Tommy Bahama Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in New York

This is a restaurant in the upstairs area of a clothing store, but it works well in it's own right. It has a beachy circa 1950s Americana surf vibe going on, with a liberal dose of refined taste. It works! I really liked the pervasive theme.

There was a live guitarist beach-ifying classics and modern songs into strumming relaxing diddys, and he was KILLING IT. Many props to him (it was on Friday 9/16/16, btw). The music really set off the atmosphere.

I made an online appointment through OpenTable and it worked like a charm. The waitress seemed a little overwhelmed, and they weren't very busy, but she was otherwise very polite. They seemed to focus on specialty drinks, like the intriguing Kentucky Sangria, and only had 4 beers on tap (though everything was tropical/beach themed, which I really appreciate). The porter I ordered couldn't be served because the keg had kicked and they had no more (?), which is kind of odd that it was the last keg considering it was only Friday. But it's only a small disappointment.

The prices and selections were much different than what I had read online, so I presume it was a lunch vs dinner menu. So I've included a pic of the dinner menu. The increased prices and decreased selection weren't a deal breaker, but all things being equal I'd rather pay less than more and have more options.

The food was creative and delicious, but the portions were very spare. For example they had single/double portions for the apps, we ordered coconut shrimp and crab cakes, double of each. The crab cakes were 1.5" in diameter and 1" high, about the size of a flattened ping-pong ball. Yes, they were tasty, not mind blowing or anything, and vaguely artfully presented, but not quite worth the $16.50 price. Ditto with the shrimp, 6 medium size shrimp of good but not amazing taste, quasi-well plated for $18. More or less the same story for dinner, very creative and thematic dishes of decent taste and visual appeal for ~$31. The waitress had to be flagged down more than once, but she seemed a little stressed out. Lastly dessert was excellent: delicious, thematic, generous, beautiful and reasonably priced.

All in all I was very happy with my experience, I'd certainly recommend it, and I plan on returning. Minus one star for for my complaints, but Tommy earns the other 4 with a unique and...

I'll start by saying that the two fellas working the door of the store were adorable... hello boys! Anyway... I was looking for something in the area and having had Tommy Bahama pop up on my radar so many times I was like okay fine I'll try it today. We ended up going in the wrong way because we didn't realize there was a "front" door to the restaurant so we walked all the way through the retail store and ended up in the back. Kinda weird but once we got upstairs we were like oh this is very cute. It definitely reminds me of Bahama Breeze (which I love) so I was happy with the décor. We were seated towards the back of the restaurant and our waiter's name was Dan (the man!) who was awesome. He recommended some drinks and was generally supremely helpful and knowledgeable about the menu and what would suit particular tastes. I had the Dark-N-Stormy which was very good and my friend got the original Mojito which was great. It was Taco Tuesday so I got the ribs... JUST KIDDING! I got one each of the tacos. My friend got the fish tacos with chive whipped potatoes instead of whatever the original side was. The whipped potatoes were great! I absolutely LOVED the fish tacos. They were super fresh and a nice mouthful of tender flaky fish. Definitely my fave. The other tacos were o-kay. The pork was tasty but a bit dry. Chicken was again tasty but there was barely any on the taco. The steak, I'm not even sure if there was any on the taco. I wasn't unsatisfied because they put plenty of toppings on there (mainly the slaw and their sour cream) but where was the meat? OHHH I almost forgot to mention the bread. It came out hot with a nice mound of regular butter and HONEY BUTTER. Say word? I love honey butter and this was delicious. We ended up eating another serving of bread and honey butter for dessert. It was that good. Now I do have to say I had a bit of sticker shock when I looked at the menu when I sat down because I wasn't really in the mood for $25-35 dollar entrees and $15 appetizers but the $5 tacos were a decent deal....

More like 3.5 stars, even though we are not allowed to give a half star.

Another great spot we got to visit during the Restaurant Week Summer 2016. Since we don’t shop at Tommy Bahamas (or I should say that we haven’t shopped there, yet), I didn’t even know this restaurant existed… Which is one of the greatest thing about this Restaurant Week events. We get to discover new restaurant that we didn’t even know until these type of opportunity came along.

If you want to do some shopping at the same time, or if you arrived a bit too early for your reservation, you can always browse through the store before going up the stairs to the restaurant. They had colorful, chilled out, comfortable styled clothing and mostly beach/nautical theme. They also had pretty accessories such as necklace and purses. And, most of all, they had THE most chilled out and relaxed mannequins I have ever seen…

We had a nice lunch here, but didn’t really get that whole “seafood experience” we thought we were going to have. The portion was reasonable, the burger was huge, but lacked some flavor that would have made them memorable. The shrimp appetizer had the most flavor from the sweet chili sauce.

The atmosphere was really nice, we didn’t know there was such large, relaxing space in the middle of busy 5th avenue. Our waiter (who was also a bartender) was very polite and helpful. He made sure to check on us often, it was good to know he was always around when (and if) we needed him. There was also a manager on the floor, who also kept walking around the restaurant and make sure each and every customers were well taken care of. Our dishes were picked up as soon as we finished, water was always filled, very good service! This is a nice spot to take a break from the crowds or shopping/walking around. We might go back to try a nice cocktail or two in the future at their bar… Read my full review of this restaurant and food on my food blog,...