SOUTHGATE Bar & Restaurant

The food was edible and the décor was NCOs. That’s about as good as it gets here. The French fries looked like straight-​out-​of-​the-​bag frozen, soggy Ore Ida fries, and the «ramen» I’m pretty sure was a can of chicken noodle soup they poached an egg in. Broth was salty and flavorless, chicken was had little knobs that definitely weren’t fresh. The duck was pretty good, but out of six meals at the table, one good plate isn’t saying much.

I had breakfast here twice and lunch here once. Nothing was that memorable.
Breakfast items: The breakfast BLT was more of a stack of eggs and bacon on thick-​cut bread. The French toast was sweet and flavorful with fresh fruit but one morning it was done well, but the second morning it was only half cooked. The farmer’s omelet was very large with lots of fillings and the breakfast potatoes were the most flavorful item of all the meals.
Lunch items: My sister got the duck starter, and she seemed pleased. Someone else got the pastrami sandwich, which was on the small side but had good proportions. The pretzel hoagie was a good change. I had the Little Gem salad, which was disappointing — leafs of uncut lettuce with only a few apples and diced-​up butternut squash.
The location is great — right on the park and with staying at the hotel, it was also convenient.

Wonderful choice while waiting for our room to be ready here at the Essex House! Escorted into the brightly lit back room with chiseled mirrored walls and a fireplace at one end; and a large, clearly projected sport game screen at the other! Nice!!!
Was elated to see the starters and shared plates on the menu — out of the foie gras they were; so I reverted to their ROASTED LONG ISLAND DUCK BREAST — duck perfectly cooked drizzled in the mulled wine syrup; accompanied with the apple slices and crispy Brussels sprouts — Delicious!!!
Next, came the surprise of their BABY KALE CAESAR — I didn’t read the full description on the menu — so, when it came to the table, wow — I learned of the murray cheese shop burrata on top — it was a decadent surprise to an absolutely wonderful perfectly dressed salad! Heavenly!!!
Southgate is definitely a restaurant/​bar that I’d come back to for shared plates and drinks with friends! A big thumbs up to our waiter, Richard, so personable and attentive throughout our time spent there! Will be looking out to be seated at his section time and time again!
Cheers!

It pains me to write this review but the service was horrible and the food, well, it was lacking to say the least!
Went to this restaurant with my father and father in law on Sunday at 1pm. Figured that a restaurant within the Marriott should do well under those conditions… Boy were we wrong. The restaurant was utterly empty. Besides our table, there was probably two other tables with 3 people. Two waiters and a bus boy.
Wanted a steak and eggs… «Sorry, we don’t have that»… Okay, how about an eggs Benedict? «No, sorry, we only have that with crab and can’t make it different.»
Let’s try a different way, what salads do you have? «Only one with mustard dressing.»
30 minutes later, we got our food… You know, the simple «eggs over easy with cheese on top»; nope, guess it wasn’t that simple to write down that I wanted cheese. Wait, let me try this again, all of us got the same eggs with cheese, but all of us didn’t have any cheese. Simple solution: write down the order instead of trying to remember it.
Only reason this isn’t getting 1 star is because of the jazz band. It was nice and would have made for a wonderful experience. Oh, there’s also a projector showing the game which was a plus!

Enjoyed dinner here on a Sunday night after a day of sightseeing NYC. Made a reservation for 6 pm, although a reservation definitely was not needed. Got a corner booth and it was the best seat in the place. Dinner was fantastic, hangar steak and the burger are great choices. Service was great as well, very attentive

A truly dreadful experience.
I went with my family for the Thanksgiving Day buffet. The price was steep ($ 125 per person, alcohol not included), but we’ve paid the same or more at other venues for fantastic brunches.
The problem, however, is that this is no fantastic brunch. From the moment I walked into the dining room, without a hint of decoration, I knew there was going to be a problem. The restaurant was fairly empty, yet we were seated at a small, cramped table. Our waiter came by to offer us a complimentary «welcome cocktail.» We asked what was in the beverage, as he didn’t tell us what he was serving us and some people in our party didn’t drink alcohol, and the waiter’s response was «I don’t know, I just started my shift.» Lovely. The experience only went downhill from there.
I won’t bore you with the tedious details of the limited, sub-​par food on offer, but the free breakfast buffet you get at any budget hotel is leaps and bounds better than this, both in terms of food quality and variety of offerings. The food here was stale, mushy, old, salty, and generally unappetizing.
To add insult to injury, the manager at one point came by to ask how the meal was going, and we registered our disappointment. Instead of offering to make a bad situation a little bit better, all he did was offer to get us some «free dessert.» By that I mean he was offering to give us some of the food from the buffet, the buffet for which we’d already paid $ 125.
This place is truly an embarrassment to the Marriott name. Awful.

