Aureole
“You almost feel secluded from the rest of the restaurant which faces the bustling streets of Bryant Park/Times Square.”
“I would have liked this with some avocado as is sometimes the case with tuna tartare, but this dish had excellent flavor and the fish was fairly fresh.”
“Props to Charlie Palmer for creating a high-end, quality restaurant without pretentiousness.”
Aureole
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
PokéStop Nearby: Yes
Price range.
$$$$ Price range Above $61
8 reviews
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This review is for restaurant week!!
First course: Summer greens. Yellowfin tuna. Cavatili Pasta. The summer greens was surprisingly good. They have a good sauce that comes with it. Also a hefty portion. Tuna was delish. A smaller portion but good raw tuna ceviche type dish. The cavatili pasta has a strong pesto flavor.
Second course: Purple Hake. Risotto. Slow cooked lamb. Hake is a fish on a bed of taro. More of a lighter palate. Risotto was interesting. Had a strong base of goat cheese and zucchini. The lamb is rich and savory. The couscous that came with it was yummy and rich in flavor too!
Dessert: blueberry Mille-fueille. Chocolate genoise. The Mille-fueille wasn't what I was expecting. Thought it was going to be a thousand layer crepe cake but it was more of a thin flakey sandwich with Creme in the middle. I loved the genoise! It's mostly a chocolate dessert with coconut sorbet!
I thought this was fine, but no more. I liked the Las Vegas incarnation better.
I ate in the Liberty Room, which is a la carte. My appetizer of pasta with ricotta, veal, ramp, and wax beans was very good, but the main course of poached halibut had an accompaniment that was too heavy on lemon and overpowered the delicate fish. Poached fish is also not the most attractive thing to set on a plate, so the look of the dish as a little off too since it wasn't dressed up very attractively. The staff were very accommodating, but the drinks and courses were pretty slow to come out. The room is also kind of loud, with all the hard surfaces, and the décor is bland for my taste. Maybe they were going for contrast to the craziness of Times Square a block over, but meh.
Let me begin by saying: Get the tasting menu and let the everyone take care of you. All of the staff is extremely good at their jobs from the hostesses, bartenders, servers, and based off the food obviously the entire kitchen staff. The tasting menu is obviously pretty up there in price but you definitely get your money's worth with the entire experience.
Each course is presented to you by multiple servers, and each ingredient is described from where it is sourced- to how it was used in the dish. If you opt to pay for the wine pairings, the sommelier will present a different wine with each course. The tasting menu is a great way to sample a lot of things you wouldn't want to miss if you saw them on the menu at other restaurants: seared foie gras, filet mignon, tartare, etc.
Between the food, beautiful dining areas and service (and hopefully the company you dine with), Aureole makes for a very memorable time.
I came here for a work lunch and got the two item pre-fixe. I ordered the white tuna ceviche and the scallops. We also ordered the octopus to share with the table.
They offered bread for the table. There were a variety of types and they were great. The white tuna ceviche was tasty except I wasn't enjoying the beets in the dish. After a while of eating, it did get too tart for me.
The scallops were amazing, cooked perfectly and seasoned well (a bit salty but I liked it). Whatever was in the green puree was wonderful. I tried a bit of the skate wing and it was nice and crispy.
We also shared the wild strawberry mille feuille but I wasn't wowed by it. They also gave us some petite fours, which seemed nice.
