Bagatelle

My bestie organized a big girls’ brunch for her birthday here on Sunday for «Club Brunch.» There were 12 of us and we sat down during the first seating at 1230. It became clear to me that the second seating, which I think is 3pm is what costs $$$ as the blinds close, it gets dark, the attire gets clubbier, and the music starts getting LOUDER.
I didn’t think it was pretentious in here. How could it be when honestly when most real New Yorkers don’t go here regularly– you’ll find older B&T folk, younger B&T folk, foreigners, visitors, bachlorette parties, etc. And as long as you know that and soak it all in, it is a fun time. They do play good music and have good drinks.
With brunch, I had a really decent Bloody Mary and Irish coffee (funny, they don’t pay much attention to you if order coffee sans the alcohol), and the «Cheeseburger Bagatelle» which was really meaty but messy. Came with decent fries (though it didn’t list it on the menu, I thought everything was a la carte).
Among the other girls, I saw many mimosas, bellinis, eggs benedict, goat cheese frittatas, french toast (looked the best!), and other ad hoc lunch items like the filet mignon tartar and lobster mac. I would advise sticking with classic brunch items — like anythings eggs or french toast or a burger for lunch. If you order bottle service, they deliver it via a flying Superman (a waiter in a costume), and a sparkler.
They had other cheese plates and the like to share… but we didn’t share. We only shared an off the menu ice cream sundae which came with a sparkler and was $ 55 which could have fed like 30+ people so very reasonable. It was also the yummiest thing I had — whip cream, vanilla/​chocolate ice cream, brownie/​cookie, granola. Yum.
Service is a bit slow/​spotty and you had a 2 hour limit on the table before it needs to be turned over for the next group, of which then you can just wait at the bar. But it’s ok, you’re there to chill and have fun so no rush. This is a great place for out of towners and groups, and glad I tried it out. Can’t say I’d be a regular though. This Club Brunch was better than il Bastardo which we also tried. I left too early around 3ish but apparently afterward, door service starts and it gets clubbier and clubbier.
(P.S. There is a coat check and bathroom lady who gives you paper towels, etc).
Brunch was $ 80 after tax/​grat. I believe they also have a pre fixe menu for $ 75 pre tax/​grat.

Brunch at Bagatelle was definitely a unique and entertaining experience. I was here last Saturday for a birthday brunch celebration… We were a party of 6. We were seated promptly with our reservation. When we asked for a drink menu we were given a wine list. Clearly the early expectation was to spend lots of cash and get wasted. Our server was energetic and decently attentive. Our meals were average but nothing noteworthy. I had the Nutella French toast with raspberries. Thick toast, a tad dry… Nice presentation but nothing to write home about. The best part of this brunch was the party atmosphere. There was a DJ playing dance music, getting everyone hype.
The price tag for all of this… Over $ 100 per person for a simple entrée and a few rounds of drinks. Definitely over priced (in my opinion). And… We were asked to leave our table after a few hours, unless we purchased a few bottles. Hmmmmm… I can say, this place was super packed and popular… So many must not mind the price tag. But for me it was a one time event.

Great for dinner or brunch but really go for the party. Top 40 music. Pricey as hell but one hell of a time

I wouldn’t be one to spend a grand on a Sunday brunch but there’s something about the vibe/​people that just makes this place a really good time.
Downsides: For $ 40 – 50 a plate, the food is sub-​par but, in my opinion, Bagatelle is 80% booze and 20% brunch. Also, unless you’re a hot blonde in her early 20s or you’re spotted waiving around a black card, you might find yourself waiting a long minute at the bar.

The place is beautifully decorated but the atmosphere and clientele are horrible. We walked in to have a drink by the bar and got terrible service from the bartenders. In addition, there was a group of really drunk people who were falling down on customers. One of the guys came up to us and was looking to start a fight. Noone cared that this group was bothering people — the staff just stood aside and carried on a conversation, the management was nowhere to be seen. To add to all of this, we were told by the bartender that the drinks are $ 24 total but we were charged $ 32! The bartender took $ 40 we left on the bar and did not give the change! What a ripoff this place is!!!