Very displeased with our dining experience. The service is lacking. There was only 1 waiter and 3 busboys working that night and it wasn’t busy at all. No one bothered to come up to the table to refill our empty glasses with water even after numerous requests to have them refilled.
Food:
If it weren’t for the sliders, this review would have been 1 star. The filet mignon were cooked perfectly. The lobster tacos were not bad, l considering the amount of lobster it had. Otherwise, the rest of our dinner was an absolute disappointment. It is no wonder why this restaurant is so empty on a Friday night.

I can’t only speak for the bar.
The bartenders must be Union.
Rude, inattentive, and messy.
Watched them break 2 glasses within my one glass of wine.
They need to get their act together if they want repeat costumers.

I was in New York for Thanksgiving with my family and somehow we made reservations to go to this establishment’s «Thanksgiving Grand Buffet». It was $ 125 per person, with a welcome drink.
Basically, as soon as I walked in the restaurant, my instinct was to leave the place. I should have followed my instinct.
This was an expensive «Grand Buffet» for Thanksgiving. There was no Thanksgiving décor. I had no idea what the welcome drink would be. Approximately 5 minutes after we sat down, a server finally came over and brought us the drinks. When asked what it was (it was not champagne, which I would have expected), he said he didnt know, that he’d «just gotten on shift» so had to ask what it was. Not good.
We went to he buffet. There was absolutely nothing «Grand» about it. It was in a small room, with not much food, all of low quality. The shellfish and shrimp sat in tired dishes in melting ice/​water. The carved turkey station was tired and the «cranberry sauce» did not resemble cranberry sauce in flavor in the least. Poor quality/​significantly overcooked vegetables. No seasonal desserts. Just a pathetic attempt with no effort whatsoever on their part to make this buffet «Grand» at all. The waiter brought rolls that were clearly old and stale. The Manager approached our table to ask how we were going and really did not at all know how to acknowledge our unhappiness. He seemed surprised and quickly ran away. Normally in a situation like this I’d try to have a few drinks to dull the pain. However, the prices were outrageous on all of the drinks and wines and I decided I didnt want to give any more money to this establishment. Before we left my partner approached the hostess to ask for a card with the manager’s name. She tried to get the manager’s attention but he saw it was us asking and just didnt pay attention. Not good. Look — this restaurant is in the JW Marriott Essex House Hotel. JW Marriott is the high end hotel of Marriott. This restaurant, in my opinion, couldn’t even pass muster in the lowest of low roadside motels. Utter disappointment and have nothing good to say about their effort at providing a memorable Thanksgiving meal for «friends and family for years to come».

Very cool place… great view from inside of Central Park… food was great but the portion was small compared to the price
Fun place to stop and refresh from a great touring day of this area of Manhattan
Beer selection is Solid… Wine selection is Spectacular but pricey
Enjoy

Came here for breakfast while in the city.
Had the breakfast buffet. Frankly, a litle disappointing. OK, had the scrambled eggs, the bacon, the sausage, tons of sweet breads, some oatmeal, some fruit (great berries!), the packaged yougurt, the four different cerals, but that is about it. I can get that at virtually any hotel by the airport. I was hoping for some really exceptional coffee, some varied surprises on the buffet. Not that anything was poor quality, just hoping for something exceptional.
All-​in-​all a decent place.

Nice little bar area at the front. Nice to watch the world go by. Service was so sloppy. Waitress disappeared for a solid 15 minutes when we were ready to pay and we asked bartender for the bill and they said they would ‘get the waitress’ which didn’t appear to happen. Ten minutes later a very lackadaisical waitress wanders over with a bill. If I was a bartender I’d be pissed. Way to lose tips

I can’t say I have ever had a bad meal in a Marriott ever. This is a JW Marriott which should be a lot better and upscale over a regular Marriott.
First off this place only had a few tables that were occupied, they sat us down at a table only to find out the one right next to us was taken by 2 people.
Found that odd, next they asked if we wanted fresh squeezed O.J. and I said «yes» and out comes some concentrated water down nasty juice.
The only thing that was done right on the buffet was the fresh fruit selection, everything else was sub par. I still can’t believe this was a JW Marriott.
Oh well, will never come back here if in Central Park.

