Two Times Square Restaurant & Lounge

09/01/08

Boring menu, Waste of money

by Marina_fit at Citysearch

I took my husband there for his Birthday dinner. My husband is Korean and I thought he would appreciate a Korean fusion meal in a nice setting. However, the actual menu didn't have anything to do with the menu posted on the website. Not a single item was either Korean, Asian, Pan-Asian or Pacific. The actual menu was way shorter than the one listed on the restaurant's site, with best dishes not on it. Few of the ones they had on the menu were sold out ( I don't know who did they sell them out to, considering we were the only table at the whole restaurant, and our dinner reservation was made for an early hour). Service was good but the food was beyond disappointing. :(

• Pros: Views are gorgeous, decor is nice too
• Cons: Food and menu

Pan-Asian with a dash of Korean and a heaping portion of Times Square.

by Erin Behan at Citysearch

The Scene
The futuristic, candy-colored innards of the Renaissance Hotel's restaurant seem a garish attempt to keep up with Technicolor Times Square, blinking through the dining room's floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides. However, even the midtown-phobic can appreciate the only-in-New-York view of converging Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

The Food
The Asian menu, dotted with odes to Korean fare, is the brainchild of consulting chef Zak Pelaccio. Most of the dishes--such as the generous portion of unusually moist chicken wings, served with fried curry leaf, or the intensely tender and flavorful hangar steak--leap skyward from usual Times Square fare. But there's no magic or cohesion to the menu, and off-notes like a bland ginger chicken or oversalted sides make the price tags hard to swallow. The dessert riff on Vietnamese iced coffee is a welcome ending, unlike coconut sorbet sandwiched like a hockey puck between black sesame cakes.

Hits: The view of Times Square can't be beat, and many of the dishes show forethought and high-end ingredients rarely seen in the area.

Misses: You'll likely be eating in an empty room with servers more used to delivering hotel restaurant service rather than that of fine dining--while paying fine-dining prices.