Le Cirque Cafe

Nice place to sit, have cappuccinos and chat. Not too crowded and live music on some nights. We ordered calamari and grilled octopus to share. They were ok and the cappuccinos were tiny. I will try their restaurant then really decide if I like them or not.

This is one of the best deals in the area. They do a prix fixe at lunch for 25 and at dinner for 38: an appetizer and entrée. These are not restaurant week portions. A few things are +5, but most not.
The tuna tartare is not good. The fish is tasteless and the flavoring/​preparation is very weird; I do not recommend. I had eaten both breakfast and lunch, so I didn’t want a big dinner and went with the vegetable cassoulet. It was atop polenta, I think, or a very unusual and rich but not plentiful mashed potato. I’m not a vegetarian but it was very good. I love the bread basket and the sweet butter is addictive. My friend had the steak, which was tender and well-​flavored.
The great thing about LCC, aside from the reasonably-​priced food, is the Monday night jazz. Matt Baker, a deservedly well-​known jazz pianist, arranger, and sometime cabaret musical director, appears with his band – the Matt Baker Trio– one Monday a month. Nicolas King, a singer in Florida, flies up. They’re wonderful and well-​worth a disappointing tartare.
I also like that the list of wines by the glass features a cheap red and cheap white. When you’re watching the bill, it’s nice to have a 12 buck glass in a city where 16 is now average at a nice restaurant. Bottles are comparable to LA and other major cities (and now LA is beginning to adopt this maddening practice of charging 16 for the decent wines and 19 for the better ones).
The service is, well, what you would expect from this New York institution in the Bloomberg building. The café is overdue for a renovation. The red is dated but classic and sort of reassuring in a city so changed over the last 15 or 20 years. The service is old school (in a good way).
It’s fun to see the wall of photos by the bathroom: Martha Stewart pre-​jail, Trump’s first ridiculous wife, Pope John Paul, and so many others.
The martinis are strong and large. I don’t mind paying 17 for a martini if it’s substantial. Another irritating trend in Manhattan restaurants is the downsizing of martinis served in a Sidecar glass. So wrong. Martini glasses are cone-​shaped triangles. Not itty bitty Sidecar glasses.
But if you go on a night with music, it’s terrific. There’s no cover and Matt has played Carnegie Hall. He is receiving a Bistro Award this year. And it’s the best entertainment deal in town for jazz.
The fact that it’s only 4 blocks from my apartment doesn’t suck.
Husband-​wife duo Michael Garin and Mardie Millit have just joined the Monday music team. Their CD, «Hey Look! It’s Michael and Mardie» is on iTunes and both perform separately and together around the city.
If you like chocolate, they have a giant chocolate «bar» words really cannot capture. But it’s a chocoholic’s dream beautifully prepared by their well-​known pastry chef.

Disappointed. I dine daily throughout midtown at a variety of venues near my office, and picked this one based on reputation, for a special meal to entertain out of town guests. Most of us ordered fish entrees. Presentation was poor — the flounder and cod dishes looked identical and both were strangely rectangular and oddly finished… as though they’d been frozen in that shape in a box before cooking. One of us ordered a steak; he too was underwhelmed. I’ve had meals for a fraction of the price that were superior. Service was decent, perhaps because the restaurant was surprisingly empty. Octopus appetizer and affagado dessert were good, not great. But given the aura this place tries to cultivate, and the resulting expectations, it misses by a wide mark.

Tried the restaurant week menu. The food was decent, not too surprise though. Recommend this place if you would prefer a quite place for a good drink.

HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!
The staff is rude and snotty!!! We WERE loyal customers until now. We will never return. They are argumentative. For the price, there are many other restaurants in the area that have better food and attitudes. DON’T BUY THE GROUPON! As per Groupon, it was 100% the fault of the restaurant, as they provide the availability schedule. Le Cirque blames Groupon and accepts no responsibility. The Groupon even showed «redeemed» later the same evening that they were closed. Two days later the host said «it’s impossible that the reservation was made for that night», even though we have a printed confirmation on hand. Offering us a glass of cheap champagne on a future visit? How does that even make up for a ruined night, cab fare, and an argument on the phone being called a liar? After several opportunities to apologize and accept responsibility for their error, we said that we would share our miserable experience online, the host said «do it» and hung up on my wife. Well, it’s done, here and in other online forums, as well as verbally with many others. On principle alone we will never return to this place, nor any of its sister properties. A simple «we’re sorry» would have helped, but a yelling contest and accusations do not constitute customer service.

