l’abeille à côté

"Inside the dark gray, luxe bunker of a dining room at L’abeille à côté, smooth jazz plays, and Tribeca couples with Birkin bags on little stools by their feet use forks and knives to eat fried chicken lollipops. They might have more fun if they ate with their hands: after all, this is supposed to be the “casual and playful” neighbor of formal French-Japanese spot (one of our ). For those couples with the Birkin bags, maybe it is. For the rest of us, not so much.  Despite frequent feelings that the next scratch-off will be the one that wins it all, a casual night out for us doesn't usually involve a wagyu teriyaki burger, $14 french fries, and a $21 martini. Nevertheless, the food at L’abeille à côté is good. A little fussy, but good. Besides that rich, fall-apart burger, you’ll find a short menu of things like buttery scallop tartare, wagyu ribeye, and—the most playful dish here—two, metrocard-sized taiyaki stuffed with a few flakes of sea bass, on a bed of shells and rocks.  In the open kitchen, chefs use tweezers to add garnishes to other dishes , and everything else feels a little staged too. Friendly servers maneuver between closely packed tables, stopping by to ask whether you’d like a bottle of very expensive wine from the cellar to the right of the chic, bee-themed bathroom. A man orders his burger rare, no lettuce. A woman with a massive rock on her finger takes a picture of the chicken, before readying her knife and fork. L'abeille à côté is the restaurant equivalent of a t-shirt from The Row, but if you’ve got a designer bag that’s just itching to be seen, you could do worse than a fancy happy meal here. When you’ve really got something to celebrate though, like an anniversary, or winning the lottery when you finally win it, we’d recommend just heading next door.     " - Willa Moore