Gramercy Bistro

Mojitos at happy hour are $ 10 and fantastic! Sit on patio and have a few on a nice, warm night. I’ll be back to try a few other cocktails and maybe some appies.

Modern bistro located in The Cullen Hotel with an American theme on the food.
There is seating inside and outside under cover with heaters. The food is modern and fresh with serving sizes on the smaller side.
They have happy hour with good drink specials on spirits and cocktails too.
The staff are friendly and like the restaurant are modern and fresh! :)

Cold coffee! I’m not a fanatic about it, but often getting coffee here and asking for the milk to be hot, it just never is. Like a warm glass of water. Surely you guys can buy a thermometer and get it at least warm. I might order an iced coffee and see what the difference is.

FOH staff is lovely, but BOH struggles with a surprise group greater than 4 people — with a mostly empty venue. Had the same experience twice on a Sunday evening next to a popular bar. Unlikely to make it a third attempt. Mgmt should decide what type of experience they would like this to be. I will say the food was quite nice — just it struggles with a larger group.

I can really only review from a point that I had a few cocktails before moving on somewhere else to eat.
$ 10 cocktails when Happy Hour is enough to rope me in!
I loved them and I loved the vibe of Gramercy.
Located in such a perfect part of Prahran, I urge all Unilocalers to give Gramercy a go.
I have seen other reviews put the staff down and I must say I had the friendliest bunch looking after me. They were lovely.

I must admit I’m a little puzzled by all the great reviews… Gramercy was alright, but not amazing and I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way for it (at least not for supper — maybe it’s better as a breakfast joint?).
Yes it was relatively full of people, yes the staff were attentive and pleasant, and yes the food was ok (even if the club sandwich’s bagel dough was the dry side). But it didn’t blow me away. And it felt like someing was missing.
Maybe I need to try it again, but unless you live in the neighborhood and just want to catch up over drinks and a snack, I’d pass on the one.

I liked it — the vibe is lively, but there is also a sheltered outdoor option. Had the Club ‘burger’, which came on a toasted bagel — hard to cut through! I wonder what breakfast would be like.

I have been wanting to come here for a while as I love American style food, but with a little added «cuisine» rather than the traditional greasy burger and fries type food you get elsewhere.
I have to say, i was not dissapointed.
I only had a small meal, but will be back next time for something more substantial.
I hate the Chickpea chips with Tahini Yoghurt dipping sauce. I am always a fan of chickpe chips and these didnt dissapoint. Light and fluffy on the inside and warm and crispy on the edges. the dipping sauce was really nice and not overpowering or stodgy like some tahini based sauces can be.
I also had the crabmeat and potato croquettes. Really nice. I would have liked a bit more crab meat, but I cant really complain. Smooth and crispy and full of flavour! The accompianing saffron aoili was just awesome.
Next time I head back there it will be for lunch where I intend on getting stuck into a Reuben sandwhich with a dill pickle. I always love a good reuben and I hope they don’t dissapoint.
Overall, good value and recommended if you like this casual style of food.

I’m American.
Not necessarily a die-​hard, stars and stripes underwear-​sporting one, but an American nonetheless, and goddammit, sometimes I just want some good old USA-​style meat, piled ridiculously high with salty fries and a Kosher Dill spear. Made with pride!
Well, that’s exactly what I got today at Gramercy, tucked beneath the kitsch Cullen Hotel, next to Hu Tong (mmm, Hu Tong). After taking my Aussie husband to Katz in NYC last year, we’ve both been craving a hot pastrami sandwich of epic proportions. After reading about Gramercy’s a few months back, we finally made our way there en route to the neighboring market.
Gramercy has a sleek Melbourne-​meets-​Gotham fitout, with the ubiquitous white brick tiles and sleep wooden bar at the front. It’s full of natural light, and at 12:30ish on a Friday, it was reasonably full of people. Our server was also super friendly, which is always a plus.
We ordered the pastrami sandwich and the jalapeño poppers to start. The poppers were a cut above the usual Superbowl food, beautifully crumbed with a spicy aioli, too. But the sandwich was indeed the star of the show, living up to my expectations: warm, thinly-​sliced (and very tender) pastrami piled high, with tart, crunchy sauerkraut and a decent but not overwhelming smattering of yellow mustard. Even the bread was an upgrade — crusty multigrain sourdough of some kind. Delish.
Would recommend this to anyone who wants to recreate the NYC sandwich experience. It’s not totally the same (they don’t use the standard Russian/​thousand island dressing, which in my opinion is a good thing), and it may be a slightly drier sandwich. But no hesitations recommending this one to all.