My reviews of Le Cirque will ALWAYS be 5 star as this is truly one of THE BEST places to dine, relax & enjoy a wonderful time. It’s an EXPERIENCE, not just a meal. The staff ALWAYS makes you feel so welcome & comfortable. The atmosphere is one of my favorites & ahhhh, the food! We always look forward to our next time there. If I could give it SIX stars, I would. An ABSOLUTE MUST for tourists while in New York & for natives as well, but I hope my reviews don’t make it too popular that we’ll have issues getting a table! Gloria to Le Cirque & The Maccioni Family! You deserve it!

Music on Monday at Le Cirque Café is a wonderful experience. As with the main dining room, service at Le Cirque is unsurpassed — professional, knowledgeable, helpful and simply very nice to deal with. The menu is more popularly priced, offers an excellent array of choices — but you can order from the outstanding main menu as well.
But the café offers excellent live music — a bit jazz, a bit show tunes, some old standards and Sinatra.
This evening we both enjoyed the skirt steak — one of our favorites. Steaks were perfectly medium rare as requested with a slight char on the surface. My wife thoroughly enjoyed her white asparagus soup and my tuna tartare was excellent. Wine selection by glass or bottle can fit most budgets. The Hall Napa Cabernet is my personal favorite. My wife had an enjoyable Sauvignon blanc.
Excellent service, food and entertainment — hard to get better than that.
We are still sipping on our after dinner coffee, but I am already looking forward to coming back.
Highly recommended

We went with a groupon ticket (115 $) they treat us so different as the rest of the people.
The seat us outside the restaurant in the bar, completely different area from the rest of the customers. They told us it was a groupon area…
Never again…

Had the 2-​items pre-​fix meal… Kinda pricey. The salmon was very tasty, the appetizer was VERY GOOD, much better than the meal, prawns I think.

bad feeling and bad experice
never come again. The food is so good, but the service is so bad. I went to most of michelin restaurants，but first time see a waiter such arrogant and defiant

This place is absolutely wonderful. I had a 1pm reservation for 2 people and we were seated within 10mins. This place is very sophisticated. The décor is very clean and modern. It has a wall of windows so you can see outside and wine bottles in glass panes and cellars as décor. Very nice touch. I recommend you dress casually to fit the demeanor of the restaurant. Now the food…
We selected from the restaurant week menu. My appetizer was Foie Gras «Maison» with apricot, almonds and brioche. It was a texture I had to adjust to but it was still good. My main course was Merlu with rice, lemongrass, and green curry. It was the perfect balance of spices. A nice kick to awaken your palette but not overbearing. My dessert was delicious. I had pineapple with Malibu rum, coconut and bourbon vanilla. Sooooo good. A nice sweet taste.
I highly recommend this restaurant.

The atmosphere of this place is really nice. As for the drinks, my cocktail was pretty good and it was definitely expensive– approximately $ 20 for one. For the appetizers, the summer pea risotto was pretty good and not too creamy. The salmon tartar was alright despite that it was only three little pieces and had more of a sour taste to it. For the entrées, the trout was amazing! The skin was crispy and the meat was moist! However the lamb was a disappointment. As for the desserts, the buttermilk panna cotta and crème brulee were both alright. Overall, the trout was the highlight of my dinner. Oh yeah, the plates used to serve our appetizers and desserts were really childish. It had a monkey on it and made us feel like we went to a restaurant for children. Definitely never expected that.

Came here for a Monday 8pm dinner for two. The appetizers and dessert were excellent, main courses were not memorable but still good. The service from our waiter, though, was abysmal.
After they cleared our appetizer plates, we waited for 45 minutes for our main course. Even the table next to us that came in 15 minutes later than us got their mains 15 minutes EARLIER than us. I understand that sometimes it gets busy in the kitchen, but I cannot accept that there was no explanation or apology, especially when we checked with our waiter a few times. All he did was to ignore us when we raised our hands, or tell us it would be ready in one minute, which it was not.
He was visibly unhappy that we asked for our mains, and only tended to our table sparingly. We were so unhappy that we had to leave a note on our receipt to justify the meager 10% tip that we left. I hope the manager of Le Cirque Café educates this server because he is not meeting the expectations that people have of this restaurant. I will not return to this place again, and if you do not want to be treated the same way, do not patronize this restaurant.

