[NYC - Midtown] Rue 57 - Asian-French Bistro near Columbus Circle

I really wanted to go to the brunch. so we decided to give it a try for dinner. Rue 57 is a  (Asian-French) restaurant located on 57th Street, right by Columbus Circle.


There were a series of really strange events throughout our meal that basically made me question if they had any sort of hospitality or service training for their staff...or even just common sense.

We were given a basket of bread with butter, but no bread plate. I thought it was just a mistake for us because it randomly got really busy, but nope, the other tables around us did not get them either. I did ask for a bread plate and we were able to get them, so I am not sure what was going on there.

Then, about 25 minutes into our meal when we were eating our soup, the manager came over and tried to close the door right behind my mom's chair without asking her to move or anything. He kept hitting her chair with the door and never apologized. When my mom finally asked him about it, his reasoning for moving the door was that he thought she was getting cold. Common sense tells me that if one is assuming the thoughts of another, one should probably go and confirm the thoughts match. 

Additionally, because they're trying to pass as being a high-class eating establishment, they kept replacing silverware. Which is fine and all, but the server kept taking away silverware and placing it on our table, touching the part that touches the food each and every time. So gross.
The food:
Complimentary bread and honey butter, bread was a little stale, and again, no bread plate.



Corn chowder and with rock shrimp
This corn chowder was extremely salty. It was also had a very strong butter flavor. I think they were trying for a very savory taste, but went a bit overboard. There were also very few shrimps...maybe about three half-size shrimp in my cup.
For this type of restaurant, I would expect to have full-size shrimp in the chowder.





Kobe beef sliders with truffle fries.
Overall, this was pretty good, but there were some very strange points about the sliders, too, which added to the strange dining experience at Rue 57.
There were three sliders. They were supposed to have a homemade pickle slice, tomato slice, and onions on top of the Kobe beef patty. It was strange, however. Two of the three sliders didn't have onions in them. We didn't realize that there should be onions in it until we got to the third otherwise I would have requested they make a new order. The one slider with the onions, was very good, no need for any sauce or ketchup.The pickle was fresh and crunchy.

Another strange thing was Rue 57 garnished the plate with pickles, but the garnish pickles were not the homemade ones that come on the burger, but rather were the baby dills that you can buy in the store, cut into thirds lengthwise.

Truffle fries

I was craving truffle fries and had heard that Rue 57 had some good truffle fries, so I had to order them. My mom had also never had truffle fries before, so I had to have her try them.

The fries were presented nicely. Unfortunately, however, most of the fries did not receive any essence of the truffle oil and some of the fries we got were undercooked and/or were cold upon delivery. 

Potato crusted salmon
This was pretty nice, no really strange things to comment on here.
The salmon seemed to be fresh. My dad enjoyed it...I only tried a little bit, so I cannot really comment on it. The salmon filet is surrounded by sautéed onions and mushrooms.

Ambiance:
They were playing club music, which I thought was slightly strange given the clientele. The prices mean that the average diner is a businessperson, probably around 40s. In fact, many people were here with business clients when we went on a weeknight.

They have a bunch of random Asian decorations around, but most of the food is not that Asian-y.

Overall, I would probably not recommend coming here. The location is really good, so it is very disappointing that the service and food presentation/quality/consistency was so poor. Given that there were major consistency issues with the food and questionable quality about some of the others, Rue 57 is overpriced. You are paying for the ambiance and location.

I think they have a rather good cocktail menu and the brunch is supposed to be pretty good, even the sushi.

This restaurant is also owned by the same owner as Tao, so I was pretty surprised with the poor experience, but also kind of not. It explains the loud music and the kind of less than stellar service.



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