The food critic from the film Ratatouille also would not have liked Upper West Side restaurants.
New York Times food reviewer Pete Wells praised new Upper West Side butcher shop and restaurant White Gold in the food section this week, giving the spot on 78th and Amsterdam two stars. But like other food reviewers, he couldn’t help but get in a dig at Upper West Siders and our restaurants.
Wells tries to be nice about it, but it comes off like “That girl has a really nice personality, but she’s just not my type” nice.
Which means, NOT SO NICE!
Or as West Side Rag reader Jane Pyenson wrote in an email to us:
“I would say this is even more evidence that the “lame-stream” media is out of touch with 21st century journalism. If places like Vai and Burke & Wills get 3.5 or 4 stars on Yelp who gives a crap what a snotty reporter for the Times thinks?”
Wells notes that he’s never felt like he could recommend any Upper West Side restaurants to friends as a destination restaurant — somewhere you’d travel out of your way to go. And apparently no one on the UWS has faulted him for forgetting the neighborhood.
“I’ve never heard from Upper West Side readers either attacking me for ignoring their neighborhood or tipping me off to a gem I’d overlooked. Have they just given up hope after watching the local restaurants they could honestly tell friends were worth traveling for — Picholine, Telepan, Ouest — close one by one?”
Or maybe we’re just not paying enough attention to the good spots. Wells notes that White Gold, despite its excellent food, is less crowded than similar restaurants downtown, evidence that locals are missing the boat.
But that’s not all. In a “Times Insider” column, he once again attempts to solve this mystery of why we just have okay restaurants but nothing that makes you say “Wow!”
“Sometimes you hear the neighborhood called a ‘restaurant wasteland.’ Usually that comes from people who live there, but it’s not true. There are loads of restaurants on the Upper West Side. The trouble is that, in my experience, they are … just good enough. Most of them seem content to be the place you go when you’re too busy or tired to cook. Not very many aspire to be the place where you try to impress your friends, or yourself.”
While the Post’s Steve Cuozzo blamed Upper West Siders and our mediocre taste for this, Wells is more charitable in that respect.
“If restaurants that go out of their way to impress are rare on the Upper West Side, it’s not the fault of the people who live there. I’m not sure whose fault it is, but we might start with the restaurant owners who choose to stay away from the mean streets of the west 70s and 80s. Ken Friedman and April Bloomfield, who opened White Gold, are among the few restaurateurs who succeeded downtown before coming to the Upper West Side.”
Still, this all makes us feel like chopped liver. Mmm, now I’m getting hungry.
Feel free to opine in the comments about why he’s right or wrong, and which restaurants Wells should try on the UWS.
I confess I haven’t read the article yet, but the penultimate scene from “Ratatouille” with the critic is one of my favorite in all of cinema. So human. So personal. It’s redemptive of the characters; so beautiful. OK. Now I might read the actual article.
Sort of the same way you vote too, huh??
We crave a great place. When things open that are even slightly interesting or yummy we head out in hoards. But often within months the place itself ‘jumps the shark’ – soon a fennel salad which was delicous is just drenched in dressing and there seems to be a total lack of interest in keeping things fresh and exciting. So many store fronts from 86 to 116th along broadway are screaming for a great and not crazy expensive eatery!
But UWS is indeed a great destination for “bong water” broth!
I live on the Upper West Side and frequent many restaurants and have no problem with Mr. Wells’ assessment. Outside of Barney Greengrass, I cannot think of any restaurants I would travel to if I moved downtown.
Totally agree – have lived here for 23 years… love it here and love some of our restaurants- but destination restaurants? Not so much…
I actually commented on his piece saying we need to keep some things to ourselves up here! Other neighborhoods can keep the cool kids, let us enjoy our chopped cheese in peace!
NY Times = Fake News
I moved to the UWS 2.5 years ago. I agree with the critics assessment of the general UWS restaurant mediocrity, at least at the places and price points I have sampled.
You need to get out more.
