Balthazar
Ruth Rogers puts this on the list she gives visiting chefs, because she wants them to see a brasserie feed this many people and still cook. Hannah Albertine rated it 7.8 and says the $43 New York strip she ate in January 2022 was "totally unremarkable". The pinky-sized fries under it are the ones to order twice.
Why go
Keith McNally opened it on Spring Street in 1997 and the crowd is the product. Albertine's room holds a teacher at the bar at 8pm with a decaf cappuccino and a scoop of vanilla, Soho shoppers, and kids who came off TikTok, and her case for the place is that the mix is why you sit there. Breakfast and lunch are the quiet services, and the bakery sends the bread over fresh. The onion soup and the escargot are the two starters she stands behind, the escargot very garlicky and the soup unfussy.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the frites, and then more frites. Albertine on the steak they arrive under:
We always get this dish even though we know it's overpriced.
1 - Order at breakfast: scrambled eggs and bacon, which is Rogers' own order here.
- Avoid: booking for the steak.
What locals & experts say
- Hannah Albertine, The Infatuation, 14 January 2022, rated 7.8:
you could plop this $43 New York strip or ribeye into an Outback Steakhouse and no one would have the slightest clue. It's totally unremarkable.
1 - Ruth Rogers (The River Cafe, London), 2026-05:
If I were a chef visiting New York, I would want to see how you run a brasserie with that many people and still bring out really good food. That's very New York. It's theatrical, it's busy, but it works.
2
Good to know
- Booking: you can usually walk into a bar seat a little before 7pm or a little after 9pm, and Albertine calls that the ideal move.
Verdict
could-visit — Hannah Albertine is the only critic I have found, and what she defends is the room. Rogers' reason is professional and says nothing about how dinner tastes. Come for the bar and the noise, and eat your steak somewhere else.