Claro — Restaurant in New York

Sometimes restaurants lose a step over time. Sometimes they forget how to walk completely and face-plant into the pavement. That, unfortunately, is the story of Claro, where the passion and pride of food and service have given way to overpriced mediocrity and low accountability.

We came to Claro around two years ago for brunch and had such an outrageously good time we told everyone — the food, the mezcal pairings… To us, this restaurant could do no wrong. In addition to being celiac safe, it had delighted us at every turn.

How the mighty have fallen.

On arriving for a special occasion (birthday noted on our reservation), we noticed another table nearby having a rough time. The manager was comping their check — but hey, maybe they were just impossible to please. We looked past it because we were there to celebrate.

Our server, rushed and annoyed during introductions, seemed further inconvenienced when we didn’t have drink orders ready after a few seconds with the menu. Not a great start.

What followed were a series of service failures, as well as kitchen failures, which made this one of the worst dinners out in recent memory.

Our meal came out in the wrong order, which mattered because we’d ordered a mezcal flight to pair with it. That flight never came until we asked, at which point the server blamed the bar being backed up. This didn’t make sense given our cocktails had arrived promptly, and newly-seated tables appeared to get their promptly as well. When the flight finally showed up, the bartender muttered that the mezcals were meant for different dishes — ones we hadn’t ordered or had already finished. Note that this pairing is specifically one of the staff's recommendation based on your order. On our prior visit we’d been dazzled by thoughtful pairings; this was a let-down. The pours themselves were stingy and inconsistent.

Beyond service, the food was weak. The guacamole was unseasoned and used under-ripe avocados, resulting in blandness in shades of pale green. The red pork mole was tender in texture but flavorless, as if the sauce never touched the protein. The black mole short rib was edible but underwhelming. The tuna tostada — once a highlight — was now meager in portion and drowned by an overly hot serrano that obliterated the delicate tuna. Either the kitchen didn’t taste the dish, or if served as intended, it simply does not work.

The common thread: nobody in the kitchen is tasting what leaves the pass. Bland pork, mismatched peppers, weak short rib, bland guac — amateur errors that become inexcusable without basic quality control. At a couple hundred dollars for two guests with drinks, this is a damning corner to cut.

After all that, the bone marrow we’d ordered — and reminded the server about — arrived only after we asked to cancel it. We declined. When we shared our concerns with the manager (Roddy), his first reaction was to tell us we were wrong because “every other table was having a good time.” This is a textbook way to avoid accountability. Caring managers ask questions, want to know what went wrong, and try to fix it. None of that here. I took a look around the restaurant’s patio where Roddy gestured to everyone’s “good time” and saw several tables enjoying the company of friends, but none expressing particular enjoyment in their food – no loud “mmmmms” of savory bites, no excitement to share forkfuls of newly-discovered deliciousness with their tablemates, or other signs of enthusiastic delight one might expect at a restaurant where the food shines – just folks making the best of their evening with the company they’d chosen, while enduring the culinary mediocrity they did not.

This probably reads like a 1-star review, but I’ll call it two because the cocktails were solid and the short rib at least serviceable. Still, if I were an owner I’d be embarrassed, and if I were a manager I’d be concerned.

I don’t know what caused the downturn, but in a city like New York that thrives on great food and service, I’d advise anyone to steer clear of Claro in 2025 — you can do so...

I feel like we caught these guys on a bad night, but it was not a good time over at Claro for my group. The following review is fully on the experience, because I never received any food after 2 hours, so I can't really rate it. It wasn't until 20 minutes after everyone else in my group had finished eating did my food come out-which at that point I had to decline since we needed to leave. Really just a bad experience that is so counter to everything else I've read about this place.

It was actually a bit funny, they replaced my empty plate and unused cutlery twice, 2 hours, 8 utensils, 3 plates, no food. I really feel like there's no better way to highlight the experience than to just give a bit a time-line of how things went wrong.

8:30: We arrive for our reservation. They sat us right away, 👍 good job.

8:40: Waitress is really nice, takes our drink orders and is super chill 👍

8:50: I order a main and a side of rice, rest of my party is going to share so they order a main, app and small plate. They tell us they are out of an ingredient, we adapt, no big deal.

9:10: App comes, normal experience so far. Waitress brings more drinks.

