Hudson Cafeteria

I think I’m reviewing the correct place; I knew this as Hudson Cafeteria (as the Unilocal listing states) but the website has renamed it Hudson Common. Regardless of the name, this is how I remember it when I visited:
This was one of the places where I enjoyed a mid-​day meal before I moved out west. I wasn’t even staying at The Hudson this time around, but had read some decent reviews on their adjoining restaurant and figured I’d give it a try since I was in that part of midtown.
As someone had described, this was reminiscent of an Ivy League cafeteria-​which I wouldn’t know since I never spent any time in one-​with its high ceilings, brick walls, tables and chairs in a dark shade of wood. I’m sure the food here was much better than your weekly meal plan, even for the Ivy Leaguers.
The chicken/​mac-​n-​cheese dish-​simple as it sounds-​was really good, so much so that I still remember it to this day. No truffle or bacon, just home-​cooked taste that you can’t find anywhere else but home. When I went to check their current menu, it looks like a lot has changed where that is no longer an addition to their entrees. I guess good things can’t last forever.
The photos someone posted from 2009 are what I remember, so it looks like the high back end chairs and benches still exist; but the chairs running along the counter are now stools, and there is now some brown leathered couches thrown in to make this a lounge/​cafeteria. Looks like the reviews are a hit or miss now as well, but I’ll have a fond memory of that comfort food.

The concept has changed. It’s now a «walk-​up window order a burger and pay $ 20 for it» kind of place… you’ve been warned.

If you are a slob or someone that doesn’t care about being treated like a prisoner and paying a ton for food, please skip this review.
This place once upon a time was one of the best places to eat in NYC, now as many already said, they changed it into something that makes it the worst possible place to eat, you are better off eating on all 4^th in middle of times sq. from a dirty hot dog stand then eating from this place.
Obviously if all you care about is décor, than run to this place, it looks great, other than that its a terrible experience.
Imagine this, you walk into a place to eat and you must be shown hands on how the system work for you to get food.
Then you take this tray that looks like crap and are told to walk around and take what you like, mind you some of the stuff has been standing there for a while and many people before you looked at it, up close, put their breath on it, then you arrive and take it, and take it.
Who ever came up with this idea should be banned from ever coming up with any ideas.
If you must go here, and you have no choice, say someone said, you either go there or something bad will happen to you, than make sure to always request a fresh dish, dont grab whats been there already.
I feel bad for that host that must walk and train every new guest to the place, how pathetic.
I hope the owner of this place brings back the old style, the old dishes, that spicy steak, that great chicken and pita, the great spring rolls, etc etc

I came for a quick bite to eat before heading off to the airport. Full disclosure, I arrived early, apparently as they were just getting prepped for the evening, but I was told the restaurant was «open».
There is no table service for food. Instead, they have this gourmet cafeteria concept. You walk down the long counter and pick what you like — I hear the brussel sprouts are supposed to be amazing. When I went and stood at the counter, I was ignored as the chefs — or whoever it was behind the counter — appeared to be prepping food and not yet ready to address clientele. It would have been helpful to know if I needed to come back in a few minutes or whatever. I gave up.
The waiter was pretty much useless. Had to go to the bar to order a drink and a glass of water. The bartender said he’d send it over via the server. Some time later, the drink was delivered but I had to request the water again.
It is exceedingly dark except for two ginormous TVs that hang incongruously over the bar, tuned to ESPN channels. Meanwhile, with about 6 bodies in the place, they’re blasting the Killers. None of it seems to go together.
Maybe it’s cooler at night or on the weekend, but at the moment, I kind of hate it.

Used to go here often to eat dinner.
Went this month and the concept has changed from waiter service to «self service, cafeteria» style.
This means it looks like the same nice restaurant it always was, but you have to walk up to an actual cafeteria line, look at food other people breathe on, pick your selection, place it on a bright red, tacky plastic tray and carry it back to your fancy table yourself.
Servers have some kind of tracking device to keep track of your food, but their sole purpose now is to clear your empty plates, bring whatever bottle of wine you order, refill your water and bring the check.
We were totally confused about tipping and didn’t feel this «non-​service» service warranted the typical 20% we leave in NYC, but the server was pretty friendly because it was slow. (we went on a Tuesday night)
Not into this concept at all, especially for the medicore level of food being served. Big difference from how it was in the past and definitely wont go back for food.
The food used to be great. And I might be able to get around this tacky concept if the food was good, but it was mediocre at best.
Totally overpriced: Very small side of waffle fries $ 5.00, which gives you about 10 fries in total. A sliver of salmon is $ 15.00 and comes in a sad little white dish all alone. I would have needed three of these to equal a regular meal, and I’m a very modest eater.

