Sardi's: Manhattan Food at its Worst
Written: Sep 17 '06
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Pros: Location: Close to the Broadway theaters
Cons: Bad food, service and atmosphere
The Bottom Line: You will be hard pressed to find a worse value for your money in Manhattan!
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| vicfar's Full Review: Sardi's |
Sardi's, an 82-year old New York tradition located half a block from Times Square (234 W 44th St), is a troubled restaurant nowadays. I had eaten there with an international group about 10 years ago. In spite of the modest food, we had liked the busy atmosphere, the fantastic pace of the place, the caricatures on the walls, the history. I took a date there last week, and this was my last meal at Sardi's.
We had no reservations, because none are needed at Sardi's: the main room I had dined in 10 years before was actually shut down, and dinner was limited to the small upstairs section, where perhaps 7-8 parties only were dining. It was 8:00 p.m. on Monday.
The Food
Sardi's food is (or at least was), as the restaurant's name suggests, inspired by Italian cuisine. When the country was young and unsophisticated, gourmet food was a rarity. Ethnic food was what the unsophisticated immigrants brought with them. Italian food was overcooked pasta swimming in a sea of tomato sauce with garlic chunks the size of chestnuts. These are my first memories of eating the infamous Italian food in America. Things have changed, the country (or at least parts of it) has become food-savvy, and top chefs have arrived from Europe, Asia, and many are homegrown.
At the same time, New York is one of the few big cities in the US that is also a great tourist mecca, and where there are tourists, there is also cheap, bad food. In this, New York resembles Rome, Paris and London. As in those cities, however, one can have outstanding culinary experiences. Sadly, Sardi's is not in this category. Indeed, it is hard to tell which category it belongs to: too expensive to cater to mass tourism, too boring to appeal to trendy young professionals: the clientele seems to be made up by old fogeys and suckers with poor memory like myself.
We started with bread, which consisted of a variety of rolls and slices to choose from: multi-grain, walnut bread and white fresh rolls. We tried them all, and they were all awful. The French rolls were like chewing gum. If it is true, like I maintain, that the quality of an Italian restaurant can be seen by its bread, we were in for a big disappointment. As an appetizer, I chose the famous Sardi's cannelloni, a small portion of them. They were just terrible, swimming in a creamy tomatoey sauce, overcooked, and tasting like pork sausages. My date had a "napoleon" of homemade mozzarella. The mozzarella tasted like the generic supermarket variety, the tomatoes were tasteless, and everything was drowned in an ocean of balsamic vinegar.
We drank a Campari which Sardi's, as the majority of American restaurants, did not know how to serve properly. With the main meal, my companion chose a glass of house Sauvignon Blanc, whereas I wisely opted for a beer. The wine was served in the wrong glass, was way too cold, and was so bad to be undrinkable. She sent it back to a puzzled server. My main course, again a wise choice, was Indian-inspired, sauteed chicken in mild Madras curry sauce, with chutney, rice and pappadum chips: overall an edible meal, although not unlike the ones you can make yourself from a supermarket kit. Real Indian dishes have usually more bite to them and taste less like thawed food. My date had the ravioli special: literally four huge spinach ravioli swimming in an ocean of creamy sauce. She struggled through it: I tried them also and they had no taste whatsoever. After such experience, we did not dare try the desserts!
Menus and Prices
My chicken was $28, her ravioli was $23. Our appetizers were $13.50 each. The cheap wine was $7 a glass. There are really only 5 entrees on the menu, ranging from $18.50 to $35. The dessert menu is actually longer but uninteresting, populated by the usual banalities like NY cheesecake, creme brulee and tiramisu, all around $9.50. Dinner for two, tip included, came to $120. Overall, a medium-priced restaurant for New York. Certainly not outrageous, but a poor value for the pitiful quality of the food.
Service
Service was as unfriendly, rushed and incompetent as one comes to expect in a big city. A waiter came to take our order. After we ordered, a second waiter asked us if we wanted to order. In spite of the disorganization, we were served in 10 minutes, and 5 minutes after our appetizers were gone, the main courses arrived. The whole dinner was over in 45 minutes. The pepper boy, the bread boy and the cheese boy were promptly at our service, as expected. They seem to be the only people who understand their role in American restaurants these days. Lack of attention to detail was indicated by the poor selection of glasses for the wine. As many restaurants who cater to pre-dinner theater, Sardi's service tends to be hurried even at times which are clearly not pre-theater, thus making for a miserable, uncivilized experience.
Atmosphere
This used to be Sardi's hallmark. The restaurant was used often by film stars, and dozens of caricatures plaster the restaurant walls. To my amazement, however, I did not know a single celebrity whose portrait hung on the walls. The roomy downstairs was sealed off, thus lending to the whole establishment a run down, pathetic appearance. As for the rest, everything is old and trashy inside, tables and chairs included. Sardi's definitely belongs to the past, and I feel old New Yorkers eat there because it reminds them of some good old times I have not experienced, i.e. when food was bad and nobody paid attention to the ambiance.
Conclusion
With the score of fabulous trendy restaurants that open up every day in Manhattan, one may wonder how Sardi's stays in business, with its dreadful dishes, its sloppy service and its musty, run down decor. One should wonder perhaps how long Sardi's will be in business. The restaurant caters to those Americans who actually miss the good old days when American food was cafeteria-grade. Indeed, the renaissance that old-fashioned diners are having in Connecticut signals some kind of nostalgia for an unsophisticated, wholesome past when expressions like al dente were not commonplace and steaks with baked potatoes were haute cuisine. Of course, early American dishes can be the basis for exceptional experimental cuisine, as it's been done in many places in the country. Sardi's, to stay in business, needs to revamp everything, but especially needs a real chef in the kitchen and an interesting menu...or move upstate --far, far upstate for that matter!
Recommended:
No
Vegetarian Friendly: No
Notes, Tips or Menu Recommendations Avoid the Italian specialties
Best Suited For: Kids and Families
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Epinions.com ID:
vicfar
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Location: Antwerp, Belgium and Aachen, Germany
Reviews written: 203
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