Brasserie 8 1/2 Review

interesting experience but very expensive. i think my money would be better spent elsewhere.

An extremely fancy restaurant makes you feel like you're dining with a celebrity when you walk in you get a spiral carpeted stairs and a frontal view of the food there's a dashing bar and the dining rooms have stunning wallpapers the staff service is top quality and you feel very taken care of here

Treat your self to a wonderful meal. The food is excellent and service is amazing. Hard to find this combination in a lot of restaurants today. Atmosphere is great with the private booths

Big and austere but nice presentation, attentive but not doting staff. Arrive early and have a drink at the bar or make a grand entrance and slide down the bannister.

The desserts were outstanding. I loved the tall strawberry cake: frosting not too sweet. The chocolate Hawaiian cake was delicious too. And huge! I also liked that there were no entree salads. One has to order a real fish. But as a pescatarian there was only 1 option. focaccia was delicious but the egg salad lacked flavor

Everything was excellent and the service was great as well. My parents are difficult to wow with food and even they were impressed. The French Onion soup was particularly good and the meat was rare like we asked for, which is never a given even in French restaurants. Portions were generous considering the price and quality of the food; none of us had room for dessert. My only issue was that the markups for the wine seemed excessive.

Definitely not what it used to be. Well it sort of is - the decor and furniture, hasn t been renovated since the early 90s. The service has gone down the drain, the food is not cooked to order (filet was way over cooked). The place seems to be slowly dying. Not going back there.

Not my place...it seems like they try to offer a fancy environment with high-end food/service. But everything was very off - the decor, food, prex-fixe menu, selection etc etc..

Brunch on Easter Sunday was Fab. Great variety and excellent service.

Loved the decor and the food was great. 4 stars because the wait was a little long considering the restaurant wasn't that crowded. Everything else was awesome totally worth a try.

In New York at Xmas and our son picked this place out for our Xmas
Day lunch. Not cheap but good food and service.

I was in the lounge bar/area only. One of the greatest benefits is the quiet of the lounge and bar. If hearing your friend or colleague is crucial, Brasserie 8 1/2 is a great choice

A very classy restaurant. The wait staff was very accommodating and knowledgeable about drinks and food pairings. The food was amazing. I would definitely go back.

I always stop buying some food in here. I liked the fast service and well made food. I recommend this place.

Feel like Norma Desmond walking down the circular staircase. Crabcakes are consistently good as any dessert you choose.

Tiny French Restaurant serving wonderful authentic cuisine. Slightly expensive, no parking, full bar.

One of the few remaining All-you-can-eat places which also happens to be french and really high quality at an affordable price. I have been here twice for brunch and this place is awesome!!!

Excellent food; fun to enjoy a special Monday night of choices from famous Fench restaurants menus.

I take my family to this lovely place quite a bit! This is my favorite place to grab a bite. I visit this place regularly. The food is great, the crew is helpful and the charge is affordable. I enjoy going in this restaurant to have a good lunch.

Had the Sunday Buffet at 39 dollars pps with endless mimosas for 15 wheich we didnt have but looked lovely. THe buffet was just superb...all kinds of fruit, veg, breads, meats, pastas...just a fabulous experience from start to finish. Dining room here is just beautiful with lovely lighting and you go up a few steps to access the buffet. We found it so relaxing and couldnt eat for the rest of the day...DO NOT MISS THIS GEM!

Amazing experience, and great staff. We dined here for dinner on a Friday evening, and had a great time. From when we sat down to when we finished, the entire experience was great. The food tasted great, and the service was excellent.

my absolute favorite restaurant in the city. an enticing menu, impeccable service and the loveliest ambiance.

Excellent food and service. Tuna nicoise salad particularly fantastic

A curious adventure in American Brunch.

This place is (I am led to understand) representative of the classic American brunch of the type one would take your parents to. It is very popular and it seems bookings are required. The Sunday brunch offering is an "all you can eat" buffet that offers a variety of classic breakfast foods, roast meats, and desserts. It also offers bottomless Mimosas. (It appears you can substitute a Bellini). I had a respectable Bloody Mary (not bottomless), served by a very elegant and charming gentleman who was the epitomy of old-world service - nothing was too much trouble, and offered help at every turn.