I think the article is a shameful and unnecessary hit piece by our hometown paper, at a time when businesses are struggling. I posted the following comment at the Times, although who knows if they’ll publish it:
“Seriously, Pete? As a 25-year resident of the UWS I hate on it as much as anyone at times, but your clickbait headline stating that a “good” meal is hard to find here is unconscionable. With that headline you write off an entire neighborhood, and an entire industry in that neighborhood. Of course one has to read the article to find that by “good” you mean “original.” As if chokingly high rents and rising costs on everything from food to labor weren’t enough to kill off a lot of restaurants (and prohibit the opening of the new, original ones you prefer), here comes the NY Times to try and deliver a final blow. But, hey, your advertisers will like the clicks you got from this article.”
A reviewer is symptomatic of “mainstream media”?? LOL
Really most people who live in the heartland would take one look at the prices of the average restaurant on the UWS and walk out.
It’s his opinion. Take his opinion apart but basically questioning his right to utter it in his paid position is ludicrous
Why does no one talk about Jacob’s Pickles? I would travel from out of state for their fried chicken.
Place is way overrated
Personally, I found the friend chicken at Jacob’s Pickles worse than McNuggets!
By all means, eat at McDonald’s then! I’d appreciate the wait being ever so slightly shorter at the Pickle.
I’ve gone to White Gold four or five times and each time the service has been terrible – really bad. Long wait, unorganized ordering process, uniformed staff, unfriendly attitude…you get the picture.
The food is great, both cooked and at the butcher counter, but the service is just so bad that it’s not worth the hassle. Certainly not worth it when you factor in the outrageous prices they are charging.
The UWS has plenty of good restaurants – The Smith, Dovetail, Cafe Luxembourg, Andanada, Cesca, Red Farm, Shun Lee, Boulud Sud, Caffe Storico, Tessa, Lincoln, Jin Ramen, Sushi Yasaka, Bustan, Sushi of Gari, Barney Greengrass, Mermaid Inn, Motorino, Land Thai, Jean Georges, Crave Fishbar….
I agree (minus a couple here , add a couple there – but to each his own). I wonder if Wells has truly sampled a wide variety of places here before making such a sweeping pronouncement
The Smith?? Really?
Ever since moving to UWS from “trendier” neighborhoods, I’ve pondered this same question about why restaurants here are so ordinary. My theory is the strong UWS tradition of having food delivered. I bet many restaurants here derive more profits from delivered than in-house meals. If you’re cooking for food that does well sitting 45 minutes on the back of a bike, you’re not going to be a destination restaurant.
True
Oh, please, get over it. Been living on the UWS since 1993 and Wells is right. A handful of restaurants were worth going out of your way for here in the past quarter century. His criteria for reviews is carefully stated — the smaller boutique type places or the high end. Almost everything up here is mediocre (in the strict definition of the word — not the pejorative). A high end restaurant (maybe Ouest when it was open for many years) has to make it at night — there is virtually no business lunch crowd up here. There are many middle-level eateries that are quite good but not worth his going out of the way to review them. If you know what the stars really mean at The Times, it’s tough to get 2 stars. I’m assuming White Gold is worth a visit (if you trust his taste).
Either the Times critic has never been to Henry’s or he just doesn’t like restaurants where the clientele is interested in politics or intellectual pursuits.
Henry’s has fine food, best ambiance in the city, and smart clientele. Eat your heart out, NYT.
Dovetail is totally a destination restaurant. I’m surprised that he and other could overlook it. It’s one of the best in the City. And Telepan and Ouest just were not. Telepan had declined soon after opening, the food and the service were salty. I stopped going there years ago. Ouest was never great–the food was OK, the dining area was loud, the service was rushed, and the entry area was so overcrowded and narrow that you had to fight to make your way to the host stand. I stopped going there not long after it opened. Picholine was great. Sorry it closed. I have to say that even though I liked it, I rarely went as it required a jacket for so long, and that’s a pain. We also have the Boulud restaurants and Porter House which are great. Per Se has been overrated, but it is on the UWS and many people like it, plus they promised to upgrade it after the big negative NY Times review. I haven’t it tried it since then though so I can’t comment.
Telepan was my favorite restaurant…I loved it and miss it a lot.
