of my out of town friends came in to the city to visit, so I thought it might be a fun idea to take them to Benoit for lunch. I had always admired not only the wonderful food but the impeccable service. Instead, we were treated with a shocking level of disrespect.

The first problem was with the heater. We asked at least 4 times of multiple different parties if they could turn on our heater, as we were dining outdoors. Each time we were told that they would ask the manager, until the final time when we were instead told it was broken. Though there were other available suitable tables with functional heaters there was no mention of moving us nor an apology to be found.

Due to this heater problem our food was cold within 5 minutes of receiving it and we sat in our coats and watched all the other patrons dine in light sweaters.

Furthermore, our waiter seemed panicked when nobody ordered an alcoholic beverage and immediately tried to pressure us into ordering more appetizers as well as offering the wine list again. The reason we were not drinking was in support of one member of our party who is at the beginning of his alcohol abuse recovery journey, and as students or recent graduates we have limited income with which to splurge on a special occasion. That kind of pressure was unprofessional.

The cherry on top though was watching a person whom I assume was the manager converse with and check in on every other table and completely ignore us. When you go to a restaurant of Benoit’s supposed caliber one expects (at the very least) a pleasant dining experience. A broken heater is somewhat understandable, malfunctions happen. However, management should be aware by 2:30 in the afternoon which heaters are broken and inform their staff not to sit customers there. OR they should move the patrons once the malfunction is discovered. And at the very least a formal apology should have been issued. None of this occurred.

We were repeatedly ignored, pushed off, and very obviously treated differently than the other diners, not only by the waitstaff, but most alarmingly, the manager. I do not know if we were treated this way due to our young age, lack of spending on alcohol, or what, but all diners, regardless of age or apparent lack of spending, should be treated with respect. Anything else is very shortsighted.

By the time we finished our cold entrees we opted to leave without our planned dessert (I had been looking forward to my long time favorite chocolate soufflé) and vowed not...