It’s the most surprising Times Square miracle since the first New Year’s Eve ball dropped in 1907.
The View — a rotating, notoriously awful restaurant atop the Marriott Marquis hotel (1535 Broadway) — has good food for the first time since it opened in 1985.
Make that VERY good food. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group has taken over the previously unloved eatery that closed five years ago. Meyer is one of the city’s most savvy restaurateurs, but still I couldn’t believe that he could bring a menu this fine to The View. Am I dreaming? Pinch me.
Executive chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley, who previously was corporate executive chef for Stephen Starr’s empire and recently consulted at the white-hot Corner Store downtown, knows what tourists and business travelers want — an accessible, steakhouse-and-American bistro lineup with something for everyone.
But, she also knows how to satisfy sophisticated locals brave enough to journey to Times Square — and up to the 47th floor.
A beef tartare-obsessed friend proclaimed The View’s lean, hand-chopped tenderloin iteration ($24) — classically seasoned with onions, capers, Worcestershire sauce and mustard — the best she’s ever had. I was quick to agree, taken with its multi-layered flavors and seductive mouth feel.
Silken tuna carpaccio ($26), decorated with arugula and rarely-seen finger limes, rivaled anything similar at Meyer’s Union Square Cafe or Gramercy Tavern, while a succulent, jumbo lump blue crab cake — a $34 starter substantial enough for a main course — took on a satisfying spark from spicy remoulade.
The waiter deftly removed the paper from black bass en papillote ($32) to reveal a generous, saffron-seasoned cut as moist as it was firm. I had to ask myself: Was I really at The View, where I once had fish too old and smelly for an alley cat?
Nicely crusted prime rib “au jus” ($68) for once came with a lot of jus as well as horseradish cream. I ordered it “medium-rare-plus” and it yielded easily to the knife and all but melted on the tongue.
The lone pasta entree — spaghetti chitarra in spicy tomato sauce with generous chunks of lobster ($42) — hit all the right Italian-American notes.
The burger ($32), with its single, plump, juicy Pat La Frieda patty, is a charming throwback in an era when many places have inexplicably gone the twin-patty, bone-dry smash burger route. It came with more crispy fries than my party-of-three could finish.
Desserts — priced at just $10 each — keep the fun rolling. The butterscotch pudding with toffee sauce and Graham cracker crumble is candy for grown-ups. A wedge of chocolate devil’s food cake stood almost as tall as the surrounding skyscrapers and tasted heavenly.
But although our charming waitress said, “Enjoy the view, pun intended,” the sights beyond aren’t nearly as delicious as the food.
The Edition and TSX hotel signs and office towers with masts lit like candy canes are eye-poppers — when you can see them. The circular, glass-walled dining platform rotates (very slowly) inside a square, glass-wall box; the double panes reflect and refract a single red exit sign into a dozen.
David Rockwell’s redesign attempts to conjure a supper club, with mirrors, blue draperies and a well-played piano. But, it can’t disguise what’s still a mostly charmless circle of tables and booths arrayed around the elevators and kitchen.
It’s not easy to get to the 47th floor restaurant. You have to negotiate a labyrinth of escalators, elevators and circular staircases to reach The View. The third floor where customers “check in” is particularly horrible — a bleak, dimly-lit void like a convention center without a convention.
The best feature is the 48th floor lounge: a tall, colorful bar inspired by the city skyline, as warmly lit and romantic as the dining room is not. The star of the short hors d’oeuvres menu is a plate of wagyu beef pigs-in-blankets with pimento cheese.
The View’s liquor service is exemplary. If well-made $22 cocktails aren’t for you, the wine list is remarkably reasonably priced with more than two dozen bottles for under $100. I had an easy-to-drink, well-structured Beaujolais, Georges Descombes 2023. It cost all of $78 and was suitable for nearly everything on the menu.
Thanks, Danny. Maybe there’s hope for Times Square after all.