Casual and fun dining concept for the hotel. I was there for dinner and thought it a little odd that the menu felt so formal in the space. Breakfast was better, would suggest using this for casual dining needs and save the formal dinner slot for other places.

Ew. I disliked going to the cafeteria in elementary school and the hudson hotel’s failed attempt at a classy, adult cafeteria.
There are long dark wood tables with benches (no back support) with oversized pewter chairs at the end that resemble a cheap representation of a medieval throne. It has the potential to put an undesirable spotlight on whoever ends up sitting in the «throne,» or only chair with back support. The seating style is communal and is like when you would have to squish on a bench next to kids in elementary school.
They update the cheap plastic tray with a more durable, darker red tray. It looks and feels awkward.
The food itself is lukewarm, small, blah tasting and uncreative. Not to mention way overpriced: it was $ 74 without tip for two people and I only had two small bites of chicken and one glass of sparkling wine.
The hotel itself looks cool, with its foliage-​laden lobby and neon escalator.
I recommend going anywhere but here for dinner.

Really love this place! Ive been here a few times for dinner and light meals. The bar is the best place to sit. The Mac and Cheese is the best thing on the menu.
I love the outside spaces and wandering around the hotel with a glass of wine is really relaxing.
I dont find it pretentious at all. Maybe a bit intimidating at first, but go wander over to the library and sink into a plushy chair and you’ll feel at home in no time!

Ok, it is a bit dark in Cafeteria, alright is is really dark in the whole hotel. Let’s just assume they are doing it not for trendiness, but rather to be green and reduce their carbon footprint. Service at the tables (all communal tables) is a bit hit or miss and is kind of pricey. I say sit at the small bar, where the service is much better.
Get the cheeseburger, it is excellent, I mean really excellent. it is served with a salad on the plate and with fresh fried potato wedges. If you have cojones, order the garlic fries, they are fantastic. For desert, get the chocolate cake. It is really unbelievably good.
In short, sit at the bar, stick with the basics and you will have a great meal.

Food was good, but not great. The anti-​social in me doesnt like the long communal tables, but I didnt mind it this time since there were only 2 other ladies at the very end of our table. They probably minded the 6 of us more than the other way around.
My husband and I shared a burger and fries… I’ve had better. Sometimes food just needs a little salt and pepper prior to cooking. The spare ribs that my friend ordered were delicious, I must say. The drinks were a bit weak and very expensive… I think my vodka tonic was $ 16 and it was only a little more than a shot glass!

My friends and I came here by accident a couple of years ago (we were trying to find the OTHER Cafeteria which we later found out was located in the Village.)
I don’t remember exactly what I had, but I don’t remember being too disappointed either. I’m sure it was pretty good… comfort food with «with the volume turned up» as Ina Garten always says.
Décor felt kinda Gothic to me… with LONG communal tables like we were in High School again.
Definitely worth going to during Restaurant Week… as the regular dishes are a bit pricey for what you actually get.

Decent scene, waitstaff is good. Wine list is pretty good as well. We had a bunch of apps to sample everything:
Spare Ribs — very tasty and moist, definitely recommend you order these.
Mac & Cheese — pretty decent, not the best but decent
Pekind Duck pizza — nothing to write home about. I like Peking Duck but it just didn’t work for me served this way…