This really makes me miss Big Nick’s. Not just for the food, but for the people you know would *never* go there.
No need to be defensive about this! He happens to be right, and I’ve lived on W79th for 33 years, and before that on W87th. We have plenty of very good restaurants but really no “destination” restaurants (not including Chirping Chicken). The reasons why are only speculation.
He is 100% correct. The restaurants on UWS, with exception of Lincoln, Boulud Sud, Cafe Luxembourg, The Ribbon is ok, not in same category….all our other places are only ‘ok” not fabulous and interesting like so many endless places downtown. East side is just as bad, if not worse.
Yes.Far worse
Many of us are excellent cooks and don’t see the need to constantly dine out on food we can make better at home.
Loved Ouest, but am content to leave Picholine and Telepan among the late and unlamented. Both had too-high-rent issues, but the former was burdened from day one by Terrance Brennan’s egomaniacal attitude, while the latter was–well, boring (which goes for both food and ambience).
I agree with Pete Wells. The food at Ouest declined steadily over its years on B’way. The bar scene was good. There are a few good eateries from 59 St. to 72 St. If the reader who thinks Burke and Wills is good, she needs to look further for good food. Kirsh (Amsterdam between 86 & 87 Sts.) is OK in a limited way, but no substitute for The Popover it replaced. I’ve lived on the UWS for 51 years and have seen the steady decline of acceptable restaurants (Gone: Teachers 1 and 2, Marvin Gardens, etc.) Hale and Hearty is good for take out and delivery.
My wife and I had our first date at Marvin Gardens. Nice restaurant! We’ve been married 28 years.
Go to a typical west side Italian—you’ll pay $40 for mediocre pasta with red sauce and a salad (with t and t). Add a noise level that makes conversation impossible. Maybe it’s just me, but…
Unfortunately, Mr. Wells is correct. Most other neighborhoods are eating our lunch (and dinner!) when it comes to top-notch restaurants.
I like Han Dynasty.
I count on Luxembourg for great ambiance and people and the food gets better if not spectacular.
I am an UWS resident for 22 years, and I agree that there are few “destination” restaurants on the UWS. I always attributed this to the fact that the UWS cannot provide a viable lunch business, which would prelude many higher end restaurants from locating there.
North of Lincoln Center, Ouest was the only excellent restaurant that comes to mind for me.
Nobody here likes Crave Fishbar or Burke & Wills? They’re always packed when I eat there.
West Siders are too cranky 😏
Agree with all your choices. And I know everyone makes fun of Olma the caviar bar. But since they’ve widened their menu we stop there more frequently. The service is excellent and I hope it stays open. Cafe Luxembourg and Boulud South also make my list.
Living on and loving the UWS for over 47 years I can second what Pete Wells said. Ouest was the only truly fine restaurant we had, and now that it’s gone it would be great to have another great dining experience there.
It’s great that White Gold has opened. Maybe a trend-setter. I well remember the days when we were convinced there was one kitchen under Columbus Avenue that supplied every restaurant in the area.
I agree with tostonesfix. I enjoy the places in the west 70s and 80s, but I’m not sure I would travel up here for them. Having said that, though, the neighborhood was the main reason that I moved here from Chelsea. The “rifraff” gets tiring. Here, I LIKE local restaurants that have pretty good food, with limited snobbery and lines. I LIKE that the waitstaff is kind and welcoming. I LIKE that when I leave a place, I’m full and happy, not annoyed that I spent too much money for food that looked prettier than it tasted. I like the “destination” restaurants downtown, but they are insane for a few months and then inevitably shut down because it was all trend. Maybe quality should be measured in longevity rather than in lines.
