Gastroarte

I came here on an Urban Daddy deal for a tapas platter and unlimited sangria for two for $ 40 with a two hour limit. Decided to sit at the bar, which was packed but not so many people were sitting down in the back for dinner.
Sangria was good, strong and kept flowing. Actually the bartender must have loved us because we got an extra half hour or so for free, yay.
The tapas platter consisted of:
Patatas Braviolis — Good, but typical.
Meatballs — Interesting but they didn’t blow me away
Gernika Peppers over Croquetas de jamon — I actually really liked the peppers, it was different but the croquetas I could pass on.
Empanadillas — Fried, good.
With the unlimited sangrias, there was no way these little dishes were going to fill us. So we ordered …
Sandwich de jamon — This one was the most disappointing. Maybe because I was craving the ones from Spain. It’s supposed to be all about the bread (baguette) and this was buttery toast, like a grilled cheese.
Txistos — I like! Little sausage links deep fried in wonton like wrappers.
Earth dessert — The bartender recommended this and said it was really cool because it literally looks like dirt in a playground. Well, it literally does look like a pile of dirt haha, not sure what’s so cool about that but it tasted good!
I mean they’re your standard tapas, I can’t say honestly anything was too spectacular, I think you pay for more of the visual presentation of the food, but good nonetheless.

I came here with an urbandaddy deal — unlimited sangria for 2 hours and a plate of tapas. The tapas were bad, and they have us a good tasting sampler. We then ordered the charcuterie plate. The salami wasn’t too impressive, but the iberico was delicious. While it was good, I’ve had better tapas in the city and am not sure I would come back.

While I look back at the menu here and think everything sounds delicious, when the food actually met your mouth, it was good, but not as impressive as I had hoped for the price (dinner for two with one drink total ended up being $ 120).
What we ate:
The cheese plate– yes I understand, how can you be wowed with a cheese plate, but I like cheese!
The Bocaditas De Pescado — crispy market catch with Andalucian marinade (marinade of vinegar, olive oil, garlic, cumin, paprika and potentially other spices)
Gernika Peppers with Sea salt
Really, all of these dishes were good, but they were lacking in size (for the price) and also… each felt like they were missing something. It’s that sensation you get when you think you might be about to taste something really spectacular, and it falls short.
I will say that the service here is really incredible; the staff is friendly and helpful and they genuinely give off the impression that they like their jobs, a quality that is not often found.
Ultimately, I think this is a good place, and I could potentially be brought back for the $ 46 pp tasting menu, seems reasonable and looks delicious.

Overpriced for the quality of these dishes. The chef was on the food network. but i wasnt WOW’ed
The pescado tapas were good, but I would stay away from the garlic shrimp… absolutely no flavor.
The waiter we had was so nice and attentive. Very small portions… very.

Gastroarte is where food meets art. When entering, you immediately notice the cavernous space with the hand-​painted matadors and gardenscapes. When ordering the empanadillas and croquettes, we were presented with tapas planted in small artsy arrangements. Very appealing to the eye! More importantly though were the croquettes, a mix of potato and ham! The star of the two tapas choices.
Moving onto the entrée, I’d definitely recommend the lobster and rice. The large lobster meat mixed with the paella rice was utterly delectable. My monkfish, however, was on the opposite end of the savory meter. Besides the grilled corn, the fish dish did not have any tasty things going for it.
To end, we had the chocolate fritters. This is absolutely when the fireworks went off! If you like Lindt truffles, crème puff, and munchkins, this dessert would blow them all out of the water! And of course, the fritters were arranged on a plate like modern art. After the monkfish, this was by the far the redeeming quality!
If there is a next time, we’ll try the cured meats.

