Cityhouse

The service did not start off with a good impression. We walked in and there was no host or hostess. We waited 5 minutes, still no one. Then my friend walked in to look for someone. He came back 3 minutes later. We sat ourselves.
I figured it might be like this since the reviews weren’t very good. But I didn’t actually think it would occur. We waited some more for water and menus. We already knew what we were going to order.
The appetizer was fried calamari. It was just OK. The breaded portion kept falling apart, not sure if it’s supposed to do that. I really liked the 2 different dipping sauces. One was a fancy version of tar tar sauce, the other tasted like a spicy version of duck sauce. Both were great alternatives to marinara sauce. The main course was filet mignon. I ordered mine medium rare, my friend ordered it well done. When they arrived they were both medium rare. If he had been that type to freak out about seeing pink in his steak that would have been a disaster but he was cool about it and really enjoyed his meal. So the main course was awesome. Dessert was apple pie for me and chocolate cake for him. They both came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A very delicious ending to our meal.
As for the service there was much to be desired. The appetizer took a while. The waiter seemed to be very busy. The staff looked slightly overwhlemed. I think they were understaffed. The waiter was very friendly and seemed eager to do well so I can’t say anything bad about him. H did his best. I do think they probably need better management, but that’s just me making assumptions.
So, would I come back? No. I could get filet mignon just as good, if not better, some where cheaper with a more attentive wait staff.

Service sucks, extremely slow and rude.
AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Hotel dinning during the era when people only ate there for the convenience or didn’t eat there at all because they choose to order a drink at the bar. Boring pasta, soup and entrée options. I would give the short rib 4 stars though… great portion and tender but you’ll have to cough up $ 29. Poor execution of salmon entrée; overcooked and fishy. Overly sauced pasta.

Awesome food, service and ambiance their price-​fixe dinner ant be beat in mid-​town

Came with a voucher that someone had given us as a present. Our server was helpful in explaining/​re-​explaining what was included. Service was a little slow, but they advised us about the wait in the kitchen when we sat down, which was nice. Food was solid — this isn’t Keens or Peter Lugers, but it’ll do. People watching along 7^th Ave is fun, too.

I was here tonight and used a
voucher. My friend and I made a reservation for 6pm to avoid the dinner rush and get out in time to see a Broadway show. The place had about 5 tables seated, far from filled to capacity.
Atmosphere: Indoor and limited outdoor seating
Food: Decent, but not worth the price or the wait. The seafood and steak were prepared very well (avoid the apple crisp dessert)
Service: 3 waiters and the hostess cannot keep up with 5 tables on a Saturday evening? I guess some of the blame should fall on the chef
Pricing: Use a voucher. This place is not worth paying full price if you must go.
It took 20 minutes for the nonexistant waiter to take our order and another 30 minutes to just get the appetizer (a lobstertini). Noticing it was almost showtime, I flagged the waiter to let him know we had to catch a show. Another table of 4 did the same. It was taking some time for the main course, so we took a dessert menu from another table so we could order as soon as the food came out. The entrees finally arrived an hour and half later (filet mignon w/​lobster tail & pan seared scallops). After wolfing down the dessert (apple crisp w/​ice cream) and receiving the check, I noticed they charged 15% gratuity twice, which I had to sort out… I still left a 25% gratuity out of courtesy since we had the voucher but I was ultimately late for the show.

I came here last year after running the 2011 NYC marathon. I thought the food was great. Maybe because I had just run 26.2 miles and was starving, but I didn’t have any complaints. The place was pretty empty which was great for me because there was no delay in service. I had a travelzoo voucher and it was well worth it.

We had dinner at this restaurant last night. The place didn’t live up to our expectations. The lobster bisque was quite good. The rib eye steak was barely warm. When we asked to warm it up, it came back medium to well-​done instead of the original medium-​rare order. The added «surf» of a lobster tail was a waste of $ 10, as it had no flavor at all and was overdone on the grill. The asparagus side order was plain, while the creamed spinach was tasty. Overall, we had a good time, but primarily because of the company and good conversation and not because of the food and service. It’s probably convenient for those who are staying at the hotel to dine here, but there are better restaurants in the vicinity.

