Reviews & Ratings for Inside Park at St Bart's

07/06/09

Poor brunch

by Johanngpro

You can tell on Sunday Brunch that the Chef is OFF, food have nothing to do with what I read on critic

3pm the wait staff can wait to be off for the day.

• Pros: best location

01/24/09

EXCELLENT new restaurant---an instant classic.

by GothamGrazer

One of the best dining experiences I've had in New York in several years. The atmosphere, service and especially, the outstanding food combined to create a marvelous dinner. We were there for New Year's Eve, and the evening was made complete by an authentic 1930's dance orchestra called Gregory Moore and his Cosmopolitan Orchestra. We dined, danced and had a great time. The only disconcerting thing is that the place has not yet caught on, and there were many empty tables. Hopefully, this will change soon....it would be a shame for this place to not catch on, rather than become the "New York Classic" it deserves to be. Very highly recommended...and a very good value for the price, too.

• Pros: Cuisine, service and atmosphere are all tops; try to go on a night when their orchestra is playing!
• Cons: None at all

10/09/08

Amazing Dining Experience

by dorothynicholso

I had the pleasure of dining at the Inside Park Restaurant several days after they opened and was so very pleased with everything. The food was outstanding....OUTSTANDING, particularly the pork. It was tender and succulent. As a starter, we had the goat cheese, corn and leek fondue...an amazing combination of flavors. The food was so very enhanced by the elegant yet warm atmosphere and the top notch service. I plan to go back many many times. I highly recommend Inside Park at St. Bart?s.

• Pros: Food and atmosphere
• Cons: None

Talented haute barnyard chef Matt Weingarten creates a luxe farmhouse menu in a neo-Byzantine midtown church space.

by Josh Ozersky

In Short
Spaces this nice rarely house exceptional restaurants, mostly because they don't need to. But in bringing good-cooking obsessive Matt Weingarten as chef, the owners chose wisely: Weingarten's brand of new American food, marked by three or four strong flavors (preserved cherry, prune-hyssop butter, caraway dumplings) combined with big, wood-roasted proteins, usually of the heritage or grass-fed variety. The cozy food plays against the soaring space, and makes for a unique dining experience.

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