Brasserie Cognac

Some of the dishes are interesting and well prepared. The service is neither polished (it should be both smooth and unobtrusive) nor cooperative forcefully correcting staff, and kidding them along, produced some improvementbut I usually get a fee for this. When I am paying I prefer to engage with my companions and not have to pay so much attention to the waiters. And here, au contraire, the prices are actually rather excessive for the level of cooking, service, entire experience. The atmosphere, decor is pleasing, but if there is not a welcoming and comfortable interaction with the staff, that is somewhat wasted. I had to do far too much work dealing with them. The point of going is that I should be able to relax they will anticipate what a normal diner wants and if I must make a request it can be brief, simple, and they will understand and fulfill it smoothly. Not here yet! Unlikely to return until the prices are reducedeven though we are often right there and it is convenient and looks invitingand perhaps someone has explained to staff how they should behave.

We were in NYC for the U.S. Open semi finals, happened to meet up with our party at Cognac's corner on 55th, checked out the menu and asked to be seated. We were seated immediately, where ever we chose, and were treated with generous courtesy throughout our dining experience. The menu, for our taste, was excellent, - our party preferring the steak and the fish dishes, and prepared perfectly. Our waiter was very helpful, excellent manners, and suggested a wonderful wine, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. I would return to Cognac's any time and would recommend it to friends who may be in NYC for a weekend. It wasn't a 5 star experience, but it was a LOVELY experience, great food and service.

I come in to Brasserie Cognac all the time and almost always sit at the bar because the bar staff is so incredibly good and very fun and interesting to talk to. They are very knowledgable about wine and cognac and the original drink list is amazing. I always try a different drink and they are all amazing! try the sans culotte bust ask for absinthe instead of pastis as per ben the bartenders suggestion. The food is always amazing and the ambience is perfect. I must say this place is coming along very nicely and has blossomed into a new classic. I will be coming here for years to come! Its also not to hard on the checkbook as some places in the neighborhood. They also have an amazing happy hour every day from 5-7 and they give away free croque monsieur!

This is a really beautiful space, but it suffers from a genuine lack of maturity and experience, reflected in the poor quality of both service and product. It is a complete let down, aggravated further by disproportionately high prices. It would do well as an "authentic" french restaurant in a small town where no one would notice the difference, and I would probably not mind it much either. However, this is no small town and the fact that it is here, in this city, is a slap-in-the-face travesty. They've been in business for quite a few months now and I've been hoping for improvements, but after 3 visits, the service and food have shown no improvement. I am now officially writing this place off as tourist fodder.

I too had been hoping to find a new Brasserie in that part of town as Goulu and Orsay are so ancient. I felt terribly let down by the whole experience and angry at the end when they made us pay for all their mistakes. I booked one week in advance on OpenTable asking for a special table and though the place was nowhere near 50% full I had to battle with the manager for one of the three free corner booths (maybe we weren't VIP enough!). We starated with leek vinagrette, good enough and so simple that you can't mess this one up and the onion soup, standard NY onion soup though. We had a nightmare waiting for a soufflé, we waited for over 40 minutes between our appt and souflé middle course!! And the snooty waiter told me that the oven can't be opened and closed etc (I know) and that there were already orders in ahead of mine. I understand that but then shouldn't the chef had sent a message out, or could they have shouted us a glass of wine inbetween? When our entrees finally appeared, my steak tartare was too runny and over-spiced, and a tiny portion as well, the accompanying match-stick fries were stone-cold, as if they had been cooked for someone else twenty minutes earlier! My partner's steak frites, however, were pretty good. The wines we ordered by the glass were terrible, I wanted southern French rustic reds, they have a very limited choice, and why have they got so many Italian wines at a French restaurant?? We didn't take dessert as we were by now very angry but I did order a double esspresso. This too was cold!! I know that there are sometimes nightmare tables where everything can go wrong in one night but where is the management? Can't they see things are going badly at a table and come and offer some condolences/gratuity. I will not be going back there in a hurry, and I wouldn't go either if i was you.

A friend and I ducked in for lunch one weekday afternoon and though we were readily seated, the service crawled at a painfully slow pace. We did not order appetizers but had to wait a whopping 45 minutes for our lunch. In that time, we were largely ignored by the staff. We didn't even have time to enjoy dessert since we had to get back to work. Other coworkers had similar experiences - service problems and ho-hum food (the fries are good, but not good enough to bother). In a competitive town like New York, such service (or lack thereof) is beyond unacceptable. Keep this up and they won't last long.

This place seemed to have promise, but i do not recommend it. The food was not good considering the price. The waiter was a complete snob, and my husband and I are convinced his french accent was fake, although his attitude was not. We went here with my husbands boss for a business dinner, and unless subject under the same conditions I would never eat here again. The steak was too tough to chew and cut - and they had no steak knives because, the snotty waiter said the meat was tender - hmm... He was rude when my husband asked him to check on the desserts since we had to make an 8pm curtain. This type of place assumes NY'ers will take any type of attitude b/c the place looks nice - show them you will not.