Jamie M.
Yelp
We came to Astra on the Monday before Christmas for lunch. Astra is a restaurant adjacent to the St. Regis hotel lobby, but it isn't clearly marked as such, so we had to ask the receptionist in the hotel lobby. No big deal, but there wasn't a whole lot of signage and thought at first that it was the hotel bar.
Ambiance: The Astra decor has a magical, luxurious vibe. Gold trim, glass, and mirrors line the restaurant along with plush velvet seating in teal and muted pink colors, shiny green-blue wall tiles, and live white orchids accenting each table.
Service: We were there on an unusual day-the Monday-before-Christmas lunch-and the service was kind of off. Three or four different people came to our table over the course of our visit, so I'm not actually sure who our server was. It took quite some time for someone to even take our order in the first instance, even though the restaurant was not terribly busy. I wouldn't say that the service was bad -- it wasn't, it just wasn't as good as I would have expected it to be for a restaurant in the St. Regis.
Food: The food was quite good. I ordered the salmon with buerre blanc, vegetables, and subbed fries for polenta. The salmon was perfectly cooked and well seasoned. The buerre blanc sauce was also very good, but there was more sauce than I would have expected. To be clear, I do like buerre blanc, and I knew it was a component of the dish I ordered. But the fish and veggies were swimming in a large pool of it -- so, something for folks who order this dish to know. The fries were crispy and delicious. The others ordered the hamburger and the bolognese, which both finished and enjoyed. We also ordered some espresso after lunch, which was very good and served with chocolate biscotti. Yum.
Astra also does various high tea services, with their holiday high tea on current offer. When you enter the restaurant, you can see a few tables set up for this experience, and it looked amazing. I do hope to come back and give this a try with friends.
Overall, Astra is a beautiful restaurant in a beautiful hotel with food that is quite good. I wish Yelp allowed half stars because for me, this is more like a 4.5. I absolutely hope to come back to try their high tea service in the future.