The Astor Room

So I loved this place for brunch.  We had a group of 8. It took a while for the coffee to come, but that was the only annoying thing. I got a coffee, a Virgin Mary, and for my "starter," the donut holes with different sweet jams/sauces - SO good. Then I got the eggs Benedict but with smoked salmon and it was so good as well. The salad and potatoes it came with were fine - nothing amazing. My brother's fries with his burger were really good and it seemed everyone enjoyed their food. $23/person and usually id say that's pricey but its a lot of food and really classy, interesting atmosphere. Definitely want to go back - maybe for dinner!

Really? Is the atmosphere that classy? Personally I find the walls favoring more towards a bath house than a hollywood basement like many have reported it to be. You'll find more posters and pictures of Hollywood in a Johnny Rockets.

What did set the tone was the live performance. The view of the performance was conveniently blocked by a divider stretched across the length of the restaurant, separating the bar and the dining area. Not sure if that added to the Feng Shui, but it definitely prompted shares of "pardon me madamoiselle*" as everyone tried to squeeze through the divider opening to access the bar, bathrooms, and exit. The other diners were mostly in the 50+ and well attired, which resonated with the classical theme better than the decor itself.

For appetizers I went for the pizza bread, served on a pizza peel (lol). For 10 dollars you get a very shareable portion of cheesy breads. Recommended. Fried calamari was thin cut and tasted like stuff I'd get in Dave & Busters (review for that to come.) Too salty and not enough calamari beneath that super fried skin. Not recommended.

Main course... short rib straganoff (25). I was expecting straganoff served in a stew-y texture per our public school cafeteria standards. What I got was a full unsliced cut** of short rib sitting on a familiar bed of egg noodles.The short rib was extremely tender and tasty. Egg noodles were flavorful and freshly made. How do I know? Asian.

On the menu they also boasted the well-known beef wellington. I had not the guts nor appetite to challenge the dish popularized by Britain's top asshole, but its worth noting.

Dessert - nutella crepe (8). These are cut into bite size pieces so your friends can help themselves. It's... well... nutella and crepe resembling the Beijing dessert, the "rolling donkey." It tasted as simplistic as it looked. You can't go wrong with hazelnut. You can serve that shit with fried rice and get away with it. For a dollar more you can go for the Baked Alaska, which looked like a tiny mountain of icecream and dessert. My chubby friend loved it but wouldn't share it so I guess I'll recommend it?

Service was standard. There's a grandfatherly looking maitre'd who will drop by for routine check ups. I enjoyed The Astor Room. No complaints about anything but nothing particularly stood out.

* Yes. That's what I say.
** I've been hearing shit like "baller broke girl" recently so I'm assuming its oxymoron week.

When I went with my friends over the weekend, apparently they were in the process of moving to a new menu and cocktail list.  It was something of a comedy of errors- they couldn't make the "signature" cocktail that I wanted, or the "classic" that one of my friends wanted.  They then didn't have the first two wines that my friend tried to order after failing to get her cocktail.  On the plus side, they make a decent Manhattan.

This is going out of my usual reviewing order, but the service warrants special attention.  Everyone was extremely courteous.  Really.  To their credit, after they also didn't have one of the desserts that we tried to order, the manager came over, apologized for not having half of the things we asked for throughout the night, and gave us dessert on the house.  However, they were just inexcusably slow every step of the way- cocktails (the ones they had) took 20 minutes to get to the table.  And the restaurant was fairly empty, with only 2 or 3 other tables at the time and an empty bar.  The only service sin that compares to making a customer wait in line after they've made a reservation (thankfully, not the case here)  is making a customer wait for service in an empty restaurant.

The food was otherwise a bit of a letdown- the truffled fries were soaked in truffle oil (ew), the flavors of all of the entrees that we ordered were over-the-top heavy, and dessert was unremarkable (but at least comped).

I really wanted to like The Astor Room, and will probably give it another shot because it's a great concept and storied location.  I hope that the service mishaps were a fluke.