Madison Bistro

Not very welcoming, not very attentive and not very accomodating.
We wanted a quiet drink after work before our cigar event. This was the only place in the area that wasn’t crowded. That should have been hint #1.
Drinks, are drinks. Anyone can make one these days, so nothing to be impressed about there. Service was a tad rude. Overall, a very underwhelming experience.

The escargot was the best I’ve ever eaten since Paris. Love the ambience of this bistro. Of course even the bread basket was to die for. I am in New York every month for work and will definitely be back.

A cute dimly lit restaurant In midtown, with a small bar, several tables and a private room in the back. I also spied a patio too. The service was a little odd in which I wasn’t sure who was the host or wait staff. When I asked the ‘waitress’ who sat us, she told me to ask another person. Odd. The bathrooms were single stall; one for each sex. Food wise, the beef bourignon was the best dish followed by the black ink risotto

Went here for dinner for a party of five. It is a very nice restaurant and the staff are friendly. I didn’t really like the lighting as it was too dark. We ordered the tuna Tartar, escargot and crab & avacado Napoleon. All was very delicious. For entrees we had hanger steak with fries, mussels, beef bouillon and squid ink risotto. All was very delicious but my steak was rather chewy. I think the best entrée was the mussels. It was a heaping bowl.

Went here for their dessert. I had the Vanilla Crème Brûlée — I loved it!

Escargot, ribs and sorbet! Amazing service! Everyone is super friendly and I can’t wait to come back for more delicious French cuisine. Top notch, bravo Madison Bistro! Check in 3 times and with an order and get a complimentary cocktail!

Great food, better service. I had the prix fixe dinner and loved everything. The price was very reasonable for the quality of the food and the service was exceptional. The restaurant is larger than I expected and cozy.

I work around the corner from Madison Bistro, decided to go there for a diner to celebrate my fiancé’s mother’s birthday.
Waiting time for food was disappointingly long. Waiter didn’t mention any specials until we asked. Appetizers were ok, we ordered French onion soup, foie gras and mussels. For entry we had «acceptable» fillet mignon ($ 40) which was served over potatoes. Braised short ribs «Le bourguignon» which were waaaay over salted. The bill was for 4 people (no deserts) $ 350 + tips. Ihave been to many places that had better food for same price or less. This is a place that strictly survives on tourists that most likely never visit it again.

So I stopped by with a friend during that weekend of the crazy snowstorm because the place we had originally wanted to go was closed due to inclement weather. :(
Anyways, I ordered a glass of rose which was nice. My entrée was the beef bourguignon which was delicious. The meat was incredibly tender and it was served over a pile of mashed potatoes. My friend ordered the chicken and it was also served over a pile of mashed potatoes. We were both a little surprised over this because it didn’t state mashed potatoes in the menu but since we both love potatoes, this was great. I was expecting my dish to be more of a stew though from my previous experiences with french style beef bourguignon but alas.
For dessert, we split a chocolate lava cake which was delicious.
The service was great and the price point was affordable.

Just stopped in for a quick bite and was pleasantly surprised. Here’s a small french resturant quietly sitting on Madison, across from the Morgan museum. What a great find!
Shrimp and avocado appetizer was good and nicely presented. Can’t go wrong with the cheese encrusted onion soup. Duck cassoulet was perfect for the cold night and the hanger steak was done just right. Cappuccino was yummy. The service was attentive and pleasant
I’m glad we stopped by on a cold night and plan to go again.

It is the wonderful bar staff of Agnieszka and Masha that make this classic a great draw for regulars in the Morgan Library neighborhood !

Amazing place. We came here last year while visiting New York and came back again during this year’s trip. A wonderful breakfast. Breads are amazing! Staff is great as well.

Simply amazing bartender. Its worth a visit for a drink or two for that reason alone. Didn’t eat here this time.

We LOVED our visits — notice the plural — to Madison Bistro!
From the time we walked into the door, until our food was served and our departure — was MAGNIFIQUE! We were celebrating our daughter’s 16^th birthday. She still talks about our visit to the Madison Bistro!
This was our first trip to NYC. We ate lunch here twice! We were blown away both times! I wish we would have eaten dinner here, too, because the restaurant that was suggested for us was HORRIBLE!
We ate the Prix Fixe lunches and we ooooohed and ahhhhhed throughout our entire meals!
I had the orange bread pudding for my dessert and have NEVER had better than theirs! WOW!
The service was RIGHT ON the money! Lots of attention. Lots of suggestions. Very polite and we came both visits without reservations!
Delighted we stumbled upon this local gem! Cannot wait to return!
Thank you, Madison Bistro, for a job well done!