It’s funny that having lived in FiDi, UES, Brooklyn, and, for the past 7 years, UWS, I never actually thought that the UWS was or is a wasteland of excellent food. I have found many restaurants which have a dish or two that keeps us going back consistently – and we even have a patisserie and a boulangerie, which I never ever found in Dyker Heights, UES (worth talking about, in my opinion) or FiDi. To me, good food should be more than experimental or ingenious. I love the neighborhood here. I love the friendliness of many of the waitstaff and hosts at our local restaurants. I love that they remember us and value our patronage. I love that we do have good food – maybe not trendy, maybe not earth-shattering, no cronuts up here (thank God) but I can’t eat trendy all the time. I wish they would stop trashing our neighborhood. Having worked in midtown east for 2 decades, I definitely believe that THAT is a food wasteland, no matter how much they try to change. Here is our homey UWS, I have restaurants that we frequent, at which we are a regulars, and which welcome us warmly. I never had that in FiDi or UES.
We’ve got three great vegan restaurants. Candle West, Blossom, Peace Food. Try them.
Same old, same old. But those reportorial types would probably like to live here, if they could afford it (which I barely can in my rent-stabilized apartment.) I LIKE the diners, delis and restaurants on the UWS. They are haymish, and that’s more important than impressing a newspaper food critic. The NYT critic (and his brethren) can go jump into a very expensive, designer-created lake. On the UWS overall, we voted 86% against Drumpf, the national fast food president. Guess which is more important?
Count me as one of the 11%…while he wasn’t my first Republican choice, he’s better than any democrat! So glad he and the majority Senate, House and local governments can undue the damage of the prior 8 years.
As an UWS resident who lived downtown for many years, I agree with Wells. One of our only fave restaurants, Spiga, just closed, so what else do we have? It boggles my mind that a mediocre restaurant like Pio Pio or Buceo 95 can be packed, when their food is really subpar. Is it the UWS resident’s taste? Perhaps. People up here seem to like big portions and value versus a quality dining experience. I hope some brave restaurateurs make the move uptown, I will be here waiting!
I know, I felt the same when I read the review. I recently moved to this area and while we could use some more restaurants, what about Red Farm, Ribbon, Crave? Are these not fancy or bizarre enough food for him? He wanted even more exotic dishes involving kidney, etc. That I can live without. I have looked in the window of White Gold Butcher and at the menu and it didn’t draw me in, but I will try it because of this review. Hope I am not disappointed. Perhaps if the landlords would stop asking for such astronomical rent, small specialty places could exist.
Love all the comments. Wells is a jerk for knocking our neighborhood.
Also, when I read his review I wanted to scream that White Gold isn’t mobbed because: 1) they have no signage outside, 2) the ambiance is cold and uninviting, 3) the menu is bizarre and hard to fathom and 4) the prices are very high.
If Wells was more in touch with the pulse of the City’s diners he’d know that. I enjoy Bloomfield’s cuisine, but White Gold is overly pretentious — and, I fear, not long for the UWS.
Also, nobody mentioned ‘Cesca. It’s been around since 2003! It’s a warm, inviting place and, last time I was there, serves Italian fare cooked with care and farm to table ingredients (unlike Serafina).
There doesn’t seem to be any mention of the Café at Fairways (2nd fl)or the Lincoln Square Steak House (next to Café Luxembourg)on 70th St. I happen to think they are good value for the price. Plus the Steak house has a price fix menu during the week.
I’d agree in general about UWS restaurants. However, even before we moved here last summer from New England, we looked forward to great little necks at the Mermaid Inn. Since it has moved, it’s kept its quality. We have also discovered AG Kitchen in our ‘hood now. It has the best burger and burrito ever.
sidetrek.nyc
Try Tessa at 76/ Amsterdam – an adult restaurant- Mediterranean style menu w attention to fresh seasonal products. Terrific bar and putstanding wine list.
UWS is just outrageously overpriced in every way. It’s hard to get quality at a descent price anywhere when rents will kill you.
UWS rents are not restaurant friendly. When store after store has to close because of greedy landlords, why bother setting up shop.
I guess 59th Street doesn’t count as the UWS? Jean Georges, Per Se, Asiate, and Masa?
The UWS is 72nd St. to 110th St. (between the parks obviously)
Or at least it used to be until the real estate business and their marketing machine got a hold of it.
South of that is Lincoln Square, Columbus Circle and then Hell’s Kitchen.
North is Columbia and then Harlem. That’s how it was and that’s how it will always be. (as far as i’m concerned) I am a simple man.
