Knife + Fork Restaurant & Wine Bar

10/08/09

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT

by EatingOutGuru at Citysearch

Rule of thumb in any service-based business- to create and allow for a customer experience. no matter how good the food is, if you have HORRIBLE service and a sense of bad attitude - no business can ever thrive. I hope this is a lesson well-learned. The wait staff have to STOP being so pompous, arrogant, and conceited.They can make you feel like you are dirt - why? Because 1) you do not go with their recommendations 2) you haven't heard about them before 3) you are requesting for simple modifications to the chef's menu (ie, due to allergies to certain foods), 4) you are asking too many questions

Perhaps taking pride in your own creations or service is a good thing, but you cannot become so ridiculously magnanimous at a customer's expense!

A restaurant and its operation earn a level of prestige - they do not own it just like that nor by force. With this economy, I apologize if any negative reviews will impact their business, but I seriously hope this a lesson to be learned. I am usually NOT a complainer either but I also do know what it takes to gain self-respect, regard, and praise, as an entrrepreneur myself. It is through moral uprightness and being personable, friendly and inviting - a restaurant will be rewarded with returning customers and approval.

• Pros: perfect restaurant if you like to be mistreated

05/20/09

Great Pre-fix Menu

by Bridgetann at Citysearch

I love this place! The staff is always accommodating, friendly, and on point!

The food is Unique and delicious. The décor, warm and cozy. Knife and Fork is one of those special places people come back to again and again.

• Pros: Food and location

05/18/09

Good food, Not so good otherwise

by JoeC at Citysearch

Went there for the tasting menu with my girlfriend recently. It was alright, but overall much less impressive than I expected. Perhaps I'm just used to higher quality tasting menus. Let me say that the food was generally good. However, there were aspects of the presentation and service which just struck me as amateurish and silly. I'll just list the two which stuck out most prominently.

The first couple of dishes coming out were all covered in chervil. I thought that maybe it was just a coincidence. However, the more dishes that came, the more chervil we got. Did they have a surplus that they needed to offload onto us? Out of our 6 dishes, 4 of them were covered in chervil. There was no difference in the presentation of it, just a dish of whatever and then covered in chervil. To me, it's like serving a giant lemon wedge with every dish. I have nothing against chervil, but why put it on top of 2/3 of the dishes? Gladly, the dessert wasn't one of them.

However, the dessert was another problem I had. We were both served in the same small dishes, but filled with glaringly different amounts. A serving isn't exceptionally large to begin with, so you might think that consistency might be easy. However, they sure didn't manage that. The levels were visibly off. I wasn't much in the mood for the dessert anyway, so I didn't make a comment, but I'm not sure how you can serve two people at a table a course of a tasting menu and have the quantity of food be visibly different.

I'd suggest not getting the tasting menu and just ordering an appetizer+entree. It might cost just a little more (or the same depending on what you get), but you'll be saved from the silliness of an unorganized tasting menu. Since I didn't have a complaint about the food itself, I'd recommend going here if you want to try it for that reason alone.

• Pros: Good food
• Cons: Amateur presentation, better tasting menus elsewhere

11/06/08

One of My Favourite Restaurants....

by Htompkin at Citysearch

Went here for dinner and had the long ısland duck.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE their duck. I don't think that I've ever had any like it. WOW. It could have also been that the service was on point. Maybe the overall experience was just SO good that it made my duck taste delicious.

I will definitely go back... when I have money!!

• Pros: service,food

09/19/08

Excellent tasting menu, lovely decor, with room for a couple of improvements

by caspianswimmer at Citysearch

Wow, do I ever disagree with the last two reviews! Perhaps your palate needs a little refinement... My wife and I live around the corner from this place, and we are delighted to have discovered a place that is never noisy or overcrowded and serves exquisite food with friendly and competent wait staff. We always get the tasting menu and have loved it every time. The chef shines with his creative food compositions and artistic presentation. Dessert was delicious! tonight was a duet of creme brulee and coffee panna cotta.