💀💀💀Weird stuff starts to happen about here. 💀💀💀💀

9:15 From here our waitress tells us that the rice won't be coming out because it won't be ready in time for the meal, since it takes too long (they told me it takes 45 minutes to make) and they won't be making anymore for the night. Already a bit weird, I've seen things run out but never been told that they don't want to make it.

After this we never see our waitress again, she doesn't come by for the rest of the night. Maybe she had to leave? Not sure. Food essentially slows to a crawl, we start making jokes at the table that by now they could have made the rice.

10:00  we get one of our two main course plates, at this point my group has eaten an appetizer and their small plate. But I have not had anything (which is fine, I only really wanted a main plate).

The one I asked for is surely almost here right? Nope, for about another 30 minutes we wait and my dish never comes by, the waitress never came by, no new drinks, my party had already finished all of their food. At this point I had to get up and walk over to their expo leader and tell them to cancel my dish, it was close to 10:30, 2 hours after sitting down, and we had to leave. I didn't want to eat alone. By then it was actually already making it's way to the table, so its awkward. They offer to pack it up (very nice) but we had plans I wasn't going to carry takeout all night.

They remove my dish from the check, no apology, the bus girl drops the check off (not our waitress) without saying a word. The kicker? They tried to charge me 8 dollars for the rice that wasn't made. I lost it at this point, and had to confront them at their open expo. Total lack of attention and care for our party, when you charge $52 dollars for mole, and $8 dollars for rice, meals made of some of the cheapest ingredients on the entirety of planet earth, you would expect they would compensate with impeccable service and atmosphere. Total let down, at this point they offered us the full meal on the house; which I still offered to pay for, their kindness was too late in my eyes. The fact that they saw the service we got and didn't see if there was anything else going wrong blew my mind, really embarrassing experience for Claro. I'm not a fancy food critic, I go to plenty of restaurants of all shapes and sizes and go with the flow, but this was too much, I've never been to a restaurant and had to leave because they didn't serve me in time. Again, maybe I got them on a bad night.  2 stars because my party liked their food.

I had to go to Valentino's next door and it was pretty good, 4/5 stars for valentinos since I had to grab a couple quick slices there before we headed out. I got 2 margarita slices, display temperature, no burned bottom on the pizza at Valentinos, it was even the last two slices of the pie so it probably sat there for a bit but overall better...

Whole lotta bang for your buck here. Got the pre fixe dinner where you can chose from four options for first, second, main course, and dessert and since I came with another human I essentially got to taste half the menu. Well first things first we got cocktails - I got the cucumber mezcal coconut highball concoction which is my favorite cocktail of 2021 - it was so good I got the same thing again and didn't bother to try any of the others. Not sweet. Refreshing. Smoky mezcal came through. The coconut milk cuts the acidity of the alcohol in a gulpable way. Beautiful color. Great cocktail to pair with food since it’s so ostensibly refreshing and slightly savory. The octopus first course was one of the best and most surprising things I've ever put in my mouth. I didn't expect a barbecue adjacent flavor but it made me realize that this lovely intelligent creature is unfortunately a perfect vessel for barbecue flavors. Not to mention the pork rind garnish which made me very happy and nostalgic. The raw tuna first course was a refreshing and excellent pairing to the savory sweet octopus and came with two crispy tortillas both white and blue. The second course mushroom tostada was unbelievable and honestly I could have made a meal of it. Tons of wonderfully meaty chewy unidentifiable mushrooms atop a thicc, like I'm talking half a centimeter thicc, squishy blue corn tortilla garnished with creamy goat cheese. My friend got the venison second course which was ground venison atop another thicc version of a mini white corn tortilla, maybe arepa thicc, polenta textured, with a side of really tasty sauerkraut? It was like Austria and Mexico had a very attractive baby. For the mains I got the trout mole verde which was pink like salmon almost with gloriously crispy skin atop a green mole sauce who the heck knows what's in that but I could drink it with a side Salad of micro greens and ... FISH EGGS! My favorite. My friend got the duck atop a black mole which was more traditional mole tasting and just heavenly with the duck which was kind of like filet mignon of duck it was such a thicc piece. Yes I know how to spell thick but the correct spelling doesn't accurately convey the dimensions. Finally we got the churros (so good so fresh so hot) and the mole chocolate cake which blew my friend’s mind. More savory desserts please. All of this for about $100 less than I expected to spend given my experience at restaurants of a similar league sans Michelin stars. Oh and the back yard is a fairy palace. So pleasant and so much seating. There are grapes. On...