I went to this place last week for Restaurant Week. Its $ 35 for the prix fixe menu. I probably wouldn’t have gone here if it wasn’t for its prix fixe menu. Other dishes were very expensive at this restaurant. Especially the mac and cheese for $ 18 (from what I remember), which is a little steep.
My girls and I basically dressed up nicely and went there. When you get the building, it looks weird. It looks a bit out of place and different from the buildings around it. Once you go in, you go up an escalator. When you’re upstairs, you’re greeted with awesome décor. This place is freaking gorgeous. I must say, it could probably be a club if it was done a little differently. The lighting is a little dark when you walk towards the cafeteria but that’s fine, that’s the ambiance.
In the Cafeteria, its a large room with the chefs in the middle of the room, cooking up the food. Tables are all communal, except the ones around the cooking area. They’re long tables and have exquisite kind of king/​queen like chairs at the end of each one. I personally like the décor since I’m into the gothic architecture (but I’m not a goth).
I had the spare ribs for an appetizer. It was delicious. It’s not like the bite and take five minutes to pull off, kind of food. It was very tender and very good. But beware of the mustard sauce if you’re not into spicy things.
I then had the steak for my entrée. It was pretty good. A little rawer than I expected, but good. I tried my friend’s lobster mac and cheese and all I have to say is that I should’ve gotten that. The mac and cheese is really good here, if you’re willing to dish the money for it.
For dessert, I had a sorbet trio: peach, chocolate, and raspberry. My goodness. I love fruit sorbets. (lol). It was delish.
Drinks ARE expensive here. :(That’s one thing. I had a raspberry mojito for $ 15 dollars. I just had one, nothing else. It was pretty expensive.
I have no idea who mixes the music but its a mix of 80’s, dance, and rock music. Pretty good to me. I love music so I tend to embrace it whenever I can.
This place would’ve received five stars if only the tables were kinda more further apart or shorter. I felt strange when a group beside us can hear our full on conversation (since we’re kinda naturally loud) and we can hear theirs. But overall, its good.
Negatives:
Price, if you’re willing to dish good money for drinks and food
Communal Tables
Positives:
Good food
Good drinks
Trendy vibe

As I am a person with not-​so-​much bank, I went to Hudson Cafeteria for Restaurant Week. The space is beautiful and we sat outside in their garden/​patio area.
The menu for RW was pretty impressive — spareribs with peanuts for an appetizer (a nice change from all of the salad only offerings of other restaurants), main course choice of lobster and chorizo mac and cheese (which I swear to you grows back. You take a forkful and there are three in its place. I had enough mac and cheese left over for two lunches — and I like mac and cheese), and dessert was a strawberry parfait that was plentiful with halved strawberries.
Hudson Cafeteria is definitely a people-​watching location. Drinks are fantastic. I had the raspberry mojito and my only complaint was that the glass was too small (especially for the $ 15 price attached to it). Hudson Cafeteria offering its Restaurant Week menu throughout the summer, and I recommend checking it out.
One strange thing though — if you haven’t been there before, the Ladies Room is a little odd. You enter a door, then there’s another door with the most minimalist handle and then when you think there is another door to enter, there are two more handles that lead into two cubicles. Its weird and odd for them to have such strange facilities.

My friend took me to this restaurant on 4^th of July and talk about first impressions! This whole time I wondered why there were well dressed folks lingering in front of the nondescript exterior hotel but let me tell you, when you enter thru the glass doors and walk up the escalators, you can’t help but be blown away by its exquisite, huge chandelier and stunning foliage layout.
With the perfect weather, we asked to be seated outside. My friend ordered the shrimp pasta (confit) dish and I ordered the salmon one– both were pretty good and tasty. For dessert, I had the assorted sorbet which was very refreshing and perfectly tangy and lightly sweet.
Service was excellent but next time, I’ll come for the drinks. There’s a divider for those dining and just having drinks and can I say it’s a first for me to see better arrangements (greenery, lovely chairs, etc.) for people who were just there for cocktails?! This $ 15 you’ll pay to sip on creative cocktails will be def worthwhile.
Whether you’re coming here to eat or for drinks, it’s clearly better to sit outside for the full experience.

I remember back when I got sent to NYC for work on a whim and arrived at the über-​cool Hudson Hotel. I was starving and hit up this hotel restaurant with some co-peeps…we sat at this super long table and felt like we were eating straight out of a Harry Potter movie. So surreal… I remember eating the best gourmet Mac n’ Cheese of my life… it must have had truffle oil in it or something magical… there was a super moist chicken breast on top of the whole thing which was also divine. WOW… now they apparently have Lobster Mac ‘N’ Cheese on the menu!
We found that the hotel bar was also a super hot spot that night… saw Donald Sutherland in the elevator… I would say that it would make the perfect one-​stop NYC destination… except that the rooms are like tiny match boxes (and like $ 600+ per night) so better off staying somewhere else. I would def go back for that mac n’ cheese though!

