B. L.
Yelp
What I wish I'd known before eating here...
TLDR:
If you're looking for an upscale bar with solid food, close to the Lena Horne Theater this is the place...if you're expecting a nice, quiet restaurant with excellent food - skip it.
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It was dark and loud, clearly a favorite spot among locals. At 5:30 p.m., the after-work happy hour was in full effect. Clusters of people filled every space, spilling into the aisles from every corner. To exit after our meal, we had to tap shoulders, offer polite "excuse me"s, in a snakelike zigzag to the door.
It was very loud--impossible to hold a conversation. We awkwardly, and only occasionally, tried to shout over the music and the crowd, but mostly we sat in silence, resorting to texting each other to continue our conversation.
Food was decent/solid: 4 of 5 stars... I ordered the prefixed meal. Appetizer: chicken lollipops (some fusion of drumsticks with extra crispy skin slathered in BBQ sauce and a side of tangy, mildly spicy Asian dipping sauce).
Entree: The lemon beurre blanc salmon was good, but the sauce was barely there--just a whisper puddled on the plate. The salmon was perfectly cooked and generously portioned, but flavorless, as was the asparagus. The sweet drops--tiny, pickled red peppers(?) -- added a nice tangy contrast, but there were only five of them to match 15-20 bites of fish. The saffron rice pilaf was also scarce, maybe a quarter cup, leaving the meal unbalanced and nothing to go with my salmon halfway through the meal.
Dessert: The sticky toffee pudding was decent. I'd never had it before, but given the main ingredient is molasses- I think it's supposed to taste exactly the way it did: burnt, smokey and not sweet.
Service was a mixed bag. The hostess was fantastic--warm, attentive, great eye contact. Bussers and food runners were friendly and helpful whenever we flagged them down, which we had to do often, since our actual server was nice but MIA. I even mentioned we were there before a Broadway show (which should've prompted her to check our tickets and offer the complimentary Irish Coffee Martini), but that never happened--we were barely able to get the food and drinks we paid for.
Overall it was good - just not what we were expecting. There were 2 other tourists there who were clearly in the same predicament we were in.
I'd recommend the business change the website category from restaurant to bar.
Note: it's about a 6 min walk to the Lena Horne Theater.