My spouse and I dined at Betony for dinner in late December
2014. Betony is located on West 57th Street between 6th
and 5th Avenues in the Midtown West neighborhood of Manhattan. We booked
our table using the Open Table reservation system. No one from the restaurant called
to reconfirm our reservation - perhaps because we agreed to pay a $25 per
person cancellation fee via Open Table if we did not arrive as planned. Betony
is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner daily.
The restaurant Betony is named after an herb in the mint
family that is known for its healing properties, but we saw no indication of
the herb on-site to create a relationship between the restaurant name and the
locale or decor. Betony serves modern American cuisine, and the restaurant holds
one Michelin star. Executive Chef Bryce Shuman hails from restaurant Eleven Madison Park (EMP),
and the general manager worked at EMP, Atera, and Aska.
The main restaurant space at Betony is gorgeous! The front part of the
restaurant has spacious high ceilings with an energetic bar scene. Street-level
dining tables are positioned toward the back of the restaurant space beneath
the second-floor mezzanine that offers additional seating. Unfortunately, the
hostess seated us neither in the main space nor on the mezzanine, but instead in
the back of the restaurant near the emergency exit somewhat close to the
kitchen door, at what was probably the worst table in the restaurant. Although
my seat faced towards some other diners, my husband stared at three walls for
his entire meal. To illustrate how undesirable our table location, during the
course of our meal, the hostess tried to seat two other couples next to us, and
both parties refused to accept the table. We, too, should have requested
alternate seating, because our position negatively impacted our dining
experience. (We made our reservation 30 days prior to dining; that date was as
early as the restaurant accepted reservations, so we cannot fathom why we were assigned
such a bad table. Surely we were not the very last people to make a reservation,
yet our advance planning was penalized rather than rewarded, which made us feel
like the restaurant did not value our business.)
Fortunately, the food was good! For appetizers, we ordered two dishes:
“lobster rolls” (rolled potato crisps filled with mayonnaise-y-lobster salad garnished
with parsley and creme fraiche) and cured trout belly (accented with cucumber
and rice). As a mid-course, we ordered the grain salad (a signature dish of
Betony served with labneh and sprouts) and the poached hen’s egg (served atop
cavatelli and kale). For entrees, we chose short rib (served two ways,
alongside creamy mashed potatoes) and the roast chicken (with walnuts and
apples). We shared a dessert – sweet potato pie – which presented its many
components beautifully. Oddly, the chef’s amuse bouche of beets and goat cheese
(which was several bites rather than just one) was served between the first and
second courses rather than prior to the first course. (The restaurant calls the
first course a “snack” and the second course an “appetizer”, which is how they explained
their serving order; however, at every other restaurant where we have ever
dined, the chef serves the amuse bouche first before any other food or course.)
The food was delicious, and the presentations attractive, but the service
was less-than-perfect (only the busboy was truly friendly and accessible to us),
and our table/location was highly undesirable. If we had attained two of three
goals (food, service, location), we would consider our meal mostly a success,
but as it was, we were impressed by only the food. We would not return to
Betony, nor would we recommend it.
