I’m slowly but surely making my way through the New York food scene and today’s victim was Gramercy Tavern as we took our cousins out for a nice meal. Gramercy Tavern is a very popular “American tavern” as it describes itself and comprises the casual Tavern and the formal Dining Room.

The Tavern’s menu, today at least, did look a little bit more interesting but it was looking pretty busy (its where they get most of their walk-up customers) and our booking was for the formal Dining Room. The Dining room was a little quieter and though less laid-back than the Tavern still had a quite quaint cosy comfortable feel.

Okay, so be prepared for a few pictures of our food here with four meals to consider! In clock-wise order from the top left are Kathleen’s, Penny’s, Pat’s and my dishes:

• Calamari & Carrot Salad, Toasted Pine Nuts and Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette
• Red King Crab, Sunchokes and Apple
• Red Kuri Squash Soup, Brussels Sprouts and Apples
• Cauliflower, Red Quinoa, Prunes and Peanuts

I can’t speak for the other dishes, but the Cauliflower dish was amazing. You wouldn’t think cauliflower could feature as the main and primary ingredient in a dish but it can – and I think its definitely a vegetable that I’ve seen feature more and more often.

Our mains

• Sea Bass, Squash, Pumpkin Seeds and Currants
• Pork Croquette, Red Cabbage, Aji Dulce Peppers and Spiced Port Sauce
• Braised Lamb Shoulder, Heirloom Beans, Wild Mushrooms and Brussels Sprouts
• Roasted Hanger Steak, Fingerling Potatoes, Red Russian Kale and Bourbon Sauce

The dishes all looked super lovely and I would have been happy with eating any of them. I was happy, however, that my hangar steak made a nice contrast to my vegetable starter. Steak was cooked pretty much to perfection though perhaps the bourbon sauce could have had slightly more of a bite.

And then of course we finished with dessert.

• Warm Chocolate Bread Pudding. Cacao Nib Ice Cream
• Sticky Toffee Fig Cake, Coffee Ice Cream
• Peanut Butter Semifreddo, Chocolate Macaroon
• Dried Cherry Cheesecake, Black Pepper Butter Cookie and Cherry Lemon Sorbet

Brilliant creations by Pastry Chef Nancy Olson. I went for my dessert mainly because of the black pepper butter cookie (there wasn’t as much pepper as I was expecting) but really loved the cheesecake. Rich without being overly heavy. I think Pat’s peanut butter Sandwich was certainly the most interesting dessert but, like the mains, I would have been happy with any of the other desserts too. I’m so greedy 😉

Petit fours were extremely cute an included a peanut butter truffle, orange and dark choc square and a mini macaroon.

Service overall at Gramercy Tavern was friendly if not particularly excellent (on this occasion at least.) Negatives included the fact they were stingy with the bread for our table (only one bread roll brought at the beginning and we saw another customer basically grab the waiter so he could ask for another), sometimes slow on filling up water, no explanation of food being given and really slow to bring out menus (especially between the end of our mains and delivery of desserts). The attention from waiters started to drop off as we slowly got to the end of our meal, which is always a frustrating thing. Positives included replacement/additional drink – upon making a mistake with one of our drinks (which we didn’t realise they’d even made) they were quick to bring an additional quick replacement, staff being good at directing you to the toilets and they didn’t mind photos being taken.

Overall I would recommend Gramercy Tavern on the strength of its food, even if the service was slightly hit and miss.