La Vie

Me and my husband recently had a fantastic dining experience at La Vie in Terminal 5 at JFK Airport. The service provided by our waiter, Jon, was exceptional – he was kind, friendly, and ensured our dining experience was delightful. The overall service was excellent, and the food was equally impressive. I highly recommend La Vie for a quick meal before your flight. Five stars!

The gentleman at the bar was so kind! It is the best service we recived at JFK. Our flight was delayed 2x, and FINALLY, something came out of the delay. We got free wine tasting. He was so kind! We love it

The food was pretty good, I just had a sandwich, but the service and atmosphere were excellent! Felt quiet and detached from the rest of the airport. I travel 60+ day a year and this place felt different. Great bartender, too. I didn't catch his name, but it was obvious he really cared about his craft.

Let me start of this review by saying the bar tender was great, friendly and cared about his job. The issue for me was the food. It was a piece of bread that was burnt in some places on the bottom and some chicken which was lacking sauce for 30 bucks and it took 20-30 minutes for it to come out

Ken was great conversation and service on a slow Tuesday night. I found the QR/ipad system cumbersome and impersonal, a detriment to a really nice experience with an excellent wine recommendation and solid pasta options. Pleasant experience overall!

Ken makes this feel like a bar in a fun european town not a boring airport. He's super efficient, honest and I had a great time here because of him

After wasting my time and money on Custom Burgers, I was hesitant to try any other restaurant in Terminal 5. However, I am SO glad that I ended up at La Vie! We ordered two of their margherita pizzas and were shocked at how amazing the food was! The dough was light and fluffy, the sauce was flavorful, and the cheese was delicious. I can’t wait to fly out of JFK’s Terminal 5 again just for a chance to enjoy this pizza again.

The bartender is probably the best part of this bar! He’s witty and polite! Drinks were good though didn’t try their food.

2 stars for the terrific waitress! 0 stars for the food. Small portions! High prices! Dried-out food! Edit: Dropped to one star after the comment from the establishment "airport culinary team". Seriously it's Spaghetti and meatballs! Does it need a team to determine it's a dried out, small portion? Perhaps it would be better to ask the financial team who decided to maximize profits from captive clientele?

Each time we visit the JetBlue terminal, we stop here for coffee and snacks because I'm not a fan of the nearby competition and their long lines with coffee that gives me a stomach ache. We have been here many time and have always received quick and courteous service and a coffee that was pretty good. It's mostly a grab-n-go so you're not likely standing around for the ambience.

Thought I was selecting the best option in terminal 5 of jfk, but sadly it was just a sad option. The service was excellent and very attentive. However the food was less than spectacular. The restaurant is a little outpost with a bar, Parisian style. I ordered the beets and farro salad, the pieces of beets were so small and probably only amounted to a spoonful on a bed of cold farro and micro greens. And I ordered an eggplant parm, but they did not have it! I was so upset, it should've been a sign for me to go somewhere else! But I opted for the spaghetti and meatballs. It was just a bland spaghetti with burned meatballs. Overall sad food and meal.

Good selection on drinks, have not had a chance to try the food but a 23 ounce beer is $23 - go figure. Also, you need to scan QR code.. so no cash or CC (unless you pay through app).

Food was incredibly dry and salty. The bacon and home fries looked and tasted like it was re-heated. The eggs were the only thing made fresh. Couldn't force myself to finish half of the plate. It was that bad even by airport standards. Otherwise, our waiter was quite pleasant and nice. Don't recommend eating here.

Excellent food at terminal 5 at JFK. The carbonara is totally legit and delicious. Pizza was maybe a 3.5 out of 5 but the pasta was a solid 4.5.0

What, airport food that is actually good?! Yes, my friend: this place actually serves good food. On a recent trip we stoppet at La Vie for dinner, and we were pleasantly surprised. Having to travel through Terminal 5 quite often, I think I might have found my new favorite place where to grab a bite and a drink before takeoff. My Creole Crab Burger (the bartender's suggestion) was good. Properly cooked, rather flavorful, and served with fries that were crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. The La Vie burger was perfectly cooked, but unfortunately the meat was a bit bland in flavor. The food came out quickly, and even though the place is small there were plenty of seats both at the tables and at the bar. Add to that a pretty damn good beer selection, a bartender who cares about his customers and has some entertaining stories to tell, and you have a pretty nice combination for a relaxing bite at the airport that will actually put you in a good mood. You'll be surprised.