Holy happy hour, I approve.
I know a lot of people fully accept that the whole tapas «genre» is a rip off, I mean, real effort must go into making hearty staples like meat and potatoes into prissy little patatas wedges and girly little meat balls. That finesse comes at a price my friend. BUT I will say that Gastroarte does it right and I think their happy hour is a remarkable value. My girl Reesa and I are real cheap, and we intended on using a scoutmob, only to discover HH prices aren’t honored with scoutmob, but the food passing by looked so delicious we decided to stick it out anyway.
Let the record show I had just hopped off a plane coming back from paris, and reesa had just hopped off from london, so we were both 5 – 6 hours jetlagged, famished, and in need of 2 – 4 glasses of sangria each. Having eaten nothing prior, we got nice and juicy after a few glasses, and that is not just a reference to the apples and oranges in the sangria. Normally I would complain the sangria wasn’t authentic, as it hadn’t been steeping with the fruit (they serve it as plain wine, tossed with fruit when you order it and a splash of soda water), but honestly it was fantastic. I’ve had so much mediocre sangria that is watered down and oversweet from the fruit, that this was perfect.
Also — their food is beautiful. After making fun of prissy potato wedges and girly little meatballs, I admit — YES. We ordered the patatas bravas and albondingas. And the patatas were so pretty I almost didn’t want to eat them. $ 8 each during happy hour, and 100% worth it. The service is remarkable too; our bartender was helpful, speedy, and at the end of the night when I accidentally left my satchel below my chair, she ran out to hand it back to me in the nick of time. She waved the gigantic duty free bottle of Pimms in the air (a gift, i swear) and said ma’am! Is this yours?!
I sheepishly took the bottle, nodded, yes of course the damn bottle of Pimm’s is mine, thanked her profusely, and continued down the street wondering why on earth didn’t I order the gambas too!!!

We had a deal for a tapas platter and unlimited sangria (red and white!) for two hours. Thing is, the tapas platter, while delicious, is very small. You can’t possibly drink all that sangria without ordering more food!
So we did, the foie gras was something worth trying for sure. Can’t really speak to the authenticity but I’m not really phased by all that unless the food is flat out bad… which it wasn’t :)
Very trendy spot on the upper west side, good perhaps for a date if you’re trying to impress and she wants to dress up a little.

This place is truly artistic. Ambiance — 5 star, Food — 4 star, Service –3 star… Everything at this place looks beautiful. Every plate looks like a painting or a sculpture. Best thing on the menu? I vote for steak.

Trendy looking Spanish restaurant on the Upper West Side. The space is pretty and so are the people. It’s a loud restaurant and it feels like something important is happening there.
The waitstaff were nice and very solicitous. My wife couldn’t decide on which white wine to order. Our waiter brought her a taste of each. That’s above and beyond, IMHO. Cocktails were excellent. We ordered a couple of bottles of excellent Spanish red wines for about $ 70 each. Our waiter gave us good advice on this. We were out with a group and a friend ordered a bunch of tapas and appetizers to start. Overall, they were OK. The food was a bit too «deconstructed» for my wife. I am not a big fan of deconstructed food either, but the appetizers were good. The shrimp and the charcuterie were good. as was the bread. My main course was «hake balls» which were fish balls combined with other shellfish in a savory sauce. This dish wouldn’t have scared Ferran Adria, but was a bit offputting for my wife– it wasn’t what she expected.
Desserts were pretty good. We were served a post prandial amuse bouche that tasted so strongly of mint that I looked around to see if my dentist was in the restaurant.
Overall– pretty space, excellent service, not entirely sure that I bought into the food philosophy. I had a good time and a good meal. We walked past Café Luxembourg after dinner and I wondered if we would have been happier there. If you don’t like trendy or deconstructed food, this is not your place.

Had a very nice dining experience here. Gastroarte has wonderful décor! The place is beautifully decorated with nice paintings on the wall and the food is plated on hip and fun plates. The food itself was presented in such a nice way that we literally wanted to take a picture of the food. We ordered a variety of tapas (small plates) to share and we were satisfied with what we ordered. We had the Gambas Al Ajillo (shrimp), Patatas Braviolis (fried potato cubes), a delicious pear salad, and a savory carrot cake rather than a traditional dessert dish. The food was pretty good and we would definitely return to try some of the other items on the menu.
The service was decent. The waitress tried to pressure us to order more food than we really wanted but she gave us pretty good recommendations.
Overall, its a nice restaurant close to Columbus Circle and would likely return because we were pleased with the food and the atmosphere of the restaurant.

