Manhatta — Restaurant in New York

I have very mixed feelings about Manhatta. It is one of my favorite places in NY & I go there pretty often, including I have celebrated my birthday over there.  But staff needs some training. And the manager at check-in needs to be replaced by a professional for this type of place, or at least some thorough training.

Manhatta has one of the best cocktail bars in the city; the cocktails are  exquisite, thought through, and you will not find anything like that in the city. Must try: MONSIEUR LAFAYETTE & PARADISE LOST.

Also what they did right is they renovated their food menu, previously they had more sort of comfort food (best lobster roll ever, no longer tho), now they reinvented the concept & created more sophisticated menu and I have to say it is really good (pricier than it used to be), and I believe they change it seasonally (for sure dessert  menu). They had apple Tarte Tatin (you cannot find it anywhere in the city) and it was really good, but two weeks later it was off the menu ( a bit disappointing).

On my birthday, we had a reservation, and things went pretty smoothly. We had a very lovely waitress; she asked us if we were here for a special occasion, but at the end she forgot & we did not have any candles in our dessert or special attention. And a bit of a strange thing, she was insisting that we order entrees at the very beginning, despite the fact that we ordered all appetizers (we did later order entrees).  Overall we had a great time!

Two weeks later, we came for my friend’s birthday; it was unplanned and had no reservations. When we came in, the hostess said they have tables, but she needs to wait for the manager so he can get us seated. We ordered drinks, and I kept watching people coming in, getting tables, and we did not get any attention. I came a second time (25 min later) - I showed them that they have a bunch of open tables on RESY within 20 min & I have asked if I should book it since they do not help us.. They rushed & apologized and said they will help us in 10 min… 20 min later nothing & they closed RESY tables (like what!!!), I came a third time and only when my friend came for the fourth time almost yelling, the manager gave us a table.

That was such a poor experience, considering our check was almost close to $$$$ for 3 people.

I would love to give more stars, but I debate, as it was a very poor attitude from the manager.  And that's a big part of the...

3 months later - update: I came back a second time, on an evening, for a celebration. The food was way better than I expected, a 5/5. And the staff was very attentive and welcoming, much more professional than during my previous experience. The only thing about service is that waiters always serve you the next course without removing the previous plate first. This conveys an impression of clumsy service. But overall great experience.

Tldr: you go there for the view ++: The view is just breathtaking. Nothing compares. The restaurant was pretty empty on a Monday (lunch time) which allowed us to get a nice table last minute. The food (lunch) is expensive for what it is, but in comparison to NY rooftop restaurant standards, it's not that bad. +/-: Food is average. My burger was ok-ish, but it came overcooked (I asked for medium rare). Didn't like the dessert. I guess the texture was supposed to be that of a semifreddo but it came frozen & hard. We had to wait 10-15 minutes for it to defrost and... we left most of it anyway. --: The service is very amateur and does not live up to expectations. My plate (main dish) was never taken out of the table. It's the most basic thing to do and it is not pleasant to have a dirty dish in front of you when you are having your dessert / coffee. Then something awkward happened. I paid the bill and after 15 minutes, I went quickly to the bathroom before leaving. When I came back to grab my stuff, the waiter pretended my payment did not go through. I was surprised cause a long time had passed since the payment, but I told him I would try with a different credit card. He did not reply, but I noticed the amount requested was 10$. So I told him that he'd just made a mistake. This is when he told me that actually the issue was that two coffees were missing in the previous bill. I found it very awkward that he did not say it upfront and pretended there was a "payment issue" and let me pay with a different card. Besides, in my culture, restaurants tend to offer coffee at the end of a meal, especially in cases like this. While that's not the norm in NY, this is typically the case where it should have been done, esp. when the initial 20% tip covers way more than the cost of 2 coffees. Anyway, I found it awkward and somewhat rude, while I would not have questioned it if he had explained it clearly in the...

I'm a big fan of USHG that runs the restaurant so we were excited to try Manhatta.

First, the service was impeccable. It's clear the management takes service and employee training very seriously. Communications between staff was smooth to ensure continuity in service and everyone we interacted with was exceptional. The slight flaw was, our table had small food bits between courses that weren't cleaned. Still, overall 5 star service by the staff (and their managers).

We tried the 4 course menu. One of us focused on meat, another focused on seafood. While the quality of the ingredients was good, execution and taste for some of the dishes had room for improvement.

The dishes that were decent, but likely wouldn't get again:

The octopus was a bit too salty (and I like salty food), slightly dry and not tender enough. While the beef ribeye was perfectly cooked, it was slightly gamey, and the pickled leafy vegetable was too sour and didn't stand on its own nor did it complement the beef. The burrata with persimmons had ingredients and flavors that just didn’t come together. The white vegetable stalk in it lacked taste and didn't serve much purpose other than visually tie ingredients together. However, those who like the classic burrta and persimmons combination might like this dish, so don't let this scare you.

The dishes that we enjoyed:

The grilled sea bass was the best tasting dish of all with crispy skin, moist and soft inside, small roe providing visual and palette pop, with the flavors tied by razor clam. Agnolotti was luxurious and creamy, i recommend eating it with spoon with every ingredient placed on each spoonful. Blue Fin Tuna with sea urchin had a nice refreshing quality. Amuse bouche with toro & caviar was exceptional in flavor and balance, and it was probably the most refined tasting dish of the night along with the complimentary mascarpone dessert. Definitely Michelin star level.

While the explanation for the wine pairing with the seafood dishes was fantastic, nothing quite stood out as exceptional tasting that would go out and make me buy. It also wasn't a particularly good value and the amount of pouring probably didn't help. Beer selection (draft and bottled) was fairly very limited and the Bronx pilsner was on the flat side. I wouldn't do the pairing again, and just opt...