Had a layover and just wanted a coffee and they wouldn't serve me unless I got food too

Back in the city, this place would deserve a 2-star. Given the generally low bar of airport food though, it has to be adjusted up to a 3-star. It will be ok if you have time to sit down for a meal before your flight. Onion Soup Gratinée: The broth was really rich and had nice chunks of caramelized onions. Definitely appreciated the generous portion of cheese on top of the floating bread. Unfortunately, there was not a hint of gratinée. It was like microwave melted, not a speck of brown. Entrecôte Grillée: This was priced like a fancy French restaurant, but tasted like a Tad's quality steak. Super thin, which I wasn't expecting. So when I ordered my typical medium-rare, it didn't get much grilling at all. The fries were crispy, but not that noteworthy otherwise.

This is a little oasis tucked away from the bustle. I like coming here. I like their lunch and dinner. All the restaurants serve the same breakfast. The monte Cristo was good but had no turkey. Maybe they ran out? It had enough high quality ham, melted Swiss and it was good French toast. Not the battered and deep fried variety. But no turkey in there. Still good and better than the food court breakfast and dealing with that mob scene. Waitress is attentive but could use more help. She did an excellent job considering she was alone. Coffee is delicious. But of course, La Vie is French!

The macchiato I ordered turned out to be a latte in a GINORMOUS cup. The "croque monsieur" turned out to be a $17 open-faced hot ham and cheese sandwich, any bechamel undetectable. It has good flavor, though, and was enjoyable. The salad with it was limp and blandly dressed. Oh, well, I'm at an airport, what did I expect?! My espresso was delivered with a sizable portion of it swimming around in the saucer around the cup. It was tasty, though. The service was prompt, even if the drinks were sloshed. The bartender served us and was nice. This is essentially most useful as what it mainly functions as: a bar for weary travelers who want to numb themselves with alcohol. The food is overpriced (again, it's an airport), and it's helpful if you adjust your expectations that you're not in Paris!

It seems all the restaurant in the front of terminal 5 are owned by the same company. This is their French café. The food is just fair and like a typical airport restaurant, overpriced.

Came in to get some grubs before my flight. I had the chicken sandwich (poulet sandwich) and it was kind of meh for $15. The bread was hard and the sandwich was lacking in flavor. I would definitely pick something else. My meal aside, the bartender was very nice and sweet. The restaurant has good customer service, but I'm not sure about the food.

Overall, food in an airport is not good. In fact, this little restaurant is flanked by overpriced crap, so one would expect the same. After looking at the reviews, however, I thought I'd give Brasserie La Vie a chance and I was very pleasantly surprised! I ordered the duck which came in a dark pool of balsamic reduction, vegetables, and strawberries. Appearance (as you will see in the photo) was sacrificed, but the flavor was not. The pairing worked well and, personally, I love a fair amount of sauce so the dish was a winner for me. Chances are I will fly through the Jet Blue terminal again, and when I do I will be trying another dish from Brasserie La Vie.

When you get up at the crack of dawn to get to JFK to catch your flight, you have to assume that the odds are high that you'll be overpaying for everything from a cup of coffee or latte to your scrambled eggs. Often the restaurants are understaffed and the customers, cranky! This morning, we had a surprisingly wonderful experience when we were on a long and winding line at the neighboring Starbucks, when we noticed a tiny French bistro, La Vie and their poster board breakfast menu situated at their entrance. Given the choice of schlepping our bags and our lattes or sitting down and having a civilized breakfast, we wisely opted to dine! Our breakfast of fresh berries and granola was excellent! Our server, Brandon took pride in his job and acted as if he owned this business. He only wanted to make sure we were happy with our meal and this is while the place was packed with lots of cranky and over stressed guests! We felt that both Brandon and La Vie deserved at least 5 Stars!

