Elmo
Category: American (New) [Edit]
Neighborhood: Manhattan/Chelsea156 7th Ave
(between 19th St & 20th St)
New York, NY 10011 (212) 337-8000
- Nearest Transit:
18th St-7th Ave (1)
23rd Street (PATH)
23rd St-6th Ave (F, V)
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: Full Bar
23 reviews
Brooklyn, NY
"Low-key and highly delicious! I had brunch here on a drizzly Saturday, and given the crowd milling about I was very skeptical of their…" read more »
77 Reviews for Elmo
Elmo is pretty standard. I've gone there for brunch and dinner. I don't find it all that great, but it's a good standby.
The food is decent. The service is always good. It's a little loud for my tastes - makes it hard to have a conversation.
I wouldn't go out of my way to go to Elmo. But if you're in Chelsea and you need a spot, it's worth checking out.
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obnoxious host on the door, huge din in the background, we just walked away after being kept waiting for no good reason for 5 mins
no idea what the food is like and no intention of finding out
Go to Le Singe Vert next door instead
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Bad food, worse service. Ate at Elmo last night - the food came in only 10 minutes and was over-cooked and almost unedible. The waiter disappeared and we never saw him again until we had completed our meal - such as it was. I never received my ordered glass of wine - until complaining - and then after we had already finished eating. To their credit, they didn't charge me for the wine but it was cloudy and barely drinkable anyway. My friend had wanted to order a cocktail - but the disappearing waiter never re-surfaced to take the order. What is it with Chelsea boys and medicre food? I wouldn't go back if the food was free.
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Great bloody maries. Tasty brunch foods. Hot waiters. Too bad they don't like my kind... if you know what i mean. Standard yummy Chelsea eatery. I'll go back just for the eye candy.
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An average restaurant to drop by and have a good salad. It looks cute inside but we sat outside. I ordered the nicose salad and it was pretty good. But the food was very slow and they don't give you any bread or anything while you wait. So be prepared to suffer a bit if you are hungry.
I don't think I would ever make my way out to try this place. But if you happen to be in the neighborhood and need to eat at a place a "bit" nicer than try it out.
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This place is good - nothing special but the outdoor seating got us. Nothing better than jeering at some clown in a massive Mercedes trying to park his car in a spot that could fit a 747 and watching him try for 20 mins while we all ate our lovely meals. I had the chicken BLT - which was served on a nice, hard sourdough. Also had half of the pineapple mini burrito with the hot sauce - this was awesome! Like I said, nothing special but on a nice summer day, if you can snag an outside seat - DO IT.
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I've been here once with a date. Not bad American food. The prices are affordable.
Love the decor! And there's a movie theater up the block on 23rd St. Great for a simple a date.
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Eye candy...not the food, but the men. I know, they aren't for me, but they are still so pretty to look at, it makes the food taste better than it actually is. I mean, the food is okay. The fries are boring and the veggie burger even more boring, but hey, brunch egg whites were damn fluffy, and the bloody mary was strong. I wouldn't mind going back, but I think I would go late night and share plates and get drinks and drool at the men I can't have instead.
It was ok. I mean what can you say about typical American food? It's just comfort food. The margarita was really good and the waiters were pretty good looking. =)
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I love Elmo's! You can sit outdoors in the sun and enjoy tasty brunch with good service by cute waiters... what more could you want? It's located in the heart of Chelsea and very spacious with a refreshing decor.
Just a brunch review here, since there is literally NOTHING VEGETARIAN ON THE DINNER MENU. At all. Period.
I ordered the Tex-Mex, which was absolutely tasty -- eggs with tortilla chips scrambled into it, served with a small pile of greens, ranchero salsa, black beans, and queso anejo. YUM! My brunching companion went for an omelette, with which she was very happy. We were also kind of excited by their multigrain toast -- nice, hearty, and nutty.
The space is cavernous in a good way, but being cavernous is somehow unsettling in Manhattan -- it just seems so impossible or unlikely or something and therefore wrong. Still, it's so bright and spacious, that it is more comforting than unsettling.
All in all a good afternoon meal, but I can't give you four stars Elmo if I can't have dinner here. One veg dinner entree won't kill you. That's just stoopid.
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I like Elmo because it's good for big and small groups, has outdoor seating, and has a yummy teriyaki steak salad (with watercress, peppers and onions). Elmo also has a menu of strong and fruity cocktails. Try the pear bellini and the lychee saketini.