This place takes their Sangria seriously! That drink was so strong I passed out shortly afterwards! It was very good though!
We sat at a cozy table inside, so I can only speak of the table service and not the bar. FYI, happy hour specials are only available at the bar — for those that are interested.
The tapas were pretty good, overall I had a good meal, but obviously not quite like it the stuff you get in Spain. Perhaps it was just the dishes we ordered (Foie Gras and Jamon), but I felt that it was a bit bread heavy instead of providing a larger portion of meat etc. My dinning companion and I had the gambas, mussels and suckling pig as well. I was expecting huge gambas, perhaps I’ve been spoiled but they were small little shrimp. The good thing was they peeled it for you, which is a nice touch but it doesn’t feel like a gambas dish, more like a shrimp scampi. Now for the suckling pig, I was expecting a little piglet on my table, but what I got was two pieces of meat. Great flavor, but the skin was totally burnt to a crisp — so not a fan.
The dishes are pretty small, you don’t get that much for your money. The presentation was awesome. I really liked the artwork and the ambiance of the interior. The waitress was attentive, no complaints there.

My friend suggested this place because it was near her area on a Sun for brunch around 12ish. The place was empty. I was worried about the bad reviews (for brunch at least). I wouldn’t say bad, just very limited. One thing to mention is that my friend found a Scoutmob discount for 50% off, so that helped.
The good– the décor. As it’s been said– beautiful, spacious restaurant that probably doesn’t turn a profit considering they spent to make it pretty but the food is very mediocre. Cute winter garden in the back. beautiful bar. graffiti on the bathroom walls. Indeed everything is «art” — from wall decos to food presentation.
The ok-​bad– the food. Granted this is Spanish but everything is SO FRIED. Ugh. They don’t have a lot of options for brunch– from tortillas (fritattas, omelets), to other kind of eggs. This is what our server suggested to get «full». Otherwise, you can have a sandwich– we though the fried squid sammy looked good so ordered that to share. We also ordered a tapa to share– the empandilla which was a seafood (mussels, mostly) stuffed empanada. The dough was super fried– yes I know empanadas are fried but this was like fried wonton wrappers– really fried. The filling was meh– I guess I should have been wary of mussels empanadas. $ 11 for four little ones.
My friend got the gastroarte burger which had like a special Spanish cheese and mango salsa. It was pretty big and came with thick cut fries (good but standard– some were mad greasy). She said that the beef was so fatty that she really felt sick afterward. I am now writing this review and feel sick from the few fries I ate. Ugh. Her burger was $ 14 I think.
I got the beet salad with «tempura» goat cheese. I thought this was going to be like you know, quick fried, croûton-​esque goat cheese but it was actually tempura batter. I guess that’s my fault cause duh, tempura goat cheese. But the batter was so thick it really muted the flavor of the cheese. I didn’t taste much honey (allegedly included). The beets themselves were good– got all kinds of thickly wedged beets. $ 13.
Well, the squid sandwich never came. ($ 11) The waitress completely forgot. In the end, we were so greased out that we didn’t want it but that’s a huge boo boo on her part. She was nice and everything– good with the water– but bad with others. Often she looked a little confused and was going to bring us drinks from another table. Drinks here also will get you — $ 3 for a plain cup of coffee (refills included) and $ 3 for OJ from the carton (no freshly squeezed tisk tisk).
After Scoutmob it was a cheap deal, but otherwise I would say nay to coming here either than maybe for wine or something. After all it’s a nice space but eh for food and service.

