Chez Lucienne

Pros: good service, the sauce and vegetables were good.
Cons: VERY LONG WAIT for food. I ordered salmon and the fish wasn’t that great. my friend ordered lobster ravioli, they didn’t let us know 30 min after and then asked us to substitute with pasta and shrimps. However, the dish wasn’t that great.
Overall, it’s a decent place for date or casual dinner. The food was okay, not very impressive.

This french bistro has a great location and offers all your classics, like steak frites, moules marinieres, soupe a l’oignon, country pâté etc. Basically all the good stuff. I like going there in the summer due to their spacious terrace at the cross in of 125^th street,
and eating al fresco. Wine list is mostly french and they also have several refreshing pastis, a must have in the hot season. Service is polite and efficient, with standard sequence correctly executed. Décor has a french genuine bistro feel to it.
If in Harlem, definitely try this place.

Great food and a great dining experience! Came here with the gf and shared the beef bourguignon and the cassoulet. Both were excellent. I ordered some scotch and was treated to some generous pours. This is looking like it will be our new regular.

This was excellent. Our service was impeccable. The ambiance is lovely. We had the beef bourguignon and the cassoulet. If your complaining about price you don’t know what it takes to run a restaurant that has the kind of svc that replaces a knife before you know it needs to be replaced. This will be our new go to! FYI our waitress was Audrey and she is lovely.

If you’re going to charge 17 $ for eggs Benedict, don’t overcook the eggs and make me wait 20 mins for the bill.
The 2^nd star is because the spinach was well seasoned and tasty.

Do not order escargot! I was highly disappointed when I tasted the highly rated escargot and found that they were horrible. These were literally the worst escargot I have ever had.
I have given the restaurant a two rating since the mussels were average– wine broth was good, the mussels were small but tasty. The portion size was ok — you would be better served going to flex mussels if you are interested in a better experience.
I would suggest getting the skirt steak, based on our dinner partners experience.

Firs off, this review may be a little off simply because I was thrown by the New Years Eve Prix Fixe menu. I had checked online less than a week before, and there was no indication of a prix fixe, so we made reservations and I went in realllllllly wanting mussels and fries. Thinking about them all day actually. The available options for NYW did not include mussels and fries, and In fact, nothing I was super stoked about. I didn’t really want a steak, or lamb, or hunk of fish, or heavy pastry wrapped seafood. The only dessert option was profiteroles, which, oddly, me Miss Sweet Tooth, have never been a fan of. We had also asked for a romantic table in the reservation, and I’m not sure we got that. Because the restaurant is on the smaller side, we were really close to the tables around us, which made it feel less intimate.
That being said, I bucked myself up and decided to have a good time. I ordered the risotto appetizer which was GREAT! Probably the best thing I ate all night. Very memorable. I got the lamb dinner which was good but not ‘magical.’ And the profiteroles for profiteroles were good.
My boyfriend got the salmon tartar which I tastes. It was very nice. I had just returned from vacation to Florida where I had eaten Tartar at Daniel Boulud’s restaurant, and compared to that it was disappointing, but it was great to know there is sufficient Salmon tartar in Harlem. He got the filet mignon which he seemed very happy with. He was actually more disappointed in the profiteroles than I was! I guess I’m just not a profiteroles connoisseur. What can you do.
I ordered the ‘pink bubbly’ as my ‘adult beverage’ and THAT was wonderful.
The overall cost for our early seating prix fixe was a steal! We were so happy with that!
Id love to go back and actually get the mussels and fries.
For Harlem, this place is find! I’m not sure I’d say it’s worth the trek up from midtown just for this food, but if you live in Harlem it’s a wonderful respite from the other food offerings and I’m glad to have discovered it!

Service can sometimes be shoddy, but I love the food and really appreciate that this place is
centrally located in Harlem.