I came here intoxicated… so that’s where I’ll start. Madison Bistro is a small restaurant with a small bar area in front and a few steps down is a small dining area very typical of most Manhattan restaurants. You can’t go wrong with steak frites at a French café and that’s exactly what I ordered. The steak was cooked perfectly to a medium rare, awesome grill lines, and perfectly salted. The bartender was friendly and I had a good time here.

Meh.
If you are sitting in the al fresco, the service is non existent. The food is mediocre, surely a place to pass by. Unless your sitting in the dinning area or just a a drink at the bar.

I had business lunch at Madison Bistro. The place was quiet and clean. I had Nicoise Salad with Grilled Yellow Fin Tuna and cappuccino. Service was good.
I would definitely come back.

Very disappointed in the quality of food here,
Service– kinda pushy. Wouldn’t let us sit down and look at the menu without coming to our table every 2 minutes, are you ready, are you ready yet, are you guys ready to order, I mean come on. You can clearly see that we haven’t even opened our menus yet and that we are having a conversation. It wasn’t that busy where you had to push customer in and out to fit others. And there was no one waiting to be seated.
I was very disappointed in the food. There salads remind me of a fast food salad joint. Looked very cheap and the dressing was horrible. My cousin ordered a burger well done. She said it was alright but the flavoring wasn’t the best. I had the ahi tuna dish over salad. The ahi I had ordered med rare so it would be seared on the outside but raw in the middle.
The ahi had no flavor to it. Tasted like they had just taken it out of the fridge and thrown it on the grill, very disappointing for the amount of money that you pay.
I don’t recommend this place to anyone especially the amount of money they charge for a meal like the one I was served. I still have the waiter a 20% tip even though everything was bad. That’s just how I am.
Look else where if your looking for a French resturaunt in this area

We didn’t make reservations, so we relied on Unilocal to find us a nice dinner place that we could just walk in. People have been very kind to this restaurant based on my experience here. It’s almost as if paying a lot of money somehow equals a better review. Like they don’t want to feel duped for paying the money by pretending that everything was better than it was.
Supposedly a French wine bar… but when our waiter came by, he knew absolutely nothing about wine. I’m not a wine sommelier. It seems to me that you should have someone at the restaurant who can answer questions about $ 75 dollar bottles. When asked by a coworker in French, «Where is it from?» The obviously French person’s response was, «France.» No joke.
We tried to give him an out. Can you tell us anything about it? «It’s very good.» And sure, it was okay. However, we were there with at least one individual who DID know wines. He wasn’t impressed.
The second bottle we ordered they were out of. When asked what the replacement should be, our waiter just picked the next closest one in price range. Maybe it was comparable in flavor… of course, his previous responses didn’t give any of us much confidence.
The food was good… but nothing special. We had a cheese platter and a meat platter. I had the gnocchi (sans shrimp), followed by a Grand Marnier soufflé. My coworker’s chocolate soufflé was better.
There are a bunch of other places in the area.

Went here today for lunch with a publisher. The service is totally weird. We opted for the $ 27 three-​course pre fixe of a starter, a main, and dessert. And of course day drank.
First drink: Old fashioned. It arrived bright pink, tasting like maraschino cherry slush with jim beam. Worst ever, super sweet, and super icy.
Second: I asked for a Balvenie, neat. The server told me they didn’t have it, and offered Grey Goose as a substitute. What? Those are not the same. Turns out he thought I wanted Belvedere. How about something sweet? He asked. Maybe he was thinking of my last «old fashioned»
SMH. Vodka is like sharpie juice.
I settled with a Manhattan.
My friend asked for a Dark & Stormy. The waiter did not know what that was and said we don’t have that kind of wine.
Okay, so onto the food. It was alright. I liked the bourbon vanilla crème brûlée (even though I couldn’t taste any bourbon) with a cookie spoon (even though the cookie spoon is too brittle to be actually used as a spoon).
Also had «steak tartare» which was spicy (?) … It was formed in the shape of a burger patty and really just tasted like … a raw 5″ burger patty. It was served with a single 3″ toast point. Oh well, I got my iron fix.
The crab & avocado crostini thing was pretty tasty.
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