11/06/09

Good Food

by Ella72

It was my first time eating Chilean food and it the food was real good. The beef empanad with the salsa that the restaurant makes is delish. My only issue with the place was that they took forever to take our order. Twice we ordered wine and they forgot to bring it to us. They tend to forget about you. Which get a little annoying after a while.

• Pros: Good Food nice ambiance
• Cons: The wait staff forgets about you

09/05/08

enchanting food!!!!

by mrspeer

walking in restaurant row,

i stop by this enchanting restaurant and i felt under the spell of wonderful flavors,

the best of chileans wines and the most friendly staff,

the prices were just ok,but seriously,worth it...

i can't wait to go again...

03/03/08

Overpriced, bad service, average food

by Antar

Chilean food is great, so it is particularly sad that this place is so bad. It is WAY overpriced (expect $60 per person at the very least without drinks). The food is good but definitely NOT that good, so you should really avoid this place. It seems most people already do, for the place was almost empty the whole evening. The service is awful. The waiter was obviously too concerned about the check and the upcoming tip to be really nice and helpful (the kind of guy that will always suggest the most expensive food, etc) and he was constantly trying to make us buy more stuff (another drink? another bottle of wine? a salad with your entree? etc.) Not worth the money at all. For $70+ per person there are tons of better places in NY.

• Pros: Chilean food
• Cons: Price, service

02/23/08

Great food but way over priced

by Jr22173

I only discovered this place recently while searching for someplace different and unique to take my date after seeing a play. I had read other reviews that called it overpriced, and that back in its hey day it offered much better food at a much better price. The food was terrific, it really was, both me and my date were pleased with the portions, the flavor, the seasoning, and the care that went into our meal. The ceviche is a prize, and the wine list was superlative. Our waiter was super knowledgeable and very friendly

So what is wrong you ask? The one part I can whole heartedly agree with is the overpriced part, way over priced. Considering there are so many places to eat along 46th street near 9ave and they are all competing with each other, you would think a very wise thing to do would be to make your menu, as good as the food is, more affordable for the after theater crowd. The best places in New York that are packed night after night and have meals that are affordable but with an atmoshere that says relaxed yet sophisticated. When we entered the place was nearly empty accept for one another couple. That should not happen on a friday night, especially when you are one of the few if not the only chilean place in town, you should have people lined up outside to get in.

Overall, there are much better places in the city to have a first class meal, at a much lower price theshhold. Pio Pio has become one my favorites, along with a few others.

Only try this place if you really want something different, or if its a really special occasion and you are willing to shell out for it.

• Pros: incredible food, great wine, smart friendly wait staff, very romantic.
• Cons: way way over priced for the area it is in.

01/02/08

Didn't quite live up to our high expectations

by iwabi

We had dinner at Pomaire last weekend with our college age niece, who had spent a semester in Chile and was anxious for us to taste the native cuisine. She loved Pomaire; the rest of us...not quite so much.

The restaurant has a nice feel; it is bright and cozy, and the owners/waiters are mostly friendly and accomodating.

The empenadas were fantastic, as was the corn topped casserole (pastel de choclo) ordered by the niece. The sangria was good, though my husband's glass had more fruit than wine. The fava bean salad and the tomato salad were fairly tasty, but with similar vinegarette dressings, not overly exciting. The dish which I was most excited about, the Pulmay, a seafood stew with clams, mussels, pork, chicken and potatoes was actually the most disappointing. It sounded delicious, but it just didn't quite come together the way I had hoped. The broth was tasty, but the shellfish seemed a bit overcooked, the potatoes a bit undercooked, and the pork was a chunk of pork fat (maybe I should have known, as the menu says, "smoked pork"?).

We split three appetizers, two salads, two entrees, two desserts and 4 drinks between the 4 of us and the bill was approximately $165 (before tip), a bit more than I expected from a restaurant that says in its menu that it is one of the best values (in the theater district?)