Great room. Good food. Stealthy service.
Room: Incredibly dim, making the centerpiece the open kitchen around which the dining room is situated. I didn’t like the profiles in the ‘flame boxes’ above the eating bar that circles the kitchen, but other than that, the room has a lot of class. Gigantic cupboards filled with cooking staples adorn the rich, exposed-​brick walls, and there are several large, communal tables with benches on both sides of the dining room (though if you’re a party of 2 or 4 and feeling particularly private (or anti-​social!), it’s possible to dine at your own table).
Food: Try the X-​rated martini with vodka, blood orange liqueur and a splash of lemon-​line soda. Really fantastic. Looks like a cosmo, but tastes exponentially better. Also recommended is the mourvedre — delicious (and went very well with most of our dishes).
The chicken soup was pretty good, but came with over-​oniony bread. The lamb shank was tender and delicious; the shrimp cavatelli was delicious, but they could have scaled back the pesto and ratcheted up the ricotta salata on it (just slightly). The meatloaf was pretty good, and the salmon was pretty standard (and can salmon really be «organic» like the menu says?).
The chocolate bread pudding for dessert was so-​so, and the fruit tart pretty good (the ice cream on it was outstanding, thought).
Service: Stealthy. Drinks would be sitting in front of us for several minutes before we’d even notice they’d arrived. Our server was really wonderful, unobtrusive, and took care of our needs — she was quite good, though there were a couple of times where cutlery arrived after the course had been served.
All in all, a bit pricier than I would have thought (no wines by the glass less than $ 14), but a very good meal. If you’re having a pre-​dinner or post-​dinner drink, see if you can make the restaurant bar. Even though it’s small, it’s far less of a ‘scene’ than the hotel’s main bar.

Hudson Cafeteria was the host venue for a recent birthday celebration for a group of 12. The experience was excellent with hearty food, prompt service and great cocktails.
Ambiance and décor were both exactly what we’d hoped for. Bonus treat: the person picking up the tab or birthday king/​queen get to sit in a thrown at the head of the long banquet tables.

Went for a lunch during Restaurant Week in winter ’09. The appetizer, winter squash soup, was perfect. My entrée — mac ‘n’ cheese with lobster, chorizo, manchego, bread crumbs — was interesting but not something I’d order again. Service sucked.
What really sets this place apart — and earns it four stars — is the space. Soaring ceilings, brick walls, cavernous interior — it’s rare to have a restaurant on this scale in NYC. The bar across the lobby is also a must-​see, with book-​lined walls, a fireplace, and antique furniture. I can’t wait to come back for a drink in summer and try the patio.

Das Hudson liegt sehr nah am Central Park, was aber fast unwichtig ist. Denn das Haus selbst ist der Brüller. Genial gestaltet, vielfältiges Publikum. Die Zimmer allerdings sind furchtbar winzig. Es wird bei 2-​Personen-​Belegung schnell ungemütlich feucht und stickig im Zimmer.
Meine morgendliche Begegnung mit einer Kakerlake im Bad hat nichts mit dem Hotel zu tun, die gibt es in Manhattan in fast jedem Gebäude.

Ich war letztes Jahr eine Woche in diesem Hotel untergebracht. Die Lage ist eigentlich ideal: direkt am Central Park und nur ein paar Minuten vom Times Square.
Das Hotel hat eine atemberaubende Lobby und Bar. alles sehr stylish und durchdesigned. Die Zimmer fallen unter die Kategorie einfach & praktikabel, aber komfortabel sind sie mit Sicherheit nicht. Schon die Hotelflure ähneln einem Labyrinth mit unendlich vielen Parzellen (=Zimmern)… hier wurde wirklich jeder Centimeter genutzt um ein Zimmer mehr unterzubringen. Dementsprechend klein stellen sich auch die Zimmer dardas Bad ist nur durch eine Glasscheibe vom Schlafraum abgetrennt und microklein… das kann schon mal störend sein, z.B. wenn man eine Ablagefläche sucht.
Trotzdem habe ich mich in diesem Hotel sehr wohl gefühlt, da alles sauber und gepflegt war und für die Preisklasse darf man in New York vielleicht auch nicht mehr erwarten.
Für eine Städtereise also durchaus zu empfehlen, für einen Entspannungstrip eher weniger.

Not too crazy about this place. We (party of 5) got seated on this really long table (reminded me of a park bench — except it was painted black). Uncomfortable to sit with no chair backs for 2 hours.
Service was good. Limited menu. Nothing appealed to me. I ended up getting 2 appetitizers: Crabcakes and Tuna tartar.
Crabcakes were ok. Nothing out of the norm. The Tuna tartar was good. They served it with pureed cucumbers, which was new and creative. It was also very refreshing. Other than that, nothing out of the norm. Back music but it wasn’t too loud because we were able to carry on a conversation with screaming too much.

grilled kobe skirt steak war super lecker ! nettes environment