Restaurants in Midtown West

The Holiday Shops at Bryant Park

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

The Holiday Shops at Bryant Park are in their 11th season, and we can’t think of a better way to spend the day than by doing lots and lots of Christmas shopping and going for a spin on their ice rink afterwards.  Oh wait, yes we can.  Build up your strength before strapping on your skates by ordering a plate of Louisiana-style goodness from Daisy’s Grits – we especially love the succulent shrimp and green onions served over silky white...

The John Dory Oyster Bar

Cuisine: Seafood | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Can Brits really handle the Feast of the Seven Fishes?  Absolutely, if you’re talking about April Bloomfield and The John Dory Oyster Bar, her hip seafood mecca in the elegant Ace Hotel.  Chef de cuisine Josh Even plans to go global with traditional feast ingredients, offering up a creamy Salt Cod Brandade, Chorizo-Stuffed Squid with Smoked Tomato, and (this is an oyster bar after all) Hog Island Sweetwater Oysters topped with Sea Urchin...

Oceana

Cuisine: Seafood | Featured in Best Of, Holiday Eats

Where better to celebrate the glory of shellfish than at the glittering midtown hotspot, Oceana?  Chef Ben Pollinger’s five-course feast promises to be a seriously high-end affair, featuring Hiramasa Tartare with persimmon and sicilian pistachio, Octopus, Cuttlefish and Calamari Salad with cranberry beans and preserved lemon, and Roast Maine Lobster and Caviar, served with black trumpet mushrooms and caviar...

Q & A with Tavern on the Green’s New Chef Katy Sparks

Cuisine: American | Featured in Chef Q&A

Katy Sparks may be a farm girl at heart, but that hasn’t stopped her from making her mark at some of the most revered four-star restaurants in New York City.

Momofuku Milk Bar

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

The Breslin

Cuisine: | Featured in Uncategorized

Heartland Brewery

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of, Fall Foods

Restaurant Girl visits Heartland Brewery on her search for the best fall cocktails.

Destination Dining: The New Plaza Food Hall

Cuisine: | Featured in Destination Dining

I’m not sure what rock I’ve been living under, but I missed the memo about the new additions to the Plaza Food Hall.  I knew that Todd English had taken over and installed a swanky food court of his own where you could sit anywhere and order from the sushi counter, raw bar, pasta station, pizza oven and rotisserie. Considering its location and proximity to Central Park, it was bound to be touristy and crowded, but it’s a good solution for diners who can’t decide what to eat for dinner because you can get a little of everything. But the latest additions are a game changer.  Living in midtown has always had its drawbacks, which mostly come in the form of overpriced restaurants. It’s not like living in the West Village where a funky, new restaurant with an ambitious...

Norma’s at The Parker Meridien

Cuisine: American | Featured in Best Of

Nutritionists have long advocated a low-fat, protein-rich breakfast, but a morning diet of Greek yogurt and steel-cut oats can get old fast. Thankfully, the chefs at The Parker Meridien’s Norma’s have crafted a fresh take on the latter, incorporating the brulée technique into their oatmeal.

Print

Cuisine: | Featured in Best Of

Having your own forager may be a badge of honor nowadays, but Print was one of the first restaurants in the city to pioneer the trend.  As a result, their menu is hyper seasonal and lined with locally grown, organic produce.  With devotion to such high quality ingredients, that probably means their Maple Sticky Buns are somewhat good for you, right?  Well, we’re going to keep telling ourselves that as we devour Print’s devilishly good baked goods.  Pastry Chef Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez starts with a light and fluffy bun, adds crunchy bits of maple-glazed bacon, and finishes the whole thing off with a drizzle of maple-butter glaze.  And remember, the bacon is from Mountain View Farm in upstate New York, in case you need to explain to your friends why you’re eating a second… or third sticky bun.  But our guess is that they...

