The Orchard Townhouse — Restaurant in New York

The Orchard Townhouse has big shoes to fill. The restaurant it replaced was warm and charming, with excellent food, great service and really decent prices. It was our neighborhood restaurant and we loved the bar for drinks or dinner. So maybe I'm partial and bias. I love Chelsea but it's demographics are changing. The changes are perfectly exemplified by the Orchard Townhouse clientele and prices seem quite startling knowing the history of the neighborhood they just settled in to. I have visited a few times and am always hoping to leave impressed.

The service is good. The atmosphere is cold, if a bit snooty. The decor is ostentatious as if the food and service will meet and exceed your expectations. Unfortunately, it's only the prices that demand exclamation.

The prosciutto sandwich is good. It's hard to mess up and doesn't require a ton of prep. The meat and cheese seem high quality. A sandwich like this usually comes down to the right bread, and they hit it on the nose. It's a good sandwich. Unfortunately it's $18, I understand it's a restaurant and we have to pay the bills. That's why I would call the prosciutto sandwich one of the better deals on the menu.

I always order burger medium rare, and some how at The Orchard Townhouse it arrives at the table still slightly pink yet... dry as a bone. Death by a thousand flips. Only flip a burger ONCE and never press it after the flip or you will drain all the fat and leave an achingly dry tasteless piece of meat. Shame because this ho-hum bland burger rings in at $22! Yikes. Fries are... ok.

Chicken Milanese is fine if slightly over cooked and for $27 that's simply unacceptable.

Seasoning (salt and pepper) is a bit or way off on most items I've tried.

I really understand, rent, staff and kitchens are expensive in Chelsea. If you are going to charge these prices, you need to bring high quality fare, not just the pretentious atmosphere. From what I have experienced most everything wrong here can be fixed in the kitchen which leaves me wondering why...

I moved to Nyc with my wife in July 2021, she is white and I am black. It has not been an issue we go there twice a month that is our corner spot we live on the same side about half a block from there. Btw it has been an amazing place a jewel to our neighborhood. It's st. Patrick s day 2022 there is a fruit bowl in front of me and I picked a whole lemon and the bartender snapped at me. I said ok and I told him ok I I'd like a lemon he said $10 cash I said i'll give him 20 on my card and denied me a lemon. I was in there a bit before happy hour as I work from home and he got there by 6ish. I promise you the vibe I got from him was the way people in vidor Tx would look at me. BLACK OR WHITE tell me how many of you would go to a fine establishment and be asked to pay $10 for a lemon while drinking and dining at a restaurant. We have been denied water fountains its sad to be denied a lemon in 2022. It has nothing to do with the establishment they have always been great. My issue is with their present bartender. One goes out to enjoy themselves and not come home feeling marginalized for I can spend my money where i'm welcomed. If you ever go to the orchard house I recommend the garden its a an amazing drink made with cucumber very springish/summerish.They also have this radish dish to die for. Its sad one person can be a pebble in a shoe. I probably won't go back while he still works there but that does not...

The Orchard Townhouse is a gem of a find during nyc covid life. We were looking for an outdoor spot to celebrate a birthday and most places have street seating which leaves you at the whim of NYC pedestrians and their mask-wearing choices.

Enter Orchard Townhouse - they've got a to-go bar serving snacks and drinks and a seating area that's away from the sidewalk and yet covered / open so you're safe from the street. We'd made brunch reservations for the garden area and what a gorgeous spot! Heaters all around and you can spend a few extra bucks for a blanket to use/keep or donate to homeless shelters (love it). Our table was far away from other diners and yet the ambiance was like nyc of the good old pre COVID days.

The food: for brunch we got the pita chips which were amazing, the whitefish and banana bread. All delicious. For mains falafel burgers, and regular burgers were our go to. We were a little disappointed at the fact that the burgers came with literally nothing extra or on the side, and were glad we'd ordered fries for the table. (subtracted the one star for that unfortunately) If we hadn't gotten appetizers, it would've been a bit of a dejected sight. But the food overall was delicious. Oh and the drinks were SUPERB.

The staff - from the amazing hostess to the servers were all super gracious and lovely and really made it a wonderful day. Definitely...