The Otter
Free pull-apart potato rolls with anchovy and bouillabaisse butters are the best thing Alex Stupak is serving in this SoHo hotel dining room.
Why go
Stupak spent a decade on Mexican food at Empellón and opened this in September 2024 inside The Manner hotel, drawing on New England instead. The Infatuation frames the whole exercise in one line: The Otter isn't just a seafood restaurant, it's a seafood-themed restaurant.
Where the cooking wins is where the theme stays out of the way. Molly Fitzpatrick's highlights are the bread service, miniature, pull-apart potato rolls, sprinkled with a blend of Calabrian chili, celery seed, lemon zest, black pepper, and thyme,
and a beer-battered Spanish mackerel with a crisp golden fry on juicy, flaky, and flavorful fish.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the bread, the mackerel, the scallop crudo split between fresno and serrano heat, and a pasta. Fitzpatrick rates the fettuccine with kelp and matsutake and the crab agnolotti under Ritz cracker crumbs, with a warning that the pasta runs firm.
- Avoid: three specific plates she names. The oysters on the seafood platter, which "drown in cucumber cream." The double cheeseburger, where "the oozing sauce renders the bottom bun into mush and masks any beefy flavor." And the swordfish au poivre, whose sauce "lacks any degree of creaminess."
What locals & experts say
- The Infatuation (6 November 2024, 7.8):
A bit too often, though, The Otter seems more attuned to what's fun to photograph than what's fun to eat.
1 - The Infatuation, on who it suits:
For a solid group meal with pescatarians (there's steak too, served with a crawfish bearnaise), The Otter does the trick.
1
Good to know
- Timing: an all-day hotel dining room, with Sloane's, the cocktail bar, upstairs.
- Booking: book, especially for a group.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: Alex stupak seafood place
Verdict
could-visit — Alex Stupak built his name on Empellon and then opened a New England seafood room inside a SoHo hotel, which is the kind of swerve worth watching. The best thing on the table is free: pull-apart potato rolls dusted with Calabrian chili, celery seed, lemon zest, black pepper and thyme, with sea salt, anchovy and bouillabaisse butters. After that it is uneven, and Molly Fitzpatrick's review is specific about where. The oysters drown in cucumber cream, the burger's remoulade turns the bun to mush, and the swordfish au poivre arrives with a sauce that has no cream in the mouth. Her summary is that the room is more attuned to what photographs well than what eats well. The pastas and the beer-battered mackerel hold up, and it takes a group with pescatarians in it, which is a real job. Go for those and order around the platter.