Restaurant Week ’14.
Came here for lunch with my Mom and Karen earlier today. Was amazed by the interior décor, lots of wine showcases and beautiful lights. Our table was directly in front of a wine showcase that was filled all the way to the ceiling and inside, a ladder to climb up for the ones located on the top rack. We were also under the upside down umbrella like lights, which felt quite romantic with the fresh orange colored flowers right on our table.
The restaurant week lunch menu had plenty choices to choose from, 5 different items for both the appetizer, and main, 4 items for dessert.
To start, both me and my Mom chose the Summer Pea Risotto. Was kind of funny we both chose rice, number one because we were Chinese, number two because rice can fill us up. My Mom is tiny but she can eat up a storm. Back to the risotto, green colored creamy goodness. Rice had a nice bite to it, just great, and definitely made with lots of peas.
Next up, we shared the Chicken and the Garganelli. Chicken is made two ways and served on a bed of warm cherry wheatberry, then the white cream sauce is poured right on when it gets to the table. The Garganelli is a fish ragu and served with carrot foam. My Mom has never seen foam sauce before so she was super excited and snapped away many many pictures to show off to her friends. Both dishes were outstanding, but potions were a bit on the small side, luckily we got the rice as a cushion.
To finish off our lovely lunch date, and despite the tiny dishes, of course we had room for dessert. Mommy never had Crème Brulee nor Panna Cotta so got us one of each. Both were executed well, the lemon sorbet was surprisingly fresh and had perfect amount of tart.
Another thing I would like to point out, from the minute we walked in, from the hostess to the waitors, all were friendly and attentive, one even offered Karen a cute little box with chocolates inside, just because! Also take your time and look at the plates of the dishes, they follow a cute monkey theme!

The hostess was rude.
She asked me for the last name on the reservation, when I stated the name, she rudely said I asked you for the last name, and I repeated the name and had to tell her that I am stating the last name. The hostess asked my party to wait a few minutes to be seated. After 30 minutes we had to go back to the hostess and let her know we are still waiting for a table. At that point they stated that our table was ready, it was as if they were not planning to seat us.
Once we were seated, we received better customer service from the waiter. The food was also very good.
I would not recommend this restaurant, the hostess left a bad taste. When you are paying that type of money, you should expect a great meal and exceptional service.
I went to Le Cirque Café on Thursday, March 6 at 7 pm.

I went here for Restaurant Week because I am dirty working class scum who could not afford such otherwise. I’m fairly certain they smelled it on us as well, as the hostess was basically a rude [biotech] but that’s to be expected, right?
But enough about that, I really am not a person to judge a restaurant based on the staff– if the staff is great then it stands out, if they’re not great I literally don’t care as long as the food is good. That said, Cirque Café had a great staff and really great food but… unfortunately nothing really stood out!
The place itself is super swanky and looks great in a stodgy white people kind of way. Everything is shiny and the plates are cute and the wait staff is super accommodating. (One guy mistakenly bumped into me– mostly my fault really-​and even followed me back to my table to politely pull the chair out for me to make up for it. Now that’s service!)
As far as the food went, everything looked gorgeous and the portions were great. The chestnut soup was mostly just mild and sweet, not bad but not outstanding. The pork belly was a great ratio of fat to meat but a bit tough to cut in my opinion– tasted fine though, again nothing outstanding. And then the crème brûlée was amazing– I’ll give ya that.
Soooooo I don’t know. It was a great deal for restaurant week, but nothing really wowed me enough to want to come back again. Alas, I shall continue my search for the best unaffordable restaurant in New York…

I love this place!!!
The location of this place is not hard to find. It’s located around Bloomingdale’s.
The décor is beautiful. There’s a bar and a wine cellar. French restaurant therefore there has to be a wine cellar. The ceiling has umbrellas of different sizes. It’s simple yet elegant.
The drink menu has a good variety from wine to beer to hard liquor. I got a rose wine and it was good and I am not a wine drinker.
The appetizer is really good. I had the gnocchi and I loved it. The food is delicious. The pork belly is delicious. The chicken was good. The salmon was good. The desserts were just as good.
The service and wait staff are super friendly. They do not act snotty or arrogant because the restaurant is a pretty upscale place. Our waiter was super friendly and made our meal wonderful and enjoyable.
The coat check and bathroom attendants were super sweet.
The place is great. Delicious food, excellent wait staff, and great location.

