Raclette

We’ve probably all seen the beautiful videos on Instagram of the huge wheel of melted cheese being scraped atop a plate of food. Of course I had to try it! My friend and I look a risk and came on a Sunday afternoon without a reservation. The space is seriously tiny. There are 14 tiny seats crammed into a tiny tiny room, with the cooking going on behind a little counter and glass window. Thus our wait time was quoted 1.5−2 hours. They will call you when the table is ready so we walked around the neighborhood and went somewhere for drinks (and a snack, but don’t tell anyone). Raclette is BOYB with a $ 5 corkage fee per wine bottle or 6-​pack if you plan to bring something back.
Because we came at an odd hour we were seated after not much longer than an hour, around 4pm. Tartines (open-​faced sandwiches) and Croques (grilled sandwiches) are on the menu but you really want to go for the Raclettes. Of the 3 options we wanted meat with ours so we went with the SUISSE ($ 18). You are delivered a plate of prosciutto di Parma, cornichons, pickled white pearl onions, sliced baguette, arugula salad and well-​seasoned and crispy roasted potatoes. Then the fun starts. They bring out the large wheel of melted Raclette cheese which is then scraped onto your plate table side.
Raclette is worth the trip, and the wait. Its a very quaint, unique, and fun experience. It seems like it could be a gimmick but everything is well-​executed and service is warm and friendly.

Raclette is AWESOME and a great place try at least once. The restaurant is tiny… literally only 15 people MAX can be seated and you’ll be very comfy to the table next to you. Do yourself a favor and make a reservation online or you might have to wait hours. The service was perfect and the food came out really fast. I ordered the Suisse raclette. If you’re with another person, ordering a large is only $ 5 more than the regular size! The Suisse raclette came with roasted potatoes, an arugula salad, cornichons and pickled onions, ham, and toast bread. Anyways, moving onto the cheese… it’s good… very good. The melty cheese becomes stringy right away and is a little on the salty side, but the cornichons and pickled onions are the perfect sour complements. If you order the regular raclette plates, I believe you get 2 scrapes of cheese while the large plates get 3 scrapes of cheese. Definitely give this place a try if you’re visiting New York and yes… make sure your phone/​camera is charged and ready to capture the cheese porn.

The IG hype is REAL. Took me a month to make reservations thanks to social media but it was definitely worth the wait. Came here to get the all that cheese layed on my plate. MHM! Given they only sit 14 people, I was pretty much dining with the folks next to me on both sides of the table but everyone was so friendly!
Simple menu, which is always a great thing– goes to show their ingredients are fresh! I ordered the Tomato Tartine which was an open face sandwich with bufala mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, arugula pesto, & basil on toasted focaccia. DELISH!
Now the star of the show– the raclette. There are 2 options to choose from in which you will get the cheese wheel experience. I ordered the Suisse with Ham. Man oh man when that cheese was being layed on my plate, I was drooling!
Worth the month wait? HECK YES, Scrape on Raclette, scrape on.

My cousins loved it to bits. For me there was too much cheese however it is a place that serves it as the first second and third course. The host is superb and came around to serve us more Raclette. Generous serving. I highly recommend this place to all cheese lovers.

So I read the reviews, and I knew this place was going to be small, but it’s TINY! There’s just one room, with a counter dividing the diners from the kitchen. There was a row of tables along one side that could be two or four (or more) depending on your party size and then another 2 tables against the other wall for parties of 3 or 2. So if you want to go here you should make a reservation, go early, or be prepared to wait.
My friend and I had made a reservation over a month in advance (crazy!) since we’d been seeing that cheese scraping video everywhere, and knew we needed to try it. So our chance finally came last night! We showed up at 9, and were told they were just waiting for people to pay/​get up. So we took that time to go buy a bottle of wine since this place is BYOB with a small (~$ 5) corkage fee. We got back about 15 minutes later and were seated right away. We took a look at the menu and knew we were going to get a raclette, but thought about getting something else to share too. We settled on the Americain croque (caramelized onions, leek fondue, roasted garlic, & white english cheddar on toasted pain poilane), and the Suisse (jambon de Paris; roasted potatoes; cornichons; pickled white pearl onions; sliced baguette; arugula salad with champagne vinaigrette) Raclette. Seriously both were amazing! The croque was super cheesy, and very flavorful. The raclette was amazing! I would say try, if you can, to eat the cheese while it’s still warm and gooey. It’s still great when it starts to cool, but definitely better when it’s hot. Then they come around a second time to scrape the cheese onto whatever you have left on the plate. We couldn’t even finish it all, since we were so stuffed!
The service here was pretty good. Since it’s so small, it’s pretty easy to get someone’s attention if you need it. At one point we asked for more arugula and they happily brought us some more on a plate. Our waitress was very nice, and offered up her opinion/​suggestions when we asked. Since we had a late reservation we wound up staying till we were the last people there. We were talking and finishing our bottle of wine, and they weren’t rushing to kick us out.
I feel like this lived up to the hype for me. I don’t know that I would come and wait for hours for a table, and making a reservation a month in advance is kind of crazy, but I would definitely do it again and come back.