Attentive service and the bathrooms are clean. Early on a Saturday evening (6-7pm), you can just walk in and get a table. Later on, you will have a wait.
On a short weekend trip to New York, I wanted to do at least one dinner in Chelsea to see how the dining scene was there these days. On a recommendation, we gave Elmo a spin. The staff was very friendly and accommodating, even though we ran late and had a couple people in our party arrive even later. (Then again the place wasn't exactly packed either... a bad sign on a Saturday night?) The decor was nice, a sort of 60s-meets-West Elm chic setting.
The food was very hit or miss. The cornmeal onion rings, while nothing fancy, were tasty. The endive and goat cheese salad was pretty bad. The scallops and risotto was good and bad -- perfectly cooked and flavorful scallops served on overcooked and unsufficiently flavorful risotto. The key lime pie dessert was a very small slice and totally unremarkable.
While I wouldn't say Elmo wasn't bad--not at all--the food left me a little flat.
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This place is good - I did not see outdoor seating basically because it was winter when I visited. I liked the bar area, pretty roomy. It was horribly hot the night we were there (and by we I mean a group of 15 ladies). The service was good despite the heat. Everyone loved the mac and cheese! I was not crazy about the food.
I went to Elmo for an early dinner on a weeknight. Since it was early in the evening, the restaurant was not very loud. I ordered a pomegranate mojito, which tasted very syrupy. We ordered the elmo bites to start, which were the best part of our meal. The quesadilla's were super, the guacamole surprisingly good and the calamari was great. I had the chicken paillards as my main. While the french fries were good, the chicken was a little dry.
Overall, it was a fun spot and I like the creative menu, but the food not leave a big imprint.
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We celebrated my brother-in-laws friends Bday here. It was a sunday evening and was very loud and got more crowded as the night went on. We all skipped apps and went right to main courses. I ordered the pork chop, my wife had the cod, bday boy had fried chicken, others had meat loaf and beef stew. I subbed the onion rings for mashed potatoes and definitely made the right choice. The chop was ok but small. I could have eaten 2+ of the chops. My wife's cod was overcooked but would have been super if it wasn't. The meat loaf looked good and was a larger portion than both the pork chop and cod. The same goes for the beef stew. Both meal were completely gobbled up so no taste for me. Fried chicken was gone as well, Seemed like everyone enjoyed their food but didn't really talk about it.
Just had drinks at the bar. Friendly staff, plenty of seating, nice cocktails, great service.
Whoever made the recipe here for the cobb salad must of known I was alive.
Everything I love in the world seemed to be sitting in the enormous bowl. The worst part about the dish is that you finish it. I could have eaten that stuff forever. Avocado, hard-boiled egg, chicken, bacon, mmmm, mmm, mm!
Apparently a gay hang out. I came here with my boyfriend before we saw Xanadu. (I'm really not as big of a queen I make myself out to be.) It gets pretty crowded at night, and I hear its a blast. If you go to the bathroom, make sure you go into the right one. There was a little bit of confusion for me.
Enjoy.
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I seriously used to live solely for their sesame crusted tuna. It's to die for. Or in this case, to live for.
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Came here for brunch oneday, cause everything else had a ridiculous wait time (Cafeteria). It was okay. Average food, nothing special, the waiter was nice, I guess. I did hear that the cobb salad was awesome, but I didn't order that. Instead I had the smoked salmon with poached eggs and frisee salad. Not bad, I've had better though. Average place, average food.
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As a recommendation from my cousin, we hit up Elmo the other day for dinner. It was pretty cleared out by then, but my cousin noted that at lunch it's packed. The atmosphere was okay, seemed a little too... blah, for lack of a better word. The service was friendly, and the waitress didn't seem to do that hovering thing that some waitresses do when there aren't many customers.
Since the meal was on my cousin, I decided to really taker her up on the offer. Three courses all the way! For appetizer, I ordered a thin crust personal pizza. It was good. The caramelized onions and asiago cheese were a great touch. Next, I ordered the Cobb salad, and my oh my it was delicious. Usually I like a little heavier dressing on my Cobb salad, but the vinaigrette they used converted me right away. The portion size was big, but I managed to finish it, with room for dessert. I ordered the apple crisp with vanilla ice cream and it was damn good. However, I was a little disappointed, because the only difference it had from the same dessert that I could order at Friday's was that it was smaller. Still good though.
I would definitely recommend this place if you are willing to spend a pretty penny, because it is not cheap. However, I would return just for that Cobb salad alone, which is a good sign that the rest of their entree menu must be up to par.