My sister raved on Le Cirque for a long time and since he regular restaurant is very expensive we decided to go on restaurant week and take my parent along too, but to Le cirque café as the regular restaurant at wasn’t participating in restaurant week.
Ps this is restaurant week winter 2014!
Where do I start. The place s lovely, it’s a great vibe and not «stuck up» as one would expect. Keep in mind I’m commenting on LE CIRQUE CAFE. The service was outstanding and the atmosphere was lively. People were enjoying themselves all around.
First course, my mom got the Le cirque salad from the prix fixe menu. If was very fresh and perfectly dressed. Great flavors. My father got the farfalle minus the shrimp… he liked it very much. My sister didn’t do the prix fixe menu and got a tuna tartar for an appetizer, it looked amazing. She loved it. Lastly, I got the risotto. It was was amazing. Very creamy and you could taste the mushroom broth in every bite. It was delicious.
Entrees…my sister ordered the Le cirque salad. While it was beautiful, it wasn’t an entrée nor was it a full salad as much as it was leaves served as a bouquet (*please refer to picture if you do not understand). My father and I each got the merlu. While it was cooked perfectly, we weren’t too familiar with the taste of a hake fish and boy was it fishy. My father loved it, I thought it was too fishy for my palette. My mother ordered the salmon served atop white beans with fennel. She loves fennel and said it was perfectly balanced dish.
Now for the best part, dessert. Where do I start. You have not lived until you’ve had dessert at Le Cirque. This place knows how to take it to the next level. My father ordered the chocolate mouse. It was served with mint ice cream on the side, TO DIE FOR. it was the most amazing chocolate you could ever imagine and the ice cream was the perfect compliment. It wasn’t
An overpowering mint flavor but yet subtle and perfect to the bite.
My mom got the crème brûlée Le cirque and while it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary it also wasn’t anything less then perfect.
My sister ordered the banana soufflé and let me tell you, you haven’t had a soufflé like this… EVER. It was the airiest, fluffiness, most comforting dessert you’ll ever try. You know when you watch the yogurt commercials and the girl is looking her spoon saying «mmmmm» and your sitting there like «okay it’s not that good, take it easy.» THIS IS THAT GOOD. Its got a generous hint of bourbon which really elevates this already sophisticated dessert and then to make it even more amazing, it’s served with a caramel ice cream that is just the right compliment to this already perfect dessert. YOU MUST HAVE THIS DESSERT!!!
Lastly, I ordered the floating islands dessert (meringue served atop a crème a flakes with seasonal fruit. Boy was I not expecting the master piece which was placed before me. It was the tastiest thing you’ll ever have. Probably on the same level as the banana soufflé…THAT GOOD! Hahhaha. It was so creamy and had the perfect balance of sweet. Not overpowering but yet so tasty your mouth salivates just waiting for the next bite to enter your mouth. You’re almost upset you ate this because at this point you know, you’ve had the best!
Side note: try the cucumber smash drink. It’s amazing. $ 18! BUT, worth it. You’re at LE CIRQUE CAFE just go for it, you live once.
This place does it right. I love them and everything about this restaurant screams five diamonds. It’s heaven in a plate.

Came here for Restaurant week ($ 25 for three course lunch)
Salad «Le Cirque»
The biggest portion of food, the salad was fresh. Slightly too acidic but I really loved the toasted pumpkinseeds.
Farfalle
Tasted like a generic bowl of pasta, but the crispy zucchini was what elevated it.
Merlu
Nothing really stood out. The 8oz piece of hake was cooked ok. Butternut Squash, Parsley Purée was also just ok.
Braised Pork Belly
Very yum. Rich. Crispy and just the right amount of meat to fat ratio. I could eat 5 of these, but alas also only 8 oz. (French people sure love tiny portions on big plates!)
Crème Brûlée «Le Cirque»
I was told that their signature dish was once double the size. Still tastes very good my partner says.
Mango Frangipane
The best part of this dessert were the tiny chunks of mango and the ice cream. Otherwise the cake was too dense for my liking.
In summary, a great lunch. But not $ 25 great.

I have been here a few times with friends. The food was very good. The problem that I have is the menu is very limited.
It is a great place if you are looking for a fast meal. The dress is casual and it is cheaper than Le Cirque’s main establishment.
Give it a try