Thoroughly enjoyed Christmas dinner here. Staff was friendly and jovial, food was yummy. Totally coming back for brunch

First time here, birthday dinner for wife. They offered us a table right by the door but we waited 10 minutes for a better seat against the wall toward the back. Started off with two glasses of the Rascal Pinot Noir @ $ 10 each. No burgundies on the menu or other french pinot noir, which is strange for a restaurant with a Chez in the name.
Wife had STEAK AU POIVRE and I had the BAVETTE A L’ECHALOTE which was delicious. My only complaint was that I watched my meal sit for about 5 minutes after the chef put it out to be picked up by the server because my wife’s dish wasn’t ready. It was warm but not the temperature it should have been if they had brought it out sooner.
Great vibe in the place, Edith Piaf and other french singers on the soundtrack, I almost felt I was back in Paris for the night. They also brought out a nice chocolate mousse dessert with a candle and sang Happy Birthday to my wife. Great evening.

Ugh this place sucks. I lived in Paris and you should not be able to mess up a croque monsieur. It’s just a sandwich with ham and cheese! How hard is that!
The restaurant is super cute aesthetically though. Packed with tourists at lunch time. Lunch service can be extremely extremely slow.

My sister and I decided to take our mom here for her birthday. Our waiter Adam greeted us at the door with exceptional hospitality that continued throughout the evening.
Our food did not take long to be prepared and it taste just as good as it looked. I started out with the frisee salad which was served with a poached egg, bacon chunks and croutons. It was the perfect blend of contemporary and comfort flavors with fresh ingredients.
For dinner I dared to try something different, and I ordered the Foie de Veu. The dish was robust in flavor and hearty.
The cheesecake for dessert was just enough. The light texture and mild flavors topped off a great meal.
All in all, it was a lovely evening, great prices and the live jazz sealed the deal.

service is sub par and the food is mediocre.
my water glass was asked to be refilled twice and the waiter reached over plated food to fill a glass. Finished dishes were removed only after we requested & we were never checked on during courses.
It’s not our first time here, yet it may be the last. $ 94 dollars on a nice Sunday meal isn’t remarkable… yet the level of service based on the ‘intended ambiance’ is disgraceful.
The level of snobbery is ridiculous and not deserved, I would rather eat from a food cart on the Grand Concourse, because I would get better service.

I have been here twice in the last month after passing by for a few years. They have a nice outdoor café and the restaurant is located at one of the busiest spots in Harlem. Watching the goings on up and down the street makes it worth eating here because there are sights to be seen with the array of characters that float through Harlem that are not in other parts of the city. Plus the mix of tourist and New Yorkers from other neighborhoods who have finally decided that Harlem is the it place.
The food? It really is just okay. Its edible but not fabulously tasty. Its fairly pricey. We had 1 cocktail, a large ceasar salad and 2 chicken dishes (Poulet Roti and Coq Au Vin), no dessert and it was over $ 80. Not as pricey as French can be but we had modest meals and shared the cocktail (it was strong-​my eyes were crossing).
My husband did not like the Coq Au Vin very much. I thought it was reasonable tasting. The Poulet Roti was light and pleasant and the chicken was moist.
Go for the scenary of the location (right next to the popular Red Rooster) without the crazy crowd of the Red Rooster (that is also just mediocre)

Mais Oui! Quatre étoiles!
The only reason I could not give this place 5 stars it is because:
–size of my mussels
–the fact that I was sure that the owner was sitting in the table next to us and I did not see him working the patio in terms of greeting his guests and asking them if they were enjoying themselves. That type of thing is important and at these prices, it adds a nice touch. There was no way this guy wasn’t the owner with his big Frenchie type glasses and all of the Frenchy sounding stuff coming out of his mouth.
— not enough of a per glass sparkling section
The tuna tartar appetizer was out of this world but I’m not quite sure why I came with fries but ate them anyway. They we’re delish.
The beautiful wine sauce for the mussels was sick and wrong (that’s good) and came with fries again… hmmmm. maybe it’s the French way? I would have appreciated them realizing i ordered two things that came with fries and maybe they could have substituted something else. just a thought, not a negative.
My friends coq au vin (sp?) was the taste bud version of viewing the Mona Lisa… incredible!
Our server Adam was very helpful and complimentary! We liked him a great deal! Ill return for sure and will recommend others to go but will warn them to save some $$$ up bc they aint lettin’ those pommes frites go for cheap!
All in all a great time.