I've been here numerous times before for brunch, drinks, and dinner. It's a got a lot of *eye candy* provided by the Chelsea boys! Can we say, "hubba, hubba?" YUM! Too bad they won't give me the time of day....*sigh* Anyways, *eye candy* while eating is always welcome in my book!
I went here last night with some gal pals for some apps because Elmo has some decent apps. The items we ordered last night was the Calamari, French Fries, Beet Salad and Tuna Tartar. The Calamari is always a winner and the the Fries were thin and crispy! The Tuna Tartar was actually a bit too bland without any dressing which was a disappointment.
It's a nice trendy lounge/restaurant that is almost always packed. The servers are all hunks and the patrons are hotties too! Of course, if you're a hetero man or woman, you can only expect to look but don't touch! Our server provided the basic duties as expected from a server.
Minus one * for NOT providing us plates to eat from.
Minus another * for the TOO LOUD club music which made it impossible to hear one another without having to scream.
What provoked me to walk through the double doors of Elmo, I will never know. All I know is I've been wanting to check out Elmo and I can now say, "been there, done that." Here are the fundamentals: great location and great space. And you can't miss the darn place with all the neon lights. You can see the restaurant from New Jersey if the restaurant faced that direction. Food was mediocre. Not bad but not fantastic either. In other words, one step up from 24 hour diner fare. Of course I came for Sunday brunch so my menu choices were a bit limited and skewed. So in summary, just come for people watching (which I think greatly improved the flavor of the food if I might add).
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sorry elmo, but only 3 stars from me... which has no direct correlation to the great times i have had with you...
i have been to elmo twice. both on random occassions with separate parties.
the vibe is good. the menu offerings ample. the mac and cheese - delicious...
but over all, i found the food to be good, not great...
while my time spent at elmo was always a good time, i attribute it to the company i was with, not the place itself....
sorry elmo, no hard feelings.
This place is really cute, a friend of mine had a party here in the basement lounge. It was perfect, the bathrooms were clean, the room was spacious, and the deco was amazing. Also the food, yuuummmy, we onlly had finger food and apps frm the menu, but they were amazing.
We were in the basment, but the staff still noticed us, they came to see if we need help from time to time. And they were super friendly. I only had two problems with this place.
1. the steps to the basment lounge are slippery as all hell. Booze+ Slippery steps= Death/Lawsuit
2. The sign that says the name of the place is downwards near the ground, so if there is a car blocking the sign you will walk right pass it(like me, 3x to be exact lol)
Other than those 2things(which might just be me) This place is perfect for a party or just a nite out.
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wow very trendy atmosphere... everyone is dressed well and the place is bustling with loud music u feel like u're eating at a club! a lil too loud if u want to have an intimidate outting with a group of peeps...
food looks better than it really tastes i think...
- the pot pie was really good... especially the crust
- cheese dried up in the mac and cheese and wasn't salty enough
- the pork chop was dry... but the onion rings on top were really good
- the fried of the fried chicken was really good but the chicken was again dry...
- the mash potatoes and the spinach were the best part of the meal full of flavor
- the meatloaf was good but i don't think i could eat the whole thing...
overall i would come here for the atmosphere but prolly not for the food again... if i did i would stick to the basics which is anything fried... and burgers...
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Went here when Cafeteria down the street was too crowded and ended up having food poisoning from the sesame crusted tuna! Otherwise, it was ok. Many attractive gay boys and their fans. Drinks are strong, music was good. It had a clubby atmosphere, but for this type of vibe, I'll take Cafeteria thanks (and no food poisioning so far!).
1. Sesame Crusted Tuna - very asian inspired. Disappointing dish.
2. Tacos de pollo - two pieces of flour tortilla and grilled chicken. A plain dish.
3. Chicken marsala - soooo yummmy.
4. Cotham cod - good.
5. Some ravioli dish - really good.
6. DESSERT - mouthwateringly delicious
Nice, cool, trendy decor and atmosphere.
Excellent mojitos.
Loud, but good music during dinner time.
Can barely hear the person across from you.
Notable service.
Gay hang out for sure.
Whenever I come here, I feel I am pulled right out of Sex and the City. Except that we are gay. And Asian.
This is a great place to grab brunch after last night's partying. The food is pretty average but the waiters are quite the lookers, rawr. Didn't manage to grab a drink, though I will the next time I go there.
Though I did feel out of place that last time I came here. I was accompanying a friend, whose friends didn't speak much English. I managed to read in between the lines a lot; apparently DIVAs transcend all geographic and linguistic bounds. God, I love my gays.
