Serai

I was really surprised at the amazing food here. Tucked inside the Rubin Museum of Art, this restaurant/​lounge is the coolest place to chill on a Friday night. Especially because they have a 2-​for-​1 special on all beer, wine, and well drinks from 6 – 7 pm. Interesting beer selection, I had the Asahi, a Japanese beer. I loved my BBQ pulled pork bao-​bun with pickled carrots, it was nom nom! I also had the fried duck momo, which was good.
Service is a bit slow at the bar, but that’s understandable because they get slammed. All the staff behind the bar were very friendly. There’s a DJ playing cool (yet not loud so you can still talk) music. Bring your friends, bring a date, you’re gonna love this place.

This place is totally underrated. Quiet, good food, and reasonable prices! Even better during happy hour. As other people have noted, the only drawback are the bad hours.

Nice environment but the staff was incredibly unprofessional. Reading a sign that said they had 2-​for-​1 happy hour I ordered a gin and tonic. They charged me $ 12.50 for it. When I complained they said the happy hour was only on Friday (it was Wednesday) but when I pointed out that the sign didn’t say that anywhere he just removed the sign and said «oh». when I complained to the manager he said «I wasn’t there for the transaction» um what? They even claimed that 12.50 was a discount!
Nothing like using Himalayan culture to rip people off.

I don’t come here for the food, and that’s likely why my impression is better than the first reviewer. Instead of thinking of this as a museum restaurant or a food destination, think of it as a nice lounge inside a great museum that happens to serve tea, pastries, and food.
I like to come here to write or work because the place is usually quiet. Even with people browsing the gift shop and it being near the museum entrance, there is little noise. The ambiance is peaceful, like the rest of the place. The chairs are comfortable enough, the tables nice and big.
Since this is a museum café, the place isn’t usually crowded in the afternoons. I’ve sat here all day writing and never had a problem. If you need power, just be aware that the only outlets are along the wall and there are only a few tables on that side.
I’ve had the teas here and liked them, though they are overpriced. Same with the pastries. Not ridic, just more than I’d like to spend for sitting all day.
The biggest drawback to this place are the museum hours. They’re not open Tuesdays, not open late most days. The days they are open late the café either gets in a bar crowd for happy hour (Wednesday) or a club vibe when the DJ shows up (Friday nights). Other than that, this is a sweet spot.

Had about two hours to kill so I stopped by the Rubin. This was my second visit to the museum, so I had already thoroughly explored the collection. Spent about an hour walking around, purchased a book at the awesome gift shop, and grabbed a bite to eat at their café, Serai. I opted for the Goa’n Spiced Clams and a side of Fragrant Basmati. The portion was good for a one-​person lunch. I loved both dishes. Look forward to trying other items on the menu next time I’m in Chelsea.

I can’t believe that I am the first person to rate this especially because the experience was so bad.
I don’t really have high expectations when it comes to museum food but the quality of food here was even a shocker for me. I went with some friends and we all decided to rate what we ordered on a scale of 1 – 10 and this is what we had:
Pan Seared Sweet Potato MOMOs: I asked the waiter what a MOMO was and he told me that it was a dumpling. Naturally a sweet potato dumpling seemed different and quite appetizing so I ordered it. They were served cold in those wonton wrappers that you can buy at any Asian market, and were really undercooked. I gave this dish a 2.
Lamb Momos: My friend tried my dumplings and said that the lamb ones were better, but only rated a 3 compared to other lamb dumplings she has had. She said they lacked flavor and came cold.
Smoked Salmon: One of my friends gave this dish a 4. She said it came out cold but was ok. I can only wonder if it achieved one of the higher scores because it required little or no prep work on part of the chef. It was pretty basic and probably not worth the price.
Tomato Curry Mussles: This was the favorite at the table with a whopping score of 8. I did not get to try them but i’ll take my friend’s word for it.
Fish Boo Bun: Got a score of 2 because it cold was bland
Nan Pizza: This was the worst dish at the table. My friend and I bothordered the tandoori chicken nan pizza and we both gave it a 1. This was hands down the worst pizza I have ever had in my life. Not only did it come out cold, and tasted nothing like tandoori chicken, but it was burnt to a crisp on the bottom. You would wonder what even made them think it was ok to serve this to someone. I was starving and didn’t want to wait for another one as the service was as slow as a snail and all of our food came out cold so I managed to stomach most of it. I have included a picture of the burnt bottom so that you can see how bad it was. Serai should be ashamed to call this food.