Jasmine A.
Yelp
My husband and I went to New York over Christmas and we wanted to go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. We started looking up options months in advance, and there was quite a variety in prices, with most restaurants being at least $100 per person, which was fine -- we were alright spending that as long as the food was good. (However, $250 per person was not within our budget.)
When my husband found the menu for 230 Fifth Rooftop Bar, we thought we had a winner. The menu was a good selection of basic, tasty food, and at $60 per person (excluding alcohol), it was a fantastic price! The menu was:
-Salads: kale salad, tomato and mozzarella salad, mesclun salad, Caesar salad
-Butcher's block: oven roasted turkey breast with gravy, prime rib, chicken parmesan
-Pasta station
-Accompaniments: garlic mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, green bean casserole, roasted yams, vegetable stuffing, roasted mixed vegetables, sauteed Brussel sprouts, fresh cranberry sauce
-Desserts: apple pie, pecan pie, ice cream sundae, assorted cookies
Unfortunately, dinner was a big disappointment.
First, the restaurant was chaotic and was geared more towards a younger crowd, with a night club kind of vibe -- I did not appreciate the dim lights and loud music, and despite having a reservation for a specific time, we still had to wait in a disorganized mass of people for 15 minutes in an area that didn't have adequate room to wait.
Second, the waited was snippy when I asked if there was a physical wine menu, as I hate QR code menus. (At least the $65 bottle of Merlot was good!)
Third, the food was not very good, as nothing was actually hot, just lukewarm. Being a buffet, you would go up to get your own food (but you had to awkwardly pass by the crowd of people waiting to be seated), and staff at some of the stations would plate the food for you, and one guy was really sloppy, dripping gravy all down the side of my plate and hand. And he slopped a HUGE amount of lukewarm mashed potatoes on my plate, instead of giving me a normal sized portion, so not only was it too much (at a buffet you don't want to get huge portions -- it's better to go back for seconds), but there wasn't enough room on my plate for the other items I wanted.
After dinner, we went to the rooftop bar, where, because it was winter, they had plastic domes with heaters for people to sit in. The drinks were around $17 (before tax and tip), which, while not cheap, is standard at most places, and the pours were quite generous. We had a couple of drinks each of mulled wine/hot cider/spiked hot chocolate, which were so tasty. Yeah, we were a little sluggish the next day...
Overall, dinner was not a great experience and I didn't care for the restaurant, but the rooftop bar was great. I would not go back again for dinner or to the restaurant, but I would go for a couple of drinks at the rooftop bar.
[Yelp collections: NY Christmas 2022]