Frame Gourmet Eatery

I WILL NEVER EAT HERE AGAIN. This is saying a lot since I once purchased a carton of milk from Frame and IT HAD GONE BAD! I work nearby and have frequented this eatery several times. Very $$ for what you get but could give it a pass since the ingredients were (somewhat) fresh. They have a salad special: 1 meat, 1 cheese and 3 vegetables. HOWEVER, if you are a vegetarian, you are NOT ELIGIBLE for this special. Tofu is not considered a meat. Although every other salad bar I’ve visited will give you an additional vegetable if you are not eating meat, this place charges you per topping, making your MEAT FREE MEAL MORE EXPENSIVE than if I had loaded it up with meat. I took it up with the manager, who had nothing to say other than I cannot have the special unless I order a meat. Ridiculous considering vegetables ARE CHEAPER. You are better off eating from a cart or fasting than dropping HALF YOUR PAYCHECK for a mediocre meal.

They essentially shut down between 10−1130am — no breakfast, no lunch is served. If you’re in a bind, don’t expect them to help you out. Poor poor service and rude attitudes

Came here after an interview nearby. Really delicious salad bar. Went with five items — avocado salad, beets, egg salad, salmon, and spinach lentil feta salad. Everything was pretty fresh and well seasoned. Coffee is self-​serve Illy, tasted fine.
As mentioned by some others, this place can get quite crowded and hectic. Queue for what you want, then queue again for the cashier.
This was a little on the pricey side at $ 13. Would be 4 stars if priced better, and 5 stars if they had more seating options and maybe free wifi (would be nice to have a nice sit down casual lunch option in this area)
There’s not many options in the area but as all the Hudson Yards projects come to fruition, I’m sure many more amenities and dining options will follow. Some quality competition should bring prices down.

Love/​hate relationship with this place. I work above it, so I end up eating here ALL the time. The food is fine, nothing outstanding, I’m a little about the B rating they recently received. I will say that the staff is extremely friendly and the food is at least reliable.

Watch out if you order food by the counter they may give your an inaccurate price. I ordered a breakfast sandwich and they charged me more when they wrote the price on the tin foil than what was stated on their menu with prices — I had to alert them and they changed the price.

Stopped here on the way to Javits for a bagel and iced coffee. The employees were very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal! It can be a confusing set up at first glance but it works well. Kind of more of a market than café, but there is a little seating area which looks onto the street.

My office is only 3 blocks away from the Frame, and it literally took an hour and half to deliver my lunch. I kept calling to check on my order, all she told me was it’s out for delivery. Delivery guy was saying the lady didn’t put my order in time. I don’t know who’s lying but I won’t order from this place EVER AGAIN!!!

I had to come eat here because I was up the block for a company training session, so I was new to the area. Not knowing any better plus the snow storm I didn’t feel like walking further, I ordered a beef bibimbap for lunch and it really sucked…“chef” aka mean Korean guy puts little beef that are chopped to bits and mixes with huge amount of veggies… I mean I ordered carrots and got an entire carrot stick shredded on top of 4 other kinds of veggies. So I asked for a little more beef so I could actually attempt to enjoy it and it came out to 4 extra dollars… really? The damn plate is 9.95 and total was 13.95 for barely extra. I’ve had bimbimbap from KTown for less with way better ingredients. For that price he should’ve at least attempted to say thanks. I grabbed a soda and ended up paying 17.25 for lunch. *scratches head. I could’ve ate like a king somewhere else.

Unilocal’s Price Range feature doesn’t tell the whole story. Frame’s prices are «moderate» on the Unilocal scale, but Frame is still expensive *for what it is*. I head over to Frame once in a while, by no means often, when I’m in the mood for something different than the usual places. I always remind myself it’s too expensive for what it is, and yet I’m always still annoyed when I pay. Their food is decent, but I wouldn’t rate it much or any better than other similar places in the immediate area. You just pay more for it, possibly because they bring it in themselves from other places all over the city.

