most reviews of Hearth are in the 3 to 4 star range with the occasional 5 stars, about what I would expect for a restaurant of its stature, even though most of the reviews seem to be by nonfoodies.
and then there is this gem:
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ugh, yuck. after all the lovely reviews here I thought hearth would be at least ok, but it was definitely a below average experience.
first off, the space is cute but the average age of the patrons here on a saturday at 9:00 was like 50 years old... I thought it would be a little bit of a younger crowd, but hey that's splitting hairs. I am down with middle aged people!
my friend and I shared the snapper crudo and arugula & fennel salad as appetizers... the salad was pretty good (although slightly soggy?) but the crudo was gross! the fish had a dry-ish look do it, as though it had been sitting out for a while and just did not taste fresh. the flavor of the rosemary was also overwhelming... I could get better raw fish in a cut-rate sushi joint. not tasty.
on to the entrees! I had the much pooh-pooh'd veal breast. it was only ok... there was a nice layer of fat around the outside (love fat!) but the meat was slightly dry. the best part of the dish was the sweetbreads, and they were not THAT exciting. now for the kicker: my friend had the striped bass, and as he cut into it, he goes "damn, this is kind of tough..." tough fish?! we look at the dish and the bass is RAW on the inside - whoever made it didn't even barely cook it, there was like a 1/2 cm ring around the outside that was cooked but otherwise it was raw. unsanitary and disgusting!!
the waitress was pretty cool about it, comped us dessert... but for some reason they still charged us for the raw, uneaten bass. we didn't bother complaning and getting it removed... she was so frazzled already that when she brought the bill she forgot to bring the part to sign... we were just like, forget it.
the only reason I gave this restaurant 2 instead of 1 stars is that the wine recommended to us was very good and because the salad and veal breast were not horrible. I would never come back, and I would not recommend hearth.
now I recognize not everyone is a fan of Hearth [Sneakeater for example; that's fine, chacun a son gout or however that expression is spelled], so let's choose another one we both like.
Momofuku Ssam Bar:
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Ok, I get it, this place is super trendy and has gotten a few rave reviews from NY Magazine (my go-to when I'm trying to decide on a restaurant). So, who am I to criticize? But...
First of all, the tables are communal. This isn't really my favorite way to eat a meal, crammed elbow to elbow with other diners, but I'm not a native New Yorker so I think I have a bigger "personal space" bubble than the true locals. Either way, this isn't a deal breaker; I love Kampuchea and it employs a similar seating style.
However, they sat us a at a long, skinny communal table. My boyfriend and I were seated across from each other. To my immediate right was the bus-station (piles of dirty plates and glasses). To my left was a girl with THE MOST ANNOYING VOICE I've ever heard in my life. She was loud and skwaky and was bitching at her husband the entire time. As a result, I couldn't have a conversation with my boyfriend for the first half of the meal (until she finally left) and so we sat there in an awkward, unenjoyable silence. Hence, the atmosphere sucked. It would have been better if we had been sitting next to each other.
The food is not quite tapas-style and not quite family-style but you're encouraged to share your meals (portions are the size of appetizers). We ordered a few dishes. The first few (pickles, 1/2 dozen oysters, and mussels) came out on time. We waited forever (20 minutes passed since we received the mussels) for the next dish (I think it was some sausage dish but I can't remember). I know the waitress heard me order it because she told me how good it was and she warned me that it would be spicy. We never got the dish and when I stopped some other crackhead waitress as she passed behind me, she barked at me that she would be right with me. She was in such a hurry that she couldn't see what I, a customer, might want. She rushed to the back to...deal with an emergency?...put out a fire?...place an order?...NO...she was in such a hurry because she didn't like the song that was playing so she changed the playlist to something else and started dancing around the kitchen! Yeah, not so important. Oh, and she never came back.
So we sat there longer, still waiting for our food. Our waitress was nowhere to be found. On top of that, our drinks went empty halfway through the meal and we were never asked if we wanted anything else to drink. No one asked if we wanted a second drink, if we wanted more food (keep in mind, we hadn't even had much to eat still so you'd think someone would realize we might want to order more), we weren't even offered a desert menu.
