Brasserie Cognac
Brasserie Cognac recently opened a restaurant branch right next to Central Park South. At first glance of the menu, it seemed rather basic, but I figured if a restaurant opened in this area, it should be pretty decent. On a Saturday evening, we were able to walk in without reservations and were seated immediately. My first thought looking around was that there are a decent amount of tourists. This restaurant is part of the Serafina family.
Ambiance & Service
The ambiance felt like you were in a French bistro where the tables are close to each other and with a busty energy. My partner mentioned that this restaurant was previously Serafina, so they also mentioned that the decor didn’t change at all. They simply decided to pivot this restaurant into a French-type restaurant.
The service was quick when it comes to bringing the food out. Otherwise, you can tell some of the folks working here seemed pretty bored.
Food
The French Dip ($26) came with roast beef, horseradish sour cream, onion confit & arugula, and served on sourdough bread and side of Bordelaise sauce. The bread was toasted to a crisp, so it was a little rough to eat as it tore a bit of the upper and bottom parts of my mouth. The overall flavors of this were pretty good though. I didn’t taste the flavors of the horseradish sour cream prominently, but you can tell there was some type of sour flavor there. The neatly, thin shaved roast beef was good. The Bordelaise sauce was a bit disappointing because it was a bit too wet and sweet. In some ways, the sandwich is decent as a standalone without the sauce.
The Rotisserie Chicken ($31) came with roasted chicken from Murray’s Catskills, filled with mushroom fricassee. It was served with haricot verts, mashed potatoes, and natural tarragon chicken jus. This chicken dark meat was OK, but the breast was very dry. The skin was seasoned heavily, so it was a bit salty to the taste. I thought overall this entree was pretty basic and uneventful.
Overall Impression
Similar to the other Serafina restaurants, this French variant from this restaurant group was very ordinary. If you’re around the Central Park South area and you want some basic French flavors, this one might meet your need. Otherwise, I would probably look for other restaurants if you desire better flavors.
Yelp & Google Jabs
Music was weird thinking of the fact that it is a fancy French restaurant.
This restaurant actually is nothing like a fancy French restaurant. It’s a very basic restaurant with some French-typical dishes that are easy to prepare.
It was my mom’s 92nd birthday. They brought ONE small macaron and ONE small strawberry for the birthday dessert. There were three of us. That’s not very festive or celebratory. It seems this nice restaurant is cutting corners.
That’s pretty funny coming from this Yelper. This Yelper had gone to the restaurant a few times already, and somehow they thought their loyalty to the restaurant will get them something more substantial. Unfortunately, this was a rude awakening for this Yelper, and this partly caused them to downrate the restaurant.
Revisions
- Oct 11, 2025 - Initial revision.