This place is obscenely expensive.
It’s full of super entitled clientele, who will cut you in line without blinking and who are just generally obnoxious.
Their sandwiches aren’t great. The balsamic chicken sandwich is both soggy and chalky.
I really like their ice coffee, although several times this summer they «ran out of ice» (weird, right?)
Be prepared to throw down $ 9 for an iced coffee and a fruit cup.

If I could give them zero stars, I would. The guys making the breakfast sandwiches are completely rude, and the management seems not to care when you complain. Today happened to be the worst. Closing down the sandwich bar WELL before 10am, throwing my sandwich together (literally), and then management still expecting me to pay full price.
Will no longer go there even though it’s close to my office. I’ll walk 20 more feet to Starbucks in the AP building, or the deli on 34^th and 10^th for lunch.

Things I like about Frame:
— avocado salad (though it does get picked over during the lunch rush)
— their premade sushi and seaweed salad
— their iced coffee (you serve yourself so you can get that perfect ice-​coffee-​cream ratio)
— they carry Davidovitch bagels and a variety of cream cheeses in the morning
— all the cashier ladies are very pleasant
Things I don’t like about Frame:
— they run out of everything bagels by 9:15 most mornings
— the hours posted say they close at 4pm but I sometimes see customers still in there after 5 and am generally confused about when the salad bar shuts down
— the prices of the salad bar, Korean food, salads, sandwiches, desserts, etc.
— no basic spinach/​romaine/​spring greens/​arugula to add to the premade salads
— I paid $ 2.75 for a single-​serve fruit Chobani yesterday. $ 2.75! At least they gave me a spoon and napkins but I had to vow never again.
I’ll be back, but not for the yogurt.

At 11:27 AM yesterday I came in here looking for an early lunch. I had never seen this place before and it looked like an interesting place to try.
When I got there there was one person ahead of me who wasn’t being helped yest by the two people behind the counter as they were busy I guess filling out delivery orders or something. When the person in front of me was being assisted I looked at my sandwich options. I decided to get the chicken fajita sandwich on flat bread.
When I ordered my sandwich it didn’t take long to get completed. The chicken was grilled. I can’t be sure about the pieces of red bell peppers– I think they were grilled. There were no onions in the sandwich. When I think of a fajita I think of peppers and onions. There was also processed American cheese slices on the sandwich, which was not appealing at all on a fajita sandwich and they were barely melted. The sandwich also lacked any sort of spice or heat which I expect from a fajita. It was a good sized sandwich for the price, especially considering the area.

booooooooooooooooo!
The food is good but everything at Frame is way overpriced. The hours are terrible and the people aren’t very nice. Just because Frame is one of the few food option in the area shouldn’t license them to rip people off.
If you walk by this place, keep walking unless you are dying of hunger or thirst. Actually, if you are dying of hunger or thirst, go to the McDonalds up the road.

I was a little worried about lunch options in Midtown West being limited to the McDonald’s on the corner and the Starbucks downstairs. Happily, I came across this place on my first day and have been going at least 2x/​week.
The food is amazingly high quality given the volume they are moving every day, everything is executed surprisingly perfectly (nothing is overcooked or undercooked, everything is well seasoned), with lots of tasty and healthy options, as good or better than what I can make at home. I used to work at Google and the hot buffet reminds me of the Google café (except not free, ha).
I’m especially a fan of their fish and their avocado and hearts-​of-​palm prepared salad. Yes, it’s a bit on the pricey side but I will gladly pay them to avoid the trouble of grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning after a healthy, homecooked meal and I actually think the pricing is fair given the quality of the cooking and the ingredients. If you want cheap, head to the corner pizzeria for a limp, greasy slice or a get fat on a super carb-​heavy sandwich.
I also read a lot of reviews complaining about the service. I am not sure what people are expecting from a busy take-​out food court. If the people at the registers are brusque it’s because they are trying to process orders from dozens of hungry professionals during a very high-​volume lunch rush, give them a break! I notice the management staff is always on hand and seem to be overseeing the operations run smoothly.