I was invited to Bagatelle for a sit down dinner event.
When I think of Bagatelle, I think of the brunch parties they have there. For that reason, I was skeptical. However, I was told that they have a great menu for dinner and that I would be surprised.
So I went. There was a DJ playing music. However, it was not so loud that the group could not have conversations. Our party of five sat for dinner.
The appetizers were shockingly good.
In particular, the scallop was good. However the crab salad was like a ceviche. It was really phenomenal. The octopus was great as well. However the crab was pretty memorable.
The ahi tuna tartare was a nice size and was tasty. The truffle pizza was really different and had a great taste to it.
The Chou Frise was a Kale Salad with dried cranberries, ricotta cheese, pickeled shallots & lemon & Jean Evo. This is a nice way of saying it was some Kale and Cheese. Nothing to go crazy about at all.
The truffled roasted chicken was way juicier than I expected and had a good taste to it.
The bone in ribeye steak was perfectly cooked and tasty. The Gnocchi was very good.
Where Bagatelle shines and is probably one of the most under rated restaurants in the City is for dessert. One Dessert. The Ice Cream Sundae.
The Huge Sundae they serve is pretty amazing. It comes out with sparklers and its own show. It is a great birthday cake replacement. It can feed lots of people. It puts traditionally popular places like the popular ice cream/​hot chocolate/​sundae spot in midtown that I will not name to shame. Bagatelle is more than capable of competing for best group ice cream spot. If ever flying bottles of Dom P. in via superman and sparklers does not work out for them, they would still crush most of the birthday crowd with just this sundae. It is massive.
I also saw some groups nearby eating and drinking Dom P., each bottle being delivered with fanfare. Superman was carried by some men while flying one in. Apollo Creed seemed to deliver another one as if he was entering the ring. It seemed like the customers were happy. However, it was the food on my table that had me there, and the food on my table that surprised me. Before this week, I would never have considered Bagatelle for a «grown folks» dinner. My opinion has changed.
Bagatelle, the home of the amazing large sundae that your whole party probably won’t finish. That is my review. It is one of the best kept secrets in the city.

I came here for dinner on a Wednesday night and you would think it was Saturday night, they had a DJ playing great music and the restaurant was pretty busy.
I was very impressed by the elegant décor, especially the chandeliers they were beautiful.
We were seated and our servers were super friendly and pleasant. I got to try many of the appetizers like kale salad, tuna tartar over guacamole, scallop with seafood sauce, truffle gnocchi, truffle pizza, octopus, crab salad and of course their delicious bread.
Everything was delicious but if I had to pick my favorites I would go with the scallop, tuna tartar and crab salad.
Now as far an entrees I tried the scallops, bone in ribeye with fries and truffle roasted chicken with potatoes. Again I cant complain about anything since it was delicious and we ate everything.
You can tell the quality of the food here its great. Since everything is made to perfection.
Now you cant come here and not have dessert so we ordered the dark chocolate mousse, profiteroles and this massive sundae which it was like a party on its own.
Again they outdid themselves since all of the desserts were great.
The table next to us ordered champagne and one of the servers came out in a Superman outfit flown by the other servers to deliver which was such a great spectacle.
I really enjoyed my night here, the food, service and ambience was great. I will be coming back :)

Love this place but when I went for a normal lunch there was no Bloody Mary mix???
Overall love the place good décor and the ambiance always has class beyond the expected.

Ahhh Bagatelle a Clubhouse for the pretentious! Lol just kidding! Well not really…
I frequent Meat Packing often and most recently came here for my birthday this year amongst a few other places. This place is WILD and probably overrated. There are people on tables, people on chairs, waiters dressed in costumes, magnum sized bottles and just pure madness! This is one of those anything goes places. Everyone in here is spending money so no one is telling anyone anything. Even the guys at the bar are spending a good $ 17 a pop on a drink. Bouncers can and will be selective at the door but that pertains to all of Meat Packing. Tons of foreigners and the rest American. This may be biased just because I like Meat Packing (no pun intended) but this place is a good time and certainly entertaining!!! Would I come back?! Hell yea!

Johnny the manager makes this establishment 5 stars! I have been to this restaurant on several occasions for lunch & for dinner, & each & every time he has been attentive & made his rounds around the tables to make sure service & food is on par. I almost wouldn’t want to come if Johnny wouldn’t be in.
Now, about the food & drink. The food is awesome! I always order the Tuna tartar, it’s super delicious & moist & is served on a base of yummy guacamole with a side of taro chips with just the right amount of salt. I always also ordered a sangria because it is a nice big portion served in a wine glass, & it is super scrumptious. The entrees are also on point as well as the desserts. All in all, this place has my vote

