Madison Square Tavern

Awful experience. We were seated at 6:00 and did not even get our appetizers until 6:55. All we ordered for appetizers were soups and salads so there was no excuse for that AND one of the salads came out without dressing on it. No one in the entire dining area was given any of their food until almost an hour after ordering. We asked to speak to a manager 3 different times, but he/​she never came out. I would understand if a chef wasn’t there or if something happened, but we were given no explanation or apologies for the service. We canceled our dinner (as did the four tables around us) at 7:15 and we were still charged for everything. We had to complain to get the dinners off of the check. Again, no explanation for what was going on. There was a concert at Madison Square Garden that night, so everyone there was clearly hoping to be there by 8:00 and we thought 6:00 dinner reservations would be more than enough time. We will definitely not be returning.

Great ambiance, attentive workers, and a reliable menu with great portion sizes.
Overall, if you are going to be spending money on the type of food this establishment offers in Manhattan, you want it to be reliable. It may not be the most inventive menu, but for the location and type of crowd, it definitely wins the entire 5-​block 2-​avenue radius in comparison to similar establishments.
The drinks were great, the bartenders are definitely the winners here. Could be great to go it solo at the very comfortable bar, or for after-​work needs.
I equate it to the kind of movie that would be a Summer Blockbuster — it’s not winning any Academy awards, but you don’t feel cheated leaving.

I enjoyed dinner here due to the friends I was with, but the food itself was not very memorable. The service was incredibly slow as well, it took 30 minutes just to pay the bill and they were turning down customers due to full capacity. However, the bar was very nicely lit– I would perhaps go back for drinks.
Burger– good
Salmon– forgettable
Calamari — avoid
Mixed drinks– very pretty and flavorful

Purchased a TravelZoo voucher for MST, and it was pretty good. Highlights were our fish main courses and dessert. Calamari app was just OK — under seasoned in my opinion. Our waiter was very friendly. Lowlight of the evening was before dessert. I ordered an Irish coffee and what arrived was in a normal Irish coffee glass, but it was simply a cup of black coffee with a shot of Jameson in it. No whipped cream or anything else to complete the drink. I get it, not every bartender makes every drink. But, if you don’t know how or don’t have all the components, I’d rather the waiter be told to tell me they don’t have the drink than handing me something that is clearly not what I ordered. But, that was a small blip on a good evening. I regret that MST wasn’t open when I worked a block away. We would have been in for happy hour all the time.

Stopped in randomly after a workshop on the way to the train. So glad we did! Bartenders Ed and Gavin were more than great. Drinks were great. Recommendations were great. Food was on point! Fun atmosphere music was also good, current with a fast beat… Will definitely visit again!

Last week, I had a fantastic experience at MST.
To be honest, it wasn’t even the great food or ambience that did it for me.
It was the fantastic service by Denz at the bar, bar none (if you will).
From the second I sat down till I paid the check, Denz made me feel as if I was at my friends home, just chatting away a tough work day with a tall beer and a burger. To the management — I can guarantee you aren’t paying him for this service!
Small suggestion — turn down the lighting at the bar. It really bothered me, and no I have no other eye conditions and psychological problems. The bar lighting makes me feel as if I’m being abducted.
Close enough to the major avenue to be on your way, yet just enough off the beaten path to make it feel cozy.
I will be back.

This week’s fashionplate takes place at Madison Square Tavern a new gastopub near the Garden and Penn Station. It was a good half way point to meet a friend who got out of work late in the garment district on a rainy day. I decided to rock our new Yameen shorts for this catch up session. The bar was super crowded and it took a while to get a glass of red. When my friend arrived we decided to get a table instead of standing near the door. I proceeded to order another glass of wine and she ordered one of the specialty cocktails with fig vodka. We also decided to get a snack– the mushroom risotto which was pretty good. Service was a bit slow but the manager was friendly and apologized. They opened fairly recently so probably still have some kinks to work out.

Madison Square Tavern is the perfect place for a cocktail, sit down dinner or company holiday party! Our company hosted its holiday party here for the first time and we were astonished at how awesome the food, staff, and ambiance was. We worked with Antonio, the GM, and he was so accommodating. We sat in a private room, the restaurant printed out customized menus and the kitchen was even able to make custom dishes for our vegetarian and dairy free employees. Highly highly highly recommend this place. P. S. Order the wings, salmon or any of the desserts, you’ll be happy you did.

Where to begin!
The service was terrible. We were to be a party of 8, and when the first three of us arrived they sat us immediately but refused to give us even glasses of water until our entire party had arrived. If you don’t want to seat us until the whole party arrives, fine… but if you’re going to seat people… you have to give them water and at the very least take drink orders.
Secondly, There was a plant on the table that upon inspection had SHRIMP TAILS in it. Literally, a patron had deposited their shrimp tails into the centerpiece and no one from the restaurant noticed for god knows how long.
Thirdly, I book through open table and after we were seated, I got a notification from open table that my reservation had been cancelled due to a no-​show and open table threatened to suspend my account. I depend on open table for booking purposes and I think it was wrong that Madison Square Tavern informed them that I hadn’t showed up for my reservation when In reality, I was right there!

I came here for after work drinks one day, and had always been drawn by the industrial décor and Edison bulbs and tall ceilings — but unfortunately, my experience was not nearly as positive as my first impression was. Firstly, this place is pricey. It’s probably trying to go for a slightly more upmarket customer base, but being right across the DMV, I’m not sure how successful they’re going to be on that front. Secondly, the truffles fries were NOT fries. They were chunky wedges with no truffle taste whatsoever. They were also $ 11, which was way too much for ten wedges or whatever it was.