I heard about this place through a recent article in The Age touting new cafes/deli’s offering Melbourne’s version of my beloved Pastrami on Rye out of New York. Rightly skeptical at first I ventured in with an open mind and blocked out the fond memories of Katz and 2^nd Ave Deli that I grew to love and continually drooled over whilst living in the Big Apple.
Might I also add that there seems to be a trend of local eateries trying to replicate American cuisine — ala Burgers and Rueben’s…bring it on I say!
I ordered the Rueben with fries. The restaurant was quiet so I was served in a matter of minutes. The sandwich itself at a cost of 14.50 doesn’t disappoint. Stacked with around 7 layers of hot finely cut pastrami, with a layer of cheese, ample sauerkraut and finished with mild mustard on toasted rye. The final icing on the cake is that it is served with a pickle. And not just any old small ass pickle might I add, they use the proper kosher Polskie Ogorki large sized ones. It may not be Katz Deli, but its damn close and certainly worth coming back for!
The generous portion of shoe string fries are served in a neat brown box and are lightly salted. They even have Ketchup to really capture the American authenticity.
The final thing I would say is that their coffee is excellent and staff attentive and friendly.
4 stars for Gramercy Bistro. I will certainly be back for more!

Love the feeling in this place. Now yes it was a Sunday lunch and fathers day so maybe a slightly different crowd than normal but it had a warm family feel which was great.
Big positives were the wait staff. They were attentive, courteous, helpful and attractive. And yes you wonder why I make such a mention well a number of places in the area could take plenty of advice from this place in the way of service.
Food was great. Menu is great albeit a touch different but when you read it’s an American twist then you understand why the buns look like pretzels.
The BEST thing here is the coffee. I didn’t get what brand but it doesn’t matter, what matters is how it’s cooked and the two coffees I had were perfect. I will be back

Occupying a corner space under the boutique Cullen Hotel, the Gramercy slinks and lounges in in trendy black. It’s a breezy bright place nonetheless. At the entrance, a small area furnished with warm timber stools overlooks the road, and adjacent to this is a bar with a backdrop of glistening bottles and a bench on which are set platters of voluptously proportioned muffins. A troupe of wait staff are headquartered at this bar and are perfectly positioned to call out in warm greetings while maintaining a constant, vigilant watch over diners. The Gramercy seamlessly flows into the main dining area of stark lines and square shapes, opening out at one side onto a very lovely covered al fresco area. It seems at once quintessentially Melbourne, but with a polished, rather than dilapidated or grunge, edge.
…
Named after a leafy, quiet New York neighbourhood which surrounds an exclusive park of the same name, the Gramercy in Melbourne is set in an inner-​city suburb of a similar nature, but it exudes no pretentious exclusivity. Nothing is more American than a wholly open generous spirit and the Gramercy has just that. The service is consistent and warm, the setting refined yet modern, casual and versatile. The food does not contrive to cross any technical boundaries, nor is it overtly domesticated. Most appealing because it is somewhere in between, it is honest, accessible in price and exceeds expectation in size. No desserts are presented like a Petri dish here. Overall, the Gramercy is a most welcome antidote to the miserly portions, lackadaisical service, unfinished interiors and sponsored hype pervasive across today’s Melbourne dining landscape. Your Dessert Correspondents dare say that the Gramercy has become a new favourite. The only thing that it is missing we think is some dessert with peanut butter and/​or a rotating sweet pie menu — key lime, pecan, pumpkin, whoopie pie, anyone?

Their open kitchen’s display window proudly showcases the following items:
–Tabasco Sauce
–Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
–Cholula
–Smucker’s Goober PB&J (peanut butter *and* jelly mixed together in one jar)
–Philadelphia Cream Cheese
–Vlasic Kosher Dills
–La Costeña Chipotle Peppers (yep, the ones in adobo sauce)
So to fail to mention that they’re going for an East Coast-​Americana vibe would be remiss of me. Oh yeah, and it’s called Gramercy Bistro, so there’s that. The menu is stocked with some homesick-​inducing American standards like NYC deli sandwiches, breakfast hash, grilled cheese, jalapeño poppers, mimosas, southern-​fried chicken ribs, Waldorf salad, and of course baked NY cheesecake. Let me be the first to say I’m happy they stayed true to local hero St Ali — there are some things Melbourne just does better than New York and coffee is one of them.
I throughly enjoyed some cross cultural favourites (or favorites, for this review): celery and cauliflower soup and some steamed veggies. I practically licked my plate, so if that’s any indication of the rest of their menu, I’ll be happy to come to this home-​away-​from-​home spot any day.
The cherry on top of this NY-​Sundae? They have a Monday-​Friday «Wet Hour» (aka: happy hour) where you can steal a $ 5 spirit, wine or beer or a $ 10 cocktail of the day. Let’s hope today’s is a manhattan!