To this Australian, the whole concept was strange (breakfast food and lunch food and alcohol but called brunch), so please note that my observations are biased.

The seating area is quiet, elegant and well presented, and the staff were an insightful balance of unobtrusive but always ready to assist.

The food offerings were well executed and beautifully presented, allowing you to try morsels of many different types of food. Offerings included prawns (shrimp), smoked salmon and accompaniments; a "made to order" omelette station, freshly made waffles and crepes, fruit salads, savoury salads, and a roast carvery. Many sweet offerings were presented, each beautiful, and each in a tiny serving so that you felt able to sample a few types.

Our group included people from several different countries, all of whom had different ideas of what constituted breakfast or brunch, and all were able to find food that pleased them. One group member was vegetarian, and felt that she had reasonable choice and came away satisfied.

The buffet is oddly stacked around what appears to be a foyer area, and I was a trifle concerned that the omelette/crepe station chefs were not set up for safe/appropriate serving - they were trying to work in a cramped area using portable camp burners (the type with a small butane cylinder screwed in), and it was clearly awkward for them... It seems strange that this is the standard set up for such a long standing institution, and that they haven't been provided with a proper work station (even if it needed to be mobile) - this was concerning from a staff care point of view.

I will probably never understand the concept of going to brunch at 1pm, and then eating foods that (in my Australian mind) don't go together, nor the idea of bottomless drinks with brunch, but that's my problem. Brasserie 8 1/2 is a lovely place for a reasonable elegant adult brunch, where you would happily take a group of friends, or a family group. Everyone will find something delightful eat.

If my tone sounds lack-lustre, it is likely more that I've come from a background where brunch happens at 10am, involves excellent coffee, one dish of food, no alcohol, whereas a buffet and/or bottomless drinks is not consistent with elegant eating (rather it is a 'cheap eats' option). It's bending my mind a bit and it's time for me to adjust!

Gone are the glory days but the room is still pretty, strewn with original Matisse sketches. A good place for a quiet cocktail in the afternoon.

Love the place. Everyone is so friendly. Brunch was great. Recommend to friends and family.

Old school french/new American with a reliable menu and exceedingly professional (though perhaps a bit distant) staff. The $42 pre fixe is great value - appetizer, entree, and dessert!

food is not bad, but not surprisingly good neither.

Good food and service at prices to be expected in midtown Manhattan.

My girlfriend and I had a lovely dinner at this modern restaurant if you're looking for a quiet relaxing meal in the middle of Manhattan. Service was excellent. The Brazino entree and octopus starter were delicious. Older crowd and fairly quiet but the atmosphere was relaxing.

Unfortunately mediocre. Tired looking with distracted staff. Missing it's prior glitz and glamour. The mad men have moved on.

Excellent ambience, professional attentive service, delicious food and great value for the money

A very nice and elegant restaurant. Very good food. We were a group of five. Very spacious and elegant. I liked the selections in the menu for the restaurant week. Good service. I recommend this restaurant. Thank you!

Went there for a private event. Great space and service!

The food is cooked to good. Almost like home cooking

I was very impressed with the food and service. Excellent on both counts. Also splendid location to have an employee or any other type of party.

Try their Sunday brunch! Excellent quality, excellent service, beautiful room, delicious food of all types, and for a very affordable price. A good place to go if you need to celebrate some occasion. And the reservations through OpenTable are very convenient.

We were there for a special event and therefore cannot comment on regular menu. Beautiful venue, we'll trained staff and good and nicely prepared dishes. Would live to come back to try their regular menu.

First-rate environment and very affable service. The food was crisp and delightful. Will definitely recommend this restaurant to my friends. Reasonable prices and generous portions. Keep it up.

The service was five stars, and the food was delicious and varied. I came here for my mom's birthday and she loved it.

Friendly courteous staff. Good food and perfect ambiance for drinks and conversation.

One of the best restaurants we visited. Good food and great service.

Our server at the Sunday morning brunch was amazing! She was very attentive to all her tables and didn't miss a thing. We had a great experience.

I very much enjoy their dishes and service, good location very close to my residence. The workers are always very nice. Will visit here again.

Good food in an architectural designed setting. New York prices. Pleasant service. Always a place for dinner,a drink or lunch

Had company's holiday party there, nice place, some barmen are too condescending, but the staff is overall great and trained.

