How We Ate Our Way Through NYC: Bryant Park Grill

Restaurant Name:

Bryant Park Grill

25 W 40th St
New York, NY
(212) 840-6500

Cuisine: American

Price Rating: $$
Beach Junkies Rating (based out of 5 stars):
Food: 3 / Service: 3.5 / Drinks: 3 / Atmosphere: 4

We chose to have our Christmas Day dinner at Bryant Park Grill.  They offered a 3 course pre-fixe menu for $68 per person which was really reasonable considering the other prices we saw in town.  We also wanted to eat somewhere that had a very festive feel and being that the Holiday markets and ice rink were there, it just made sense.

Appetizers: Crab Cakes: We were off to a good start with this meal. It was quite delicious and perfectly cooked.  Unfortunately, this was the best dish of our seating and you'll see why below.

Main Course: Duck with Portobello Mushroom and Mash Potatoes: The duck breast was actually pretty good and so where the cranberries.  However the dark meat portion of the dish wasn't so great.  It had a really gamey taste to it and wasn't desirable to the pallet at all.  Good thing I ate it last cause I almost lost my appetite because of it.

Turkey with cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potatoes and vegetables. I chose to eat traditional turkey for my Christmas dinner. The turkey was moist not dry and there was three huge slices included in my entree (a little too much for me). I barely made a dent in my meal but I was full. I am not use to eating so much carbs.

Dessert: Bread Pudding with coconut drizzle and creme fresh: The savoir of the night.  If it wasn't for this, I would've been really grumpy on Christmas Night since my main meal wasn't satisfying at all.  Then again can't judge it fairly since it could've been good since my duck was so bad.  In any case, it was edible at least.

Mascarpone cheesecake with chocolate ice cream: Being lactose-intolerant, I tried not too eat too much of the cheesecake but it did taste delicious with the cookie crumb base and ice cream.

Overall this was our most disappointing dinner of our trip.  We wanted the ambiance and that's what we pretty much paid for.  The meal wasn't great and the portions were extremely huge that we didn't finish everything.  The service was your typical "get you in and out" as fast as they can. This was a good thing since we didn't wait long for our meal, but it unfortunately showed in the quality of the food.