I was at JFK waiting for my flight and stopped by La Vie for a drink to kill some time. It's definitely a lot smaller and cozier than the other restaurants and bars in terminal 5. But the prices are exactly what you expect - airport inflated prices. For example, I ordered a small glass of prosecco for $13. I made sure to sip it slowly or else I would have ended up spending way too much money here. Overall, not a bad place for a drink but make sure you don't get too carried away or you'll pay for it!

If you have a flight to catch anytime soon, don't come here. It takes a bit of time and it may stress you out. They seem to be making the food in another restaurant across the way. But if you have about an hour, then no problem. I had a very nice glass of Chardonnay, the French Onion Soup and the Croque Madame. The difference between the Croque Monsieur and the Croque Madame is a fried egg on top of the sandwich. Definitely a nice addition and makes the sandwich more moist. Since the sandwich was a little dry, the egg helped a lot. The side salad is forgettable but the sandwich was good. Service was scattered but nice. The poor guy at the counter seemed to be a one man operation. Food deliverers would appear with food and hand it out to various customers, invariably the wrong customer. But it's all good if you have plenty of time! Eventually you'll get your meal, and it will be delicious.

We tried the French onion soup and the poulet sandwich. Soup was salty but not bad! Everything came out quick and fast. However, the sandwich was so boring and plain - not worth $16 at all!!! The cheese wasn't melted and the onions weren't carmrelized... Sad excuse for french food but I guess what can you expect. No outlets either. At least the decor was cute lol

We had a decent breakfast of an omelette and a "Greek Sundae", both unremarkable but also inoffensive. However, I'm afraid they are taking their dubious French classification too seriously, as the laissez-faire attitude with which they treated the hard deadline of my flight leaving was disconcerting. I understand food takes time to cook, but printing my check should be much simpler. We are in an airport. Time is of the essence.

Pros: latte and monte cristo sandwich tasted good...until I saw the...(see below) Cons: the service was very slow and below average- I actually didn't mind the slow service as I was trying to kill time during my layover, but they were understaffed, 1.5 server (one woman was there constantly but the other man was there half of the time) for about 15 customers. They were busy and the 1.5 server probably felt a little bit overwhelmed, but they wouldn't recognize the customers (including myself) when anyone entered the restaurant or needed the attention. I believe most people can understand and somewhat related to being busy and overwhelmed, but it would be nice to be recognized with a smile and a simple, "I'll be with you in just a second!" or something along the same line. I felt like they were trying to avoid eye contact with me when I was standing there by an empty table. I just wanted to know if I could sit down and wait for them, but they would actively avoid eye contact with me until they were completely ready for me. Also, I found a hair in my food. It was a hair about arm length coiled underwear my sandwich. I pulled it out and felt overwhelmingly grossed by it so I tossed the hair on the floor right away. I didn't take a picture so if you didn't believe me I would totally understand. But I found a hair and that was my reality.

French! The theme is everywhere -- even the bartender/guy who takes your order is in full character with a very French looking mustache. There were too many items on the menu and I couldn't decide. If you're a beer drinker, try the magic hat #9! I wanted to stray away from the norm & was really surprised by how yummy this one was. Cool decor for a small space & musica. I liked how it wasn't a huge restaurant. Though I was seated facing a wall (because all of the other chairs were pretty much occupied), I still liked the privacy while still being semi-intimate with my solo dining experience. I had the steak sandwich on a baguette with a side of frites. I thought that parts of the meat were kind of tough and chewy... but I liked the fries. They weren't greasy or soggy. The sandwich had it's good and not so good bites. I should have stuck with my intuition and gotten one of the yummy sounding salads with ahi or have gotten one of their other specialties. If I ever fly Jet Blue into JFK again, I'll be sure to stop by La Vie. Personally, I think this place has a more interesting menu in comparison to other Terminal 5 restaurants. I say give this place a try! :]

