The Leopard at des Artistes — Restaurant in New York

The Leopard Des Artiste is a white table cloth UWS Italian restaurant. The space is previously home to the legendary Café Des Artiste, which closed during the 2008 recession.

The space is pleasantly lit, and filled with murals of artful naked women posed in garden scenes. As you progress towards the bar in the back to wait for your table, the floor terraces upward and the space condenses. Bars are typically better in open entryways, but this placement at the back feels familiar and relaxed, if a little odd navigating by so many occupied tables. On a Thursday night, the restaurant’s crowd seems to be the older, moneyed residents of nearby apartments and condos. Suits, ornate dresses, and decorative scarves abound. After we are seated, the staff proves to be well rehearsed, and the courses came on-time and coordinated (with three servers delivering food to a table of six). But as elegant as this experience is, the food is uninspiring and bland, and misses on more levels than it hits.

I shared 5 dishes with my partner: grilled octopus, beet salad, duck ragu, scallops, and a chocolate mousse cake. Nothing was totally wrong with any of these dishes, but every one had obvious flaws. The grilled octopus was a balanced dish with sweet cherry tomatoes and tart olives, but the texture of the meat was totally off. The octopus had visible char marks, but was somehow wet, soft, and chewy (the char marks did not bring any satisfying crunch). Some pieces took significant effort to break down in the mouth and were unpleasant to eat. The beet salad was missing acid – typically beets are tossed in vinegar or citrus and salt prior to being served this way – maybe this was omitted? I found myself searching for cheese emulsion to supplement every bite of beet, and there wasn’t enough on the plate to do the job. The duck ragu was criminally under salted. Thankfully (and somewhat oddly for a restaurant with this image) there was a salt-shaker on the table, because I probably added a gram or more to the dish and sacrificed my dignity while shaking it for the better part of a minute in front of my partner’s parents. Afterwards, the dish was fine, but still lacked color, intensity, and concentration of flavor in the sauce. The scallops were beautifully cooked and surrounded by a perfectly airy parsnip puree. They cut like butter and were clouds in the mouth. Unfortunately, and also like clouds, the scallops were bland. Literally a lemon wedge could have turned this dish from a 5/10 to a 9/10, but maybe they ran out that night. Finally, the chocolate mousse was enjoyable, but came out awkwardly leaning on the plate, and was covered in a too-thick layer of chilled chocolate that took a violent strike with the spoon to cleanly break through. I know I am being picky here, but I feel like the prices (that I admittedly was not responsible for paying) give me license.

This is a restaurant for those with money that value elegance and flawless service over fireworks from the food. And I should also mention: the wine list is good, all three bottles out shown the food...

For the price we paid and the reputation we had heard of this place, we were very disappointed.

We wanted to try this for a while every time we went for the Lincoln Center show. Finally, we made a reservation and went in with moderate expectations on a Thursday evening for dinner at 8 pm.

The tables were not ready at the time of reservation. We had to wait for at 10-15 mins before being seated. We were asked to move to bar area but the bar area was so crowded that there was no seating there.

After this wait, the table we got was horrible. It was right next to some point-of-entry device, where the servers were entering orders. This was a horrible location because although I was seated towards the wall, my date was being pushed multiple times by the traffic that was ongoing.

The space is very congested. The tables are not even placed 6 inches apart. The maitr'd had to move the table out for me to get in. In order to maximize the space, the tables have been spaced very close to each other. Our neighboring table's couple had disagreement, which later turned into downright argument. We were subject to that due to the very close proximity of the tables.

The service was very delayed. Part of it could be attributed to a busy evening. However, our experience was ruined. After a long wait, we received the bread and the oil. Wine came in late too. I must say though that when we didn't like the wine, it was replaced. The first course came after 25 mins of us arriving to the table and we had given our order right away. The soup of the day was just plain average although my date liked his appetizer. We were not in a mood for the desert but on insistence, we ended up getting one. For the main course, my date didn't have any appetite left because he had so much bread during the wait.

During the delay, we tried appreciating the so-called decor. However, we weren't impressed by the decor overall. I felt like I could leave a card or two of my interior decorators. The establishment must understand that just having murals does not help. They have to be organized in a certain context. The vibe of the structure is very awkward and hence, all the more a reason to focus on better interior decoration. Zagat misled us with high points on this...

I am a single woman and I had a reservation and yet when I arrived the hostess offered me a spot at the bar. I declined and I got a table in the back by the bar where people pass to use the toilet as well as employees passing repeatedly. I never saw the pretty paintings on the wall. I wonder when fine restaurants will begin to treat single women diners with the same respect they give to their other customers. I don’t care that my tab will be less and the restaurant shouldn’t either. It should be about providing every person with a lovely experience. Treat your single women customers like a queen, not a pauper. The server pushed me to have an appetizer after I said I would be having a salad as my first course. I don’t want sales as a part of my dining experience. The beet salad was fresh and the earthy beets paired with the frisée and little dollops of cheese and nuts was pleasant. The halibut in the tiny bit of thyme sauce was perfect and the three little carrots were nice but the grilled endive was a huge misstep. The grilled endive was tough and tasted of a grill. No one wants the charcoally grill as a flavor component in their mouths. The server tried to tell me it is a traditional Italian dish and while that it true, it is not true that it is cold and tough and tastes like the grill. It should be tender with a mellow flavor that doesn’t bite your tongue. Needless to say, It didn’t pair well with the rest of the dish. The dish wanted a bit of potato or cauliflower puree. Thank goodness for the few tomatoes on the halibut or it might have been a beautifully cooked piece of fish with no flavors to elevate it. The lemon meringue tart was very nice although there were too many meringues on it making it too sweet. The little dollops of cream on the plate served the lemon curd of the tart much better. My...