First off, make a reservation or be prepared to wait at least an hour and a half to be seated (that’s if you’re lucky). The place is tiny, so seats are limited. We went there in a group of 7, but missed or reservation so we had to wait an hour before we got seated.
Most of us had the raclette with prosciutto. Twas fantastic. I think the novelty is the showmanship and effort the staff makes to come all the way to your table, and pour that delicious Suisse cheese all over the potatoes. It makes for a ver fun meal. Each customer is entitled to 2 helpings of cheese! Definitely good for a cheese lover like me!
Their drinks menu is limited, but you can always head down to OST coffee next door to get a cup. (It’s good too!)

This is very possibly my favorite food experience of 2016 thus far. First off, let’s just get the obvious out of the way: you basically can’t do melted cheese and carbs wrong. You just can’t.
With that said, Raclette is killing it here. While the basic components of their dishes are simple, the execution is literally perfect — which makes the wait (my friend and I waited over two hours for this meal) worth it. Everything from the ambiance of the restaurant to the food itself strikes just the right tone.
When we were in, my friend (a vegetarian) and I split the following:
1. Croque Americain: the caramelization on the onions here was perfect, and the pairing with English cheddar (sharp, tangy flavor profile) elevated the dish beyond what you’d get with most domestic cheddars.
2. Raclette Savoyarde: this was quite honestly heaven on a plate. The combination of crusty bread, perfectly herbed potatoes and, most important of all, warm, melty cheese was perfect. I honestly cannot think of a single criticism of this dish (except that it would have been great to have even more cheese, haha).
The amount of food that we got was perfect. For those coming with one dining companion, I highly recommend doing what we did and splitting a croque and a raclette.
Bonus, as mentioned by others: Raclette is BYO alcohol. We made a trip to Bee Liquors on Avenue B and picked up a bottle of rosé to go with our meal.

This place is amazingly tiny.
Friendly service.
Delicious fig tartine!
Incredible scraped cheese!
Just pay a visit, experience and have fun with the cheese!
I’m so coming back to try their croques and other tartines! Yummmmmmm

One of a kind! It’s going to be hard to get in — but it’s an experience in itself.
The raclette suisse is what I went with, and if you want the iconic melted-​cheese-​wheel-​thing, this is what you get. It’s hard to pass up the sandwiches, but it’s so hard to get into the place, that you need to get what made them famous.
So the viral video that went around really blew this place up. It’s super tiny inside — maybe only 4 or 5 really small tables. I checked it out in the middle of the week around dinner time, and they were full up for a few hours. I returned right at opening the next day and STILL had to wait an hour and a half (which I really had no problem with, I had nowhere to be). As I was waiting for my table, there were soooo many people that came later and were turned down for a seat because they got so busy — and they just opened!
So they do take reservations online. I would HIGHLY suggest this to decrease your wait time. It’s definitely not a walk-​up place, at least not right now — maybe give it a few months for the crowds to die down.
And if you can’t get into Raclette, Harry and Ida’s is right down the street and makes one mean pastrami sandwich

We were the first customers of the day so there was only raclette offered during that time. Really wanted to try the fig tartine:(But the raclette was really good too!
My friend and I walked in and the first thing that we noticed was that this place was really small. It can only fit 14 people at once and is still a pretty tight squeeze.
We both got the Savoyarde which is just the potatoes with the melted raclette with a side of arugula salad and tiny pickles and pickled pearl onions. The food took a while to come since it was only one person taking orders and one person in the kitchen. The same person to scrape the cheese was also the same person who takes your orders so it takes a while. When the cheese comes though, its all worth it because you see all the melty ooey gooey cheese come off the cheese wheel. Since we were the first customers of the day, the first round of melted cheese wasn’t as meltey so the waitress gave us 3 rounds of cheese instead of two to make up for the first one.