Cute place! But a plea to the owners: For the love of croque monsieur, please hire additional workers. On a kinda busy Sunday am, there was one person behind the bar who was seating, serving, and taking orders from 20+ testy travelers. She was amazingly efficient and capable. And she managed our expectations by letting us know it would be 10 minutes before she could take our order, etc. Totally fine. But because this place is so short-staffed, of course stuff kept falling through the cracks. People had to ask for silverware to eat their food, drinkware wasn't clean...you get the idea. (When one person has to hustle this much, it's understandable.) If even there was one extra person working, diners would be a lot happier. Because the food is pretty decent!

Born and raised NYer who was hungry before a long flight. Usually I eat before I get to the airport and just snack on the plane, this time I had to do things differently. After some debating on spots in Terminal 5 I chose La Vie. The four stars is because for airport food in NYC this was pretty good. Better than some bars I've been in, and that's saying a lot! I had the calamari as an appetizer, it was ok. It comes with an aioli that can be switched for a marinara, I wasn't aware so I ate them plain. I had the La Vie burger and it was definitely better than expected. Tasted fresh, made to how I ordered it and juicy. No complaints at all. The fries could have been a bit crispier but I didn't ask for that so I won't put that on the cook or establishment. A nice selection of beer, I didn't check for anything else. The waiter was great and exhibited plenty of patience with some of the pain in the ass patrons who were there. This is not a place to eat if in a rush, give your food at least 15 mins before it gets to you. A regular spot in the streets of NY? I'd give it 3.5 stars easily. In the airport? At minimum 4, definitely recommend eating here.

Sleeper top pick for best dish in T5. To be honest, have flown in and out of JFK T5 for years having walked by La Vie without knowing it was there - just like most people walk by airport Vino Volos. Having some time to kill for a delayed connection to San Francisco, stopped by La Vie for the Salad Nicoise. Great choice. Salad emerged with two enormous slabs of seared tuna on top of a mixed green salad with olives and balsamic vinaigrette. At $17, this represents an enormous value on the fish alone - a similar amount of tuna biomatter would put you back much further at Deep Blue, T5's middling sushi restaurant. Tuna quality was quite reasonable, with none of the dry, sour, or excessively stringy meat that characterize food-service sushi. Other people seemed to enjoy the sandwiches. As will I next time.

Trying this place out as other places seemed to be...unacceptably bad? Not sure...but this small bar-like French place really caught me the second I walked by, so decided to give a try given my loose schedule. Ordered the grilled chicken sandwich and OJ. First of all, it was not quick, so if you are in a hurry catching the flight please pass. The sandwich is ok, but I skipped the cheese part as it was a bit too greasy. Overall a 3.5 star place.

This space used to be a nice place at JFK T5 for an authentic-seeming French lunch. Must have changed hands; the food is now awful. Salade Niçoise @ $20 had inedible tuna and tomatoes, decent greens. Omelette @$16 was edible but arrived cold (after 30 min wait), overlooked and tough. Service was friendly and competent. Avoid this restaurant for food.

It is right next to Deep Blue (a fancy sushi bar) but my friend and I chose this place because it looked more cozy. To be honest, the price for wine/beer were about the same for all these places in the airport. It is not your local pub price tag but it's good place to get a drink and relax a little while waiting for your flight boarding time. I don't know how the food tastes here because we did not order any. We didn't see other tables ordering food either. But the metal fork and plastic knife was an interesting combination...

Come here before my 8am flight and was pleasantly surprised. The food was great. Standard eggs Benedict but I loved the hollandaise (sp?) sauce-tasted like someone's recipe. Only three stars bc the oj was 4.99 and the server kept rubbing my shoulder.

Slim pickings at terminal 5, especially if you go by the Yelp reviews. This place seemed like a safe bet and it was. More than that, the food was good, the bartender (Hernan) was very knowledgeable about the food and made a great recommendation (Farro & beet salad). Plastic knife wasn't ideal but at least they provided a proper fork.

