Hearth — Restaurant in New York

As someone passionate about culinary arts, I was excited to visit Hearth, given its high ratings and media buzz. However, my experience was nothing short of disappointing, with both the service and food falling drastically short of expectations.

Let’s start with the duck breast. It was a complete letdown, tasting as if it had been frozen and only partially defrosted before cooking. The center was cold, the skin lacked crispiness, and the fat was poorly rendered. The jus was flavorless, and the morel mushrooms that accompanied the Rohan duck breast were oily and devoid of flavor. The vegetables were bland and uninspired, and the side of hen of the woods mushrooms was oily and over-seasoned. The presentation was lackluster, leaving much to be desired.

The lamb in bone my partner ordered was equally disappointing. The meat was under-seasoned and accompanied by a thick, unrendered layer of fat that made it unpleasant to eat. A well-prepared lamb dish should be tender, flavorful, and balanced – this was none of those things.

We ordered the fava bean salad to complement our meal, but it was served prematurely as a starter. The beans were hard, the bread stale, and the dish was overwhelmingly seasoned with vinegar and olive oil. The pecorino, which should have added a fresh, tangy note, seemed anything but fresh.

Our server initially appeared friendly, but his attitude changed once a larger group of white patrons arrived. It seemed there were racial prejudices at play, as his attention shifted entirely to the white-presenting guests, neglecting us in the process. Be it racial or a perception of how wealthy the other patrons were, the lack of attentiveness was paramount. We were ignored, not followed up with, and not even offered a dessert menu. We had to flag down another server for assistance, which was jarring given that our server was right next to us, attending to the table beside ours. We waited over 20 minutes for our waiter, which added to the frustration.

To make matters worse, the server made an unprofessional comment implying my partner had eaten all the bread, which was far from the truth. The sourdough, albeit toasted, was stale and unappealing. Additionally, the garlic confit served with the bread was just bare cloves that seemed to have been dropped in oil a day before, lacking the richness and softness of true confit. The olive oil tasted more like a mix with canola cooking oil, further diminishing the experience.

We were celebrating our anniversary and had hoped for a special, fine dining experience. Instead, we were met with indifference and substandard service. The number of positive reviews on Google makes one question their validity, given our starkly contrasting experience. While I must commend the cozy and inviting ambiance of the restaurant and the well-prepared drinks, which suggest that the bartender was the only one excelling at their job, these positives were far overshadowed by the numerous negatives of our visit.

In summary, Hearth was a significant letdown. The inconsistency in food quality, the lackluster presentation, and the neglectful, seemingly biased service were unacceptable, especially for a restaurant of its purported caliber. For those seeking a genuine fine dining experience with thoughtful, well-executed dishes, I recommend looking elsewhere. One of our favorites is Meadowsweet in Williamsburg, where culinary craftsmanship and customer service are truly valued. You can thank me later.

This is my first restaurant review, as I normally sway away from writing reviews. I give Hearth 2 stars for the drinks and date...

In some ways–perhaps many ways, actually–Hearth feels like it shouldn’t exist. It is warm and homey but not stagnant, buzzy but not grating, and has both a wine and a cocktail program that neither overstays its welcome nor fails to show up. It’s a stretch to say Hearth is a restaurant of contradictions, but rather it’s a restaurant that surprisingly for this day and age doesn’t feel like it’s dedicated to value extraction at the expense and comfort of diners. There are no tightly packed tables or echo-blasting surfaces here to optimize turnover and whether you’re sitting inside or out, you’re able to take your time and actually enjoy your food without feeling rushed.

Surely much of this is thanks to Hearth owner Marco Canora, a restaurant vet who has been operating Hearth for 21 years, an impressively long time for a Manhattan restaurant. But Marco also seems to have a knack for hiring because his staff are pros through and through and it’s the regular engagements with them that keep me and my wife coming back who both guide us to the right spots on the menu and also have their own interesting, inner worlds to share as well. The sense of community these interactions creates is a much-needed reminder that NYC’s soul isn’t gone, you just need to know where to look for it.

Food-wise, I can never resist the pastas, along with any bean salad, the meatballs, and–of course–the bread, though I can’t remember a single dish I’ve had which isn’t up to par. Every dish feels deliberate and thought-out, leaning into what’s fresh and seasonally available. My old favorite was 100% the maccheroni, but having given up pork this year it is sadly something that I can’t easily order off the menu (I haven’t asked for it sans pork because this is a personal choice and not a religious/allergy one) but it’s something you should try if you’ve never had it.

As I said, their wine program is no brainer excellent, hardly a surprise given Marco’s pedigree and his former involvement with Terroir. What is surprising for a restaurant like this is how great the cocktail program is–I love how they haven’t slipped into overengineered nonsense made for TikTok and find the drinks to be ever so slightly understated in that way cocktails were during the 2000s cocktail renaissance and I’m here for it. The bar itself is intimate, with a Roman-esque marbletop and warm lighting, and is ideal for a close conversation with a friend or a date–or just yourself and a book.

In the ADHD age of social media restaurant hype where diners flit from one scenery restaurant to the next, Hearth feels like a fixed point, an oasis right in the middle of the East Village. It’s the sort of restaurant people lament there not being more of in New York, the kind that makes you think the relationship between owner, staff, and dinner doesn’t have to be some kind of Machiavellian contest, and it’s the kind of place I will be going to for as long as its doors remain open, which hopefully is for a long,...

This is for an atrocious time we had at Hearth, for its Mother's Day brunch 3-course prix fixe menu offering, 2023.

We were going to have an 18-month old toddler in tow, and we called ahead to check if there would be something for him to eat alongside us, given that they were only offering a prix-fixe menu. At the time, we were assured that there would be toddler-appropriate menu items. But what we were actually offered were too-greasy and too-sour buckwheat pancakes that our toddler refused to eat, for which we were charged $10. When he left it untouched, we gave it a try, and had to fully agree with our son's decision.

Ok, fine, we as parents should have had a fallback plan, I get that. So here's our actual chief complaint: the value proposition of the 3-course prix fixe was worse than atrocious. I get that inflation runs rampant still, and a Mother's Day premium applies, but for $180 including tax and tip, a meal consisting of (i) a shallow bowl of chickpea soup & approximately a dozen stalks of grilled asparagus, (ii) a pork sandwich smaller than my palm & unremarkable risotto, and (iii) a small plate of stale-tasting cookies (left unfinished) & lemon semifreddo (probably the best tasting item during the entire meal), plus the $10 pancake, is a giant rip-off any way you slice it.

By the way, the final cost represents an actual improvement in value proposition, since they also tried to tack on a $30 charge for my toddler son to just sit at the table, which I had to argue to take off. (Yes, this was listed as a separate line item from the aforementioned $10 plate of not-even-close-to-kid-friendly pancakes.) Remember at the beginning of this review how I called the restaurant prior to our visit about kid-friendly menu items? Nobody mentioned this charge back then.

My wife (especially, since it was MOTHER'S DAY) and I were so upset, we went straight home afterwards. Just a bad...