We would like to suggest a slight tweak in the decor. The exposed kitchen light sort of glares on certain tables, and the row of tables through the middle of the restaurant all make you feel a bit "at sea." The decor is cozy, rustic, and charming. A romantic spot for a great meal.

• Pros: great food, artfully presented
• Cons: middle tables a little bit uncomfortable

09/18/08

Atrocious would be the best word to describe this place!

by BebeSparks at Citysearch

I should file suit this place for completely ruining my night. Went for what I thought would be a romantic evening with my boyfriend only to find both the service and the food appalling. The six course tasting menu was either bland or overly salted. The pork belly was simply a piece of fat, impossible to swallow. The fish tasted like a lake and the duck was of questionable grade. All together a horrible and overpriced experience. Our night would have been better spent at home with a frozen dinner.

• Pros: None.
• Cons: Everything.

09/07/08

Disappointing, Bland and Gross

by QueenTBone77 at Citysearch

We eat out quite a bit, but tend to go to the same solid places again and again. Now I know why. My boyfriend and I wanted to try somewhere new and, based on the reviews on citysearch (which we have used with success in the past), chose Knife and Fork. What a mistake. The place is quite cute and the setting is rustic and even romantic. But from the minute we walked through the door, the service was shoddy. Despite that the restaurant was only half full and we had a reservation, we were asked to wait at the bar. But no one at the bar asked us what we would like, so we just sat there, staring at all of the empty tables incredulously. There was no apology when we were finally seated. They were just inexplicably ready for us. We sat and then waited for about 15 minutes with our menus before we were even asked what we wanted to drink (by then, we knew our entire order). We ordered a bottle of the Magnet Pinot Noir, which was quite nice. We also shared the Pork Belly appetizer, which was terrible. We've had excellent pork belly at Aurora in Brooklyn and elsewhere in the city and normally like the dish. This, though, was a thick chunk of charred fat. It was tasteless, it was chewy and it was just...burned. Not even charred in a pleasant way, just burned. I mean, I've had big pieces of pork belly before and it's not a healthy food - it is largely fat. But this was gross. For dinner, I had the duck and my boyfriend had the cod. Both were tasteless and mediocre. In fact, my duck was pretty uncooked and I felt really ill when I got home. His cod was just oddly tasteless, even despite the addition of oysters and some unidentifiable light sauce. Needless to say, we didn't order dessert. There are a lot of great restaurants in the East Village, but this just isn't one of them.

• Pros: Nice setting, romantic seating
• Cons: Terrible food and poor service

08/18/08

great value on the prix fixe

by lane01 at Citysearch

Nice, but somewhat uninspired atmosphere.

Food was very good, but our server was so uninterested in us, that we were never sure what he said we were eating. We went early and were one of two couples in the restaurant, so we chalked it up to pure disinterest on his part. The food was very good, but given its complexity, would have benefited from some sort of description we could understand and a waiter that had some interest in it and us.

• Pros: prix fixe menu
• Cons: service

05/29/08

Amazing Adventure!

by msfountain at Citysearch

I am usually not very adventurous with my dining, but my sister took me to this restaurant on my last visit to NY and I was blown away. I tried so many new things on the tasting menu that I could not believe I was eating, but LOVED. This chef has opened my eyes to so many new flavors and ingredients! The seared ahi tuna was amazing, as was the duck breast and the foie gras. I would not only recommend this to people who normally like fine cuisine, but also to those who are willing to try something new. The 6 course tasting menu at $45 is a steal and a great way to try new things!

• Pros: $45 6 course tasting menu!
• Cons: Can't think of any!

05/24/08

MMMMM... This is what dining is all about!

by zachary1childress at Citysearch

I do not usually write this sort of thing, but I felt compelled to after last Friday. The food was top notch and the service was good. The berkshire pork belly was delectable and the wine was skillfully paired. Highly recommended.