Pershing Square - New York City

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"The only thing I like better than talking about food is eating"

John Walters

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While we were staying in New York City on our USA trip a couple of years ago, we would constantly walk past Pershing Square as it was located directly across the road from our hotel at Grand Central Station. It didn't look like much from the outside; just your standard old school New York cafe, so we never really thought it that important to go for a meal. About a week into the New York visit, when we had run out of local places to eat hot dogs and pizza got a little boring, we decided to give it a go. It was pretty impressive.

You walk in through the front door and it transforms into this beautifully lit and decorated restaurant. It isn't like your typical New York cafe, which are a dime a dozen throughout Manhattan. It has an edge to it that is warm and inviting. It sported dark red tones throughout, and once you walk through a more relaxed cafe type area out front, you find yourself in a reasonably sized restaurant. 

The restaurants website refers to it as a "casual American cuisine in a bustling classic bistro environment" and boasts as having the "busiest and best breakfast in New York." I can't vouch for the breakfast claim, though I can confirm that they offer three all-day-breakfast options on the menu, plus a fairly extensive list of options for actual breakfast. The lighting set a nice mood and accentuated the dark red colour scheme, the little lamps on each of the tables were a nice touch too.

The service left a lot to be desired. Unfortunately we had come directly from Las Vegas which is a very hospitable city whose people seem to really strive to get that tip that they so desperately need, most of the New Yorkers aren't quite that way inclined. Very rarely are you offered a smile or any real earth shattering service, which is disappointing because I really did want to leave a reasonable tip, but we'll go into that a bit more as I explain further.

We went over the menu and I kept finding myself drawn to the Maine Lobster roll. This is where the service was first slightly troubling. I asked the waiter whether the lobster is actually from Maine, or whether it is just what they call the dish. I thought it was a reasonable question. He looked at me kind of puzzled and wasn't able to answer the question. Surely he is aware of the origins of the dish name. When I worked in a restaurant as a kid I was expected to know even the tiniest aspect of  each of the dishes, and we didn't accept tips... so I ordered the lobster roll anyway, and my wife ordered the House Made Ricotta Ravioli. I had never had lobster roll before, or since to be honest but it was beautiful and sweet, and weirdly enough the bowl of potato chips it was served with were a good accompaniment. The ravioli were very well done, but the sauce wasn't anything special. Most Italian restaurants back in Melbourne do it much better. In addition to these meals we got ourselves a bowl of fries which were pretty standard.

Up to this point, there was no offer from the waiter for a top up of our drinks and he pretty much ignored us for the rest of the night. We managed to get his attention so that we could order dessert. I had never heard the term New York style cheesecake and simply asked whether that meant that it was baked. Again, the waiter looked at me like I had two heads. I ordered the cheesecake anyway as I was curious. Since I have recently been more interested in food, I understand that it did in fact mean that it was baked cheesecake as we are used to getting here in Australia. But I didn't at the time, and still don't think that it was a particularly stupid question. The cheesecake was very good...

All-in-all the experience was fairly pleasant. Though the service could use some work (I may have caught the waiter on a bad day or something), the meal itself was very well done and sported some very fresh ingredients and was well presented. I have one concern that baffled me a little bit, for some reason this particular restaurant was the only one we went to in the entire USA that automatically charged an 18% tip to our bill without us being aware of it. I was going to give the guy a tip anyway, but in no way was it anywhere near 18% considering he did absolutely nothing for us other than write 5 words on a piece of paper and grunt when I asked questions about the menu. I understand that America's minimum wage situation makes it difficult for people to earn a good living. Automatically applying a tip to a bill means that they are then less inclined to provide a high level of service to your clients. Management should just increase their wages. Anyway, it is a nice place to eat and worth every penny.

http://www.pershingsquare.com/index.html

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