FoodParc

It’s been a while since I found this place through Serious Eats and it was sad to see it go.
While the prices were expensive, for a while they did offer a nice combo deal on the 3B Burger (Still one of the best burgers to be found in the Penn Station area, Shake Shack withstanding.) I also really liked their dumplings and Chinese Ribs I got from their restaurant. It was similar in concept to K-Town’s Food Gallery 32 Never got a chance to try the Italian sandwich. And now, I never will…

Crap!

This was convenient for us to drop in in the morning from our hotel next door and grab a coffee and some breakfast food on the cheap. And their bacon/​egg muffin sandwich was the best, fresh breakfast version I’ve ever had. Very good.
There were other options there (burgers, salads) but we only had breakfast here. Interior is reminicent of a «food court» but you can eat out on the patio or at nice booth tables. Worked well.

Upscale fast food in an ultra modern food court done well…
I had breakfast here, with my daughter, two days in a row and it was consistently better than average for what in essence I describe above.
My daughter loved the whole ordering on a computer thing, and the modern setting. We got lucky that the weather was perfect so we were able to dine outside on their huge patio on two beautiful breezy mornings.
Over the two days we had french toast, pancakes and the breakfast sandwich with Pat LaFrieda burger, cheese and fried egg (I believe it’s called the Hangover… which it would be great for). We had fries one morning and hash-​browns the next. I recommend all of the food. The burger was cooked perfectly, flavorful and almost too much for breakfast.
I can only imagine this is a madhouse at lunch… not sure how much I’d enjoy it in a packed setting… I’ll stick to breakfast if it’s convenient. I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat at Foodparc even though it is very good.
If you’re in the area it’s worth a try.

A couple of girlfriends and I came here for dinner. Looks like a food court once you walk in, but you don’t order at the booth. Instead, there’s a row of touchscreen kiosks on your left to order your food. Once you go through pages of food that’s available, you place your order, pay with your credit card, a receipt prints out, and you wait until your number appears on the big screen, then you pick up your food at the respective booth. This self-​serve concept is pretty awesome, and I enjoyed the experience.
I ordered a salad at the salad booth, forgot the name. My friend also ordered a salad and said her salad was the freshest she’s ever had in the city, so that’s a plus. My other friend ordered a burger with fries, and the fries were thin and crispy.
The food they offer is typical American, but I really liked the ambiance and cleanliness of the place. There’s both indoor and outdoor seating, and although we sat inside because it was so humid out, it was really pretty and the light displays are pretty cool to look at. I’d like to get a beer next time.

I came here last week intending to use their FREE WIFI and get a beer. I ended up getting the beer and talking with the really nice bartender, Jacob, the entire time. We bonded over him having to explain to every single customer who wanted a beer that they needed two tickets instead of cash. You have to buy tickets from one of two different counters, but are not able to at the bar. I think they are trying to make a beer garden type of experience, but it came across as confusing. Anyways, the point is, I had a great time drinking my beer and talking with the Monday night bar regulars.
The bar is not that crowded on a Monday night and is a great spot for coming to by yourself to get some work done.
If you work in the area, its a great place to meet someone after work for a quick drink.

3.5 stars… more cool food options in this food loungey joint
Tanorreen/​Quality Greens
Eds fish stuff
Great concept, fab food loungey seating, confusing ordering scenario– if I dont use the machines which do not include new food options– do I need tickets???
Eds– 4 littleneck clams for $ 6 or two tickets came with two sauces, I went with aoili and cocktail– Super! Horesradish was listed, but MIA
Pat La Frieda hot dog– grilled outside on a potato roll with relish, mustard and red pepper ketchup– $ 3 or one ticket was a WINNER– WEINER!
This spot– is in my nabeish and near a burgeoning destination should be GREAT… my recommendations
1– Fix the machines to include all food options
2– If people want to order directly, lose the confusing tickets and just talke the money. Staff is also a tad confused by this system.
3– Make sure staff reads the food descriptions

