We actually feel sort of bad for Robert DeNiro today. The Ago restaurant inside his Greenwich Hotel (from chef Agostino Sciandri) suffered a humiliating beating from NY Times food critic Frank Bruni--receiving zero stars and a "Poor" rating.
This restaurant isn't in the hospitality business. It's in the attitude business, projecting an aloofness that permeated all of my meals there, nights of wine and poses for swingers on the make, cougars on the prowl and anyone else who values a sort of facile fabulousness over competent service or a breaded veal Milanese with any discernible meat.
Yikes. But despite a terrible review from Bruni, clueless Manhattanites and celeb wannabes must still be hitting up this "hotspot." Bruni recommends making reservations three weeks in advance for prime time seatings.
In yesterday's New York Times, Frank Bruni, the paper's main restaurant reviewer, had much to say about Chop Suey, the restaurant on the second floor of the Renaissance Hotel.
First, he relates, the location is excellent. It sits on the second floor overlooking the entire square, and provides a breathtaking view out three picture windows. From a stylish setting and comfortable seats you can see the enormous billboards, blazing lights, and eye-popping visual overload that makes the human drama and electricity of Times Square so unforgettable.
Problematic, however, is the hit-and-miss menu, the food ("an uneven mash of inspiration and clumsiness"), and the service:
Service is sometimes witless, epitomized by the way hosts sweep you past a nook that can accomodate coats without ever asking if you'd like it to accommodate yours.
In Bruni's inimitable style, he reports the failures on the menu, the fact that they don't actually serve chop suey, and ponders what happened to the two edgy head chefs on staff. In fact, he pens, the less-than-great dining experience is "odd, because a real effort to make Chop Suey special can be detected in much else."
That is, the "retro cool" furniture, the relaxing setting, and the incredible view, make it worth stopping by.
The last time we stepped inside Country, the restaurant attached to The Carlton, the swank hotel near Madison Square Park in Manhattan, we saw Jane Seymour dining at a table nearby. It made sense she would choose to patron the establishment. Both Jane and The Carlton have been around for ages but manage to remain sleek, classy, and, yes, oddly sexy.
Just like Jane returned from post Dr. Quinn obscurity to shimmer across the stage in Dancing With The Stars, the hotel has reopened its lobby after a facelift and the addition of some extra sparkle, we hear from the The Times.
It greets you with a grand internal balcony at the top of a broad, curving limestone staircase: an ideal vantage point for the sumptuous three-story lobby, decorated in golden tones that shimmer like precious metals.
Maybe now that Jane's off the show, she can provide nightly entertainment showing her Cha Cha moves while guests wait in line for check-in.
The NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni did a guest stint yesterday in the paper's weekly "Check-in, Check-out" as a hotel reviewer checking in on the London NYC Hotel. But then again, it does make sense since the hotel has its infamous Gordon Ramsay restaurant.
Bruni first liked the amount of space the rooms in this all-suite hotel provide, starting at about $400 a night.
The octagonal living room had a kidney-shaped sectional sofa on which at least four people could comfortably sit, a round coffee table that could be elevated to function as a dining table, an enormous desk with a proper desk chair, and enough floor space left over for a Pilates session, had I been so inclined.
Maybe he could invite Bill Marriott in and they could do pilates together. Other noteworthy room amenities include a flat-screen television in the living room and in the bathroom, and a long shower with heads at opposite ends so two people can shower at once.
Of course, Bruni tested out the room service, ordering a sunchoke risotto and a peekytoe crab salad which he said was just as good as it was in the restaurant, although pricey.
In the end, Bruni was pretty soft on London NYC only complaining about the pitiful fitness center (they are supposedly building a "real" one set to open this summer) and a few lapses in what was otherwise pretty good service.
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by juliana