What a weird, weird place…
The only way I can aptly describe Bagatelle is «pretend fancy.» Like a McDonald’s gourmet burger, its façade implies a higher quality product, but let’s be real, McDonald’s ain’t foolin’ nobody.
The whole place is a paradoxical mix of trash and class. The décor included beautiful chandeliers alongside paintings with swear words scrawled across them. The crowd ranged in attire from t-​shirt/​jeans and mini-​skirts, to jackets and stilettos. Most of the women had on full faces of heavy clubbing makeup, and looked incredibly out of place at Sunday brunch. The waitstaff had an air of pretention but looked like high school/​college kids from across the Hudson. The food and drinks are very expensive, but thankfully, pretty tasty. We did not stay to witness the restaurant-​to-​nightclub transition, so I can’t speak to the party.
Overall, I can’t justify dropping hundreds on pretend fancy. I won’t be back.

My boyfriend took me here for my birthday and although the night was great because I was in great company this place was kind of lacking.
The vibe is really nice. The ambiance is sexy. The people are trendy, up beat and cool. I enjoyed the live music and the energy of the dinner crowd however… it was extremely overpriced for the food offered. The menu was kind of blah. The prawns were just okay definitely not worth the price. This place is cool for drinks, a good scene and a lively dinner crowd… I wouldnt recommend it for more than that…

Literally everything that is wrong in the world in one place.
I knew this before I came and wasn’t disappointed, no complaints. But do humanity a favor and close down this temple to wrong.

This place is hilarious. My best friend lives in New York and she took us here for a casual brunch turned nightclub experience. I remember leaving thinking it was 8pm and it really only was 4. Obviously, when you are in New York you will be spending a lot of money and this is one of the places to do it. We of course bought this ~$ 400 drink to split (I believe it was a mojito?) Not that much alcohol was in it– it seemed though (sad). There was food was good, but honestly shouldn’t be as priced so high as it was. The entertainment provided was spot on. Your table becomes your dance floor.

Food:
Jumbo crab — good
Truffle gnocchi — delicious
Foie gras sliders — good but a bit cold when we got them
Scallops — decent

I don’t understand this place. From what I can tell, its main clientele is from Jersey and Europe and made up of… bachelorette parties? Girls who want attention from extroverted servers (some of whom are way into themselves)? Guys who think the girls who go there would be interested in checking them out too (they’re not)? HOW did this place even get known to be a spot to come to for non-​New Yorkers without another trace of a New Yorker in there? Jessica R’s first sentence summary is absolutely correct.
It is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been at a restaurant in New York… mostly because it was literally the most non-​New York thing I’ve done here for the handful of years that I’ve lived here. I don’t even know how my friends visiting from LA even knew how this place existed in NY.
It was also the most confusingly expensive place I’ve ever been to for brunch. And by expensive, I mean expensive for New York. My group of four each got mediocre entrees, a cocktail, and two coffees. We split the bill evenly, and it came to $ 70 a person. HOOOOW?!

I heard this place gets pretty crazy so my girlfriends and I thought it would be perfect to go to celebrate a birthday. We arrived at 2:30pm and they had a dj playing great music and people were eating the dinning area and drinking/​dancing by the bar. They shows they put on when tables order bottles was completely over the top and amazing. They had a guy playing the drums and another playing the sax. Other than that, the food and service was awful…
It is a good place to go to party and drink but that’s it. I would have rather had brunch elsewhere before then have a drink here.

If you like to party, then Bagatelle’s brunch is the place to be. Their party brunch has been on my to do list ever since I moved to New York.
We made a reservation for a party of 6, about a month in advance for 2pm on a Sunday. When we walked in, we saw ladies decked out in full on clubbing outfits in the early afternoon, with a mix of trendy, bar or dinner outfits. We first ordered brunch food — Eggs Benedict, Lobster Mac and Cheese, Gnocci, pizza — all very pricey ($ 25-​$ 40 per plate) and shared a large Mojito Fish Bowl ($ 395). The mojito was hugeee and delicious — it came with 20 glow in the dark straws and everything was a lot of fun.
As we ate, the restaurant lights dimmed, curtains closed and the throbbing lights went up. It turned into a full-​out club. The DJ started playing EDM/​hip hop/​top 40 music and people started dancing on tables and being carried on people’s shoulders. Every 30 minutes or so a table would be delivered a large bottle or a big dessert that would be delivered by either Superman, Darth Vader or Marie Antoinette accompanying music and sparklers — it’s a great party atmosphere. The music and dancing was great — you just start dancing with everyone around you — it’s like going to a nightclub in the middle of the day.
Now, the downside of coming here is that everything is overpriced. For the 6 of us, the bill came out to be over $ 1,200, including two champagne bottles. However, everything about Bagatelle is fabulous and I guess that is expected from a popular party brunch place in meatpacking.