I seriously love this place. I was initially annoyed by having to order at the kiosk but I’m so over it. During my first visit I had the tastiest fries and these perfect dumplings! I’m sold. I love that there is outside dining. Food is simple, chic and cheap. One peeve I do have is the disorganized way they give out drinks and different counters. I’ll have to make a 3^rd visit to give my final review on that aspect. But like I said «I LOVE THIS PLACE.»
And for my single friends there is lots of cute eye candy. There is a beer parc and they show movies. Only in NYC can you have this much fun mixing and matching meal, sit stadium style to people watch and watch cuties.
Yes! I said it, I’m watching the cuties! And that’s all I do. WATCH. xoxoxo

Love the space. It looks great.
The seating area is pretty huge and there’s a great amount of space outdoors too. They could use some more air conditioning because it was hotter indoors than it was outside. The huge windows turns it into a greenhouse.
There were also a bunch of flies hovering around us indoors.
They have a tiny amount of power outlets too.
I can’t say much about the food. I haven’t tried it yet.
4 stars only for the fact you can sit around and do a bunch of work and nobody really bothers you.

This downgrade is specifically to the Cobb Salad that I got there which, unfortunately, gave me food poisoning. I mean, I was out for the count for about 48 hours. I was barely able to leave my room at the hotel for a presentation at work. I spent almost two days in and out of bed/​the couch, eating mashed potatoes from room service.
No bueno. I haven’t been back since then because, well, it was the first time I’ve ever had food poisoning. Of course that wouldn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.
Ha! I made a funny…

The inside and outside are nice-​ahh to enjoy some fresh food and drinks at their lil’ outdoor seating space with a fountain and everything. The upstairs looks like a lounge, too.
The food is mediocre, just like any other food court. You order everything yourself on their touch screen. Just like any other place I’ve been to that does that, the food is never impressive. Why is that?
Major plus: free wifi

Came here with my colleague Dee before heading back to Queens after a client event. We both had pasta dishes and I ordered a soda.
The concept is crazy cool, I especially liked that I could put in my own order and swipe my own card — I’m simple-​minded in that way.
I like their intense integration with FourSquare (sorry Unilocal check-​in!), and their-​text feature for when they tell you the food is ready.
The pasta itself was great, but silly that it was on flat bread that I’m obviously not going to indulge in after eating pasta.

Great Concept, Terrible Execution.
PRO: This place looks awesome — it was designed by the guy who did sets for Blade Runner. When they get it right, the food is pretty good (I usually get a burger at 3Bs). Benton’s Bacon (one of 4 types of Bacon they’ll put on a burger) is simply amazing.
CONS: Today was the third time they’ve gotten my order wrong. This place has a state of the art touch-​screen ordering system, but they can’t seem to actually make a burger to order. I’ve been there about seven or eight times, and on three seperate occassions they’ve gotten my order wrong. The first two times I brought a burger back to my office to discover they’d but cheese on it. I didn’t order it, but there it was. There go two $ 7 burgers in the trash.
Today it happened again, but I got in the habit of checking the burger now so I noticed it and brought it back to the counter. No apology, just a «let me see your receipt». The cashier proceeds to argue with the cook, who finally makes another burger. I decide to check it as well. No cheese this time, but now they’ve forgotten the bacon. Back to the counter, and more arguing, and another wait until they finally decide to add the bacon.
This place has enormous potential… cool food in a cool setting — but I don’t think I’ll be going back.

