Friend of a Farmer — Restaurant in New York

Recently, my family and I had the opportunity to go out to dinner together - to joyfully celebrate our niece's graduation from Law School. We were all in a celebratory mood! So, we went somewhere special - more special than usual - to honor this awesome milestone! And we found just the right place, in Friend of a Farmer. This UWS piece of heaven is rustic and cozy, while also being elegant and upscale. It had a surprisingly expansive feel inside, especially for Manhattan, and we all felt right at home. We were fortunate to be served by two lovely, attentive and hospitable women named Christina and Charlotte. Their gentle and kind energy was tangible. And then we were also graciously welcomed by Michael, the manager. They were all instrumental in co-creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere, in which we could enjoy ourselves and honor this festive occasion. As far as the food goes, first we enjoyed the following appetizers: Grilled Cauliflower for Two and the Avocado Tartar. Both appetizers were outstanding, with the cauliflower one particularly standing out as unique, in my humble opinion. Our main courses were: the Terry Alan Chicken, the Chicken Pot Pie, the Scottish Salmon and the Snapper Fish Special. All were excellent; and I can tell you (as someone who very much enjoyed the Terry Alan Chicken dish), that it was actually two meals in one. I mean, I'm a somewhat petite woman, but I seriously had as much as I comfortably could at dinner, and there was still a meal leftover for me the next day. Yay! My family members didn't leave disappointed, either; everyone seemed to really dig their food. For dessert, we sipped on green tea and dug into Italian Vanilla Ice Cream Affogato, which is, essentially, decadent ice cream with hot espresso poured over it. Yes, it was as wonderful as it sounds, though it did get my heart rate going a bit! Ha! All in all, it was a fabulous dining experience, and we hope to return again. Love and Thanks, Kat...

READ THIS!!!

The other reviews of this place are interesting and sound like disgruntled Upper West Siders who, as you know, always complain because they have nothing better to do with their lives. Check out my other reviews to see how honest I am with my reports of other places.

Moving on...

First time here and we had an absolutely gorgeous time.

Ariel was our server and he was so sweet and wonderful. We went on a Sunday, so it was slower than I assume it would be on the weekends.

Service was great. I think if I was giving honest feedback I'd say service needs to work on cleaning up delivery lines about food. Shorten it, make it sweet, make it interesting, sell it. Ariel was great though and we really enjoyed him.

The food was beautiful. Simple, typical (if I may say), and delightful.

The atmosphere was great! Whoever designed this place did it well. It's so cozy and excellently designed. Bravo to them. It is on the smaller side, but you're in the UWS. All that to say, if you're expecting a lot of space you're clearly not from NY. You're gonna be close to other people. You're not in Texas. There's only so much space to work with in NY.

I came here on a friend date because we hadn't seen each other in so long, and I will absolutely be back again!

Lastly, our meal — we shared everything — was the shrimp to start, the roasted chicken and kale salad as our entrees, and the ice cream sandwich for dessert. We chose our own wines BTG to pair with these dishes. All delicious!

Go try this place. Highly recommend! Don't disappoint me FoaF!...

Giving this place a 2.5/5 the service and atmosphere being the saving grace. We arrived and were seated in a lovely outdoor porch area on a nice day. There weren't many people so it was relatively private. The menu looked great and the specials sounded delicious. We ordered the cinnamon bun special, the lox toast and the working farmer. The cinnamon bun came out first which was odd and it was cold with cold icing on top, which was very unappetizing. They happily took it back to warm it up and it came back warmer but not hot how a cinnamon bun should be. I was displeased they served what we ordered for dessert before our main course, it ruined the appetite for the rest of the meal. The lox "toast" ($24) came out on two pieces of bread that hadn't been toasted and was very lack luster in taste, it wasn't the bagel and lox type of experience I was hoping for. The lox was also not as fresh as I had hoped. I got scrambled eggs on the side of the lox toast, and they tasted like a continental egg breakfast served out of a tray at a Marriott. My girlfriend got the working farmer omelet, she said it was a 3/5 decent but for $26 this was not worth it in my opinion, she didn't even get close to finishing it because it was just alright. Overall the wait staff was nice and attentive but it seemed like the food had a lot of issues that need to be hashed out by management. I would not return because for the price, food should come out perfect...