My gf and I only had wine, a few appetizers and a dessert here last night. We didn’t order a whole meal because we weren’t quite sure about the quality of their food (not a lot of reviews), so we were playing it by ear. We are glad we did.
The place is very nice: murals on the walls, plates wonderfully presented in modern cool-​looking dishes, smart lighting, some back windows that make the place much roomier than it is.
The service was very welcoming. Our Romanian waitress, but she was kind and helpful.
I can’t remember the name of the red wine we had, but it was pretty good ($ 12 per glass).
Despite the beautiful setting and the original display, the food wasn’t up to the task. I wouldn’t say that it was bad, but it was surely unremarkable.
We didn’t have any entrée, so I can’t say anything about them, but we did taste their bocadillos de pescado, and they weren’t memorable… quite plain.
We also had the «kale» (which is not on their website menu) a deep fried (it would have been nice to indicate that on the menu) bundle of sweet potato, kale and I think cheese on a bed of porcini mushrooms and sauce, which looked promising but really didn’t impress me… a bunch of different flavors that were supposed to complement each other, but really didn’t do the job.
For dessert we had the Jackon’s Potluck hazelnut cake, if I recall (still not on the website… and it wasn’t the only discrepancy, so it would be helpful to update the page). Charging $ 11 for that was a crime. It’s a piece of fluffy cake with hazelnuts that is totally tasteless, topped with a piece of super hard white chocolate. The whole thing was decorated with caramel that was so hard you could easily tell it had been in the fridge for a while. The cake itself was so tasteless we were scrapping the plate searching for the caramel to give it some flavor. The plate looked amazing (like most other dishes we saw), but it was horrible.
Overall we had a decent experience, but not because of the food. The place, the service, the fact that we didn’t order $ 30-​plus entrees and a scoutmob coupon made us feel that at least we got something out of it. But considering what and how much we ate, it felt weird that we still left $ 54 on the table.
No reason to go back.

Graffit must translate to «Art on Your Plate.» The presentation of the food was on a scale I have never experienced before! In fact, even the décor of the restaurant was beautiful — there were three separate dining areas that had their own feel that was nothing but class. The service adds to the atmosphere and general culture of the restaurant with smiles and attentiveness.
My friend and I thought we were going for tapas with a blackboards eats discount, but found ourselves in the formal dining room, which has a different menu. I ordered the «Duck with Five Apple Flavors and Textures.» My friend joked that if I didn’t taste five different apples, I should send it back, which left us speechless when the duck came out literally of five different apple concoctions. Every bite was juicy and full of flavor. She ordered the black rice with calamari, cheese, snow peas, and fish roe. I am not a seafood person so didn’t take a taste.
We ended with the Indian Summer dessert — the most beautiful dessert I have ever seen. There were so many different flavors, textures, colors on the plate!
Excited to have this hidden treasure on the UWS!

Graffit truly blew me away. When it comes to presentation, I can safely say Graffit had some of the most elaborate displays I had seen in a long time. Truly, they were pieces of art.
Our waiters were super nice and attentive, and I loved the simple yet classy décor of exposed brick and interesting use of frames.
I’d say the flavors and dishes, while elaborate, were probably a little too powerful. My black rice with calamari, cheese, snow peas, and fish roe was rich. They were an interesting combination, and I enjoyed the bites, but there were one too many flavors on the plate, in my opinion.
I don’t want to diss the Indian Summer dessert because it was truly one of the most beautiful desserts I have ever seen. Nonetheless, the mix of smoked honey, hibiscus foam, butter cake, sandalwood, lavender cream, and one or two more flavors I forget at the moment were a bit over the top. I’m glad we got it for its beauty, but each bite was a bit confusing to me.
Nonetheless, I still give Graffit a big thumbs up for its innovation, ambiance, and audacity.

Graffit, my dear, where have you been all my life? How did I never know of your charming, witty ways? Of your impeccable style and fantastic taste?
With a name like Graffit, you never would expect the beautiful meals and dare I say, elegant, execution. The service is phenomenal and the décor really adds to the gritty yet refined feel.
Jon F and I started with the house Amuse — beets with strawberry mousse and a shrimp with savory granola. A sweet and savory opener with a unique blend of flavors that packed a great punch!
Appetizers were 1) a pear walnut salad, which was refreshing and brightened with a smattering of bleu cheese and quince. 2) Not your average egg stew of fresh spring vegetables and an egg, which appears poached, but is actually the yolk encased in a cream gelee. Brilliant, beautiful, and tasty.
The entrée really did me in. I had a black rice with calamari and snow peas — not only was it a gorgeous dish with bright colors, it was phenomenally executed, cooked to perfection. The sauces melded perfectly and I savored every bite. I can’t even remember what Jon had, I was so engrossed in my dish.
As for cocktails, Jon really enjoyed what he ordered. I can’t remember exactly what the first was, but it had beets and a cream on top, which were a surprisingly good blend. The Empire (pear and bourbon) was also good, although we argued for a bit on a more appropriate name for the cocktail.
While the prices may be higher than you like, I do argue that they’re worth every dime. While molecular gastronomy may scare some, its rather approachable and down to earth at Graffit, allowing even non-​foodies to savor in the creations. I will be back.