So it seems people are saying FoodParc went down. I’d walked by a few times, and finally came in to enjoy a night of the food/​beer park buzz. It was ok. I really like the concept, and I always think the city can use some more al fresco spots, esp. during the summer. But the food wasn’t the best. And it’s just a glorified food court.
And as for the beer, I didn’t try any because I’m not a beer kind of girl. All the guys I was with though, did, and they seemed to have a decent selection. Just note you need to get tickets (2 I think), then line out at the beer booth and get what you want on draft.
I was at a loss about what to get– and about also HOW to order. The order system is not an intuitive one. Once you get the hang of it though, it’s not hard to figure out… just sensitive and might take longer than the architects of this food court planned!
The Italian place (Fornetti) didn’t seem to be offering much. Their signature were these flatbreads that had pastas ON TOP. Seemed a little gross. The Press, was as its namesake suggests, is just coffee and the like. The Red Farm Stand, is a yuppie Asian place. I had a duck bun from here and it was all wrong. The duck itself was nicely BBQed and not bad, but there were barely any picked veggies, and the bun itself was a hot dog/​hamburger type of thing, not a traditional bun you get at real Chinese place (folded, Mian bao bread). My bf also had one of their udon noodle soups with pork and he said it was incredibly salty.
Then, we also ordered fries, and these potato hush puppy things from 3B– the burger joint. Friends of mine got the classic burger and said it was awesome. The fries were really delicious– thin, seasoned, and very potato-​flavored. The hush puppy things were not; super overly fried, greasy, with too oil over bacon and cheese. Not a fan.
Determining when the food is ready is also hard– you need to look up on the screen toward the back patio, and brown means ready, orange is that your order was received. Not sure why they chose so like colors. Food take 10 – 15 minutes to be ready. I assume they do receive high volume order, but I can’t imagine any of the stuff is made to order (not at 3Bs, which mind you doesn’t have turkey burgers :(- don’t eat red meat) so it shouldn’t take that long.
As for the beer parc– the outdoor seating is nice. There is a spacious patio out back with tables. You can sit inside too, around the corner of the beer stand but finding a table can be hard. There a few flights of stairs,.
Meh. I don’t think I would come back for the food– but not willing to ride it quite off yet. The concept is better than the content.
It’s not too expensive– average for NYC. About $ 6 for my bun, and another 3 for the fries and hush puppies.

I’ll admit it — eating out in a group is sometimes a big pain. You’ve got diversity of palates and appetites, different price points, and the dreaded awkward multi-​person bill split at the very end (please don’t tell me that I’m the only one who has handed a waiter 7 people’s credit cards before). We do it because it’s great to catch up with friends, or you’re eating with coworkers, or well, it’s just more fun to eat with others.
Well, the recently opened FoodParc, a casual dining option in Chelsea, addresses those issues. With four different food areas (burgers, Chinese, Italian and café) and a unique and simple ordering system, FoodParc offers superb quality at affordable prices. I recently created my own four-​course meal at FoodParc, including that mouth-​watering burger above. What else did I devour? Keep reading…
The first thing you’ll notice about FoodParc is the sleek, minimalist décor, designed by futurist and design artist Syd Mead (you’ve seen his contributions in Alien and the original Tron). The next thing you’ll see is the row of monitors. Instead of ordering at the counter, you place your order and pay at any of these monitors. Here, you can place an order for any of the four food options, as well as pay for your food. You then monitor the progress of your order on any of the screens and pick it up once its ready. The whole process took less than 5 minutes.
Ok, so the concept is simple yet cool, but how did the food taste?
I first started off with the shrimp and watercress wonton soup from Red Farm Stand — at $ 4.95, it was slightly more expensive than Chinatown wonton — was it worth the extra price premium? I took a tentative bite and was pleasantly surprised! The broth was light but flavorful, and the wonton had large pieces of whole shrimp (vs. some of the mashed up shrimp you find in subpar wonton). Even my eating buddy, a huge fan of the Chinatown hole-​in-​the-​wall deal, was won over.
I then moved onto the 3Bs Special burger, with a No.7 Hanger blend, American cheese, secret sauce, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and crispy onions. For good measure, I added bacon (of course). While adding bacon to a burger is usually a routine action (wait, I’m not the only one, right?), 3Bs upped the ante by offering FOUR bacon options. I ordered the Neuske’s bacon — thick cut and heavily smoked, it held its own in the two-​hands-​needed burger.
Is it possible that a bacon cheeseburger can actually take healthy? I’m sure it’s not as good for you as, say, a salad (blah) — but you could definitely tell that all of this burger’s ingredients were fresh and high-​quality. No greasepots here!
For my beverage option, I ordered the rootbeer float from 3Bs. 3Bs uses Blue Marble organic vanilla ice cream for their floats. I admit that I was skeptical as to whether I could tell the difference between that and let’s say — Edy’s; however, I was a convert after the first slurpy bite. Dense, creamy and buttery, this ice cream definitely felt and tasted more luxurious!
To finish off the meal (as if the rootbeer float weren’t enough), I ordered a PB&J cupcake from The Press. Yummy yummy.
Cupcakes can be hit-​or-​miss, but this one was done very well, with the cake itself tasting of peanut butter (kinda like a snickerdoodle cake, yummizoid!) and lo and behold — a jelly surprise in the middle. It was a perfect fourth course to end my FoodParc experience — mmm!
FoodParc is a great option for casual dining with a group of people — the menu is diverse enough to appeal to a multitude of tastes, and there is none of that awkward bill-​splitting. Additionally, the food is relatively healthy (ok, if you don’t do the wonton/​hamburger/​float/​PLUS cupcake combo I did). If I worked closer to FoodParc, I would definitely frequent it for lunch on a regular basis.
Quality food options at a good price.