Went for dinner on Monday night and had a very pleasant experience! Our waiter Frederick was very friendly and despite my friend and I catching up and taking a while to order not once did we feel the pressure.
We started with the Escargot and Foie Gras — both were delicious! Highly recommend the foie gras. I then enjoyed the rabbit stew in a dijon mustard sauce while my friend enjoyed her lobster ravioli. Finished with the chocolate cake and icecream.
Staff was great, what we ordered was delicious, overall wonderful experience. Would def recommend and return!

I’ve been in the restaurant yesterday and having dinner with my sister.
The service was great. The staff was also awesome. The food was good and yummy I hear a good zouk music and jazz. One thing I dislike about the staff is that; they don’t have patience with customers. They should make sure that customers are alright before they ran away. I’ll recommended people to go and look at the place. They ‘ll love it. I rate 3 because I’ll go back and bring friend but also enjoyed the atmosphere

I had dinner and lunch last month at chez lucienne, and I decided to relate my experience right now for schedule reasons. I was very excited to discover a new place with my friends who actualy leave in Manhattan close to Harlem. I guess they use to have a good experience with this restaurant by the past. But we were disappointed, all 3 of us.
I had dinner and lunch at chez lucienne, and I decided to relate my experience.
I was very excited to discover a new place with my friends who actualy leave in Manhattan close to Harlem. And what’s better then a french restaurant ;) I guess they used to have a good experience with this restaurant by the past.
The food was tasty but it doesn’t seem to be as usual as my friends said. At lunch time I ordered a coq vin, as suggested by my friends and a simple glass of cabernet sauvignon. We had the food first and then the drinks… which was surprising.
We asked our server who told us that the barman is taking care of the drinks… but he seemed to be very slow (20mins ???) and unprofessional as long as he wasn’t paying attention to his tasks.
Anyway, the second time, I invited my fiancée for dinner. We ordered a glass of pino griggio and a bloody mary. Same experience with the bar… Dinner was busier so it took 30 mins after order to get our drinks and after receiving appetizers… Our nice moments together starting to be a nightmare.
We had fried calamari and a muscle soup. I would say that the soup was good but I felt sand at the bottom which made us unhappy. I personally choose the muscles, and they were not so fresh, sand… We tasted the blueberry tart, it was very dry.
What make us not return to this place are the slowness of the service, especially the bar service, the average food, then I would say the cherry on the top, the guy who seemed to be the boss over there. I say seems because he doesn’t look like a restaurant business person. He didn’t smile at all, look very dirty. He was rising his voice and made comments on others. I don’t understand hos language, but the body language is the first step when we meet somebody. He put such a bad ambiance in the room because of his rudeness that for sure I will never give a third chance to this place. We felt shameful for him.
So, my dear friends who are reading this review, the best advise I can give to you is not to go to this restaurant, loss of time and it will mess up your good mood for the rest of the day…

Good prix fixe lunch deal. A little bit pricey if you order from the regular menu.
The food is very good. Mussels, croque monsieur, excellent garlic fries and french onion soup.
I rated 3 stars because there are many other options in the city and is not a place that you think of coming back soon. If you are in the area is a good call but nothing spectacular

They advertise 50% off food on Fridays and Saturdays from 12am to 2am with live music. This advertisement is now false given I’ve been in the neighborhood around that time and thought it would be the perfect time to try out the deal. I walked in and there was not any live music and they told me they stopped doing the deal. Instead, they have a «late night» menu which is a $ 16 pre fixe which includes French onion soup or salad and a choice of one of their burgers or mussels.
I was disappointed for sure given the false advertising as this deal is all over Unilocal and all over their website. French onion soup was a little too sweet over savory for my taste. Burgers and fried are generous portions but not mind blowing. Also, the burgers at regular price are $ 18−20…helllllll no.
Service is a little slow, but I tend not to care too much whether service is mediocre unless the experience trends very favorably (or unfavorably) in one direction.
That being said, I have been here before and the other food is quite nice so I’ll settle with 3 stars.