Like many brasseries in France the space is quaint, cramped, and dimly lit. The service is EXTREMELY slow, but if you are patient someone will come. They had one staff member in the restaurant working the bar, taking orders, and getting food! Yet, he was still extremely friendly. I ordered the omelet with herbs and a side salad. The omelet and side salad for airport food was actually decent. I was looking for something on the lighter side and this fit the bill perfectly. The price tag though was not light. But then, everything in an airport is over priced. From a visual observation the food appeared to be hit or miss - some looked bland, while other dishes looked pretty good. The restaurant itself doesn't have a designated kitchen. It must share a larger kitchen, as the food was all being run in from somewhere else in the airport.

I don't know if there anything french about this place other than name and posters on the wall. It's more like tiny old school diner. But - coffee is strong, food is solid, they are quick and efficient, and prices are OK. If you looking for filling breakfast before the flight - this is the spot. Farmers omelette (egg whites, bacon, veggies, with potatoes on a side) and coffee. I am out in 20 minutes flat. Knowing I will not get food till evening is not that bad now.

The food is very good, however, all of it comes from the steak restaurant across the aisle. Everything takes 15mins. There is a person who literally walks the food from the other restaurant over to this restaurant. I ordered the kale salad. Very tasty. The fries were nice and hot. I wanted some apple pie for dessert. I waited 10mins for the pie. Still no pie, I cancelled it. Might as well eat at the steak place across the aisle. The food comes from there anyway.

I ordered the croque-monsieur which, well, was good in the way that bacon is always good. You put some ham in bread and melt cheese on top, I'm going to eat it every time. But was this special? No. It was the version that your seven year old child made as their first culinary experiment. I understand it is just a sandwich, but for $15 they didn't even try to impress me.

I'm shocked, I tell you. Shocked. I mean, I'm in an AIRPORT. But the food here is really great! If you're ever in Terminal 5 at JFK, definitely eat at La Vie. The woman next to me got a gorgeous salad, and my onion soup was terrific. And I only found it through Yelp!

Decent airport food. I ordered the burger with caramelized onions and gruyere. The patty was thick and relatively good, although it could have been juicier. The bun was a bit too thick, and the caramelized onions were not very caramelized, just sauteed. Food took about 15 minutes so not a grab and go situation, but make sure you have around 30 minutes before boarding if you want to sit and finish your food. What's nice about the location though is its a small place where you sit facing the bar, and can almost forget that you're in a bustling airport.

This is a decent cafe. I like the openness of it so one can have full view of passing people. They don't seem to have a kitchen in the back; all the food was coming from a nearby steak restaurant. The service was...fine, nothing spectacular but nobody was rude. The food was ok too. Probably not worth the money but you are in an airport so what can you do. The portions were very large at least. It's a nice place to stop and rest and grab something plain to eat. Otherwise, not a very big deal over all

One of the better options for pre-flight meal but it does take a while so make sure you have enough time. We had breakfast here before a flight that was delayed because of weather so we had ample time. Espresso is decent and so are the breakfast options.

Just had one of the most hilariously inept restaurant experiences in recent memory here. Sat at the counter and ordered bagels from the "NY Minute" menu. Ha. Apparently a NY minute is 45 real world minutes. For. Plain. Bagels. With, by the way, packets of Welch's grape. Viva la France. The waiter was a sweet guy, but seemed to care less about the fact that dirty, un-bused dishes were lying around all over the dining room and the counter was sticky and grimy. I'm sure the food isn't any cleaner. Could be because it was Christmas, but absolute absence of management seemed to be the issue here, and there's no excuse in the world that would justify such a s--t show. Gross.