Ok, so as everyone says, this place is small! But, they do a great job of fitting everyone in. We actually made a reservation for 5pm but got done with our plans early. We got there around 2:30pm and only had to wait about 5 minute’s for a table. The girl helping people at the front door was very nice.
I wish I could remember the names of the stuff we got. I got the potatoes and prosciutto with cheese. My husband got the cauliflower on the flat bread. It actually tasted like it had a little yellow curry on it. Very good.

A friend really really really wanted to try this place.
They have a crazy long wait list, weeks in advance, the only other way to get in was to wait and see if a reservation got canceled. I was ready to move on but not my friend. Her determination and talkative charm got us in. Im not a fan of waiting too long for food or any other venue and I was not even hungry, but it is so surprisingly yummy!
French do know how to seduce a girl. There was no wine, but thats probably a good thing otherwise the place would be even more packed!
Its like a little fancy cave, full of cheese, meats, figs, and bread.

First of all, you need to understand that this place is REALLY small. It can only fit 14 people at once.
(But you can make reservations). I knew about this place from a video I saw online and I was just dying to check it out. My friend and I got there at 12:30 and there was a table for two.
You have to wait a bit to order and to get your food since the person helping you order is also scrapping off the cheese. We both got the Suisse and prosciutto. They have many vegetarian options available too. What they don’t tell you beforehand is that there are two scrapes. You get some cheese when the food arrives at your table, and then again a while later.
By the end of it, I felt kind of sick. Don’t get me wrong, the food tasted amazing and I first thought the portion was quite small. But the potatoes and cheese and bread were too much. The pickles helped a little, but I still think some wine would have made me feel better.
I would suggest getting there as soon as they open a weekday or to make reservations ahead of time. Around 2:00pm I heard the maitre’d tell someone that the average waiting time was 2.5hours.
Good luck and enjoy!

Came here with friends on a rainy afternoon after hearing about their trendy melting cheese! We got here at around 1:30 and there was a 10 min. wait for a table for 5. Seating is tight! The place is extremely small and they try their best to accommodate the large quantity of diners but it just ends up being a little too close for comfort. Tables and chairs are small as well… Service was very nice though. I have to give props to the lady who greets people at the entrance because she was super nice and attentive!
Most of us got the Suisse Raclette, which came with an arugula salad, seasoned potatoes, piece of baguette, pickles, and a meat of your choice. On top of that, after your dish arrives, a server comes over and scrapes off a layer of melting cheese to place on top of your dish! All of the ingredients tasted very fresh, especially the viande sechee (French beef slices) and cheese. The potatoes were seasoned nicely, the baguette was nice and soft, and the arugula salad was delicious. I didn’t like the pickles though because they were too sour!
While dining at Raclette does make for a unique culinary experience, the food itself was just alright for me. Most of the ingredients were just too salty. Also, while I do think that the quality of the ingredients is high, the prices here are very steep ($ 18 for the Suisse Raclette). I mean, you will be full after your meal from all the cheese but the taste of the food itself was just ok. Nice one time try though!

