Aquavit

Incredible food, great service. Very interesting combinations of flavors, original, basically a perfect meal! This is a must visit.

Pros: Good (not great) food. Cons: Just fair service, loud, noisy room, too expensive for what you get, especially the drinks ($15 for 3 or 4 sips). Conclusion: For the money, you can do a lot better elsewhere.

It's sad Aquavit changed locations because the old place (with its beautiful waterfall room) was better. However, they do continue to turn out excellent and unique food. That has to be the one thing that really sets this place apart from other places in the city. When you go to Aquavit, you'll have the opportunity to try foods you may never get to try anywhere else. If you go, I recommend the chef's tasting menu. Marcus himself actually came out to ask how we liked the food - he's a very humble and charismatic young man. As always, the service here was impeccable.

This was the most special occasion for me and my bride. We were wed at the Swedish church today and had our first dinner as married at Aquavit. It was so lovely! We are from Sweden and had the highest expectations of Aquavit. We were quite impressed. Our server, Marlon who was perfectly acommodating, suggested the tasting meny and now we suggest it as well. The textures, the balanced aromatics and careful play of scandinavian spices made our special day incredibly memorable. The composition of courses were sequenced beautifuly. Having the supervisor, David, explain in Swedish the meny and surprise us with his favorite dessert, Apple Sorbet. made us feel at home. Lots of extras because of our wedding or do you do this normally? We had a lovely conversation with our neighboring table who have been dining at Aquavit for 8 years that changed our perception of New Yorkers in the best way. Aquavit have Mackmyra whisky which is impossible to find! Our thanks to Marcus for the food, the favors and his staff for pleasing us completely on the most special day of our life. Tusen tack

Aquavit is good partner. Uber-mod room is as cool as any in the city (perhaps not the Modern). We sat at the large dining table with the Star Trek chairs, and the presentation was amazing. The food is very interesting, and everything was really excellent. The red snapper was unreal, and get the goat cheese parfait for dessert, and your pallette will be sporting Norwegian wood!

Here's what breaks my heart: for many years, Aquavit was one of my top three NY restaurants, whether in the main dining room or the more casual cafe upstairs, the food was always amazing, the service friendly and professional, and the dinng room beatiful and tranquil. And then they moved to their new location. And almost everything that was great about it just died. The new space is loud and unlovely and the wait staff iffy at best, rude and incompetent at worst. I'm huge fan of chef Marcus Samuelson and I think the food is still pretty spectacular, but the room, noise and unsatisfactory service make me not want to return, even if it were cheap, which it is not. And this makes me profoundly sad.

My wife and I went to the Aquavit Cafe this July mainly because of the many favorable reviews I read and the fact that I had never been to a Scandinavian restaurant. The service and atmosphere were top notch, but the food was a major disappointment and the prices (such as the $14 cocktail ) were too high.