I had such an amazing time here with my friends for a bachelorette party that I cannot even begin to complain.
I can only say, the girls in the front are bitchy and snobby (they are French-​duhhh) and the prices are pretty high, so dont come if you cant afford it.
I was expecting to only hear house music (per my friends) and I was sooooo happy when I heard hip hop– reggae– spanish music and a good mix of house songs. It was one of the best day parties Ive ever been to and cannot wait to come back to NY just for this.
Our waiter was soo awesome, I forget his name :(

Okay… if you only read one Bagatelle review, you need to read this one. I’m going to give you the FULL rundown of Bagatelle boozy-​brunch Sundays.
SO! To start, you better make a reservation. Don’t even think of trying to come to Bagatelle on a Sunday brunch day and expect to be seated at a table. That’s laughable. You MAY be able to get in and stand at the bar but who the hell wants to do that? Reservation time? This depends on if you want to eat beforehand. If you want to eat in peace without sitting in darkness and hearing music so loud you can’t talk to anyone at the table then make it for 2:30/3pm. That will allow you time to order food and eat it before the madness starts. At exactly 3:30 the music starts going full-​on. Make sure you also arrive within ¹⁰⁄₁₅ minutes of your reservation or you risk them not allowing you to sit at your reserved spot.
Second of all, if you come with just a party of 2 for brunch, be prepared to have a shitty table. Yeah, I said it. I didn’t see one party of 2 people that had an even halfway decent table. Two of the 2-​top tables are literally in like the hallway/​walkway of the restaurant so there will be tons of people blocking the view of the place. If you come to Bagatelle and want to do it right, get at least 4 people and make a day of it.
Third of all, at tables for large parties it’s bottle service only. You can get some relatively cheaper wine bottles so it’s not like you’ll be shelling out thousands of dollars on boos but just keep that in mind that everyone will be pretty much drinking the same thing. They have this huge (I don’t even know how to really properly describe it) almost like a vase thing filled with boos and there are like 10 straws in it so you can share (if wine and champagne isn’t your thing). Basically, everything alcohol-​wise is shared.
Food. Yes, order food here. It is after all, a brunch. I ordered the tuna tartare. I was a little skeptical because I hadn’t had Bagatelle food in a long time and ordering raw fish was not the first choice for me but I didn’t want something super sugary (pancakes/​nutella) or super fattening (lobster mac & cheese/​pizza) so I went with a much healthier option and it did not disappoint. Seriously, it was the best tuna tartare I’ve ever had (see photo that I uploaded with my review). It comes with chips to dip which I did not show in the picture, but seriously this is a must-​order even to share as an appetizer (or main-​course).
Now on to the scene. Yes every girl will be wearing a Chanel bag and look like she just took 7 hours to get ready. Yes you may see some creepy dudes with sunglasses on who look like they have a Jersey Shore audition after brunch but come on people, this is Bagattelle. It is to be expected. Just set your expectations properly.
If you order certain bottles of champagne and alcohol, they do their own show just for you in front of everyone. I believe it’s $ 1,500 minimum but they deliver your bottle in really unique ways and never the same way twice. For instance, they can have 5 guys holding up one guy with your bottle and he’s dressed as superman. The music cues as well so it’s a big eye-​catching production. If you want to see and be seen, I’d opt for that.
Now, on to the bill. I left early and gave him cash towards the bill for my portion of everything. I informed my friends of this and told them how much I gave so they could make sure that the bill was properly adjusted. He did not tell them at all that I had paid anything nor did he adjust it off of the bill. So, had I not told them exactly what I gave him, he would have tried to play it off like I never paid. I didn’t like this at all because it just showed how shady he was. I think that they assume people get so drunk and want to take advantage as many others have stated in the reviews as well. SOOO be very careful with what your order. Even though you’re having a good time, just try to monitor exactly what you guys order so that no surprises come at the end.
All & all, this is a really fun brunch spot for a special occasion. I wouldn’t make this an every week thing, but it’s a fun thing to do once in awhile. I have also had dinner here on regular nights and wasn’t disappointed but the music was too loud for dinner. Anyways, for brunch, this is a go-​to spot.