Gramercy Tavern — Restaurant in New York

Wanted to try this place for a long time, so I got a reservation during the restaurant week. I regard this place being one of the impressive ones: six options for each course is a generous and courageous move.

Appetizer (complimentary) Sourdough + plum + dill Dill flavor is pronounced, with subtle sweetness and wheat aroma. The plum’s texture and the grain texture from the sourdough blend well together.

Sweet potato roll + butter The butter is whipped, judging from the air bubbles. The roll is slightly sweet and a bit dense. I like the large sea salt grains on the top: elevates out the savoriness of the sweet potato and adds a bit of crunch.

Real Appetizer Broccolini Salad Surprising good salad. The broccolini, I believe, is blanched with oil and salt so the green vivid color is well-kept. The flavor comes from the broccolini, the aromatic oil (either olive or a seed oil), the creamy tart green sauce on the bottom, the nuttiness from the almond, and the sweetness from the golden raisins. The tender crunchiness from the broccolini goes well with almonds’s crisper crunchiness and the chewiness from the freekeh (drum wheat), which was drenched with sauce and the oil. I loved how the freekeh bounced on my teeth and tongue. Every single bite, due to the different combo of components attached on my fork, resulted in different sensory experiences.

Entrees Pan-seared Arctic Char Though it is arctic, it is super warm-hearted. There are many components here: super-crispy skin but tender salmon, poppy salmon roe, sweet crab meat with cucumbers, zucchini, radicchio, and potatoes sitting on top of the lemony, avocadoy(don’t quote me) green sauce. My favorite thing? The potato! These sliced mini potatoes retained their exterior crunchiness(imagine GBD) though drenched in the sauce, and the inside is perfectly mealy. The tender crab meat at the bottom was a nice-touch. Had to eat with spoon was tricky.

Roasted Duck Medium-rare yet tastes a bit tough. The skin is not crispy, but tender. The flavors, if tasted sparsely, the tartness of the Bearnaise sauce and the bitterness of the turnips stand out the most. The duck is well-seasoned, maybe too well-seasoned. There are prosciutto bits mixed with the wild rice and the saltiness is overpowering and overrides all other aromatics. There are just too much strong flavors in one plate, and the individual elements are bit overwhelming. So far, my least favorite dish here.

Dessert Sorbets(Strawberry Prosecco, blueberry, and plum) The three spoons of sorbet with 2 sugar cookies. The Prosecco flavor is quite obvious, and there are large chucks of strawberries in the sorbet, and this flavor melts really fast due to the Prosecco content. The blueberry and plum sorbets are tart-forwarding, and more elastic when I dig in. There are some bigger ice crystals but I am okay with that. Quite refreshing indeed. (I paired with English breakfast tea to counterbalance.

The service is accommodating. They don’t have the 4-course lunch i wanted, but they were willing to add to my existing restaurant week combo to make a 4-course lunch. They also gave me a market strawberry when they brought me the check, which was fun.

One thing to note is that their menu is not updated online; the real menu is only presented in person. I have seen other menus with/without beef carpaccio in the appetizer, and with/without wagyu brisket in the entree. I think this is actually a good sign: meaning the kitchen actually checks on their stock quality and quantity to make adjustments before service. I view this as the sign of being responsible.

The dining room is a white-table cloth slow dating vibe, and the tavern side is more up-beat quicker causal side. I heard good things about the burger, but I don’t feel right spending 3 hours sitting by myself consistently waiting for the food to come again. I feel they should adjust the speed for people who meant to come here to EAT ONLY vs. people who meant to come here to EAT AND TALK. So don’t come if you don’t have disposable time, but if you do, then you will...

Visited two weeks ago mainly to try the Tavern Burger, possibly a starter and have a couple drinks as a late late lunch, outdoor seating.

Generally, staff was polite enough but still with that cold NY style, which is not my thing. Took some effort for someone outside to acknowledge me as I stood around showing obvious interest and making eye contact and smiling, but every one avoided eye contact, until I said something. They would have let me walk away, it seems. Nevertheless, been there, done that. The host (gentleman with glasses) was very polite and welcoming. Offered a bar seat but I wanted outdoor.

The gentleman who took my drink order was polite, yet not engaged, took no time or effort to ask me anything. He never came to my table again and only engaged once more when he was walking by and I said "excuse me." Then, he looked at me and addressed that I was hoping to get some salt and pepper (for the chips). I was there for over an hour. No one's role was clear.

