Bourbon and Branch
We were meeting a friend in town, so we frantically looked for a restaurant near their hotel. We stumbled onto this randomly because it offered burgers, which seemed like an easy success. Our friend previously lived in NYC, but they were under a budget. I was able to make a same day reservation for three people at 6 PM on a Sunday evening without any issues. The restaurant is located right across the street from Madison Square Garden.
Ambiance & Service
In the restaurant, they have a lot of TVs showing different sports games, and it can get quite noisy both at the ground floor and upstairs area. The upstairs area appears to be ideal for people that want to sit and watch the TV. We ended up watching one of the World Cup games.
The service was pretty quick, and the food came hot.
Food
The Avocado Hummus ($19) came with toasted pita chips with olive oil, cilantro, and lime juice. The avocado had a consistency similar to hummus, and it had some spice and noticeably lemon flavors too. The pita with the hummus were a great complement as a vessel for the avocado hummus. The hummus was creamy and pretty flavorful.
The Red Snapper Tacos ($25) came with 3 tacos with pan seared red snapper, mango, and avocado salsa. My partner thought this was incredibly dry and bland. They ended up layering this with some of the leftover avocado hummus.
The French Onion Soup Burger ($27) came with gruyere cheese, caramelized onions, garlic aioli, and a side of French onion jus. This came with French fries on the side that were crispy and tasted pretty good. The burger had a decent sized patty and had nice flavors. Dipping the burger into the side of onion jus felt clumsy and awkward, but the jus tasted pretty decent. The jus was slightly on the sweet side, but it did remind me of the French onion soup.
Overall Impression
This is a pretty straight forward bar restaurant with American and bar food. I think the food is decent, but of course it’s ideal for sports watching than having a proper dinner.
Yelp & Google Jabs
Negatives: entrees arrived at the table less than 10 minutes after we had started the mussels appetizer… the music is super loud and most of it was disco which hardly suits a gastro pub. It made it impossible to hold a conversation at normal volume
Going to any bar restaurant, one may think an Elitist would expect the ambiance to be loud. However for some Elitists like this one, apparently they have never been to a bar with a bunch of TVs before.
Just across the street from Madison Square Garden sits a bourbon bar you wouldn’t expect to find in the middle of energetic NYC. Bourbon and Branch brings a touch of Southern refinement to all the city buzz.
Something to note to this Elitist is that they can sell bourbon in any restaurant. I think the “Southern refinement” is a very distant stretch, and I’d wonder if this Elitist has a loose definition of refinement.
Revisions
- Jun 14, 2026 - Initial revision.