BYOB in the truest sense of the word. There is no beverage service other than tap water. No sparkling, no mineral, nada. But this is a huge plus! You can bring in whatever your greedy heart desires!
You’ve all seen the videos. You must have. Only one couple didn’t take a video of the melty cheese oozing down all over their plate. But the guy was legit French, so maybe that’s why.
This is a French establishment so where I was seated, I had stereo Francophones. (I’m sorry…) And don’t do like me and pronounce Jamon like a Hispanic. I thought I was doing great with my NYC Spanglish… Ha! No H sound, philistine!
I had to get the namesake. Be warned, it’s a hefty portion. I had trouble finishing it. Actually I left three small forlorn wedges of potato on my plate. Oh, I finished ALL my cheese though!
There are 6 vegetarian options (1 vegan. It is a cheese joint), but I wanted some ham with my cheesey goodness:
«Suisse
$ 18.00
Raclette cheese, melted and scraped tableside; choice of viande séchée, prosciutto di Parma OR jambon de Paris; roasted potatoes; cornichons; pickled white pearl onions; sliced baguette; arugula salad with champagne vinaigrette»
«de Paris» should have been my clue… The vinaigrette is tasty! I’m glad I tried the arugula separately because it’ll get lost if you mix it with the cheese. Cornichons are just harder Gallic gherkins. A little sweet & vinegary to cut in when needed. Since the portion is so large and because they add a second layer of cheese… YES. They hit you twice with the gooey goodness (I’m running out of cheese adjectives!)… you could share it and buy the extra baguette slices to fill it out nicely.
The second round of raclette comes right when the first is starting to congeal in a not so nice way, so don’t do a bonehead move like I almost did, and refuse it. It’s worth your while. It’s just nice to know it’s coming so you can adjust your belt accordingly.
People are going to complain about the size of the place, about the wait time and not being able to sit until their entire party shows. Sucks to be them.
I was given an 1:30 hour projected wait, so I went over to Caffe Bene to use the restroom and get some coffee. I got called in less than 20 minutes. I had no idea Raclette even had a restroom, but they do! And if my fat ass can sit at the table against the wall, you can figure it out too.
They even managed to seat a party of 9 next to me while I was there. Shocked! Shocked, I say!
So on a mid-​afternoon on a sunny Sunday, I did REALLY well.

After seeing tons of posts about this place on social media, my brother chose Raclette as the location of his birthday lunch. We were surprised at how tiny this eatery was. It seats just more than 10 people, and those people will be very cramped. I had a half hour wait on a Wednesday afternoon for lunch, so I gave the hostess my number, and waited for a call.
The menu is small. You can either get a croque (grilled cheese sandwich), tartine (open faced sandwich), or a raclette. If you want them to slice melted cheese on your plate, you have to order one of their raclettes, which is a plate of roasted potatoes, pearl onions, cornichons (pickles), a side of arugula, and meat if you get the suisse. Once you have received your raclette, the waitress will then proceed to scrape some of their molten cheese wheel on to your plate.
Cheesus christ that cheese was good. But that’s all your really paying for. The experience of receiving a slice of molten cheese on your plate. Cuz $ 18 for a plate of potatos, pickles, onion, and arugula does not seem to add up. The dining experience is very cramped as well, I was nearly bumping elbows with our neighbors. Try it, but it’s not really something I’d make a regular thing.
Edit 05/​05/​2016:
From the owner’s comment,
I was totally right about the price being mostly because of the imported cheese!
And I guess I was supposed to receive a second serving of cheese, but I wasn’t aware of it and the staff didn’t offer it, so I didn’t get it… =(
Two scrapes of the cheese would’ve made the price make more sense too, especially since a scrape of cheese à la carte costs $ 4.
Something for next time I guess.

