Metropolis
American restaurant · Financial District ·
American comfort food, steaks, hamachi tacos, and city-inspired dishes
American comfort food, steaks, hamachi tacos, and city-inspired dishes
"Located inside the new $500 million Perelman Performing Arts Center near One World Trade is celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson’s newish restaurant. As the name suggests, the restaurant takes New York City itself as inspiration, hoping to approximate the various boroughs’ culinary traditions, remixed in a fine dining context, such as an oyster dish nodding to Flushing." - Eater Staff
"An ultra-glamorous restaurant located in the Perelman Performing Arts Center in lower Manhattan, focusing on polished comfort foods." - Tierney Plumb
"When your home is the half-billion-dollar cube that is the Perelman Performing Arts Center, you can’t just phone it in. The facade of glowing marble brings certain expectations. Metropolis, with its vast open floor plan and hodgepodge of a menu, attempts to live up to its monumental setting, but winds up trying a little too hard. This restaurant—whose full name includes "by Marcus Samuelsson'"—sits in the lobby of its FiDi venue, under a display of lights that dart across the ceiling like a futuristic race track. Allegedly inspired by New York City (similar to Tatiana), the menu offers everything from parsnip agnolotti and pigs in a blanket to “Flushing style” oysters, and curry with a mound of coconut rice. photo credit: Adrian Gaut photo credit: Adrian Gaut photo credit: Andy Thomas Lee photo credit: Andy Thomas Lee Pause Unmute The food isn’t bad, but most dishes have one, two, or three too many elements running smack into each other. A slab of short rib that looks and tastes like a fancy McRib arrives with a spindly potato churro tossed on the side, and a piece of arctic char drowns in uni beurre blanc while pucks of raw cucumber watch from a safe distance. Somewhat appropriately, the dishes are as busy as the city itself. If you’re fine with that, and don’t mind a space that suggests a high-end condo, Metropolis works for an upscale group dinner, especially when you’re seeing a show in the building. The tables are well-spaced, reservations aren’t hard to come by, and the scattered floral arrangements help keep the room from feeling too antiseptic. You may have to politely pretend to be wowed by the food, but the view from the street really is magnificent. Food Rundown Montauk Fluke Crudo More like a tartare, this heavily-dressed crudo comes with especially large and somewhat gummy chunks of fluke. If you skip it, you aren't missing out. We are, however, fans of the puffy scallop chips—a twist on Asian prawn crackers—that come on the side. Caesar Salad Instead of a pile of individual leaves, Metropolis’ caesar consists of a few intact hearts of romaine showered with pecorino. It isn’t a novel (or offensive) concept, although the lack of dressing does seem a bit daring. Smoked Hamachi Taco This isn’t a singular taco, but instead a small DIY setup with thick slices of smoked hamachi, crepe-like tortillas with swirls of cilantro, and a few sauces on the side. Gimmicky, and also kind of fun. photo credit: Andy Thomas Lee Blanketed Franks Pigs in a blanket are good as-is. No need to get fancy with crispy potato sticks and splotches of what tastes like mayo-heavy sauce. As is often the case here, the extras are excessive. Short Rib An interesting choice, but not a horrifying one. The sweet, glazed short rib is very tender, and even if the churro seems out of place, it’s a decent little snack. Tiger Curry Did you come to Metropolis for a bowl of curry? We understand the impulse, but why? Others do it much better. Arctic Char Chaos on a plate. The rounds of cucumber don’t add much, the amount of beurre blanc feels aggressive, and the presentation looks a whole lot messier in person. Good char, though. photo credit: Andy Thomas Lee" - Bryan Kim
"Metropolis is an event. The FiDi restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson is located near the World Trade Center, on the first floor of a new half-billion-dollar performing arts center covered entirely in Portuguese marble. To get here, you have to walk up a grand flight of stairs and pass through a metal detector, at which point you’ll find yourself in a sprawling room with Tron-like light fixtures darting across the ceiling. It’s a flashy place, with an equally flashy menu that tackles everything from smoked hamachi tacos to a whole dover sole with ssamjang. Not every dish is a home run, but everything is, at the very least, memorably ambitious." - neha talreja, will hartman, bryan kim, willa moore
"It's not enough to open a restaurant these days—you must open a Metropolis. The newest restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson, the chef behind Red Rooster and Hav & Mar, is an all-day spot at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in Fidi. And it’s the latest in a growing list of upscale restaurants that claim New York City itself as inspiration (see Tatiana, Torrisi). You’ll find things like a lavish vegetable platter, smoked hamachi tacos, oysters with XO sauce, and a separate lobby lounge called Wine Barre. We checked out Metropolis. Read our first thoughts here." - Will Hartman, Willa Moore