Typical overpriced Midtown hotel food. Food was good but very overpriced. Silverware was dirty. Staff was nice but it is easy to be attentive when the dining room is 25% full. The wine was overpriced and they were out of the wine I ordered. Décor was nice as expected, but I would not go back here.

What a bizarre experience we had at cityhouse. I should temper this review by admitting that we had dinner here on July 4^th, looking for any decent restaurant that would be open before the fireworks on the Hudson.
They clearly had a skeleton crew manning the place. The bar was curtained off, the hostess was waiting tables, and the two actual waiters were clearly overstretched, even though the place was maybe ¹⁄₃ full.
We waited nearly ten minutes before anyone sat us. One of the flustered waiters gruffly took us to a table… at which point the hostess became our waitress.
In the most bizarre sighting, we kept witnessing the two waiters bickering with each other. One was clearly boss over the other, but there’s no love between them. I thought at one point the older gentlemen was going to drop his tray of food and start a real brawl. All within sight of customers.
We had to get our own utensils from an adjacent table. As the bar was closed, we had only wines-​by-​the-​glass to pick from, and it was clear the bottle’d been open a long time.
The redemption for cityhouse: the food from the kitchen was piping hot and actually quite delicious. My partner had a gnocchi and I had shortribs. We also had a chocolate dessert though I’m foggy on what it was; I remember it being decent, however.
Maybe cityhouse is a bit more on their game when fully staffed?

Competent if not remarkable food, but a stylish dining room with excellent service. We were glad of a sparse dining room on a weeknight, although I’m sure the restaurant didn’t share our delight in a near-​empty room as we stretched our meal out over many hours. The Restaurant Week menu was an excellent bargain, but I’m not sure I would seek out their standard menu at full price.

Steak, steak steak steak steak. That’s all we wanted. A good cut of steak, some nice sauce, and a nice side.
T.H. had a craving for some meaty goodness just last week so we wandered into cityhouse despite some poor reviews. While it has all the glitz of a restaurant that could be good, the food was a run of the mill. As a starter, we got the calamari and decided that it was good, just not notable. The breading was nice and light and the squid itself was fresh enough that it didn’t have that chewy texture. It came with a tartar sauce and a sweet and spicy sauce which both of us decided didn’t match well. Though it was well done, it still was not particularly interesting as an appetizer.
For entrees we both ordered filets, mine with the red wine reduction and his with a creamy buttery sauce that I can’t remember the name of. The steaks themselves were pretty normal, nothing too fancy, nothing really overdone, and nothing out of the box, just the standard salt, pepper, and maybe a pat of butter. If you are looking for just that, cityhouse is okay. The red wine reduction was good, but definitely something anyone can make in their own kitchen. Aside from that we ordered two sides, onion rings and the french fries. I’m not a terribly big fan of onion rings but T.H. ate them to his heart’s content while I attempted to pick at the french fries. On a more personal level, I like my french fries thick and potato-​y with that nice starchy flavor. The french fries here were those really thin ones that I always feel contain more grease than necessary and less taste than the steak fries.
Overall the meal was okay and pretty standard for a steakhouse, but definitely not fantastic.
The reason I gave cityhouse a 2 star is mostly because of the service. While the food was pretty straightforward and standard, the service varied. Our main server was very polite, cracked jokes with us, and was generally very attentive to our needs (more water, more bread, making sure our orders were correct). The second waiter (his counterpart or replacement during the shift) was much more rude, didn’t care that we had gotten the wrong sauces, and mixed up our side orders. When I asked for the red-​wine reduction sauce instead of whatever he brought me he merely said okay, came back five minutes later with a dish, and just dropped it on the table and left. So wow, a professional. I had hoped for better so I could give a better review and find a nice steakhouse to satisfy my meat cravings, but alas, such things do happen. Good luck cityhouse, I won’t be back.

This is a great midtown spot for lunch or coffee in the afternoon if you’re looking to get away from the crowds. Service is kind and friendly, and the atmosphere is a great getaway from the hustle and bustle outside.

