11/15/07

This restaurant's magnificent outdoor setting makes it worth the visit.

by Contributor

In Short
In warm months, tourists and professionals fill the tiled terrace of this cafe located at Saint Bartholomew's Church. The handsome church looms to one side, the Waldorf-Astoria is across the street, and midtown's office towers soar in every direction. An indoor dining room provides a warmer option in winter. Don't expect potluck fare, however: The menu consists of New American dishes like New York strip loin, a grilled lamb sandwich and pizza topped with truffles.

06/27/07

Great experience!

by meyerv

What can I say? Great ambiance, food and service! A friend and I sat outside for a drink prior to a commitment later in the evening. The weather was perfect and the drinks were delicious. After one drink, we decided to order another... ulitimately cancelling our plans and stayed for dinner. So glad we did! Can' wait to do it again!

• Pros: Outdoor seating; location

06/18/07

Not Worth Your Time or Money

by blueollie

This is my second time providing a review on citysearch and it's only to prevent others from wasting money. Not to say St Bart's Cafe is the worst place I've been to but when a restaurant is situated in a prime location, one does expect nice service not a rude and pretentious hostess. When I asked if it was possible to get a table for two, the response was a cold - is your party completed, no? then i'll be happy to seat when your friend arrives. "sorry, we need to seat you when all parties are here" or actually any sign of kindness would have been nice especially when < 10% of the tables were full on a Monday night. Minutes later my friend arrives and we're seated in the back near the water table though, like I mentioned the place was not nearly full, and handed dinner menus. Not being very hungry, we asked a waiter for the small plates menu that is advertised in front of the cafe. Response - oh, that's for the other side of the cafe. WHAT! Could not the hostess mention this important fact? So now, we have to be re-seated on the other side which looks the same but is closer to the bar. We order sangria, about 15 mins later white sangria arrives though the sangria on the menu is red. Oddly enough, the dinner menu sangria is pinot grigio while small plates is red (WHAT! 2 different sangrias on 2 different menus, is it that difficult to note both drinks on both menus!) so instead of the waiter clarifying which sangria we wanted - he assumed the wrong one. 30 more mintues or so, our apps arrive ( I will say, the waiter was apologetic about the wait and our water person mentioned that another table was guided to the wrong section for dinner and the hostess was being spoken to.). But to top it all off, we were given 5 slices of baguette toast to eat with 3 healthy portions of spreads and when we asked for more bread, were not told it cost an extra 3$ - but it was on the bill! My friend planned to bring a client tomorrow - that is now out of the question.

• Pros: outdoor space
• Cons: terrible service, pretentious air, hidden extra costs

06/08/07

Gone downhill

by esther10

Extremely disappointed at Cafe St Barts this afternoon. Cafe used to be charming, a great place to go to lunch to enjoy the weather. But the experience of dining here based on today has seriously gone downhill.

Hostess is overly pretentious and rude - although we had reservations she didn't seat us until 10 minutes after our reservation when we noticed multiple empty tables all around. It was also amusing how she turned everybody away when there were empty tables besides us during our entire lunch service. Food was exceptionally poor for a ceaser salad and linguine which was overly salty. Service was horrible- I'm not sure whether there's a shortage of waiters but for a place that's not packed, that kind of service is unacceptable.

• Pros: Outdoor seat for a drink
• Cons: Poor service, poor quality of food, rude hostess

06/08/07

Used to be great place for lunch and after-work drinks

by amypetunia

For years, Cafe St. Bart's was our favorite place for lunch and after work drinks. After today, we will never return and we will tell our friends and clients that the restaurant is not what it used to be on every level (food, service, atmosphere).

We had a 1 PM reservation for lunch. I had called the number to see if we could move it up to 12:45. The very nice woman on the phone said that she couldn't make the change but we would probably be seated promptly. When we arrived, the hostess was discorteous and made us wait past 1 PM even though there were tables open. She was also turning people away who could have been seated. It is obvious that she is not experienced at turning tables or interacting with customers. The tables weren't being turned quickly either. Many sat full of dirty dishes while paying customers were forced to leave. The new layout is extremely inefficient with wasted table space, what appears to be fewer tables, and umbrellas covering floor space or glasses instead of customers.