AAAAAAAAAAND THIS IS MY 900TH Unilocal REVIEW!!! For each «milestone» review, I try to make it a place that I can rant and rave about incessantly — Raclette it is!
So I’ve had this place on my bucket list since last July and much before all the melty cheese videos began to go viral. I mean yes, cheese is my favorite food group (and I tend to ruin the lives of those closest to me by turning them into fellow cheese aficionados) but I love French food and the cozy vibe that this place has also had me intrigued.
After waiting over a year since I brought it to the attention of several people I finally had the opportunity to check it out after I did a catch-​up lunch with a friend who actually also hadn’t heard of this place — took less than 24 hours to set up a lunch date here, huzzah!
We made plans to come here at 1pm, put our names in for a 3pm reservation and imbibed a but nearby. Upon arriving for our reservation, we were seated about 15 minutes late and our server seemed a bit frazzled (she walked over to other tables and the small group waiting outside asking everyone if their name was ‘Stephanie’ — it was amusing to watch as I worked to get her attention to let her know we were all set, lol) but this place is super small and can really only sit about 8 – 9 people (maybe 10 if these are small people, lol) comfortably at one time.
Just a heads up that coming here in a small group and all expecting to all order an individual Raclette for each person is a recipe for disaster. They only have 2 cheese «burners» with which to heat the half-​wheels of cheese they use and it takes about 15 – 20 minutes for each cheese half-​wheel to be prepared for ONE scrape. You’re definitely better off doing as I did and getting ready to share some good eats. This place is also BYOB! I forgot to take advantage of this despite having killed time before my reservation at a nearby craft beer store (wahhhh!!).
My friend and I decided that we would share a Raclette dish (obvi) and a sandwich. We wanted to share their Havana Croque (Pulled pork, dijon mustard, housemade bread-​and-​butter pickles, and French raclette cheese on toasted cuban roll), but sadly they were out of Havanas this day so we ended up sharing a Lolotte (Jambon de paris, gruyère cheese, and dijon mustard on pain poi lane). No regrets here — this sandwich was beyond delicious and we were both pleased with it. Super flavorful, decadent and gruyère is one of my top 3 favorite cheeses so I was in heavennnnn!
There are 3 different types of Raclette dishes — these are the ones that everyone comes here for if they want deliciously warm, ooey, gooey cheese oozed onto their plates. We opted for the Savoyarde — this includes their French raclette cheese (a semi-​hard cow’s milk cheese typically used for melting), oven roasted potatoes, cornichons & pickled white pearl onions.
Both our Lolotte sandwich and our Raclette came with a healthy portion of fresh arugula with a champagne vinaigrette dressing. We each had our own salad and split everything else. The oven roasted potatoes were seasoned and cooked to perfection (albeit a little salty, but I think the melted cheese really helps find a good balance).
Each Raclette dish comes with 2 scrapings of cheese — we were warned to «eat slowly» as we waited for our 2^nd scraping, but then food gets cold — insert sad face here :(. Extra scrapings cost $ 4 each and if you’d like to purchase more sides for cheese to be melted on, you can do that too. We purchased an extra round of baguette bread so we could pile some yummy cheese on those bad boys.
Our experience here overall was a fantastic one. Service could definitely use some fine-​tuning, but not so much that I would remove a Unilocal star over it. Our lunch was easily a 5 star meal in a cozy environment that lends itself to few distractions making it easy to chat with your company even if the place is small/​crowded.
Watching everyone photograph and video melting cheese as it makes its way over to them is enjoyable and I’m happy I finally got to try it. I would HAPPILY return here again — hopefully take advantage of their BYOB-​ness (there is a $ 5.40 cork fee I believe) and get my melted cheese fix. I look forward to it with great anticipation {3.

Where do I start!!!
So like everyone else I came here for the goodness that is half a lockbox cheese melted on your food but to my surprise that wasn’t even the best part. Here is the scoop:
The raclette is the melted cheese! It flows over potatoes, pickled veggies and cured meat. There is a vegetarian option as well! The cheese is very mild so don’t expect a lot of flavor. It also hardens very quickly so don’t take too many pics
The tomato tartine was so bright, fresh, and feeling. Not to mention beautiful!
The star of the meal was defiantly the American Croque, aka best grilled cheese of your life!!! Sweetness from carmalized onions, kick from roasted garlic, creaminess from leek fondu, and saltiness from the sharp cheddar on crispy buttery bread makes for the PERFECT BITE!!!
Can’t wait to go back

My friend found this place through Instagram!
I’m happy this place is getting more exposure.
But Is anybody else having this problem where Insider Food videos are showcasing these awesome places and then the restaurant get super popular. It’s definitely recommend to make reservations because the seating capacity is probably like 10 – 15 people.
The head chef/​owner was so nice, when he saw that we finished our majority of the cheese on our raclette, he gave us another serving of ooey-​gooey cheese! The cheese does harden after some time, so I would eat it quickly but still take the time to savor and enjoy it. They have multiple cheeses you can chose from, so look out for that.
My friend and I also got the Fig and Prosciutto tartine. It had little bites of figs, little balls of prosciutto and hazelnuts, which gave a nice crunchy surprise every other bite, all drizzled with a sweet balsamic reduction.
The ambiance is fresh, quaint and transports you to a little restaurant in Europe.
The music was so divine, it definitely help set the cute ambiance the restaurant had going on.

My wife has been wanting to try Raclette because she has an obsession of all thing gooey, cheesy and delicious.
First off you can make a reservation via Open Table if you like and I would recommend to do so because the place is Über small, there’s six tables in the tiny place with poor exhaust system so be prepared to get out of here smelling like cheese, butter, oil and grease.
The menu is very simple and straightforward nothing fancy. We ordered the ham/​potato/​arugula with the cheese smothered all over this. for this plate, you will get two refills of cheese to satisfy your hunger.
I ordered the croque monsieur, it was pretty good although I should’ve ordered the platter with cheese smothered all over it.
No booze here, it’s BYOB!