Looking for a spot near Madison Square Garden before or after an event, look right here. Great cocktails in a sexy environment is a perfect alternative to most of the MSG watering holes.

My coworker and I walk passed this place so many times and decided to have lunch here last week. The décor looks good, like a mature ‘bar’ place with museum-​like painting on display. Decent looking bar set up, so maybe it’s good for happy hour?
We came here for lunch and let’s just say we will probably not come back for round 2…
Food: We had the braised bacon (a big slab of pork belly meat, braised & served over beans and broccoli rabe), steak sandwich and risotto… sounds good right? NOPE… the braised bacon was over cooked, the meat was chewy and sweet does not go well with bitter (broccoli rabe), I kept rinsing the after taste with water. The steak sandwich was poorly constructed, lack taste and flavor of any kind and left me hungry for a Mickey D’s Big Mac… yes, that bad. OMG. how do you mess up risotto!!! We were expecting a «rich, creamy, full of flavor» sensation to be served… instead we got, «watery, luke warm and lack luster». We always try to finish our food and not be wasteful… but this lunch was extremely underwhelming and we just could not suffer through it.
Service: It started out ok — not busy so we got our orders in right away and drinks; however once our food is on the table, didn’t see the waiter much and took over 20 mins to get our bill… we just wanted to leave.
Overall, not a cheap lunch, save your Benjamins and go elsewhere for great food!

Food drinks the place is amazing

I’m pretty sure MST is going to be my new favorite bar anywhere within the vicinity of MSG.
It’s brand new and wet behind the ears, but the service and food/​cocktail programs are firing on all cylinders. Sidle into any seat and enjoy an array of high-​end bar bites, entrees, creative salads, and some fantastic cocktails.
Space wise, it might be as big as Madison Square Garden as well. There are several areas that you can book for big parties, work functions, etc… if you’re reading this and looking for a solid location to host your office holiday party, you’re in luck. And if you’re a sports fan, there are many TVs with all the NFL games. No sound, though… so if you’re into hearing the sounds of the game, you may want to look elsewhere.
With hockey in full bloom, this should be your alternative to the typical Brother Jimmy’s hang. It’ll cost you a bit more, but quality is worth a few extra Hamiltons.

This place really impressed me! I loved the very large, stone lit bar along with impressively stocked shelves on the wall. The bartender Michael was polite, and very attentive. I tried the fig cocktail which was delicious, and I hung around for more drinks, switching over to beer as they had a great selection. I tried the chicken panini for lunch, which was not what you would picture as a traditional panini, but non-​the-​less really tasty. It had a ton of flavor and was filled with freshly grilled and juicy chicken, guacamole, melted swiss and cripsy bacon. One of the owners, Antonio, was nice enough to come over and chat with us, and also offer a tour of the place. They’re fairly new (about 2 months), so it seems like they’re trying to make a good impression– and it worked! I would definitely make it a point to visit here whenever I’m in the area.

Really underappreciated restaurant!
Décor was great, service was great, and the place is huge but fairly empty.
We got the:
Glass of Malbec (good)
Moroccan rack of lamb (this was the biggest rack of lamb I’ve ever seen. Plenty of food and was delicious. Was $ 38 which I thought was good value, but they could probably decrease the portion and the price)
Sirloin (12 oz) came with two sides (we got the broccoli rabe which was standard and bacon potatoes which were good). The sirloin was fantastic. Very juicy and this dish ($ 36) was pretty good value.
We skipped dessert because we were stuffed, but overall I thought this place had great food and was surprised there were so few people.

We decided to try this place out for a happy hour since it’s new, conveniently located near our trains, and has a gluten-​free menu for the celiacs in our group. The place is quite nice, a fancy interior with a casual vibe. The bar in particular is very pretty with its backlighting. Since we were a group of 7, the servers wanted to seat us at what looked to be the world’s largest conference room table. We talked them into giving us bar seating at some of the high tops since we didn’t want to sit miles away from each other.
The server was really nice. He patiently answered our questions, checked on things for us, and gave suggestions on what to order. For happy hour, they have beer and wine specials, and also $ 6 Skye vodka (you choose your mixer). I did vodka with pineapple juice, which was tasty. Also did a couple cocktails off their menu and really liked the Gettin Figgy With It.
Ordered some dishes to share. We had the meatballs, plaintain crisps, chicken lollipops, grilled flatbread, and charcuterie plate. While it would be unfair to expect these dishes to be able to satiate as many as 7 people, we did think they wouldn’t be QUITE so tiny, given the prices of the food. For instance, you’d think a $ 15 plate would have more than 5 mini drumsticks. I suppose it could be a quality over quantity thing, as they were very good, but just a fair warning.
All in all, we had a nice time and while this place may not end up in our regular rotation, it’s worth checking out.

Stopped in here on my lunch hour to get something to go as I was pressed for time.
Had the Heirloom Tomato salad with grilled chicken as an off menu add on.
It was tasty. Nectarines, goat cheese, pickled red onions, spicy candied cashews and plenty of chicken.
But it was a little steep at $ 23.

New restaurant, gluten free menu a plus.
Party of 3 and we tried several appetizers, 3 different
Entrées & desert. ALL were excellent, incredible infusion of flavors in each dish and plate presentations are works of art!
Will come back!

Beautiful stone lighted bar. Super friendly bartender in Dominick. Just opened Friday, so check this place and get some traffic in here. Not serving dinner just yet, but it’s coming. Plenty of tvs for the game and a perfect music level, so you can come for NFL preseason or for catching up with a friend. Lots of original cocktails and a draught beer list with the classics and usuals, but some more unusual ones for a beer liker such as myself. Definitely a great addition to the area. Classy but casual. Intimate but roomy. Worth it!