I'll start by saying the food is superb. We had the yellow fin tuna tartare, the lobster and the strawberry mille fuelle. The prosecco was average. The review is more of a reflection of the interaction over the phone and the layout of the restaurant. I called for a same day reservation to take my father on a surprise dinner to Aureole as it was just the two of us in town and wanted to treat him. A reservation was made and upon arrival to the restaurant we were sat in a front room. I had a shared booth/couch seating while my father sat in the opposite chair. No tablecloth, no floral arrangement. The place where I sat had crumbs and the couch was ripped. As it was summer and I was wearing a dress the crumbs got on my legs and was very uncomfortable. The couch was sinking and not good quality. I noticed there was a separate room in the back that appeared to have tablecloth. I inquired about the separate room and was told that was a separate reservation. My intention was to get a reservation at the Michelin Starred portion of the restaurant but was automatically without any indication over the phone given a reservation in the more casual (and overall inadequate) Liberty Room. After crossing the threshold into the proper dining room (they had seating available for two) which was way smaller than the Liberty Room, the service immediately went from 2 star to 5 star. I've been to the more casual portions of restaurants (Gramercy Tavern, Daniel) before with appropriate seating and proper service. This Liberty Room was a sore disappointment. These need to be separated into two different restaurants as one is a 2 star restaurant and the other is a 5. You feel as if you're walking through another restaurant to get to the restaurant which is awkward. The small size of the dining room makes me feel like the restaurant is trying to monopolize on the name and surreptitiously making people reservations in the Liberty Room. Unlikely to return again unless dad craves the food again as it is superb.
I would have given this place 5 stars, but minus one since we were seated behind a pillar.
The atmosphere here was wonderful and the food was amazing!! From the bread they gave out before the meal up until the end of the night, everything was great! That bread really was delicious. I thoroughly enjoyed my meal here.
The restaurant is right by Times Square, and conveniently located away from the crowds.
Overall it's an excellent choice especially if you're looking for something fancy.
Incredible, memorable meal. 5+ stars for service, taste, atmosphere, presentation, the whole package. We did the 5 course tasting menu with wine pairings, which ended up being: tuna tartare with lychee and lemon, foie gras with a tiny waffle (my favorite course), seared black cod, a beef duo of tenderloin and cheek, and a gorgeous chocolate-raspberry dessert. Each dish was carefully thought out and the multiple components played together perfectly. The wine pairings were eclectic, yet totally on point and it was great to talk to the sommelier between each course.
Definitely come for your next special occasion.
I took my mom here for the prix fixe Mother's Day brunch and it was a huge hit! Unlike typical prix fixe menus, there were tons of different options for every type of palate.
I was a little miffed that we (and everyone else who had reservations for 11:45AM) had to wait around for 10-15 minute while they completed setting up the dining area, so we ended up not being seated until around 12PM. I thought the point of making reservations was so that this wouldn't be a problem. Good thing we had no plans following brunch.
For our appetizers, we ordered the white asparagus soup and the whitefin tuna tartare. Both were excellent options. The soup was creamy and tasted almost like seafood chowder The tuna tartare was super fresh and nicely marinated in a light dressing of soysauce? and sesame oil. I particularly enjoyed the vegetable topping which was dusted with a light chili paste and tasted like fresh kimchi.
For our main courses, we ordered the steak with potatoes and the lobster benedict. I really enjoyed the lobster benedict. It was definitely way too much food for one person – which the server did warn me about before I ordered it – so I was glad that I shared it with my mom. In addition to the lobster (I think all together it was a full lobster bc I had two half tails and two claws), I also got a little cut of steak. The steak was a bit bland, and was more a medium rare than a rare, which I'd asked for, but I rolled it around in my mom's steak sauce and it was fine. My mom found her steak, which had a salt and pepper crust, to be a little too salty. Otherwise, her steak was cooked to a perfect medium.
Things really went downhill for dessert though, like straight off a cliff downhill. I ordered the red velvet cake and my mom had the raspberry chocolate cake. Mine was almost inedible. Considering the prestige of the restaurant, I was surprised that the dessert was so unpalatable. It also tasted like they'd made it way in advance and just thawed it out for the day. My mom was equally unimpressed with her dessert.
I thought service was a little dismissive, but they were really busy on Mother's Day, so I think that can be overlooked. After the meal, all moms got a small bottle of sparkling red wine after the meal which was a nice touch!