Gramercy Tavern
Gramercy Tavern has been on my list for many years already, and it’s a classic New York City restaurant with Michelin popularity. This is one of Danny Meyer’s well known restaurant, so you can expect the flavors to be very similar to his other restaurants. Getting reservations is normally very easy, but when it comes to restaurant week, it’s quite difficult because it’s one of the few Michelin Star restaurants in the city that serves options from its normal menus.
Ambiance & Service
There are 2 areas of the restaurant. One being the “bar” area, where the ambiance is much louder, and the tables are closer together. The other being the “dining room”, where there is more space, and it feels like you’re dining in a barn. It felt like I was dining at Blue Hill again.
Because it was near 0 degrees F outside, we arrived a bit early. Luckily they had a foyer that was a separate room than the restaurant. The foyer had a heater. When we walked into the main restaurant, we checked in and only waited a few minutes before they sat us in the dining area.
The service was very nice and quick. Payment is done on a portable kiosk. Because the dining area was roomy, there were a lot of servers paying a lot of attention to all the tables, so everything was very clean and timely.
Food
The restaurant week lunch was $60 for 3 courses (starters, mains, and desserts). It’s available even on weekends, so the availability can be difficult to get if you’re not quick.
The glass of Cabernet Blend, Chateau Tronquoy-Lalande came from Bordeaux, France 2011. This red aged very well, with nice flavors of currant, ripe fruit profile, and nice tannins. It finished very smooth and would be a great complement with red meat. Surprisingly I tried this fresh out of a bottle before, and I found it to be very acidic. I think if you let it decant for a bit, it will smooth out very nicely.
The complimentary bread came with housemade potato rolls with butter and cheese gruyere balls. The potato rolls were very tasty with the smooth butter, and the cheese gruyere balls tasted similarly to Brazilian cheese balls.
This appears on the tavern menu, normally for $24. The Beef Carpaccio came with broccoli rabe, anchovy, and grana padano. The beef was very tasty and had a nice uplifting aroma.
This appears on the tavern menu, normally for $20. The Kabocha Squash Soup came with collard greens, turnips, and fennel. The soup was served hot, and it had a very earthy, bright, and balanced flavors. The soup was pureed to be very thin, but the flavor profile was brilliant.
This appears to be a new item or could be a temporary item for restaurant week. The Braised Beef Sandwich came with consomme, horseradish, and pickled fresno. The bread was slightly on the crisp side, and the braised beef was conservative. The consomme had this strange smokey flavor that was a bit overpowering. The bread soaked the consomme very thoroughly. Overall, what I wish they had more was horseradish and the pickled fresno. The peppers were too subtle to be noticed.
This appears on the dining room menu, normally served with skate fish. The Pan-Seared Fluke came with parsnips, mussels, and spinach. The fluke was decent. My partner actually enjoyed this a lot because it was light and cooked very nicely. I thought there wasn’t anything special to this though it was nicely cooked.
This appears to be a new item or could be a temporary item for restaurant week. The Pistachio Pudding came with coconut, sour orange, and mandarinquat. The pudding had a texture resembling a pudding that had a lot of nuttiness, so it was a bit coarse.
This appears on the tavern menu, normally for $18. The Pear Upside-Down Cake came with brown sugar, olive oil, and spiced red wine. I actually preferred this cake to the pistachio pudding. It was served with some tart pear sorbet on the side. The cake was very balanced and nice, and with the pear sorbet, it was a good match.
They gave a dessert bite, which was Cacao Nib Bark with toffee chocolate. This had some nice bitterness of dark chocolate flavors, and the toffee was quite good.
Overall Impression
Ok, this has to be interesting culinary technique given that bok choy is delightfully crunchy though not an easy vegetable to work with other than a straight parboil before sautéing in my less spectacular culinary cooking adventures.
Bok choy is relatively easy to work with in Asian cuisines. You can sauteed it quickly in a pan, and once the meat softens up, take it out immediately. It is very juicy and crunchy.
I was so excited, and the wait for a walk in was soo long only to get over cooked potatoes chips and a salty burger with cheese…ugh. I would only go back for either the tasting menu or cocktails.
The burger looked good, but I do not think any burger in any city is worth waiting in line. We had one very well known burger at Lord’s, which they only serve 12 per night. It was good, but I wouldn’t wait in line for it.
Yelp & Google Jabs
Revisions
- Feb 1, 2026 - Initial revision.