Let the criticism begin….:)
You get criticism for this comment every single time you post it because you’re flat-out wrong.
UWS starts at 59th St. and goes north from there. Lincoln Square is an unofficial neighborhood ON THE UPPER WEST SIDE. It is in no way a separate area of New York.
Get it through your head.
I live in the Upper West Side. I have for more than 60 years. “lifer” is right. For most old-timers UPWS runs from 72nd St. north to 110th St, between CPW and the Hudson River. From 59th St. up to 72nd St. is Lincoln Square. In fact, there’s a little north-east corner of the so-called UPWS region that isn’t the UPWS either, it’s Manhattan Valley from 96th St. to 110th St. east of Broadway to Central Park. Of course, north of 110th its Morningside Heights, not “Columbia,” though Columbia is such a dominant presence that one can be excused for thinking it should be so named. Wikipedia is only a repetition of common knowledge. Here’s a link to a map of Manhattan neighborhoods:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/99249723/new-york-city-map-manhattan-neighborhood
As for restaurants on the UPWS. I have to agree that they are OK but no better. Of course, there are a whole lot of quite OK restaurants. Gourmet dining, however—no. Some of the restaurants mentioned in the posts here:
Henry’s OK, pleasant, had some bad experiences there, however. Jacob’s Pickle, good fun if you like pickles (which I do). Bella Luna was pleasant. (Seems to be in a long process of moving across the street.) Miss some of the great old ones: Moon Place (best hot and sour soup ever), Panda Garden (once really good Chinese), The Green Tree right across from the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (very pleasant Hungarian food, and ok this is just north of the UPWS). Ah well, all ancient history.
As much as I liked and frequented all these eateries, none were true epicurean destinations.
It’s disingenuous to cite a map on Etsy as ‘proof’ that the UWS starts at 72nd Street. It’s always started at 59th Street, and the term ‘Lincoln Square’ – (invented by real estate brokers) has only been in use for around 20 – 25 years in an attempt to distinguish it. If memory serves, the use of ‘Lincoln Square’ coincides with the opening of the various Millennium buildings in the 60s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_West_Side
Food at Bistro Cassis (or, at least, last summer when I was last there) is very, very good. Bistro Cassis is also extremely expensive. As someone who lives in the lower West 70’s, a bigger beef than lack of excellent food is the expense of the restaurants in the W. 60’s/70’s. The less expensive restaurants have by and large gone out of business, one by one.
Pete Wells does honest review and its true that UWS
needed better restaurants.
im an Upper West Sider who has no interest in wasting money on overpriced restaurants that charge an arm and a leg because they have to pay increased wages and outrageous rents. Id rather go to a more moderately priced place or, better yet, cook at home. Why throw money away that can be invested and benefit from compound growth over many years?
Reviewer is right, and it isn’t just upscale restaurants either. None of the take away food is good. The Thai on Amsterdam in all those lounges, is downright awful.
Save for Awadh, I cannot recommend a delivery restaurant in our neighborhood.
Went to Mr Chow last week and it was overpriced and not better than Empire Szechuan on the UWS. Why leave the UWS for anything?
Is the Candle Bar still open? Do they serve food there?
There is no food scene here. There never has been.
Jane Pyenson says: “I would say this is even more evidence that the “lame-stream” media is out of touch with 21st century journalism.”
Interesting comment, which could be indicative of the virus attacking the synapses of 21st-century inhabitants.
In this capacity Wells is a reviewer—a restaurant critic— presenting his opinion, which should not be confused with fact. In other words, Ms. Pyenson, think of him as a Bosley Crowther, whose trashing of Beatty’s film, Bonnie and Clyde, effectively ended his film criticism career, rather than as, say, a Woodward and Bernstein, whose investigative reporting effectively ended a presidency.
As a 35-year resident of the Upper West Side, I share the restaurant disappointment of my neighbors and the Times, and particularly lament the closing of Telepan. However, I’m surprised that Boulud Sud wasn’t mentioned. It’s a wonderful place with great food, really nice ambience, a true destination restaurant on 64th Street.