OMG, I am addicted to their coffee called «Bön Bön»
(A latte made with condensed milk)

Okay this is between 3 – 4 stars… I’ll be nice until I go again and if I don’t like it… its gonna get degraded.
I get why during the week it would be a fun place to go for a fast lunch prepacked to go out, there are tons of places to sit down, and the orders are out pretty fast. They use tons of technology so u can monitor your food at the bar if you wanted to. You order by the screen. So most people end up going to get the dumpling king’s spring rolls, pork buns, and etc. BUT why not just go to china town a mile away and get things ¹⁄₅^th of the price (literally). Nothing worse than over price chinese food when you actually have a chinatown near by. Okay if your meal is company expensed and you really need to hit that $ 25/​day expense. then maybe its a good idea to order it. The asian stand wasn’t that impressive remotely BUTTTTT the PASTRAMI roll and the FLATBREADS when you walk in and look left are amazing and deserve 4 starts. They put the meal basically on the flat bread and then the bread is just AMAZING… yumm.
Everything else was good but not that noteworthy!

I think the concept of this place is good. The food that I had wasn’t bad either. The fact that you can order in person or at kiosks is sweet and shortens lines. They have big screens to show your order status and a decent amount of seating. It’s not really a food court or a restaurant; it’s a cross between the two. They have a bus boy clean tables after you are finished eating too.
They have a full bar, coffee, sandwich, burgers, and asian.

This is as close to «flying cars» or «minority report» that we have today.
(even though Wawa’s in South Jersey have had touch terminals for ordering for about 5 years now)
Walk in.
Be greeted by the tight clothes, perfect smile and cheery host.
Walk up to a terminal, and pick from 4 different vendors. (Chinese food, and burgers as the anchors)
Build your food order, or your burger as I did.
Swipe your card, (debit or credit) and wait around near the counter, until they call your number.
Good burger, from 3B’s, but I want to see this place on a busy lunch hour rush and see how it all works. (not a lazy Sunday pre lunch rush)

Always a sucker to check out a new place, I popped in here today. There are multiple stations, like a mini food court sort of deal: coffee, flat breads, burgers, ice cream, Asian.
The place was teeming with people, but there are tons of kiosks at which to place your order. I love not having to deal with a human… in most cases. In this case, I canceled my kiosk order and went to one of the few cashiers because it’s impossible to tell on the kiosk how big the portions are. The cashier was able to guide me in ordering 2 small items from the Asian food menu. I guess the kiosk is better if you know exactly what you want.
The pork belly bun (like a mini Asian sandwich) was really yummy. Tons of meat on there. The veggie dumplings were also outstanding. Very flavorful and fresh. They were pan seared, but I wonder if I had asked if I could have gotten them steamed.
The staff is very attentive. There is some seating around the food stations. As I ate, a staff member behind the counter chatted me up and asked how I liked the food and the iced green tea. He seemed genuinely interested in my feedback. He said a lot of people have said they prefer unsweetened tea and they are making changes to the menu all the time, so they might start offering it. Because of the changes, I assume, is why there are no menus to take away. Does this mean they do not do delivery, I wonder?
There is tons more seating in the back. The whole place is very well-​lit and modern-​looking. Next time I will try a flat bread pizza thing.
To the person who says there is no salad station: Does this neighborhood really need yet another salad bar? There is a salad option on the Asian menu. You can get it topped with various skewered meats. I also will definitely try that at some point. But yes, there are few veggie options here, it’s true.