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Home > Restaurants > The Breslin Bar and Dining Room

All Reader Reviews of...

The Breslin Bar and Dining Room

20 W. 29th St. , New York, NY, 10001
nr. Broadway
212-679-1939

Avg. Rating

7
Food: 7
Service: 6
Décor: 8
"Recommended"

Average Reader Rating on a Scale of 10.

57% would go back.

 Write your own review

Great service, great space, food was eh

By TheColemans on 5/6/2012

  • Overall Rating: 6
  • Food: 4
  • Service: 9
  • Décor: 9
  • Yes, I would go back!

My friends and I were expecting Breslin to be one of those places where the staff was too hip to care but the food would be worth it. Turned out it was the exact opposite. The house staff was welcoming and our waitress was friendly, fun and attentive. The place is fantastic to be in, somehow old and modern at the same time. We got a couple appetizers -- bread with cheese and anchovies was good as were the scrumpets. But if you put "pig foot for two" on your menu, it better rock, don't you think? It was bad. Some kind of mush rolled up in, I think, cheese and then breaded and fried. The flavor was mystifying, the texture more so. Greasy, kind of sweet and ?? We could not place it. Advice would be: Don't order the pig foot for two! No matter how tempted you may be by the novelty, don't do it! The veggies that accompanied it were top notch -- just get those! Next time: drinks, snacks and veggies.

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22 out of 45 people found this review helpful.

Bad Service

By rsaini on 2/20/2012

  • Overall Rating: 3
  • Food: 4
  • Service: 1
  • Décor: 1
  • No, I would not go back!

The food was OK. I've been there twice and both times the wait staff have been rude, curt, forget orders and make you feel real rushed. Not going back

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44 out of 95 people found this review helpful.

AWFUL

By katiem210 on 11/14/2011

  • Overall Rating: 3
  • Food: 2
  • Service: 2
  • Décor: 7
  • No, I would not go back!

First let me start off with the fact that I never write reviews, however this place was so bad I feel compelled to share my story and hopefully keep someone else from experiencing this awful restaurant. I was on vacation with my boyfriend, it was our last night in the city and I was told the Breslin has a cool scene, so we decided to check it out. I go to put my name down and the girl tells me there is a wait time close to 45 minutes, which would be fine if there wasnt plenty of tables available right then! I point out to her there are tables abailable and she says they actually arent and the wait is 45. Fine. So after about 20 minutes of those tables not being filled I go back and tell her we are in a hurry and I see tables not being used and she tells me I am next in line. 30 minutes later we are finall seated. I should have googled the menu before to realize there is nothing on it besides lamb and baby chickens. Our waitor was either coked up or just really impatient cause mid sentence he would intterupt me to tell me he would be back in a few minutes. WTF? Weird. We ordered the lamb burger and "pousson" - lamb burger would have been good if we liked game, but we dont. the baby chicken was all bones and not good. at all. we asked for the check immediately and left our meals, and ran as fast as we could out of the Breslin. We were disapponited cause our last meal in NYC was so bad, good thing my bf and I had a good laugh when we were down the street at McDonalds.

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45 out of 122 people found this review helpful.

A bad taste in the mouth

By fellini77 on 10/16/2011

  • Overall Rating: 5
  • Food: 5
  • Service: 5
  • Décor: 8
  • No, I would not go back!

Having brunch there on Sunday morning with our small child and some friends, we asked if they had a high chair. No, they didn't. Somewhat jokingly I pointed out that they're only $19 from Ikea - which was greeted with a smug and humourless "Oh, it's not that we can't afford it". Just unhelpful then, and proud of it. And that's what this place is like - their way of doing things is basically cheap and mean-spirited and makes you feel ripped-off: they call it a 'full english breakfast' but charge you extra for toast (toast!! cheap, pre-sliced white toast!!); the portions are notably small, for $21 I was expecting at least a full stomach; and, though the place was less than full, we were left waiting well over 30 minutes for our eggs. Pretentious, incompetent and cheap.

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41 out of 85 people found this review helpful.

great brunch!

By mmmackenzie on 8/23/2011

  • Overall Rating: 9
  • Food: 9
  • Service: 9
  • Décor: 9
  • Yes, I would go back!

i have been for both breakfast and brunch. as a vegetarian, i was pleasantly surprised by the great amount of creative options. don't worry meat-eaters, my boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed his food as well. further, i have to add, the banana-chocolate croissants served during their weekend brunch are out-of-this-world amazing! probably one of the best things i have ever eaten. you simply have to try these wonders to understand their perfection. served with stumptown coffee (excellent and forever altered my standards for coffee), this is always a very enjoyable breakfast/brunch experience for the foodie in midtown.

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27 out of 70 people found this review helpful.

WOW

By lambchops on 3/7/2011

  • Overall Rating: 10
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 9
  • Décor: 9
  • Yes, I would go back!

It may not be possible to explain how much I loved my meal here. I will say that I wanted the onion soup to have more of a bone marrow taste. But those lamb ribs --- I could eat them forever. And the scotch egg is huge. So good.

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45 out of 88 people found this review helpful.

chef makes world-famous fried eggs (apparently)

By roger_thornhill on 9/21/2010

  • Overall Rating: 6
  • Food: 7
  • Service: 5
  • Décor: 8
  • Yes, I would go back!

i like Breslin, and eat regularly at the Pig too ... but i had to post this anecdote as i just had to laugh about how over-precious they can be. i ordered the English Breakfast, and asked for the eggs to be prepared as scrambled instead of fried - the waitress replied that the chef won't do that, but i could order a side of scrambled eggs for an additional $7 if i liked ( at $21 it was already takin the piss for a basic breakfast ) .. but regardless of the price issue, i thought it was completely ridiculous, i'd understand if was a particularly decent elaborate meal - but it's just eggs in an english breakfast guys, an 8 year old can make fried vs scrambled eggs .. get over yourselves ..

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89 out of 142 people found this review helpful.

Amazing Service

By ajacobs on 1/14/2010

  • Overall Rating: 10
  • Food: 10
  • Service: 10
  • Décor: 10
  • Yes, I would go back!

I went to the Breslin last Friday with a group from work after hearing great reviews from friends and co-workers. Nothing good ever hits midtown, so we were shocked that a cool restaurant finally hit the area. I've been once for drinks, and had a great time, so I was excited to try the food. We were lucky to be seated shortly after ariving on a Friday night. We ended up having a wonderful waitress who recomended the lamb burger, which was AMAZING. I was so shocked that the reviews were so poor on NYMag, because we had an amazing experience, and the service was great. Our waitress was lovely, very attentive, and had great recomendations. I would recomend this place to anyone who wants a good meal at a new fun place in midtown.

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105 out of 211 people found this review helpful.

Terrible service, huge wait

By nybr on 1/12/2010

  • Overall Rating: 5
  • Food: 7
  • Service: 1
  • Décor: 9
  • No, I would not go back!

Huge wait on a weekday evening, with a loud drunk group next to us (some people couldn't even stand up by themselves, and the bartender kept filling their glasses...), so you could say that waiting wasn't really pleasant. Our party of 6 got squeezed in a small table. Food was good, but not even near to spotted pig quality... Unfriendly service

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106 out of 202 people found this review helpful.

horrible service

By visanthe on 1/11/2010

  • Overall Rating: 4
  • Food: 6
  • Service: 1
  • Décor: 6
  • No, I would not go back!

Our party of 5 was told we would be seated at 9:00 or so, and were seated at 11:00, in a booth for 4. No free drinks, just some scraps for appetizers. Food so-so. Unimpressed.

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96 out of 200 people found this review helpful.

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