"Located in the museum's new wing on the second floor, the glassed-in Restaurant at Gilder feels like an exhibit of a modern restaurant where families with well-disciplined kids dine on food that leans healthy — think an heirloom tomato panzanella — alongside heartier options like steak frites with chimichurri and playful desserts such as a root beer float. The bloody mary is big and strong, the menu has many liquor options, prices range $16 to $34, it serves lunch only, and dining requires museum admission." - Robert Sietsema
"Occupying a picturesque balcony on the second floor of the new wing at the American Museum of Natural History, the Gilder has changed the game where museum dining in the city is concerned. The food is carefully prepared with the usual healthy options available, but you can also get down with a skirt steak and chimichurri served with fries or a gemelli with fresh pea pesto. Salads are another high point and the bloody marys are strong." - Robert Sietsema
"Getting in was a hassle: the restaurant sits on the second floor of the museum and requires both an AMNH ticket and a Resy reservation, and I arrived about 15 minutes late after fighting long lines, a maze of galleries, and a blocked subway entrance — the staff were fortunately very accommodating. Inside it feels like a fishbowl with no exterior windows (museum-goers pressed their noses against the glass as if we were another diorama); the interior is relaxing, with brown paneled walls, a honeycomb ceiling, and well-spaced tables. We were served a vodka bloody mary ($16) almost immediately. Of the three apps, the best was a salad of baby heirloom carrots ($16) with feta and toasted pistachios on a bed of beet hummus; the tomato soup, drizzled with coconut milk and tasting of basil, veered toward a Campbell’s-like familiarity; the Caesar kissed with anchovies was creamy and shareable. Kids seemed to favor the avocado toast and dads the grain bowl. Among entrees, the $34 hanger-steak frites (medium-rare) with garlic-scape chimichurri was solid but outshone by excellent french fries, while a standout was twists of gemelli pasta in a fresh-pea pesto dotted with mushrooms, asparagus tips, and spinach — a lively farmers-market-driven combination that didn’t scream “healthy.” The most memorable item was the vegan raspberry panna cotta ($14): a coconut-milk pudding presented like a terrarium, topped with microgreens, edible flowers, crunchy freeze-dried raspberries, fresh raspberries, and edible white-chocolate butterflies — it looked almost machine-conceived but tasted great." - Robert Sietsema
"The Restaurant at Gilder is a sit-down cafe inside the Gilder Center at the Museum of Natural History—and since your ticket doesn’t allow for re-entry, this is where you should grab a bite while killing time between the planetarium show and the butterfly vivarium. The restaurant is loosely bee-themed and family friendly: If you don’t have an iPad kid or two at your table, you’ll probably be able to eavesdrop on an episode of Pokémon from a few feet away. Anything that seems too ambitious for a museum cafe, like tuna tartare, probably is—but straightforward dishes like a grilled chicken sandwich and fig-topped flatbread are reliably good, and the burger is even better. Best of all, there’s an extensive cocktail list if you need a little lubrication to get through the afternoon." - Carina Finn
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