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SD26
Rating Details »
Neighborhood: Flatiron
19 E 26th St
(between Broadway & 5th Ave)
New York, NY 10010
(212) 265-5959
19 E 26th St
(between Broadway & 5th Ave)
New York, NY 10010
(212) 265-5959
- Nearest Transit:
-
23rd St-Broadway (R, W)
28th St-Park Ave S (6)
23rd St-6th Ave (F, V)
- Hours:
Mon-Sun. 5:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Price Range:
-
$$$
- Attire:
- Dressy
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- No
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- No
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Good for:
- Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
Sponsored Result
Special Offer Nearby
Trattoria Toscana
- Category:
- Italian
- Neighborhood:
- West Village
Sunday thru Thursday 10% off for Yelpers (cash only). Lunch specials all week for only $12.50, come join us and see what the Yelp is about
7 reviews for SD26
Ive been several times now for cheese late in the day at the bar. Each time, its been a little more disappointing.
The bread service has gotten worse each visit. The first time, I was offered a selection of variety served from a lovely basket. This last time I was served chopped up ends left over from lunch service. Clearly stale and old.
I mean, really, bread is so expensive you can't cut into a fresh loaf for a cheese plate?
Cheese portions have gotten smaller, although the cheese itself is wonderful.
But mostly disappointing is that the price of wine by the glass has jumped waaaay up to now 13-15 per with no 10 or less options.
Just not good to have so few choices.
SD26 started out great, sorry to see it falling short now so few weeks out.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
9/16/2009
Ah very impressed! Although there were a couple of issues, my 5 stars are based on my experience on… Read more »
Great space; pretty interior and open kitchen. Excellent electronic wine ordering system where you can browse the wine catalog by type, region, etc. The menu is mostly divided into small and large portions which is great as you could have any dish as an appetizer.
The cuisine itself left much to be desired. Started off with a pasta dish containing tomatoes, lobster, and lobster bisque sauce; turned out ot be dry, flat, and flavorless. Next was the suckling pig (not my first choice but the waiter raved about it); pretty presentation but basically inedible. The meat was tough and hard to cut; and the flavors were completely mismatched. Lamb chops were a step up from the pig although it struck me as a fusion experiment gone wrong. They were generous with bread and came around a few times; the focaccia looked tasty but seemed stale, probably it was just too dry. The other breads were pretty standard rolls. The chocolate bombolini dessert was resemblant of day old munchkins with some nuts and Hershey's sauce scattered over the top. The staff are friendly but not that smooth; they don't seem too well-versed in what they are serving and the recommendations were completely off.
I have dined at the old San Domenico a couple times and was completely content so I am genuinely surprised at how disappointing the food here turned out to be. People who were here on opening night seem happier so perhaps that's when they had a special guest chef... The bar and dining area decor deserve four stars but the cuisine doesn't even deserve one.
Attended the http://Eater.com event last night at SD26. The location of the restaurant is great - right on Madison Square Park North. The space was very large and had a great modern vibe to it. There's a room in the front by a large bar and then a much larger room in the back that opens to two floors of dining - the top floor overlooking the bottom. The back also has an open kitchen where, if you grab one of the closer tables, you can peer in to see what the chefs are cooking up. They did have longer tables in the back for groups. Great space in general.
The food served at the event was quite good - Italian, obviously, with a wide spread of meats and cheese. Risotto was excellent and so was Artichoke, but I'm not sure if these will be featured regularly on the menu. They also had a wide selection of wines.
I'd definitely recommend checking the SD26 out if you're in the mood for some good Italian food!
SD26 was a very unpleasant experience. The ceilings were very high, a large very open feel to the restaurant, you can see the open kitchen wherever you are sitting. The waiter brought over water, and it tasted like there was something wrong with it or the glass had not been washed properly and there was still detergent. When we asked for new water he tried to sell us "extra filtered water"- um what? We had a few waiters; it was hard to keep track of who was actually helping us. They came around with bread- that was probably the best part of the experience. The wine list is on a screen- which at first we thought was cool, and sort of game like, but quickly realized that the wines were all super expensive and there were no descriptions... a man came over to "help us with the wines" the first thing he said was "well if you ask me ladies, anything over $500 goes great with everything!", I don't know about you, but I don't usually spend $500 on a bottle of wine on a week night. He then tried to up charge us, we asked about one of the bottles, and he told us about a different one saying it was "just $4 more" when really it was about $30 more! Ok onto the food situation...the cheese were ok (nothing interesting like we are used to), but they came with 5 walnuts, we basically had to beg for bread to go with it. The peppers were good, but the portion was tiny. Then came our lobster pasta... let's just say calling it "andante" is being nice! It wasn't even close to being fully cooked, so obviously that was that, and you couldn't tell it was lobster- the few pieces (not even a full bight) were so small, it was unrecognizable as lobster. This experience was a disaster, and when we got the bill it was $94, they expect people to pay that much for not eating?! So when the manager came over, we decided to tell him the truth about what we thought of our dinner...he apologized, asked if he could get us dessert- we said no, there was nothing on the menu even worth the calories, so he said he would adjust the bill.....and that he did $11 for each of us--- yes we were impressed by that. We ended up having to go to another restaurant nearby to actually eat.... Terrible restaurant, rude pushy waiters, awful food, I bet it will close soon- don't go!
