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Any place that starts with "The" usually gets at least one shot from me and and my friends because it always sounds important. We liked the food and the hip vibe that you expect in this area. If you want to be cool and get a decent meal, try it!

We had a great dinner with friends last night at this amazing restaurant. I had the cod - which was stunning, and the filo chocolate pie - amazing. The dining rooms are beautiful, candlelit and perfectly decorated for the holidays - the 3 working fireplaces were icing on the cake. The wine list is interesting and very affordable, not what you expect in this neighborhood. The host and waitress were so gracious even though the place was packed.

This restaurant is a rare gem in this city. The food is consistantly delicious (try mussels, duck pasta, and scallops!) the staff are friendly and knowledgable about the product, and the ambiance is the best! Its best on a weekday, as it's less crazy, but no matter what I always feel taken care of. Everyone I bring here ends up loving it and introducing it to their friends; so much so that the last time I was there I bumped into a friend! Highly recommended!

We had the best time at his quaint, charming unpretentious restaurant, We had several appetizers to start, each cooked to perfection, scallops moist and plump the sweet potato raviolis melt in the mouth. Entrees were fab, lamb, salmon out of this world. The spiced pumpkin bread pudding was amazing. Easily the most reasonably priced and unique restaurant on W4th Street. We will be back soon.

My wife and I are fortunate to have two anniversaries to celebrate (our ceremony and reception were months apart) - it gives us an excuse to sample some of the more pricey and romantic restaurants. This year both places we tried were very long on atmosphere and presentation, but the food turned out to be disappointing. I'll focus on The Place since we just went there. First a few positive notes. We arrived and were greeted by the very friendly and helpful staff. The fireplaces, lanterns, stone walls and wood beam ceiling make for great atmosphere. The dinner ended on a high note with an excellent piece of warmed triple-chocolate cake with homemade coffee ice cream. Everything inbetween the greeting and the cake was a big disappointment, and extremely overpriced. A $14 sauteed mushroom appetizer on roasted polenta cakes had absolutely nothing to recommend it - flavor, texture, presentation or anything else. One main dish was a duck plate with the duck prepared three different ways, on a bird's nest of potato sticks and julienned vegetables. Sounds nice, doesn't it? There were duck dumplings that were not bad; three tiny pieces of virtually raw duck breast; and a shank that was small and fatty. The "bird's nest" was a bit overcooked, and the vegetables were nothing to write home about. We sent back the raw duck pieces to be introduced to a flame; they came back tasting like sirloin. The other dish was a baked cod ($24 I think) on a base that had a half dozen intriguing ingredients. But the end result was basically a piece of cod on some diced potatoes, again with no special spicing or flavoring to make you sit up and take notice. I'm pretty certain I could do better at home. What got me actually ticked off was that we wanted to order champagne, and the only selections were a bottle of ordinary Prosecco for $36, the over-advertised but otherwise unexceptional Veuve Cliquot for $79 (it's not even worth the $40+ they get for it in liquor stores) and a NY State champagne for $72. Ridiculous and insulting IMHO. Pretty sure we won't go back to The Place. They could drop their prices by 30% across the board and still be overpriced for the quality of the cuisine.

We ducked into this place last winter for brunch on a weekend. Food was tops: Buttermilk pancakes -- delicious. Pappardelle duck pasta -- so-so. Spinach salad -- quite nice. Tiger shrimp salad -- loved it! We welcomed the warm working fireplace too, while waiting for the food to arrive in this romantic country-style room.

This was my first time at The Place even though I've lived just down the block from it for over 10 years now. All I can say is I that I deeply regret not having eaten here much sooner. A year ago my fiancee and I went to Dell' Anima for our one year anniverary (just around the corner) and had a horrible experience (I reviewed that here on Menupages) so this time we tried The Place for anniversary # 2 and it was the polar opposite. Excellent food, a wonderful environment that was mellow and quiet with a fireplace in the corner and a waitress who recommended the best items on the menu and served them promptly and courteously. The white chocolate mouse dessert was incredible. We'll be back at The Place at least once every few weeks from now on. I can't rave enough about how wonderful an experience it was to dine there.