Until this year, the waitstaff was a joy - funny, efficient, quick. We sat for quite a few minutes in the hot sun with no one offering a beverage. We had to flag down a bus person for some water (he was very nice and good about refilling our glasses). Our waiter appeared hot, sweaty and taxed and service was slow. It was only 1 PM and the restaurant had run out of lobster. The food quality has severly eroded from the past. The ceasar salad had a large piece of fish that looked extremely unappetizing and it was drenched in ceasar dressing that probably came out of a bottle. The clam pasta was salty. The greasy and unevenly battered Fittura Mista was a joke at $14 with 5 pieces of calamari and no clam bellies.

It is sad what has happened to St. Bart's.

• Pros: Location
• Cons: Poor service, poor food quality at high prices

05/22/07

Bring back Sage Catering!

by vlhnyc

Cafe St. Bart's USED TO BE terrific. Sage Catering no longer manages the restaurant which is why the experience of dining here has fallen off the charts. The menu is pretentious. Service is extremely slow. The reservation line claims that they are fully booked but that you should feel free to try your luck as a walk-in. Interestingly enough, as a walk-in you are seated right away and the tables around you never fill up.

This delightful midtown location deserves so much more from its kitchen and staff. Save your money until they get their acts together.

• Pros: Fantastic spot
• Cons: Slow service, poor quality food

05/15/07

Complete Dissapointment

by ksammon

I made a last minute reservation here for mother's day brunch, thinking that it would be an ideal spot on a warm sunny day. I have never been more wrong!!!! Our reservation was for 12:45. By 2pm, we hadn't had a morsel of food to eat, except bread, it took the waiter 30 minutes to bring me milk for my tea...there were wierd bussers hovering over our table making grunting noises...and to top it all off we were FREEZING in the shade! We asked to move to a sunnier table and were told no. Not to mention that the price fix was 55 dollars a head, which did not include drinks but DID include an automatic 20% gratuity. After realizing that I was about to spend 300 dollars for the shittiest service I've ever experienced (and I am not that high maintenance) we told the manager we were completely dissatisfied and left. There were other guests waiting to do the same thing, which was pretty funny....The manager comp'd our drinks although we offered to pay, which was nice....but this place needs to get it together -- espscially on a holiday where guests expect a quality dining experience.

• Pros: al fresco
• Cons: service

06/16/06

Great Outdoor seating

by ri326

Cafe St. Bart's has wonderful outdoor seating. I was there on a Friday night and a band played while we dined. The food by New York standards is fine but nothing more. I can think of many other restaurants that have better food. Cafe St Bart's main draw is the outdoor seating. If not for the great outdoor space, I would say to pass. It is by no means a cheap restaurant and for the money you could get a better meal elsewhere. So if you really just want to wine and dine outside the place is a good spot. Also note, they only serve beer and wine.

• Pros: outdoor seating, band
• Cons: mediocre food

07/18/05

Fabulous food!

by bethkuster

I ate here last week and loved it! The ambiance IS amazing--a truly lovely only-in-New-York space. And the food was delish. I had the shrimp appetizer--spicy sauce was great and the breading was light/perfect. But the best thing of the night was the steak. Forget what it was called, but it had some kind of onion puree on top that ROCKED and the steak was a grass-fed organic type and very tender. Perfectly cooked, too: crispy outside, pink inside. And it came with blue-cheese mashed potatoes. YUMMMMMM.

07/12/05

DELICIOUS

by ciliansky

This was my frist time at Cafe St. Bart's and I must say how delicous the food and the service was. When I called this morning, I didn't think I would be able to get in at 12, but I was able to get in, along with four other guests.

I have to highly recommend the lobster roll - not to much mayo; you can tell it was a fresh lobster. Other guests enjoyed pizza, santa fe chopped salad and fish and chips.

I highly recommend Cafe St. Bart's for their food, the ambience and wonderful service.