NORMA’S
“P.S. all meals start with a "shot" of the fruit smoothie of the day and unlimited OJ is at your disposal.”
“I can't resist the french press coffee ($9) or the bottomless, fresh-squeezed orange juice (also $9).”
“Tucked away inside of Le Parker Meridien hotel, Norma's offers up monster size portions on a breakfast menu that would give a lumberjack arousal.”
NORMA’S
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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Easily the most expensive breakfast of my life thus far but worth every penny. BEWARE: You will likely be touching elbows with diners all around you. It's a tight space, but that's New York for ya.
Ordered: The eggs (added swiss cheese on top) & sausage breakfast. Portions were HUGE but I couldn't stop eating. It was delicious.
Skip ordering any toast with your meal – it's expensive and not that great. The portions with your meal are so large that you literally don't need anything else!
Exactly what you expect from a high-end hotel's attempt at brunch with a fun personality: pricey, pretty adventurous, alright execution.
I had the Artichoked Benedict:
PROS:
-perfectly done eggs
-nice porcini and truffle aroma
-generous amounts of artichoke, perfectly cooked
CONS:
-undercooked potatoes
-no english muffins? (although trading in muffins for two artichoke hearts is a win to me)
-no browning (on anything: artichokes and potatoes were both blonde)
My friend had the ring of chunky fruit and it looked amazing – I'd recommend it. Overall, the Artichoked Benedict was pretty solid, although the undercooked potatoes (almost a little crunchy on the inside) rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe I got unlucky.
NORMA's is for when you want to take someone somewhere special for brunch but you want decent food with a whiff of snobbery. The food isn't quite as elevated as the decor, service, or price but is still decent. You could find a brunch place that's cheaper, with better food, but it wouldn't feel quite as classy.
My boyfriend and I ordered their Breakfast Quesadilla & Crunchy French Toast and both were 5/5 for me! The quesadilla has eggs, bacon, and guacamole that just works magically with one another. It definitely hit the spot after a 6 hour plane ride from LA. The french toast was good. Very crispy and crunchy on the outside because of the cereal but the bread it self was soft. It comes w a side of caramal sauce and syrup but the french toast is in itself sweet so the extra sauces are not necessary. Both dishes were excellent.
Some things I didn't like:
1) Expensive – Each dish was like $30… The restaurant itself is inside the Le Parker Meridien Hotel so probably the reason for the ridiculous expensive price.
2) Service was slow. Service was good but very slow. Not for people on the run.
Very average for the price. The description on the menu left me expecting more from the food served. We tried the Donut even go there french toast and lobster omlet – french toast was way too sweet and the lobster tasted fishy… the wait staff was attentive, that's the only reason i didn't give this a 1 star!
It's all about the $100 Omelette here that comes with rock shrimp and caviar. We ordered it and it was really good. Well worth it if you have the budget or your sharing for a special occasion.
The down side- alcoholic drinks were limited and I ordered the Bloody Mary that was so watered down and tasted like earth. Besides your typical mimosa- they have only whites by the glass. It would be nice if they had some fun cocktails and better wine. The food was ok, I think you should order items you would never eat usually as I think that's Norma's sweet spot.
The service is slow, but the food is pretty good in huge portion! I mean huge. The restaurant takes reservation, I can find reservations even on the same day for weekends brunch. So that's good.
It's on the pricy side, most stuff is around 30. But given the size and location, not surprising. OJ is expensive for $9, and coffee is for $7. So we skipped all these. But I got light and hearth egg white omelet, which is so fulfilling and healthy and good. It also comes with bread and butter. My friends got French toast and Benny, they all love them. My only complaint is the time for our food.
I met with my best friend here for brunch, she's been here a few times and she recommends this place for a meet-up, we had a reservation at 12:30pm on Sunday, we knew we were going to be 15 mins late so we tried calling the restaurant to move the time, but after several attempts, no one could be reached. I got there, waited in line to speak to the hostess who was having an argument with a guest, or more like the guest was very demanding and asking for the food & beverage manager, she was told that the hostess was in charge while that manager was out of the hotel until later the afternoon.
The argument lasted for 10 mins, very unprofessional, everyone in line was confused. When the hostess got me, she greeted me with a cold smile, I apologized for being late and explained my situation, she totally ignored me without even looking up from her ipad screen and told to sit down for my name. It took them awhile to find our reservation. My friend came and had to ask 3 times before we could sit down again, it was almost 1:30 pm. Poor attitude let alone the wait, if they could have been nicer this would have been a 4-star. But they probably don't care.
We sat down and ordered hot coffee, OJ, I stared at the two shot glasses of berry smoothie that seemed to be sitting there before we got seated, I was hesitant to drink it. NEVER put food on my table before I sit down.
The menu is full of miracles though, even though the server came 15 mins after we asked for our coffee several times, we ordered the Crunchy French Toasts and the Eggwhite & Shrimp Frittata, the French Toasts were some of the best I've had in NYC, crunchy on the outside, creamy and sweet on the inside, I could eat it without any syrup. It was a little too sweet but still not bad. The Frittata was ok, the egg white was great but the shrimp was bland and the potatoes on the bottom were tasteless, almost like steamed potatoes soaked in oil for 10 mins.
The OJ was freshly squeezed and my friend's grape juice was not bad, we couldn't finish the dishes, didn't touch the bread on the house — it came together with our meal. We kept looking for a server but no one was around to even get me my check. An unpleasant $110 spent on lunch.
Norma's gets a lot of hype in midtown. It has an extremely high trend factor and I think the reason it gets the press it does is that there is a better than even chance of seeing a celeb stuffing sausages in their mouth, if you get my drift heh heh.
Getting right to it, the portions are huge. I mean enormous mounds of flour, sugar, whipped cream, etc. Probably produce their own gravitational well if they were circling the breakfast sun in outer space. Frankly, just a bit intimidating. But come on friends of Larry. Seriously, there is no friggin way in the world that a stack of cakes are worth $31.00 unless you could dig down through them and find a naked syrup covered Beyoncé at the bottom. THIRTY ONE DOLLARS. ARE YOU HIGH? Coffee in a stainless steel French press was SEVEN bucks a person. You even have to order toast separately. Jeez. For the hundred bucks I spent here for two, I could have easily had six meals in the real world. Plus, there was very little besides size that earned cudos. I mean maybe if they killed a lobster at the table for the crepes or something, the theatrics might be worth it, but in no uncertain fashion does this place deserve slobbering over. If you want huge portions, go to Golden Corral. Oh, and plan on meeting your neighbor. As a matter of fact, be ready to bear their children as that's how close you are seated.
I guess the food was OK, but I cannot give this place high marks because of the prices. Completely and utterly unjustified. Go to Lindy's around the corner. Oh wait, don't. That place is a ptomaine filled hole. Just to be fair, they have a duck confit hash that was tasty and creative. The only thing on the menu that was worthy of positive note. Find someplace else.
Your pal Larry