The Bonnefont — Restaurant in New York

Restaurant with no heat in winter and no wine list. Clearly not ready for business.

If you enjoy eating with your coat, scarf and hat on, this place is for you, but the cold will get you from your feet up. When we arrived, the staff mumbled something about "ConEdison being difficult" as if this were a temporary issue, but it clearly wasn't, based on what I see now in other reviews.

Aside from frozen feet, what really dismayed us was the absence of a wine list and the shady exchanges we had with the waitress about what we ordered and what we got to drink.

No price list, no indication of origin of the wine, no information about the year, all of which for us matters a great deal because we rarely drink and this was a special occasion for us.

We ordered a pinot noir which based on the "curated by the owner" bottles on display in some corner of the restaurant should have been a Burgundy but what we tasted (to the extent that we could tell given the fact that the wine was ice-cold) was most likely some much cheaper blend.

(The waitress was vague about which wine was by the glass or by the bottle. We ordered something by the glass but later heard the waitress for the table near us saying that this wine was by the bottle only. Our waitress told us later that this "policy" had changed just after she had taken our order.)

So not sure what was going there, but when you serve dishes in the $30-40 range, you must have a proper wine list and they must be serve at the proper temperature.

The food was indeed good although the boeuf bourguignon which should be a hearty wine stew was in fact a braised rib with a completely different texture of meat (very gelatinous, which I don't care for). The braised cauliflower salad with melted Gruyere was excellent. We had ordered it to share, the waitress told us that she would be right back and bring us 2 plates but she never did, so that was also a bit weird and some vinaigrette got onto the table cloth. We decided to cut our losses and skip dessert.

Eating at a restaurant should be more than just about the food. We came out of there feeling truly dispirited by the whole experience and here I am writing about it several days later during a bout of insomnia.

I have since then learned from other reviewers that this restaurant opened recently and it is clear that they are not ready yet. Just the heating issue is surreal - at least have proper portable heating devices to actually raise the temperature of this cavernous space. Have carpeting under tables. Or wait until the spring, get your business going and then make the proper investment for...

I visited the restaurant several days before Thanksgiving day, and told the owner/manager that I had called their phone number several times, and always got a voicemail, and no call back. I also said I wanted to come for Thanksgiving, and saw no Thanksgiving menu on line at all. I got no response about the unreturned calls. I was told that there was a Thanksgiving menu. But still wanting to try it out, I made a 6:30 reservation on line for Thanksgiving Day. The day before Thanksgiving I finally did see their Thanksgiving Day menu posted on the website. We arrived at 6:20 for our 6:30 reservation. People were waiting for a table who had a 6:00PM reservation. There seemed to be some confusion. Meanwhile, the bartender woman Renee was gracious, friendly, and welcoming at the bar where we waited. We were finally seated about 7:15. The restaurant was not properly heated, and we had to keep sweaters on. I noticed that other diners did the same. I had to ask the waitresses about 4 times before receiving any water. I had to ask for salt and pepper about 3 times. One of the waitresses told me it was her first day. It seemed very difficult to get service. I asked for bread or rolls, and there was none. I had no napkin at my place setting. (I did ask, and got one.) The actual food was delicious. The butternut squash soup, the sweet potatoes, the Brussel sprouts, the cranberry sauce, the relish. But the turkey was a relatively small amount, and was cold. My friend and I each ordered two different pies, pumpkin and pecan, and both were very good. Overall, it's a wonderful location, inside Ft. Tryon Park, the fresh flowers everywhere inside (including inside the bathroom) were very nice. But there are a lot of kinks in service, and the inadequate heating. I live nearby, so I will try the restaurant again in several weeks. I hope that this was all due to opening kinks, since the restaurant officially opened November 17. The location inside Ft. Tryon Park, and the setting inside the park, are...

We dined here twice now. Brunch and just recently, four of us for dinner. The food is very good. The service is a bit off… When we were there for Brunch we were four people. We ordered four coffees after we finished our meal. We were brought four full sized French presses. Enough for 12 people! Also. It was not hot and rather weak. Please get an espresso machine! We will be so happy! And probably stop in more often for a coffee after our daily strolls in the park.

When we were there for dinner it was a very warm evening so we sat outside on the patio as their dining room has no air conditioning.

We did not want cocktails but said we wanted wine with dinner. As Much as the server wanted to sell us cocktails. She asked more than twice. We ordered our entrees and a bottle of white wine. Well before our entrees arrived the hostess who is very nice and attentive, opened the wine and after I had the customary taste (the label was never presented) she immediately heavily poured all four of our glasses and just about emptied the whole bottle. She walked away with an inch of wine still in the bottle as opposed to placing the not yet poured bottle in a cooler for us to have less generous pours with our main courses. I watched my glass collect condensation and wished our dinners to arrive as the wine would be tepid in minutes.

Other than the poor bar/coffee service the food is very very good: the trout, the fowl, and the duck were sublime. Brunch equally fine. A summer menu would be nice. Boeuf Bourguignon, as much as I LOVE IT, is a bit heavy for the warmer months. I think a separate menu for dessert is a better option than resubmitting the full menu which is a tad large in size. One other note on the menu PLEASE TAKE OFF the offer for bug spray. It has no place on a menu! Additionally if you offer it, it should...