Taste

i eat here quite often. the best ingredients prepared in the best way. very seasonal offerings. knowledgeable servers. great bar. superior wine list. pricey, not a tourist place. remember its the upper east side!

Basically after eating at Taste this week I decided this isn't so much a restaurant as a way for a specialty grocery store to make productive use of excess space. Unprofessional staff, lack of attention to details in orders, small portions, unexciting and overpriced food- to me these folks should stick to what they do best - bread.

Great food. Special night out. Great Date night.

Over priced and small portions. Went for fathers day brunch and should have known it wasn't good because the restaurant was empty. How about an egg white lox and onion omelette $15.95 that doesn't come with home fries or toast. We had to order a side order of home friesthat cost $5.00 Not to mention the small size of the eggs. Would have been better off in a diner.

This would be the perfect neighborhood restaurant except for one thing: the prices. The service is friendly, the food excellent and fresh and there's always something on the menu that is just what you want to eat. And if it's pricey, well, this is the Upper East Side, a neighborhood that can afford it. And by the wayit's a great place to go for during-the-week lunches, when there's a soup and salad buffet.

Taste is one of my favorite restaurants in this area, and as a self-professed "foodie," that is saying a lot! The quality of the ingredients is amazing as everything is sourced from the store below. The menu changes weekly, and the combinations are always fresh and exciting. They offer so many special touches including the homemade potato chips at the bar and the sugared grapefruit skins after desert. The service is high touch and friendly, and the atmosphere is warm and relaxing. My husband and I are regulars (as is the wonderful Eli Zabar who is a food icon in my opinion). We can't wait to go back tonight!

I had the lunch buffet on a beautiful Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. We were walking around to scope out the neighborhood after a mid-morning arrival for a visit from out of town. I was hungry but wasn't overly impressed with the menu. Being a "pre-diabetic" I keep my blood sugar normal by assiduously avoiding carbs -- and this means bread, fries, and pasta. However the outside menu did list a buffet for $14.95 so I thought we'd give it a try even though I am very picky about buffets. I thought there must be some things that would be good for me. Well it was great variety and excellent quality. I filled two of their extra large plates and had to stop even though I had barely sampled only those items most appealing and low carb. Sometimes its easy not to be too much of a pig when what you've had has been so great. My life partner was jealous when he saw what I was eating. I said, well you should have check out the buffet before ordering your $15 BLT/Club Sandwich -- a very tasty, nice large one. But the buffet was such a better deal price-wise in addition to having such a great variety of out-of-the-ordinary, well-prepared food. This is part of Eli Zabar's food domain. It is carved out of the ground floor of Eli's Manhattan -- that is an ultra upscale food emporium that matches the ultra upscale tastes and means of most of those in his neighborhood. The cold food takeout buffet in the emporium was priced at $9.99/pound. Maybe not to outrageous when my local Whole Foods charges $7.99 for some lesser quality takeout. Anyhow, by this comparision, I really got my money's worth. The restaurant was only a quarter full so it was really relaxed. I'm sure it's a bit more noisey when it's full. Its on 3rd Ave just above 80th so it's only a few blocks from the 77th Street Stop on the #6 Lexinton Avenue subway. It's worth the trip and if you live in the city you can peruse Eli's Food Emporium and buy something special to take something special