The Garden
The Garden
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
5 reviews
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The Garden
Came here for brunch. Delicious food but ambiance is more touristy. Unlimited coffee.
Chicken and waffles: get this; it's delicious
Burrata: very good especially with the raisins
oooh, that's a bingo!
I'm generally cautiously optimistic when we buy deals (Gilt, Groupon, LivingSocial, etc) for restaurants. we've rarely gotten burned on them, but when we have a bad experience, it's really bad. file this place under the latter category.
several dirty tables when we arrived, while the clean(er) tables had only placemats and no utensils. cue the delay as the waiter slowly but surely obtained our utensils
the wine that came with the Gilt deal was (understandably) mediocre.
the cheese plate appetizer was…well, our waiter was incapable of correctly describing the cheeses, even upon repeat inquiry. so we were effectively flying blind. the cheeses we were given were alright.
my duck was alright, but my wife's chicken, while seemingly cooked on the outside, was undercooked internally. her stomach illness that night and the following day seemingly verified our theory.
the table next to us was a spoiled rich mother/daughter pair – almost something out of a movie or TV stereotype – with a lack of scruples, constantly complaining about the food and atmosphere (I guess, in retrospect, we begrudgingly agreed with them), loudly bragging about their expensive shopping habits, and then proceeding to floss and pick at their teeth AT THE TABLE. their flossing instruments stayed at the table adjacent to us throughout our dinner. we kept expecting the waiter to clean it…but no. yum!
service was very friendly, so I can't fault that.
my wife has since contacted Gilt and received a refund credit for our absymal experience here. I guess the universe does tend to average things out, but I'll still be steering clear of this restaurant.
Despite having eaten in some of the finest culinary establishments in New York, I had yet to come across $30 breakfast options. And ones that contained absolutely no unicorn meat.
My colleagues ordered a bread basket and I got an oatmeal. Some people had coffee. Breakfast was $115.
I'm fine with overcharging for luxury, but the service wasn't good, let alone Four Seasons good. Our waiter, Hervé Villechaize, completely ignored us, and we had to ask for water four times. My oatmeal was alright and I'm sure the food here has potential, but fine dining prices for bad service don't cut it. On the plus side, the bathrooms are quite lovely.
REPOST OF MY REVIEW OF THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL:
I had always had a lot of respect for The Four Seasons brand, and excitedly purchased a Gilt deal for Mike and I to have a romantic date night dinner at The Garden Restaurant. I expected a grand, lush room, and decadent food presented by experienced servers. This ended up being one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had.
When we arrived for our 8pm reservation, we gave the hostess our voucher and were brought to a table that only had placemats on it. I looked around the room and the (many) tables that were not occupied were filthy. At any diner I have ever been to, when a customer leaves, the tables are immediately bussed–wiped down quickly and then placemats, clean utensils, and napkins are put out. I expected at least that standard of tidiness from The Four Seasons.
The mother-daughter duo at the next table were irritating, but we could have had that issue anywhere. They complained incessantly about their food but at the time, I just thought they seemed like the type of people who enjoy whining. As I learned later on that evening (they had arrived before we did), the food was that bad. The mother, which was not the fault of The Garden Restaurant, began flossing at the table, which was deplorable. What made it even worse was that she subsequently asked the waiter for a toothpick, which she used to continue her dental hygiene routine, and then left the floss and toothpick on the table. Said items were still on the table when we left.
Our deal included two glasses of unsatisfactory wine, an appetizer, two entrees, and a side dish to share. For our appetizer, we chose the cheese platter. The cheeses, crackers, and various fruits were decent enough. What was unbelievable was that the waiter had no clue what the cheeses were. I'm hardly a cheese connoiseur but I do know, for instance, that goat cheese is not "soft cheddar." Mike and I created a cheese plate that was just as good, if not better, from cheeses and crostini purchased from Stop & Shop, and nuts and raisins from CVS just a week before. Not only that, but our's was on our beautiful Michael Aram cheeseboard which only enhanced the experience for us and our friends.
The entree course was frightening. Mike's duck was fine but my chicken was suspiciously undercooked. I barely touched it. The truffle fries we picked for our shared side dish were OK but I did not particularly want fries and they are rather hard to ruin anyway. As soon as we got home that night, I was ill. I clearly had some form of food poisoning, due to the undercooked chicken. I was sick again the next morning.
Overall, The Garden Restaurant was terrible, between the amateurish service, dirty tables, and food that at best was merely satisfactory. The room itself was attractive enough but so are basically all hotel restaurants. Most of the clientele were glamorous types (except our neighbors, of course), and I cannot imagine they were pleased either. The Four Seasons should be ashamed to have such a poor restaurant associated with it. I will be contacting Gilt about this meal as well.
The "restaurant" here at the Four Seasons Hotel is actually called the Garden. This is not to be confused with the Four Seasons Restaurant on 52nd Street!
The only downside I can think of here is the price– and it's exorbitant– for example, brunch for two can run over $130 all told.
The upside is nearly everything is daggone good. The everyman's (and restaurant's) dish of eggs benedict was split for us to allow for Canadian bacon and smoked salmon, and contained eggs that were the picture of perfection– just the right degree of doneness. The spicy pumpkin soup (which does contain cream) was divine and cut through the chill of the first day of December. The French toast stuffed with smashed blueberries and topped with "nutella butter" that contained fragments of hazelnuts served as the ultimate dessert. An expense account will minimize your gut wrenching at the prices of a mimosa ($23) and a freshly squeezed OJ ($15), but in our case coffee was complimentary. The only misstep was oranges used in or age of the OJ, as I can make better with oranges from plain old Key Foods at home.
The international staff provided attentiveness and with a smile. The atmosphere is just cozy enough to not feel sterile. The real tree-trunks that spring up from the floor are just interesting enough to distract you from the fake leaves that dot them.
Come here for a treat, on someone else's dime, or don't come at all!