• Pros: ambience
• Cons: expensive

12/13/07

Great Ambiance, Friendly Staff...Too much $$$

by marisolicious

We got there and while the place is small, it's beautifully decorated and has a wonderful warm ambiance. The staff, espescially the manager, was so helpful and knowledgable and made you feel welcome. He even gave us (party of 5) some of their signature wine at the end of our meal, free. And while the food was tasty and unique, I find that the price for the dishes were a bit much. For example, I had the seafood soup and it was 30 dollars! For a little bowl of soup? That had a couple of shrimps and clams?? It was delicious, sure, but even though everyone at my table found the food to be yummy, they didnt recieve nearly as much as they were paying and were left wanting at the end of the meal. Great place, but if I'm going to be paying so much for a dish I should get my money's worth.:-(

• Pros: Beautiful spot, nice wine selection, awesome sangria, food ok too
• Cons: expensive!!!

11/18/06

Excellent in every category.

by daihwa

I love this restaurant and will go out of my way to eat there. First is the food - it's delicious and very well prepared. I was thinking about what we ate there days afterwards. What we ordered: ceviche, empanadas (which were very fancy...for empanadas), steak (done perfectly), and seafood casserole (the best dish, i thought). Second is the wine - WOW! We're not wine freaks, but the vino they had there was amazing. Third is the service - really nice, really prompt. Fourth is the decor - not foo foo, very folk-artsy, but very classy. Wish we got dessert, but we were way too stuffed. Oh, and the little bread things they served before the meal were good, too.

• Pros: Food is memorably great, great service, great ambiance, great wine
• Cons: Not really a con, but the seat-backs tip you towards the table...to encourange more eating?

11/02/06

Great customer service

by bettyboopnro

The food is fantastic and if you have any questions at all about Chilean cuisine the wait staff is very knowledgable without being condisending.

• Pros: Ambience, Service, Food
• Cons: Parking

10/28/06

Very disappointed!!

by ivafirst

We were great fans of Pomaire for many years, most of all because their special atmosphere brought us a little bit of our heart from Chile, especially for their great ethnic food and very reasonable average prices they used to have in the past. However lately their food and service are changing drastically. The quality of the food is not the same, I will say less than mediocre, the portions are shrinking drastically, the size of the entrees are like little tapas and the prices are highly high for what they are offering. If we talk about meal size, they look more like kids menu. But the prices are ridiculous outrages!!!

We will stop going because we were disappointed for many things we didnt like it in the last couple of years, but like everything in life we want to believe that maybe was just a bad day. Unfortunately there were many bad days and this past month of October, 2006 was the one that got on the top of our patience, and Im sure it will be the last time at Pomaire after the service and poor food we experienced. We returned an entree that we didnt like it, and they didnt have the courtesy to apologize and offer something else instead. And they even charged us the food that we returned. That was a shame! We are completely disappointed as Many of our friends that feel the same of us, and they do not going back to Pomaire any more for the same reason that we mention above.

• Pros: ambience
• Cons: prices and quality of food

10/19/06

Lovely rustic setting. Great seafood and deserts. Welcoming/knowledgeable restaurateur.

by asommelier

Pomaire is a hidden gem in the theater district/restaurant row (often crowded with Italian restaurants) and perhaps the only or one of the few places specializing in both traditional and nouveau Chilean in NYC. Chilean food is not as spicy (which we like) as other Latin American fare but Pomaire's cuisine is always tasty and hearty. The Congrio, is a personal favorite, a white fish often topped with creamy sauce. Other dishes I've tried are the Chicken soup with vegetables, Paella Chilean style and the spiced pork. Finish these off with either a crisp Chilean Sauvignon Blanc or a fragrant Malbec. The deserts are delicious too! The wait staff is friendly and the owner knows and enjoys great food and wine (it shows when he doesn't neccessarily suggest the most expensive wine on the list). The restaurant itself is rustic and feels homey and art by local/Chilean artists often adorn its walls. Places like Pomaire are getting rare in NYC where restaurants tend to be treated more as a "place to be seen" and offer great "people/celebrity/starved model-watching" but not much else. You are, after all, there to EAT!

• Pros: Hearty food. Friendly staff. Cozy setting.