HORTUS NYC — Restaurant in New York

Great restaurant, enjoyable food and service, with pleasant atmosphere, but some room for improvement.

Made a reservation here for Valentine's Day (Hortus was offering a special.) I don't recall my exact order, but my entree was the Wagyu steak (it was juicy and what you'd expect of Wagyu--I'm not a beef expert so I can't comment on whether it tasted "authentic," but the surcharge relative to the rest of the menu seemed appropriate).

Overall, the food and drinks were worth the trip. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and preparation in the course, especially the shellfish offerings, which I'd expected to be the weaker parts of an Asian-themed restaurant. (The Asian dishes, such as Tuna Tataki, were excellent.) The tweaks to the offerings to match a "modern fusion" theme were also a positive experience (rather than feeling embellished or reaching).

Service was excellent. Waitstaff were courteous and knew the menu well. The process of placing a reservation was slightly awkward -- the time I was hoping for wasn't available on Resy, so I called to manually make the reservation, and then I had to call back a few times to confirm because I never received an electronic confirmation (until four days before). I also (thought I) made a reservation for 6:30, but at last confirmation received a reservation for 6. However, I honestly couldn't remember what I'd originally asked for, and I decided to never bring it up with the front desk, so you shouldn't place any blame on Hortus for that one.

As expected of outdoor winter (pandemic) dining, the seating was accommodating but still slightly uncomfortable. Hortus has set up an "outdoor" gazebo that is nevertheless fully enclosed, albeit with a bulky ventilation system. It's hard to explain the technical details of the setup used -- I could certainly feel outdoor airflow (I was cold enough), but I also didn't see any windows. Hortus provided a few heating lamps throughout the room, but they weren't individual to tables, and I had to wear my full jacket while dining. Otherwise, tables felt adequately spread out, and I did see setups being sanitized between meals.

I will also add a brief comment about the Valentine's Day atmosphere: the lighting was overall dim (the heating lamps provided the bulk of the light), and the mood was quiet but intimate. This wasn't actually very relevant to my date, but it did show Hortus was willing to accommodate. (They also provided a complementary flute of champagne, which was a nice touch

Overall, I felt like the trip was worth my money. I think Hortus cares about its eaters, and although they are still figuring out some kinks (the menu did lack inspiration in locations, and I was never wowed by the atmosphere/service to a point that I felt it was a "visit NYC for this meal" experience), it was a comfortable meal that I'd certainly consider eating at again...

FIRST VISIT 10/4/24

The most incredible restaurant I’ve been to in NYC so far.

The establishment is beautiful with a very nice atmosphere. Every single food/drink item we had was so delicious and the service was amazing.

The 3 course meal is so good for the price! We tried the salad, seafood, pasta, wagyu, steak, duck, cocktails, and dessert and everything was SO GOOD. The seafood was very fresh and paired well with their sauces, the wagyu was so melty and flavorful, and all the other dishes had unique flavors that were so yummy. I definitely want to go back and try everything else.

Highly, highly recommend!!!

2ND VISIT 5/16/25

Although I have only been here once for my birthday last year, I remembered this to be such an amazing restaurant with incredible food and the best service. I even recommended this restaurant to all of my friends and family (even those out of state), some of which who came to celebrate a birthday in April. Because of that, I wanted to have my graduation dinner with my whole family here. I came with a party of 14. I called many times prior to the dinner to make sure that this large of a party was okay and could be accommodated. We were seated in the beautiful closed terrace which was lovely. The food as I remembered it was very delicious, with the exception of the duck. The flavors were there, but the meat was overly tough and not easy to chew/eat like last time. However, the service was not what I expected. I do understand that it’s difficult to cater to such a large party and that some of the guests may have been difficult, but ultimately at the end, I felt unwelcome. Our waitress was visibly displeased especially when we were deciding what to order (I was the only one out of the 14 who has been there before) and at the end of the dinner when she told my mom (who was paying) multiple times that we have to leave because another party is coming. I think this is more so a restaurant issue in not having any sort of policy for handling such large parties. Nowhere in our reservation did it say we have a time limit for the table. It’d also probably be helpful to just require large parties like that to get the fixed course menu to speed up the deciding process. Our waitress said she would get a manager to speak to, but we just left since we were holding up the next guests. Very disappointing, mostly on account of half of the party having driven up or flown in from out of state just to join us for...

We came in on a Saturday evening and tried the Chef’s Tasting Menu.

Service was top notch. Ambience was great. Food-wise, we had some mixed feelings. First off, the name Hortus kept making me expect Mediterranean food even though I knew I was coming in for Asian fusion, so that sort of messed with my initial expectations. Another immediate issue was that the menu is digital — you scan a QR code at your table using your phone. This would not really be an issue except our cell connections were not great inside the restaurant and the restaurant’s wifi password isn’t posted at the table, so we struggled to load the menu. The menu on the website could use some appeal as well. It just wasn’t as intuitive as other digital menus and appeared a bit deli-like in its presentation. All of that aside, we had some very spectacular dishes and some not so much:

Wagyu Gui: this was by far the most memorable dish. The taste and presentation were equally superb.

Oyster and shrimp cocktail: the oysters were pretty darn amazing and the chef had perfectly seasoned it for us. I could have done without the shrimp, which was a basic shrimp cocktail (albeit cooked on point), but I did feel the baseness of the shrimp took away from the well appointed oysters. But then again, it said oyster and shrimp cocktail, so we knew what we were getting.

Clam chowder pasta: this was probably the most ingenious dish. The texture of the pasta was unique and worked well with the flavors. You’re transported to Fisherman’s Wharf immediately, but then it also made me want to sip some actual chowder for warmth and comfort. Overall, just a very creative dish.

Black garlic cacio e pepe: we thoroughly enjoyed this as well. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the abalone added such great texture and flavor. The flavor reminded me a lot of jajangmyeon, but elevated.

Short rib: the meat was superb and tender, but we weren’t a huge fan of the barley salad that came with it.

Duck breast: this was a too fatty and chewy for my taste. The potato puree was amazing and we licked that up. The salad went well with this as well.

Overall, the pastas really stole the show for us and the wagyu gui is a must. This is an interesting restaurant and we are planning to come back to try the...