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Went there this weekend. Place is very trendy. Restaurant workers all very friendly. Many gay men fashionista types go here for dinner & cocktail dates. There wasn't much to choose from on the menu but it's a cute place to listen to good upbeat music and grab a bite to eat. I would go here again for a date night with friends but only to eat something light.
I went into Elmo sober....and I don't ever remember leaving....
In fact, a part of me might still be there right now (wow, that sounded quite scary). Anyhoo, all I really remember is that the Island tacos were quite yummy. Also, I have back stories of people telling me that I liked the decor and the waiters were cute. In fact, a fellow yelper asked me to rate it at the table...and I said 4 stars. So, I'm sticking to it.
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Sunday afternoon...hung over...finally emerge from the hotel at 3pm. Wander down the street and RESTAURANT screams my name. 6 of us head inside and are seated quickly. Soon after water comes... 3 stars already. I check out the drink menu and quickly order a Vodka basil Lemonade. Possibly the best thing ever! The menu was very fitting for my state of mind. I ended up with the Monte Cristo sandwich. It was good, but a little too much for me, I think I should have gone with my initial grill cheese idea or the Cobb salad as both looked amazing when they came out, but I was happy enough. it was my fault for not going with my gut. Damnit I always do that! The french fries were awesome though and our waiter was great! Definitely an easy spot to pop in for brunch.
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Good veggie burger & fries. Mmmmm fries....
The restaurant is really open - very 70's-ish in decor, and has outdoor seating for people watching, which is great since it's on 7th ave. I ordered the Monte Cristo, which is the best combination of sweet and salty in a sandwich (although, you really can't go wrong with a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce and stuffing). At Elmo, they add granny smith apples into the sandwich and put it on brioche bread, which adds a light sweetness to the salty swiss and ham/turkey combo.
The sandwich was definitely stick to your ribs good - the cheese was melted just enough so you could pick up the sandwich without it falling out, but warm enough that it melted to the different meats. I asked for jam since it didn't come with any, and added gobs of strawberry preserves to the already unhealthy sandwich. :) You only live once, right?
Chris ordered the french toast, which was also made on brioche bread, with caramelized apples on top. The bread was sliced just thick enough so the egg batter seeped through the entire piece of brioche without making it soggy, making it one great piece of french toast. I'd say Elmo is a place we'd go back to.
If you want to check out pictures from my brunch at Elmo, go to my website: www.gracenotesnyc.com. Happy eating!
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Divine for brunch. Lots of eye candy, and the food is great. Loved the turkey sausage, the spinach/goat cheese omelette, and our waitor. Look, but don't touch, girls. We're not the target demo.
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Ok, I'm going to be a literature nerd here for a moment. Has anyone ever read the Hawthorne novella "Rappacini's Daughter?" Basically it's about this girl who's magically connected to this weird garden, but the way he describes the plants is that they look normal, but somehow exaggerated and strange. Not in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way, but somehow just weird - and that's how I feel about the decor of Elmo. It's cool, but a little scary, not in a bad way, though. I guess you just have to see it.
Other than this stange decorative science experiment, I do love me some Elmo. Situated in the heart of Chelsea, it's a great spot for brunch, lunch, or drinks, and the cute waiters will treat you right. Lots of eye candy to be had from the clientele as well. The food is pretty standard New American fare - burgers, sandwiches, etc., not too bad prices, and it's a cut above your local diner (i'd hope anyway). You come for the atmosphere and cobb salad. During the warmer months there's great people watching to be had along 7th Ave. Two thumbs up overally.
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Good food, clean decor, cute waitstaff... what more could you want? I had brunch here on a recent trip to Manhattan and it was great. We ate a little early so it wasn't crowded and the service was good. The Eggs Benedict was yummy and the served sides were not the usual greasy breakfast add-ons that are found on so many breakfast plates. I would definitely hit this place up again.
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If you are looking for great food, look elsewhere.
The only reason to come here is to people watch, but I find the scene to be a little too pretentious for my taste.
The food is really average and overpriced. This place gets by on looks alone.
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Good location, nice decor, average menu, below average service. I had brunch with the girls and we all enjoyed the cuties on the scene but that didn't make the food taste better. Perhaps we ordered the wrong items.
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Not a bad place to go "with the boys" when you don't want to do anything fancy and want a little bit of eye candy. The white truffle pizza is pretty good. Their salads suck. The tomatoe bisque with mini grilled cheese is good on a cold day.
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