This is one of the places that is new and under the radar but you feel something extraordinary is happening and you know it’s going to be huge and soon would be impossible to get a reservation. Like Traif. Graffit easily made the top 5 list of my favorite restaurants in NYC.
Every single dish, from amuse bouche to desert, has a wow factor and every bite made me utter praises of how creative, subtle, harmonious, and delicious it was. Amuse bouche was decomposed sangria — orange granite topped with red wine foam. It set the tone of what’s to come. We had Not your average egg (excellent), Confit artichokes (very good), Suckling pig (very good), and Bacalao in salsa verde (good). For desert we had chocolate tempura (very good) and Apple pie (amazing). At the end of the meal they also served round cookie dough with chocolate chips, polenta, and pistachio. The pistachio was literally out of this world. The cocktails too were excellent. My favorite was «Beet Goes On», with gin, ginger liquor, beets, and celery apple foam.
By the way, if you are sitting at the dining area in the back, they do not allow you to order from the taps menu. I was a little upset they didn’t let me order the pulpo but at the end of the meal I think I understood why, in order to keep the integrity of the dining menu/​experience (although I do not agree they refuse to serve something on the menu that a customer wants to order). Maybe they can train the waiters so they can explain to customers why they have that policy.
I agree with Laura A. This is by far the best Spanish restaurant in NYC.

Tried this place out for brunch: I had some oolong tea, an omelet, bacon, and french fries. The food was alright and did not strike me as innovative at all. The best part was actually the tea.
It was a nice day and the patio was open. The ambience was very nice and the music they had piped in was jazzy and loungy. The service was attentive and quick.
I won’t be back for brunch but I might come for dinner to see if the tapas menu is any better.

Brunch Review (2 ½ stars):
What I liked:
Warm atmosphere, Graffiti (even in the bathroom), coolest knives and forks I’ve seen in a restaurant.
What I didn’t like:
I ordered the Manchego grilled cheese with asparagus. The concept was great, but it was just wayyy to cheesy/​rich. I LOVE cheese, but this was just too much. The little salad that came with it was drenched in salt. I love salt, but I felt like I was swimming in the ocean while eating this salad.
We got an order of churros for the table but were left wondering, where are the rest??? I think there were about 4 churros and watered down chocolate that accompanied them. Having been to Spain I was expecting some gooey hot chocolate and hot and crunchy fried dough goodness… but to my disappointment, this was NOT it.

Brunch review:
I love the atmosphere and décor of the place — thoughtful lighting, small pretty yellow or purple flowers on each table, and pictures painted on the brick wall or wallpaper. I also really liked the very back section with the skylight, where the plants painted on the walls make you feel like you’re in a garden.
Service was wonderful, super friendly, very helpful. They really care about making sure you have a good experience.
The sangria was one of the best I’ve had in New York. Not too sweet, slightly fruity, good balance of red wine, and crisp fruit pieces. Their secret is this peach liquer that they add to give it some nice sweetness and refreshing flavor.
For brunch, you get choices such as a cardamom torija (french toast), chocolate con churros (thick, almost pudding-​like dark chocolate with piping hot cinnamon sugar covered dough that’s crispy on the outside and kind of meltingly chewy on the inside), tortilla espanola, olive oil poached eggs, or super rich grilled cheese with manchego and sweetly fresh green asparagus. The tortilla and grilled cheese were both decent although nothing spectacular, but the side salad they came with were woefully overdressed and limp.
I’d be interested in coming back for tapas/​dinner. While the brunch food was just ok, the dinner menu looks interesting and I absolutely love the look of the place.