Had dinner with friends to celebrate one of my friend's birthday. We all tried Restaurant Week menu. Both appetites and mains were great. And our waitress and other staffs were very friendly and professional. I def come back and want to try regular menu, happy hour oyster and Sunday Buffett!!

Have gone to this location twice for business dinners in their private rooms. They have an attentive staff and the food was excellent. I had chicken the first time and salmon the next time. Would recommend for a similar event.

I like this restaurant! They offer superb meals, their menu is nice, The cook in that place is a specialist, I like a lot tasting all their dishes. The dishes are always of high qualtity, the service towards the visitors is helpful. I often go to this restaurant and I was never discontended. I recommend it to all my friends.

We really liked this restaurant I mistakenly thought it was the old Brasserie it was a little hard to find. It was downstairs small sign
The lamb chops were outstanding. The decor very modern. We had a 5 year old with us and the staff and chef were very accommodating
I would return.

Very mediocre to be rated best of NY, cold carving station, not coming back...!!!
Waiters put good effort, but you can sense they have no training at all.

Came here to celebrate Mother's Day. What a great experience! Everything tasted fantastic and the service was spot on. Glad we made a reservation, this space filled up quickly. Thanks for a great day!

Wonderful brunch however could use some soft music. Surprised that there was not a piano or some relaxing background music. The noise level reminds me of a cafeteria.

Fabulous space, impressive architecture by a famous NY architect. Reminds me the Brasserie that used to be in the Seagram Building. The food is quite, French mostly. Prix Fixe dinner is a very good value.

Visited during a trip to New York with my wife. I was surprised by the large portion size and disappointed by the food quality. Would have rather had smaller high quality food
I ordered Beef Frites. The steak was listed as Angus aged cut. Didn t taste like Angus. This uninspired cut reminded me of beef I ve had at places like Applebee s. However the Onion Soup was the best I ve ever had.
Service was slow even tho restaurant was at half capacity. I d recommend a pass.

The food courses were delicious.The Wine that was paired with each one was perfect.Our glasses were never allowed to get empty.They should have this wine tasting more than once a year.

Great food, great service and nice decoration. It's s quiet place in general, with spacious tablet placement with privacy to have a conversation.

wide open spacing. never feel confined. good variety of specials

Delicious food. Perfect Service. No noise at all inside, for a enjoyable meal.

It honestly wasn't that great. Some of their food was good, but most of it was just average or less than average taste, etc.

french food and service here is better than most. One of the best spots in the area. I'll return friends next time. The place has a nice atmosphere. This place has many great reviews for a reason.

Fine dining at reasonable prices. Every time we visit we comment on how remarkable the setting, service and food is. It is a go to place on any occasion. Another memory locked in.

Great value for the price. Very varied menu and mimosas!

The food here is very good. It is a French restaurant.

Went for restaurant week dinner and food was amazing. Husband says the octopus was the best he ever had in his life. Service was beyond excellence. Steak was too raw and they immediately made another one. While hubby thought it was still raw the second time and didn't want to make them cook and bring another one, they apologies sincerely and offered my daughter any desert from the regular menu and took the steak off the bill. My daughter tried the marshmallow on the side, thought it was too sweet for her and put it back in the plate. But after I had finished it, she started tearing up and wanting "her" marshmallow. The waiter even noticed this little incident and immediately brought a small plate with four extra marshmallows for her!

Very attractive and striking American with very good food and service. The entrance has a winding staircase, and the dining room is large and spacious with comfortable seating. They offer a prix-fixe dinner. A highlight is the glass mural by Leger in the dining room.

Great brunch buffet, good service, a little pricey, but expected for area and quality level. Good mimosas and bloody Marys, excellent desert display.

A very good French inspired menu. The rack of lamb is first rate and the braised short ribs are excellent. The Sunday buffet is very much worth a visit, especially on Easter.

In January 2020 we celebrated my birthday with family and friends at Brasserie 8 1/2. I loved everything about it! Actually, I loved it so much that we went there again for Valentine s Day. The Art Deco decor is amazing, the food is fabulous, and the service is outstanding. Plus, the pricing is very decent and they never rush you, so you can enjoy your time as much as you wish.

The Waiter is often pretentious. I'm not too interested in what he loves. Service can be slow. The ambiance is lovely.