Alain Ducasse

There’s no reason to go here. It’s too expensive, staid, and old school. That being said, the food is incredible, and the service makes you feel like you’re dining as royalty.

The ultimate culinary dining EXPERIENCE! I was impressed with every aspect of this place. A definite must for special occasions. And the service! The service! They spoiled me rotten. First of all there is someone to take you to the restroom, then there’s an attendant waiting for you to escort you back to your table. (Maybe that’s overkill) We had the tasting menu and it was probably the best French experience I’ve ever had in the U.S. After our cheese course, there was a waiter that came around pushing a cart loaded with homemade caramels, lollipops & nougats, all individually wrapped.
Waiter: Would you care for some homemade lollys & caramel?
Me: No thank you, I’m stuffed.
Waiter: Hand me your purse.
The waiter stuffed my handbag full of the above candies! Talk about unpretentiousness.
After the maitre d’ put my coat on, he handed me a small gift bag.
Me: What’s this?
Maitre d’: Some homemade chocolate chip brioche for tomorrow morning.
The bag was still warm.
Alain Ducasse, many French kisses to you!

I had a great experience here. The wait staff were doting, and were not condescending, although I understand how a French accent can get people’s back a bit stiff.
I had the tasting menu and some of the dishes were absolutely amazing. A sunchoke purée and a chilled langoustine were especially memorable.
This place goes a bit overboard with the carts. They have an apéritif cart, a cheese cart, a cart of herbs if you want to have a tisane with fresh herbs at the end of the meal, and a cart of desserts that keeps coming back until you surrender.
A couple of caveats: this was for a while the most expensive restaurant in NY. Also, if you do the tasting menu you shouldn’t have any other plans for the evening.

Simply amazing. I was here for Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and father. We were sat at a table that could easily have been for 6. The service was seamless, the food was amazing and great «limited edition» wines. All in all for the 3 of us we spent about $ 1200 and it was easily worth double that.
However, if you are nervous or insecure in fine dining I would NOT reccomend it. You might feel like a midwestern tourist in Barneys.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. The dining room was completely empty when we sat down at 7pm for a pre-​show fine dinner. They seated us in the space right in front of the window to the kitchen. For some reason throughout the night, the lights would flicker on and off. Right before we could complain any more than we had about the lights, our maitre d’ came up to us and said, «Excuse me, your foot is on the light switch.» And, by golly, so it was. What the… that’s great restaurant design, ass. The whole night as the light would come on and off, various waitstaff would come by and tell us things like, «You have very powerful feet. ha. ha.» Aside from paying upwards of $ 700 dollars for a bite of salmon and the smallest quail leg you can imagine garnished with a less than ripe cubic inch of watermelon and one half a sad grape, I would say… this place is still trash. One server for each simple service. There are at least 5 cooks in the kitchen laboring seemingly for an interminable amount of time for 2 of us sitting in the dining room… and these two less than spectacular dishes are all they have to offer? I have been to some pretentious French restaurants, but this takes the stale cake. I feel like an ass for giving this place a try. They shoved a casserole dish of truffles nestled in uncooked rice in front of my face without explanation. Utterly confused, I smiled and commented, «No thank you.» The kicker is this… we ordered the tasting menu, recommended by our waiter, and we explicitly advised him that I was allergic to seafood. His smile assured no bother. Obviously he did not bother to pay mind. I didn’t mind being served a small dish of seafood, but he verbally expressed offense at my polite dismissal of the dish. I said… I am… allergic… to seafood. You… heard… me… the first time. I give this place ten thumbs down.
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Almost a year later, I’m rereading my review, and I can’t help but laugh again. I repeat: Lightswitch! On the floor… Under the table. Where our feet are. The dining room goes dark. Now is that any way to impress a guest comme il faut? Je né pense pas. Really? Ah… can’t wait to read it again next year.

Perfect, that’s why I’m talking about. No mistake for the whole experience. Bravo!