They created a small Bistro in the terminal. The first time when I came, I worried I would miss my flight. The foods were coming out very slow and waited for 30 minutes for Tuna Salad Nicoise to arrive. I wasn't happy for the long wait but it was well worth the wait. I couldn't believe I was eating this tasty salad at the terminal. The quality and execution of this southern France salad was tasty! The perfectly creamy vinaigrette definitely helped but lightly grilled tuna with a hue of reddish pink meat of tuna was excitingly delicious. This salad relaxed and comforted me. It was a must have comfort food before departure. Second time when I was there, I chose vegetable omelet for my early breakfast. I didn't really read the menu but ordred it since I totally trust them. The dish came pretty fast than last time. The omelet I picked was healthy one. Used only white egg so it wasn't heavy and nicely cooked vegetables complemented each other (see my photo). I like the visual (modern, clean and blue) of JetBlue terminal. It is very attractively fresh and exciting. There are many good thing about this terminal but what surprised me the this French bistro next to DeepBlue (Sushi) restaurant.

Tiny but charming French Resturant in terminal 5 with cool music, super friendly laid back service and shockingly good (ESP for the location food. I had the onion soup and it was a little flat and lacking depth, but at least it wasnt oversalted. I've jad better but also much worse. The croque madam however, was excellent with very tasty ham and cheese cooked well with a nicely runny egg. Up there with the best I've had! Wines are reasonable too and the by the glass selections are a generous pour. It's a little odd that the food comes from somewhere across the concourse, and when they took away real knives in airplanes and post-security restuarants, te terrorists won just a little. Plastic knives just break the mood some -- but neither complaint is the restraints fault.

I got tired of eating at the food court, so I decided to check this place out! I got the hummus (that was the strangest looking hummus I've ever had, def not the typical kind!) and chicken caesar salad. Both were ok. The server and I were chatting, he was really friendly.

I ordered duck here, and really didn't enjoy the experience. The duck was slightly overcooked for my preference, overly oily, and a bit chewy. Additionally, you can only get a plastic knife for your food -- which is a real pain for things that are more substantial against the knife, like duck.

Their decor is what attracted me first. The bartender/waiter was very friendly. I tried different rosés and settled on the Juliette from Provence. Ordered the 'La vie burger' with caramelized onions, gruyère cheese gratin and pommes frites. The burger was adequate but could have been better seasoned. The fries had no flavor and stopped being appealing once they were cold. The service took a little while even for a sit down place.

I ordered an eggplant parmesan because I love eggplant and I love parmesan. I learned that five restaurants in the Jet Blue terminal at JFK were owned by the same company so share the same kitchen. After ordering at this bar-looking place, I was wondering where the kitchen was when some dude from across the way comes in with a big plate of parmesan covered in a plastic lid. Not bad, not bad. While the eggplant parmesan all in all tasted great, the cheese pretty well incorporated into the spaghetti featured a thin slice of eggplant on the top, the cost ($20ish) for the meal, probably wasn't worth it.

Poorly executed French cuisine. Onion soup was little more than beef broth with a few stray softened onions, a large chunk of soggy bread (not toasted, unsure which variety) and a slice of barely melted provolone. This is not Onion Soup, and this is not worth $15. The drinks were better, but not enough to overcome the food.

I ordered a breakfast burger cooked medium well. The party was cooked to perfection and was served atop a brioche bun. Both the burger and the fries were delectable! Loved that the order was accompanied by a personal sized bottle of ketchup and mayonnaise. The extra touch made spending $20 on a burger and fries worth it. Friendly staff. Small seating area, café style.

This place is laughable. I ordered the ribeye, which looked like a chef from "Worst Cooks in America" boiled it in a pan and forgot seasoning. Fries were crinkle cut, Oida at best. Shockingly disappointed.

I got food poisoning from this place! I boarded my flight right after I ate and an hour later I was in the bathroom vomiting my brains out.

RUDE my daughter & I were traveling and stumbled Into this quiet , cute, intimate restaurant La Vie. The sign outside indicated their hours of operation.5:00am -11:00pm. It was 5:05am and the stools were still on the counter. We kindly said good morning to the barista, she replied "I'm not open yet". She was RUDE, DISMISSIVE AND HAD A REALLY BAD ATTITUDE. We left & patronized another restaurant where the service was wonderful & the waiters were nice & attentive.