La Boite en Bois — Restaurant in New York

Apparently "La Boite en Bois" means "The Wooden Box". I'm a a lot better with Spanish than French, and I had no idea - thank you, Google Translate. I still think the name sounds weird when you anglicize it - La Boyt in Boyz! Ok, let me stop (especially when it actually sounds like "La Bwet en Bwah"). Some people have complained about the size of the place, it is pretty small (would you expect "The Wooden Box" to be big?) but I thought it was cozy and cute. We had reservations for 6:00, so it was still on the empty side - if the place fills up, I could see it getting a little crazy. We were going to Lincoln Center afterwards, so it was pre-theatre, and so prix fixe (which was not clear on Open Table, but it ended up being OK). I had the mussels in broth (SO good), and my wife had the salad, which was also nice (IMO, not as good as the mussels). Wife had the lamb stew, which tasted like home cooking - the potatoes were to die for. I had the fabled steak au poivre, which was spicier than I expected (maybe the peppercorns had something to do with it, duh!), but still delicious. Dessert was part of the prix fixe - wife had the chocolate mousse (delightful, but I would hope so, coming from a French restaurant), and I had the profiteroles, which were more like cream puffs - I should have also had the mousse. As for the service, I had a Visa gift card sitting in my wallet, so I wanted to split the check between that and my credit card. Apparently, fees or whatever knocked about 20% off the card (I hate those "stored-value" cards), and so the waiter tried the card four times, taking off two dollars each time ($50, $48, $46 ... etc.) until it worked. He totally could have just thrown the card back at me and put it all on the credit card - thanks to him for trying, for sure! I would definitely come back, but the price wasn't cheap ... had it been cheaper, there probably would have been a line out the door!

(P.S. - Need I mention again about how you should NEVER SUBJECT YOURSELF TO...

Me (my wife), my son and my friend went to the restaurant for a dinner on December 16, 2022. We booked for 3 people for 5:00 pm. o clock. The dinner itself went fine. I ordered fish stew, which was just ok, I would never order this again. My friend enjoyed her duck and my son’s chicken was fine ; but this It is not what I want to discuss in my review; rather, the service !!!! I never write any bad reviews but I decided to write because to me the service was not what I would expect in this type of establishment! The service during dinner was just o.k ,uneventful. What happened in the end of supper really upset me . We asked for the check because we needed to leave soon for the show but we still have couple minutes to finish our bottle of wine. The waiter came to us very abruptly and said that we need to finish up because someone else is expecting the table. He said our reservation was booked at 4:30 -I told him no it was for 5 :00. There were another 4 tables who came earlier than us -he didn’t mention anything to them and I don’t know why he singled us out. but I told him our bookings were for 5 and it is just 6;15 !!! We didn’t even have time to finish the wine. I guess manager (?) came and he said the same thing about 4:30 reservation ( I just know this person mentioned to smb else that he is from Quebec). I told him to check our reservation -he went and did and confirmed that it was 5 o’clock, but at this point I just wanted to leave this place as soon as I could -because that was a slightly loud discussion; I told him give us 5 min. It was so unpleasant-it is not a big restaurant -so the discussion was loud.

And by the way that bread basket; you don’t order and they will put it on your table -be ready to see charge on the bill !!! Definitely never will go back to this place again !! I hope they will improve their customer service. Be professional and respectful!

Thank you,

(the booking was under...

This restaurant is a paradox. it has a broad menu and great deal of variety for dinner, appetizers and dessert, with friendly, if harried servers. However there are aspects of their service and charging practices for our group of four where we will not be returning.

Here are the problems:

Once we placed our order, they brought bread to the table automatically. They did NOT inform us that they were charging us $3 for this. Had we known that, we wouldn't have ordered it. This is an unacceptable practice. Don't bring it if it isn't free!

The indoor dining area is very small. There is almost no room for entering and exiting diners to pass at the same time. Any queue has to wait outside. In nicer weather, the restaurant has a nice outdoor dining shed which is worth exploring instead.

While service was friendly, it looked like they only had two servers and the manager/owner for ten indoor and ten outdoor tables. We clearly informed our server that we were on a 90-minute window for a Lincoln Center performance. We had to constantly remind the server to serve us otherwise we would have been late to performance. All other restaurants in that area are well prepared for pre-Lincoln Center performance diners.

FINALLY, while fine NYC dining establishments are notorious for not issuing separate checks, they accept splitting amounts onto each diner's credit card. We gave them three credit cards, and they refused, saying they only process two credit cards max. I have never encountered this at any other NYC fine dining establshment.

If the above issues are not a problem for you, go ahead and dine here. Food is served appropriately hot or cold and is very good, but the above service and charging practices are a major annoyance. We are not coming back prior to future...