The Leopard at Des Artistes
We had a show to catch at the Lincoln Center, and the area had a lot of New American and Italian restaurants within half a mile. We’ve rarely explored anywhere north of 60th St. This area is just across the street on the lower west side of Central Park. The restaurant itself is located in a historic residential building called Hotel des Artistes. I was easily able to make a reservation the day before for a 5:15 PM on a Saturday evening.
Ambiance & Service
The interior was interesting in that there were a lot of paintings with nude women and girls on it. If you have kids and you are bothered by it, be warned. It gave some MOMA vibes because it’s definitely very artistic and feels like you’re eating in an art gallery. Much of the clientele resembled upper west side vibes, where diners are much older and more family centric.
The service itself was attentive, though when the restaurant got busy, we did have to flag out waiter a few times.
Food
The glass of Rosso di Montefalco came from Arnaldo-Caprai, Italy 2021. This red blend wine was made from sangiovese, sagrantino, and merlot grapes. It’s a medium body with notable cherry and oaky notes. It was also very smooth to drink, but not very complex. I ordered this specifically to go with the veal later on.
They gave us complimentary bread, and the Racconto olive oil from Marco Rizzo was very good.
They also gave a shot of fava bean puree. This had a fluid, smudge consistency that was very fava bean forward.
The Vitello Tonnato ($30) was tender sliced roasted veal with yellowfin tuna and anchovies sauce, caperberries, and lemon vinaigrette. They gave a generous portion of veal here, and everything here was good. The caperberries tasted like capers, so they were salty to the bite. But once you combine it with the veal and white anchovies sauce, it was very good.
The Malfalde All’Anatra ($37) came with homemade mafalde pasta with braised duck leg and parmigiano Reggiano ragout. They were happy to divide this into 2 plates for us. The pasta was cooked perfectly al dente, and the braised duck meat was juicy and decadent.
The Vitello Ossobuco ($69) came with slow cooked veal shank in seasonal vegetable sauce. It was served with saffron risotto. The veal was definitely braised and fork tender. Unfortunately, the seasonal vegetable sauce was probably on the bland side. I’m not sure if it’s because of a lack of general seasoning or they weren’t able to get the vegetable flavors to be more prominent.
This is the Saffron Risotto that came with the veal ossobuco. It’s quite a hefty dish for one person. The saffron risotto definitely lacked seasoning, and the flavors were also subtle overall. The risotto was slightly a bit too al dente for me, and they weren’t able to fully pull out all the starch to make it more creamy.
They gave us some complimentary biscotti cookies at the end.
Overall Impression
Surprisingly, Leopard at Des Artistes was quite tasty for an Italian restaurant above the main touristy parts of Manhattan. The quantity of food was decent for the price, and the service was good. Expect the food and flavors to be more classical Italian. This is fairly close by to Lincoln Center, so it can be a good Italian option if you’re going to the theater.
Yelp Jabs
I e-mailed the Leopard about our experience and did not receive a reply so it is my suspicion that the restaurant is deliberately dumbing down the food in order to bankrupt it and get out of their lease.
This Yelper posted last February 2024, and their post aged poorly. The restaurant is still around with a lot of people still eating here.
The problem is the food. What was not long ago one of the go-to restaurants in the city has become a culinary embarrassment . We were a group of eight, and the food ranged from mediocre to bad.
In the near decade I’ve been in NYC, I wasn’t aware of much hype for this restaurant. Regardless, it seems to track as expected the larger the table you have, the less likely your food will stay “mediocre”. I usually make it a rule that if I am going out to eat for the food, it needs to be smaller than 6, preferably 2-4. It’s just easier for the kitchen that doesn’t have the best cooks in the city be able to focus on the line.
Revisions
- May 3, 2025 - Initial revision.