I work across the street from this place and although the food is really good and high quality, the service is unbelievably rude. My coworkers patron this place everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. We have meetings catered from them often. I see employees almost everyday either inside the place or on the subway or walking to work, and they never smile or say hi. They make it seem like me coming there is a pain and an inconvenience for them.
The place is also WAY overpriced. One time they charged me $ 1 for pad of butter. My coworker needed an onion for a shoot, they charged him $ 1.50.
Although I like the idea of a local restaurant that is not owned by a chain, Id much rather have a friendly mcdonalds across the street than this rude place.

I have had the opportunity to try both the breakfast and lunch here using vouchers.
Breakfast: Not sure if the eggs served are from real eggs as they appeared to be too consistent. Ended up getting sunny side up just in case w/​bacon and no cheese. These were put on a fresh bagel which by default is plain so I had to yell at them for a garlic one. Of course I also asked for Canadian bacon but I suppose they were hard of hearing and gave me regular bacon. In either case, I also requested some lettuce and tomato. They charged an extra dollar per sandwich for the real eggs (they gave me 2 on each sandwich) and for the lettuce /​tomato.
Lunch: Used some vouchers (provided by local training) for various sandwiches during the week. These were OK for the most part. I was quite happy that usually they didnt charge extra for lettuce and tomato but sometimes they added an extra dollar for the grilled veggies. Ended up usually combining vouchers with someone else on training and getting a large miso soup, extra spicy. They simply add red pepper flakes which are finely ground, but the soup is quite good. Another oddity is that one time they provided free chips with the sandwich but another 3 times they did not.
They also have a salad bar, which is on the expensive side at around 10 $ a pound.
The service is a bit poor. Having vouchers for 12 $ each, each day I usually spent around 9 $ which means they made a good amount of change. One day, I had 13 $ and a few cents, but they only let me ‘slide’ after a few minutes of discussion. This is just poor business practice. They remembered seeing me all week (and they know they made money) and then one day they give a huge hassle over less than 2 $.
I would go here again if it were free, however, there are definitely other places were I would leave my 8 $ or so of lunch money.

Wonderful space. Great juices. Gourmet food. Airy and sunny space.
I hate that they close at 4 and start closing (wink) at 3. So after lunch you’re out of luck.

There really aren’t a lot of lunch options all the way out here, so I’ve gotten to know this place pretty well since I eat here at least once or twice a week.
It’s not a place I would normally choose to eat at, but it’s better than a lot of other places in the area (such as the deli around the corner which we have named the Smelly Deli).
It looks nice and more upscale than a lot of the places around the area. There is also a cute sitting area upstairs.
Pluses: They carry good red velvet cupcakes, macarons and a wide selection of drinks. They also have decent sushi and udon (I like the veggie dumplings). The prepared foods section is also pretty good and what I usually hit up. They usually have some type of baked salmon which is delicious.
Minuses: Several coworkers have found a variety of bugs and other things such as glass in their food before. Which is gross. To be honest, there was a panic about the glass but I’m actually more disturbed by the bugs. Despite these issues, I still eat here, which may or may not say something about me… The prepared foods is charged by the lb and I’ve ended up walking out with a $ 18 lunch more than once. Which, needless to say, is not worth it!

I got the gourmet salad bar here at $ 9.50/LB. It is doubling the price of all places around this area. It is definitely using better ingredients and they are boasting no MSG is being used.
However, I don’t see that justifies doubled price. There are a ton of variety here, yes. You can get western sandwiches, burritos, salad and soup but you can also find Korean bibimbop, Sushi, etc. There are also a decent selection of desserts and cookies.
Everything looks very fresh, clean and upscale. And you pay for it.