Yakitori Totto

Cuisine: Japanese | Featured in RG's Favorites

Climb the stairs of this second floor walk-up and you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped out of Manhattan and into an izakaya in Tokyo. One of my favorite food escapes in the city, grab a seat along the counter to watch the yakitori chefs at work. “Yakitori” translates as grilled bird with an emphasis on head-to-toe-chicken, but some of our favorite dishes never touch the grill at all.

Milos

Cuisine: Greek, Seafood | Featured in RG's Favorites

This midtown Greek spot is admittedly pricey, but you’d be hard-pressed to find whole fish as fresh as the ice display here. Start with the grilled octopus and tomato salad and head to the ice display to shop for your dinner. (If you see langoustines, grab them.) If not, there’s plenty of other excellent and hard-to-find options the likes of white salmon.

Masa

Cuisine: Japanese | Featured in RG's Favorites

From start to finish, a mind-blowing meal that will change the way you see Japanese food forever. Sit at the counter, so you can watch the sushi chefs create divine bites of truffle-coated sushi, toro with black caviar, mackerel, and snapper sushi. Dinner at Masa isn’t exclusively sushi. There’s excellent cooked dishes as well, like wagyu with white truffles, langoustines and more.

Marea

Cuisine: Seafood | Featured in RG's Favorites

Whoever says fine dining is dead has never eaten at Marea. This elegant CPS restaurant is furnished with a high-gloss rosewood bar, chocolate leather banquettes, and roaming silver trolleys toting liqueurs. The seafood-centric menu is as exceptional as the setting. Especially when they’re mingled with pasta, like the fusilli with red wine-braised octopus, spaghetti with crab & sea urchin and the lobster ravioli.

Aureole – Reviewed

Cuisine: | Featured in Reviews

*** Three StarsAureole Address: 135 West 42nd St., btwn. 6th & 7th Aves.Phone: (212)319-1160Cuisine: American Vibe: Sleek, haute midtownOccasion: Business lunch; Group dinner; oeniphile destination Hours: Dinner; Sun-Wed, 5:30p.m..-12a.m., Thu-Sat, 5:30p.m.-1a.m.Don’t Miss Dish: Pastrami pork belly sliders; Steamed branzini in lemongrass-coconut broth;Sweet corn souffle.Average Price: Appetizers, $15, Entrees, $30, Dessert, $10.Reservations:  Reservations recommended. Capsule: Aureole does upscale Vegas by way of Times Square. Aureole used to be a sure thing.  When everyone else was doing haute French, Charlie Palmer trailblazed haute American cuisine in the 90’s.  Aureole became synonymous with fine dining, impeccable food, and a wonderful wine list.  Eating in the restaurant — an elegant, Upper East Side townhouse — felt like you were a dinner guest at Charlie Palmer’s house.  But over the years, Aureole lost its luster.  Even with Adam Tihany’s redesign, the food no longer...

Marea

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in Reviews

Seafood shrine is a great catch. Cuisine: Coastal Italian Vibe: Breezy fine dining Occasion: Business or bargain lunch, romantic date, dinner for an occasion Don’t Miss: Lobster with burrata, brodetto di pesce, garganelli with sausage ragu, zucchini torte with frozen yogurt Price: Appetizers, $11; entrees, $18; dessert, $9 Reservations: Recommended Phone: (212) 582-5100 Location: 240 Central Park South, between Broadway & Seventh Ave. Chef Michael White is either really confident or completely out of his mind. These days everyone is scaling back and lowering prices. Everyone, that is, except for White and partner Chris Cannon, who just opened Marea, a haute seafood restaurant on Central Park South. The main dining room is furnished with high-gloss rosewood, chocolate leather banquettes, silver-coated seashells and roaming silver trolleys lined with liqueurs. And what’s most compelling about Marea’s dining room isn’t the decor,...