Not so much a happy ending, as a happy beginning for the new San Domenico, recast as SD26 on the north side of Madison Square.
The lesson Tony and Marisa May are teaching at SD26 seems to be that, if you must change, change big. The challenge which SD26 is bravely facing is loosening its metaphorical collar while maintaining standards. The new location is surprisingly large. A long bar with perhaps a dozen two-tops for bar dining gives way to a hall with more seated nooks and a display of sculptures. Beyond is the main dining room, a towering duplex space with overhead lighting dimmed at night to give the illusion of a starry sky.
On the left is an open kitchen - extraordinary in itself to see Odette Fada, for thirteen years head of Tony May's kitchen, and reclusive by modern chef standards - standing at the pass and surveying the tables. Beyond is a chef's table which can be reserved, and arrayed behind it baskets of bread and shelves of olives, oil and other ingredients. To the right, a separate bar (no seating) behind which cold meats and cheeses are cut.
Almost suffocating modernity in the affection of its embrace, SD26 also boasts not only a large enomatic wine system in the front bar (about twenty-five selections, I think, in one, three or five ounce pours), but also individual electronic wine-lists. These would have stopped hearts among veteran patrons of La Caravelle, and even here I suspect some diners beg for an old-fashioned print list. In fact, they're easy enough to use, allowing diners to sort wines by color, country and region.
A menu of cicchetti which I've not sampled is offered at the bar (the full menu is available at bar tables). Otherwise, the main change to the dinner menu the addition of separate lists of cured meats and sausages, salads and vegetable sides, and cheeses; it also makes explicit that pastas can be ordered in small or regular sizes (some of the fish and meat mains can also be diminished to order). The increased flexibility not only permits lighter eating, but - although there are still some pricey luxuries, like an $88 bistecca Fiorentina - the final tab here is certainly kinder than it was at Central Park South. There's a new adventurousness to plating too. Chef Fada always served some of the most succulent pieces of grilled octopus in the city, but the meat is now fanned mosaic-like across the plate as a carpaccio with a light herb dressing and salad spilling from a crisp tuile. A survivor from San Domenico, chewy chitarra, is simply coated in a tomato and basil sauce. (It was served here as a split portion). Polenta with foie gras and a beef glaze deserves future inspection, as does the butternut squash gnocci with chicken livers; but the classic raviolo filled with a soft egg is still on the menu too. I am weary of complaining that lobster tail even in the better New York restaurants can be woefully tough and chewy. Thank goodness, not here. Tender, and in fact lightly smoked, it's served with fresh orange and - I think - a porcini purée. A delicate dish, and in fact entrée portions here seem generally restrained, which encourages and allows the sampling of extra plates. Next time the venison, as chef Fada also does wonders with game. But I was tempted by the breast of guinea-hen. Crisp-skinned, with a light reduction of the juices, and garnished with chestnut and chestnut purée. If the savory courses met expectations, dessert exceeded them. I was accustomed to eating the panna cotta with strawberries and a balsamic sauce at the old place - must have ate it dozens of times. Here it's re-invented as a thrillingly plated goat cheese panna cotta, with delicious macerated raisins and berries.
Lunch is a whole new world too. One of the wonderful lunch specials in the restaurant's former incarnation was rib-sticking braised tripe. Now, welcome il quadrifoglio, a bright and balanced four course lunch served as a sort of upscale Italian Bento box. My Italian is lousy, but as best I can tell, quadrifoglio refers to four leaves, and can bear the lucky connotations of a four-leaf clover.
The composition of the meal changes daily, but my good fortune brought me an octopus salad - tiny slices of tentacles balanced on small cubes of al dente potato; crunchy cauliflower; ravioli, I think, of chicken mousse; chicken breast stuffed with zucchini; and a rich strawberry mousse accented with passion fruit. The chicken and ravioli arrived suitably warm. This is lunch for under thirty dollars, and the convenience of the manner of service means you can enjoy a glass of wine, these four contrasting plates, and an espresso in less than an hour without being remotely hurried.
I am an unashamed fan, and I simply hope others will share my enthusiasm.
i guess the 5-star is an effort to overcome the previously mis-guided 1-star rater (the person didnt even taste the food!) because this place is a legit 4-star; it's new and they are working out the service kinks, so perhpas 5-star is a stretch but dang, the food was so good. i started with this watercress and pomegranate salad that was crunchy, sour, savory with a hint of sweetness that makes you wonder why can't NY's top restaurants get it right w/ salads. Entree was beef cheek braised in redwine - yes, it's a dish bespoken for matching any of your favorite full-bodied reds and of course it was a perfect match, pls trust me on that (but of course, ya gotta verify for yourself.) Service was certainly a mixed-bag, but our server was always suavely smiley, calm and around to meet our requests. It's a grave mistake for a foodie to skip on this place.
If Vegas and NY had a baby, this would be it. You have to be in the mood for a bit of glamour and gimmick when you stop in. From the computerized wine case (you buy a card from the bartender and then help yourself!) to the tablet PC ordering system (like at Aureole!), this is high class all the way. So get on your best fashion week duds and drop in for a glass of wine and some fantastic people watching. If you're not dressed to kill, skip it and head to Shake Shack instead.
