(212) 387-8885
115 E 18th St
New York,
NY
10003
40.7367
-73.9876
Neighborhoods: Gramercy Park, Midtown, Union Square
Last updated 6.15.10
Category:
Payment Methods:
American Express, Visa, Discover, MasterCard
Restaurant Special Features:
Business Dining, Romantic Dining, Date Spot, Fine Dining
Cuisine:
| ambiance | 100.0% positive |
|
|---|---|---|
| drinks | 80.0% positive |
|
| food quality | 96.42999649047852% positive |
|
| menu variety | 100.0% positive |
|
| overall | 100.0% positive |
|
| service | 75.0% positive |
|
| value | 58.33000183105469% positive |
|
| wait time | 50.0% positive |
|
Yummy!
by Jazmine33 at Citysearch
The food is so yummy here and the lycee martini, I love! I also love the fact that they remember your name when you come back second time. Nice decor, especially upstairs. You just have to try!
- Pros: Food, Decor, Service
- Cons: None
Great place!
by starwang8888 at Citysearch
Wow I had such a different VDay experience! Yes, there were a lot of people there on Valentine's Day, but I thought the service was excellent. The waitress would come and say "thanks for waiting!" when we literally waited for like 5 minutes for each meal she brought out. I went back again last night, and the food once again did not disappoint. The sushi rolls were amazing, and the grilled meat was apparently amazing as well (I dont eat meat so I didn't have any but my friends CLEANED IT UP). DEFINITELY GO HERE!! For some reason I feel like not many people know about this place, but it is actually quite good. And it's not overly expensive either.
- Pros: food, ambience, service
- Cons: not enough people go!
Decent Food, Terrible Service
by MikeWGS at Citysearch
Well, it was Valentine's, so probably a bit busier than a usual night, but seriously. We sat and our order was taken right away. We ordered an appetizer, a few sushi rolls, a tapas sized filet, and some very small skewers. The appetizer came shortly after, and was good... but then the service stopped. Sushi came 45 minutes later, and we were asked if we wanted anything else. How about the rest of the food we ordered, and the drink menu? Our waiter apologized, and came back another 45 minutes later to give us our filet - we never got the drink menu, so he brought it. I asked which sake would be good hot, so we took his bottle suggestion. He came back 15 min later with an ice cold bottle, telling us it's better cold, apparently forgetting he just suggested it to us as one that would be good hot. He did go back and heat it up, then brought our next dish. It was okay, but a little cold, probably because it had been ready for 20 minutes. We still had two tiny plates of skewers coming, and decided to wait it out, because we'd already been there for 2 1/2 hrs...what's a few more minutes. Well, the final 2 bites of our food came yet another 30 minutes later, and was fine. The service made the food irrelevant, though. Many tables came after us, ate more than us, and left well before us...a very frustrating dining experience, to say the least.
- Pros: Nice atmosphere
- Cons: Terrible and inattentive service
$$$!!! but pretty darn good quality sushi!
by scotty9500 at Citysearch
I read all of the reviews before going in, but should have actually *looked* at the prices before ordering. I got a miso soup, 3 yellowtail rolls, an eel avocado roll, and 2 salmon avocado rolls, and finally a piece of toro sushi. My check? $55! That would have been between $10-15 less expensive somewhere else. $8 for an eel roll? But I have to tell you... that was some of the best eel I've ever had. Very good salmon. For the price of the yellowtail though, they should dice it up before rolling it. The place is very dark and swanky, but I was just doing take-out. It was good sushi, very good. But I wouldn't do it again at Butai, not unless I was around there and I wanted a nice, dark atmosphere, at a place that's dead quiet at dinner time on a Saturday night!
- Pros: Great sushi! Lots of space to sit, as it's not busy at all!
- Cons: Go broke for good fish.
Possibly best sushi I've ever had!
by gap183 at Citysearch
My boyfriend & I went here on New Years Eve for a nice romantic dinner before going out for the night. We had such an amazing time. First of all we messed up our reservation time & got there almost an hour early but the hostess barely even blinked at the mistake and sat us right away anyway! From the moment we sat down the entire wait staff was extremely attentive & helpful! They made great cocktail and sake recommendations and gave us pleanty of time to read through the menu. I highly recommend the Butai Wild Orchid martini. As for the food, this was some of the best sushi I have ever had & this is coming from someone who eats sushi on a weekly basis. It was extremely fresh and flavorful. And their plating was lovely. Based off the reviews here we also got the robato or japanese grilled lamb chops. We went for the tapas dish just in case we didn't like it. But they were fantastic...what a treat! I definitely recommend trying it. Definitely check out Butai...we had such an incredible time & will definitely be back!
- Pros: Great food, great staff, good drinks
- Cons: a little too dark to read the menu (we used the candle on the table...) haha
The Details on Butai
Place Categories:
- really good modern japanese food
- great date place
- best good sushi
- excellent terrible service
- very inviting manager
- worst service
- great experience
- nice dark atmosphere
- nice romantic dinner
- apparently amazing grilled meat
- warm environment
- unique kushi yaki specials
- recommend lamb chop
- good ambience
- good drink
- worst dining experience
- great waiters
- extraordinally good personal warm wellthought suggetion
- great sushi rolls
- helpful entire wait staff
- great waitresses
- extraordinally good cooking
- nice decor
- nice more people
- extraordinally good servise