Convivio

Cuisine: Italian | Featured in Reviews

  If you’re looking for a sign of the times, Convivio is it. 45 Tudor City Place, at 42nd St. (212) 599-5045 Sun.-Thur., 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m; Fri.-Sat., 5:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m. Cuisine Southern Italian. Vibe Warm Tudor City haunt. Occasion Business lunch; group dinner. Don’t Miss Dish Four-course prix fixe or the sweetbreads piccata, tuna & caper ravioli, roasted squab. Average Price Appetizers, $13; entrees, $25; dessert, $11. Reservations Recommended.   Sometimes, a restaurant doesn’t really need a makeover. All it needs is a make-under. Convivio is a perfect example. Just six weeks ago, L’Impero shut its doors on a quiet block in Tudor City. Two weeks later, it reopened as Convivio. A quick wardrobe change, a few tweaks to the menu and voila, a new restaurant. Sort of. It’s the same chef, Michael White, same owners, and yet everything...

Benoit

Cuisine: French | Featured in Reviews

The not-so-fine art of fine French dining. 60 W. 55th St., between Fifth & Sixth Aves., (646) 943-7373. Seven days a week. Breakfast, Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; lunch, Mon.-Sat., 11:45 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner, Mon.-Sun., 5:30-11 p.m. CUISINE French bistro. VIBE Elegant midtown bistro. OCCASION Group dining, business lunch. DON’T-MISS DISH Cassoulet, onion soup gratinee, escargots. PRICE Appetizers, $9-$19; entrees, $19-$48; dessert, $7-18. RESERVATIONS Recommended. No one expects humble from Alain Ducasse. But that’s what you get at Benoit. There’s even a dollar menu. It has one dish: Egg Mayo, a terrific deviled egg with a fluffy, sweet filling. It makes for a glorious, four-bite lunch. Ducasse now runs three Benoits – the original Paris bistro (which opened in 1912), another in Tokyo and the newest, at 60 W. 55th St., the address of the old Le Cote Basque. A...

South Gate

Cuisine: American | Featured in Reviews

We have some reservations. ADDRESS:154 Central Park South PHONE: (212) 484-5120 DINNER: Sun.-Thur., 5.30 p.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. CUISINE  Seasonal American. VIBE Sleek hotel eatery. OCCASION  Hotel dining; dessert destination. DON’T-MISS DISH  Buttercup flan; flash-seared calamari. PRICE Appetizers, $10-$21; entrees, $24-$39; desserts, $9-$12. RESERVATIONS  Recommended. How fitting that South Gate premiered just on the heels of the highly anticipated unveiling of Alain Ducasse‘s Adour. After all, South Gate, and its chef, Kerry Heffernan, were installed to fill the void left when Ducasse vacated the Essex House. While Alain Ducasse’s former restaurant was buried in the rear of the building, South Gate has its own street entrance on Central Park South. With its glitzy glass façade overlooking the park, it’s a radically hip departure from Ducasse’s classically French production. Designed by Tony Chi, the sleek space is embellished...

21 Club

Cuisine: American | Featured in Reviews

Address: 21 W. 52nd St., near Fifth Ave.Phone: (212) 582-7200Dinner: Mon.-Thur., 5:30 p.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 5:30 p.m.-11:30  p.m; lunch, Mon.-Fri., 12 p.m.- 2:30 p.m. Closed Sundays.Cuisine: AmericanVibe: Midtown country clubOccassion: Power-lunch spot; time-warp dinnerDon’t Miss Dish: Mixed grill of game, pommes souffles, apple crisp.Drink Specialty:Exemplary global wine selection.Price: Appetizers, $12-23; entrees, $30-45; desserts, $10.50. $35 prix fixe lunch menu; $40 dinner prix fixe menu.Reservations: Recommended; dress code strictly enforced. A changing of the guard in the kitchen demands a revisit to this NYC classic. There is nothing subtle about the dress code inspection at the ’21’ Club. It is an unapologetic once-over by hosts, who vigilantly deny entrance to guests in jeans or sneakers. Though this midtown institution may have surrendered ties at lunch, it strictly enforces an old-school jacket policy. It’s ironic that a former speakeasy with bar...