I’ve walked by this place quite a few times but never really gave it a try — I was pleasantly surprised by the attentiveness of the bartenders and how nicely done the interior was… they definitely managed to have quite a large bar area as well as a lounge /​seating area without that boisterous din effect. For a hotel bar you obviously get a lot of out-of-town’ers but I really also like it as a neighborhood bar — perfect place to meet friends for a few drinks and conversation. The food was also excellent — very fresh shrimp cocktail, and the Mushroom & Kale salad was a favorite.

Wobbly table, meh food, and inconsistent service are not what I expected. The place looks beautiful and is a little pricey so I expected something better.
I had a pasta dish with about ½ of the flavors mentioned on the menu, my BF had the fatty lamb.
The cocktails we had were excellent! As was the bottle of prosecco. The service was good up until our food was removed from the table. We got our check about 30 minutes later which was LONG after we’d finished drinks/​chatting. We couldn’t even visually find the waiter. It got weird especially since no one else was dining there.
Lesson learned and we won’t be back.

The GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY
The GOOD — I come to New York City about 5 to 8 times a year and I usually stay at the Marriott Marquis. This weekend I decided to stay at the JW Essex. The hotel is amazing, staff is very friendly and very polite.
The BAD — We made the mistake to wonder off and have a drink at the Southgate Bar & Restaurant (the hotel restaurant) after having dinner. The place does have a great ambiance; my GF and I sat near the fireplace waited for about 15 – 20 minutes for a server, Finally, we got tired of waiting and walked out of the hotel. We asked for the restaurant manager so we could provide some feedback about the service.
The UGLY — I don’t think the manager has a lot of experience running a restaurant because she wouldn’t let me finish explaining/​commenting on the bad service. I had to finally ask her to let me finish and that I wasn’t interested in a free drink. I just wanted to explain to her why the service was bad.
To be honest, I walked away feeling discriminated. I noticed most of the people in the bar area had on a suite or cocktails dresses and were white. Guess it didn’t help I’m Colombian. :). In fact, if you are a minority, wear a suit or stay away.
if you’re looking for good service and you’re a minorityI suggest NOT coming to SOUTHGATE!

The ambiance is first class along with the service. The breakfast buffet is pricey bit really good.
Also note the eggs Benedict are superb, and not to be missed.

I went to Southgate Restaurant & Bar with my girlfriend for lunch while staying at the JW Marriott Essex House New York. The restaurant has an upscale vibe and most of the people dining here seem to be wearing dressy attire but the restaurant shows on Unilocal as casual. The restaurant had an interesting interior with a bar in the center of the room and décor around the walls such as mirrors. Honestly, we felt a bit out of place in here dressed casually but the restaurant staff assured us that they were a casual establishment. Next, let me speak about the cocktails and food.
While here, my girlfriend and I each had a cocktail which were good but nothing spectacular. I had a cocktail that was flavored with whiskey and ginger which ended up causing my stomach to feel upset. Usually, I do not have any issues drinking alcohol or cocktails but I am guessing the combination of alcohol, an empty stomach, and ginger didn’t help me much. We decided to split a cheeseburger with mushrooms and fries which was a good burger, but once again was nothing spectacular. Lastly, we shared a mushroom pizzette which was good. The food here, from our experience, is good but nothing truly amazed us.
Overall, Southgate Restaurant & Bar is a decent place but not somewhere that I would go out of my way to eat at in New York City.

Came again tonight w/​a girlfriend.
Very classy. Great drinks. Server let me test my wine first. Nice pour. Complimentary nuts.
Pricey but on CPS so they have to pay the rent.
Really nice place, atmosphere. I WILL be back.

Good cocktails and robust cheese plate… but no crowd control. I’m not talking about rowdy college kids, though. Instead, I’m talking about a small group of adults who allowed their children to run around the restaurant screaming. We’ll gladly pay for pricey apps and cocktails to have a great experience, but apparently that wasn’t in the cards for us.
I wish the staff would have asked the adults to control their children (or comped us a drink when we complained and asked to be moved). Neither happened, unfortunately.
The restaurant itself is gorgeous, and the service is attentive. Perhaps we visited on an off night, but the yelling kids made our experience less-​than-​stellar.