The Tavern burger: Quality of meat grind was good. Good flavor but oversalted to my taste. Unfortunately I got a small piece of bone in the grind. Sesame seed bun way too thick, and was dry (so it sucked up meat juices, leaving the burger more dry than it could have been). It's sold as a bacon cheeseburger. When I asked what kind of cheese, reply was "it's like a white creamy cheese." When I asked how many ounces the burger was, she did not know and sort of chuckled at me for even asking. She did not find out and made something up, "I think it's around 8 ounces? I can finish half of one." I could be wrong, but it seemed smaller than that to me. Temperature was not asked, so I had to request it as she was about to walk away. I did ask for crispy bacon and it was crispy (so that was good). The duck fat chips were comparatively a better experience than the burger itself and the smoked onion aioli dip was good. The chips were very, very thin, seemingly unsalted and not nearly enough dip. But they were good. A few small cut pickles on the plate. As for the burger, there was no mention of "so, this is how the burger comes, anything you'd like to request etc.." it was a take it or leave it deal it seemed. But I felt uncomfortable to even to ask, so I left it alone and took it the way they were selling it. I've read some reviews this being the best burger in NY or that people have ever had. To each their own. Sad truth is I am the kind of person who will spend $200+ on lunch if it's worth it. he Tavern burger is definitely not worth $35, and is nowhere near any best burger list of mine.

Drinks: Bloody Mary - good but too much ground back pepper (was literally in chunks that needed to be spit out). Fig liqueur drink with nutmeg - this was by far the best part of the meal!

Notes: After I had taken several bites of the burger, a young man came up and placed a small plate with one piece of bread down. This was very awkward. I had sat there drinking a Bloody Mary, finished it, ordered another drink and received it and had taken several bites of the burger... and then a small piece of bread. Being in the restaurant industry myself at every level... I knew what that meant. None of the starters interested me, so when I was asked to order a starter as the burger would take over 25-30 minutes and I said no thanks that's okay I'll wait... a distinct attitude change occurred. Bread, seasoned oil, butter (something)... nothing. No one asked me how anything was from drinks to burger actually was. And after I placed the burger order it was out in less than 10 minutes.

Comment: I found it curious the Tavern menu resembles nothing to do with a tavern, and there are as many dessert options as there are main dishes on that very menu, which is 7.

For the hype, this was honestly an overall unimpressive experience. But they'll do just fine without...

I hate to write this, but Gramercy Tavern is not worthy of a Michelin star (and I've been to many in various countries). We are visiting NYC for the first time, and I had been looking forward to dining at this restaurant. I made my reservations weeks in advance due to the holiday season, and, as we were a group of 10 pax, we dined in The Dining Room.

The kitchen really dropped the ball when it came to our food. Almost all of our 5 course seasonal menu choices were uninspiring and lacking the wow factor worthy of a star and one of America's "beloved restaurants" (in their own words).

Many of us had the ceviche-style Marinated Scallops as our first course, and the scallops didn't taste fresh ("smells fishy" and "slimy" were the words used by some in our group to describe the scallops), nor were they partlcularly tasty (flavours didn't blend well, too chunky). In fact, my son didn't feel well after eating this dish and had an unpleasant reaction to it not long after. I had the Butternut Squash Lasagna for my second course, and, for me, it was the best dish throughout the entire dinner. Others had the Pork Tortellini, and for them, it was OK, but nothing to shout about. Then came the Golden Tilefish - the fish meat texture wasn't characteristic of very fresh fish, but what made it worse, it was overly salted that whatever delicate flavours that should have been highlighted were submerged under a sea of salt. I returned mine, whilst many of us just washed it down with water.

I had high hopes for the fourth course, which was the Elysian Fields Lamb. Unfortunately, it was the worst dish of the entire night. The lamb's flavour was strong and overpowering - and the kitchen was far too generous with salt when it came to the accompanying sauce and vegetables. The salt taste remained in our throats for quite a while after our first bites and neither wine nor water could remove it. We all had to return our plates, unfinished, to the kitchen.

The desserts were ok, but many of us couldn't enjoy them as the extreme saltiness of the previous dish meant our taste buds couldn't handle the sweet.

Our server, Michael, and his team, to their credit, tried to keep up the service levels. David, the manager, also tried his level best to make amends for our terrible experience. I just want to say it is not your fault. It is the kitchen that has let all of you down. Even the best waitstaff could not have saved this trainwreck of a dinner.

And oh, the front desk. My husband headed for the gents upon entering the restaurant, and one of the front desk ladies gave him an unpleasant look. Further, another one of them asked each of us if we wanted sparkling or still water and actually rolled her eyes upon leaving our table! The lady at the coat check wasn't particularly friendly either. I'm not sure if it was due to a particularly busy night, but ladies, you are the first impression customers get when they enter the premises. Making faces and rolling your eyes is a huge NO. I also really hope it wasn't due to the colour of our skin, but a few in our group mentioned this in passing to me (and this was the first time throughout our trip I had such feedback), so perhaps it wasn't me who was feeling sensitive.

We had dined in another Michelin starred establishment the previous night, and what a HUGE contrast that was to our bad experience at Gramercy Tavern. Reading though some of the less glowing reviews, I found that our experience wasn't too dissimilar to theirs. I'm not one who often comments or criticises at length about my bad experiences at reataurants, but I could not not write about this. I'm sorry, Gramercy Tavern. A Michelin star comes with the responsibility of meeting high expectations. Last night, you didn't meet...