Now that my anger has subsided, I can begin my honest review of Cityhouse.
I came here with the F.R.E.A.M. crew through a Gilt deal and boy did i feel guilty later on! This meal was NOT worth the $$ we shelled out.
The steak I ordered was bland beyond belief. I think if I had bought a steak from my local Key Food it would have been better. My gf recieved the wrong steak and had to wait for a new one to come so she just sadly watched us eat our sad meal.
My pre-​dinner salad was just strange. There was a weird spice or herb in it that just did not go well with the salad. It was overly dressed as well which I don’t particularly care for.
The desserts were similar to what you would get from the cold pre-​made cake section of a supermarket or local diner. And that is a stretch.
The prices they place next to the meals do not equate to the flavor.

I’m appalled that Cityhouse boasts that they serve the «best cuts of dry-​aged USDA prime beef». Touting this did not cause my naïve curiosity to give this place a try but unfortunately a Gilt City deal for 4 apps, 4 entrees, 4 desserts & 2 bottles of wine for 4 people for about $ 170 was enough to entice my impulsive Asian need to snag a «deal».
First of all shame on you, Gilt for offering such a misleading deal! When we arrived at the restaurant and showed the waiter our «deal» print out he immediately noted that our meal was capped at $ 230 regardless of what we ordered. Um, what?! It was too late to turn around now and we were hungry so the show must go on.
The meal was totally forgettable from start to finish. The «prime steaks» they served were bland and of supermarket quality. My hangar steak had a funky stench that turned me off from it completely. The wines were weak & uninspiring. Losing motivation to continue with our meal, we opted to only try 3 desserts, all of which were dismissed after a couple bites.
At the end we went with one less dessert and opted for 2 bottles of wine (both around $ 60 each) that were some of the cheaper options available. Even still our dinner went beyond the «deal» limit by over $ 100. If we had enjoyed the food, I don’t think we would be as annoyed with paying the extra dough. Unfortunately a lackluster meal costing us more than we intended to pay and perhaps more than it would’ve cost to eat at a far superior choice of restaurant, had us leaving with sour faces and angry stomachs. Shame on me for not knowing any better. Lesson learned.

Meh is right. 3 of my girlfriends and I scored a Gilt City deal for here — 4 apps, entrees, desserts and 2 bottles of wine for a ridiculously reasonable price.
The ambiance is… kind of cold and industrial. The service was actually pretty good — our waiter was attentive and pleasant, and the timing of everything was pretty impeccable. My water was refilled regularly.
But the food left a lot to be desired. Out of all of our appetizers, only my short rib ravioli was tasty enough to be memorable– the short rib was tender, and the sauce glazed the ravioli with meaty goodness. The pasta was cooked properly. It was a little on the cool side, but it was tasty enough to excuse. My friends salad had a strange, bitter, herbal note. The calamari was overbreaded and underseasoned. The lobster bisque was just ok, but I had to ask my friend what her appetizer was because I had zero recollection.
The rib eyes were bland, which I guess is why they needed to be served with your choice of sauce. While tender, some seasoning (and I mean really, just some salt) would have made them way better, and while the mushroom reduction itself was flavorful, you shouldn’t need a sauce to enjoy your steak. One of my friends got another cut of meat, which I didn’t try because she said it smelled funny. And I got a lamb shank, which, while tender enough, was just ok.
The truffle fries, however, are very good, especially if you like McDonald’s fries (don’t knock them, you know they’re pretty much crackfries.)
Desserts were just ok, and in hindsight, probably a total waste of stomach room.
We STILL had to pay above the Gilt City certificate, and for what our total bill was, I could have gone somewhere else and been happier.

It has been said that some of NYC’s restaurant gems can be hidden away inside of hotels. That is definitely what I discovered at Cityhouse restaurant, in the Park Central Hotel. I was there for a business meeting, so I stayed there for a while, trying various menu items. They all hit the mark, and the prices were unbelievably reasonable. I asked who the chef was, and apparently he used to be with BLT. No surprise there, as every course was perfectly made. I highly recommend any of the steaks, including the lobstertini, b.s.t. (bacon, shrimp and tomato), and the lamb keftedas. One more thing: since Cityhouse is all long stretches of glass, you get to do some great people watching on 7^th Ave, up and down :-)