Finally, I stopped the manager and asked for the check and told him to take the dish we never received off of it. He apologized and asked us if we still wanted the dish. I told him we didn't and that we just wanted to pay and leave. So, he asked if we'd want to take it with us. I told him we did not want it because we were going out, not home, and we didn't want to carry food with us.
He brought us the check along with the dish in a paper bag! Yeah, thanks for wasting the paper bag but I said we didn't want it and I meant it. We paid and left the bag sitting there. We left the restaurant hungry, frustrated and disappointed.
The hipster waitstaff is completely out of it or high or something. They were so busy socializing with each other and singing to their indie-pop that they couldn't take a minute to make sure the diners were eating and drinking (generally the reason customers come to restaurants, right?).
The food that we did eat was fine but it didn't make up for the rest of the experience. More specifically, the pickles consisted of a big bowl of pickled vegetables (cucumbers, carrots, daikon, kimchee, mushrooms, etc.) and tasted fine but slightly offensive due to an overpowering taste of vinegar. The oysters themselves were good but they served them with their own condiment that was very salty. The oysters come out with the condiment already on top so, if you don't like the flavor (which we didn't), you're S.O.L. They tasted like what you would expect an oyster to taste like if you cracked it open straight out of the ocean--salty and bland but fresh. The mussels were actually really good and the focaccia that came with it was delicious. It had some type of pork product (pork shoulder? thick-cut bacon?) in the dough and tasted great when you dipped it in the mussel broth. The mussels made us look forward to our next dish--but you know how that turned out...
Their wine and beer list is unimpressive and they don't have a full bar.
I can't speak to desert since we didn't make it that far before severing our losses and bowing out.
We planned to grab a bite at Pegu Club to settle our lingering hunger but sadly, their kitchen was closed by the time we got there. Oh well, at least we had good drinks once we got to Pegu.
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Must everything contain so much salt? And why the obsession with pork?
The pork buns were great.
Everything else wanted to be a pork bun, for everything was soft and contained pork. And everything else was easily forgettable.
The dining area contains what can affectionately be referred to as a STANK, a stank of burnt bacon. Half of the wait staff is too arrogant, imagining how they can brag about dropping the name "David Chang" when talking about their "employer" (I'm completely certain he picks his hostesses and servers by hand...) at some party coming up, to actually provide any service. Should I revisit Momofuku Ssam, it will certainly be the scene of my crime: assault, assault, and more assault, and then, of course, pride. On the bright side: any of you who don't believe me may visit without finding my disgruntled form making your wait longer for a cramped table.
But the food (not the wait, not to be seen) is why we come. And it was nothing special. It's a shame there are so few restaurants in manhattan.
again, a cursory glance at the first page reveals that most of the ratings are in the three to five star range, but then you get this one
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As an Indian girl walking into an establishment like this, I am used to people wondering if I have lost my way in. So, the server being extra attentive was bugging me and things went better with him once I shooed him off, he knew I hadn't just landed on Ellis Island. The brussel sprouts were amazing as were the rice cakes with pork. The decor is dull and boring and the place is filthy. The floors hadn't been cleaned for atleast 3 days. The furniture is loosing its lusture and the bathrooms were dispeccable. At $23 an entree I expect the toilets to be usable and functioning - not fun figuring out the flush after a meal. Oh! Maybe the immigrant me, I couldn't find the knob
In all, for the price of it, I wasn't blown away. The food is too simple to be so pricy. Clearly, not going back.
which is supposed to be three stars but reads like it's two and a half? and all the others I've quoted were twos.
and we both know -- or perhaps people who are familiar with the NYC restaurant scene know -- that Ssam Bar is far from a dump. Like 180 degrees.
The level of ignorance on Yelp makes me want to rip my hair from my scalp.
Still maybe I should bookmark it if I want to waste an afternoon at work.
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