Viand Restaurant

The UES is a tough cuisine call and with the Second Avenue Subway under construction, it resembles a war zone. The Viand, which has been around longer than I've lived in the area (1991), has been a neighborhood place where you can get the staples. It is not a gourmet shop and some items are pricey, but most of the time most of the menu is OK . They will make your favorite the way you like it. Look - it's a diner, not Gramercy Tavern.

As a regular customer over the years, very dismayed to find how far of a nosedive this place has taken. They now serve grisly hamburgers; an inedible matzo ball soup that tastes like dishwater; waffles that look like they came out of a toaster oven and on and on. Servers take your order, say 'yes' and then go only two steps to place order incorrectly. Meanwhile your food comes out nothing like you ordered. Many apologies will abound, as in most other places nowadays.....due to an inept/untrained workforce. Nothing worse than a party of three having to eat separately while the other's food has to be sent back. After giving them more than enough chances (trying one more dinner, one more breakfast, etc), it's apparent they're serving low quality food and aren't interested in correcting the situation. Unless you're desperate, keep away from this 'joint.'

This isn't a disappointing place to go and grab a bite to eat. The food is good, I always order from this place, they're a bit pricy, but hey its the upper east side.

Sometime 2010 Viand changed ownership. They had served the best diner Greek spinach pie this side of Astoria. No more. Cheeseboiger-you don't toast my bun anymore. French fries-not crispy on the outside and no longer last a visit in the fridge for midnight munchies. I had been about a $1,000 year customer for over 10 years. Wow, that's alot of $$. Anyway, Upside is new Viand is kind to try to accomodate for your business. Simply I hate to keep asking for those particulars I got spoiled into automatically expecting. Viand food still is very good by diner standards. It appears family run so they care, all is clean and presented well (even take out). I still highly recommend Viand as the best diner in Yorkville. Me--rather cook or order a different flavor since I know how good it used to be. My spinach pie...I'm waiting to go to Astoria for that.

I both order in and eat in at Viand. In both circumstances, the food arrives quickly, the order is always right, and it's generally delish. The place is a diner, so the ambiance is not why you go there. But the fries are crisp and not too salty, the spinach pie is fantastic, and the desserts are huge. I don't know what everyone's saying about rudeness: they're always very nice to us!

I have to second those sighting rudeness. I called for a delivery and got some older guy with an accent - he didn't bother to put the phone close enough to his ear or mouth for him to hear me, yet he barked at me for my "ADDRESS" repeatedly, instead of paying attention. This was the second time this happened - you get the "I can't be bothered attitude" and then your order arrives WRONG because of he's not paying attention and wants to get your order over with. It just happened again minutes ago when I called, so I said "With that attitude I'm calling somewhere else" and hung up. I won't ever be bothering with this place again, and considering how much I order from local diners, it is most definitely their loss.

Decent food, open late, the in restaurant service is not bad, the delivery service on the other hand is lacking. They regularly get orders wrong if you are ordering something that deviates from the menu in the slightest this includes asking for BBQ sauce and things without mayo.