Latest Reviews
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Very expensive & sleek bar next to Ria, the Waldorf's main dining room. Sat at the bar so service was attentive early in the evening. Got a good look …
Ashley Hansford
Balsan
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Incredibly overpriced food in a rather bland setting. Overall poor experience. Much better choices close by at more reasonable prices. Had Ceasar's sa…
Master Chef
Balsan
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I like the atmosphere and the staff is very friendly. Having said that, the food itself is underwhelming. The octopus salad and the roasted carrot sal…
International Experience
Balsan
About
Balsan is open for Fine Dining. Balsan serves New American dishes. Incorrect or missing information? Make a report, or claim the restaurant if you own it!Details
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7 Reviews on “Balsan”
Very expensive & sleek bar next to Ria, the Waldorf’s main dining room. Sat at the bar so service was attentive early in the evening. Got a good look at the antique Italian espresso machine & the hand-operated meat slicer too big to fit in the trunk of any Japanese car. Had the $3 each WA oysters, very tasty & a notch or 2 above their larger & more common Gulf cousins. I’m typically disgusted by the mignonette served w/ oysters in haute settings, & had to ask for some horseradish to placate my too common palate. Had the ala carte pheasant terrine & a cow’s milk cheese. Served very primly on a cutting board w/ some tasty condiments, but the stingy servings of the charcuterie & especially the cheese were off-putting. Cocktails also at W-A prices
Incredibly overpriced food in a rather bland setting. Overall poor experience. Much better choices close by at more reasonable prices. Had Ceasar’s salad with two – yes two – pieces of shrimp with a 12 dollar upcharge. Total 29 dollar salad in small bowl. Don’t ask the host for any details on food or service lest you want to be ignored. The chef Mike over seasons food.
I like the atmosphere and the staff is very friendly. Having said that, the food itself is underwhelming. The octopus salad and the roasted carrot salad were lacking in flavor. The oysters were good and my duck had great flavor but was tough and chewy…. My friend had the grouper and love it! Our sides were good. Overall the food was not great but the staff and atmosphere were, so I would give this place one more shot.
Excellent and very classy food selection with outstanding service!The foie gras and the flamb are incredible!
Excellent food & service; beautiful presentations on the dishes. My 1st time to try foie gras. Smooth!
Good food/nice room. Stylish. I loved it although it was a little tight between tables. Nice service.
The most disappointing experience. I have been meaning to go to this restaurant since it opened. Finally decided to go for my parent’s 35th wedding anniversary. We were a party of 5.First problem, they sat us at a table that was clearly in a walkway between the main dining room and a side room. I say clearly because once they sat the tables in the side room servers were sliding in sideways behind my mother the entire night.Second problem was the menu. It was not their regular menu because apparently i made the unfortunate mistake of going ther on a sunday. Instead we were presented with a family style menu. The choices sounded decent, though not what i would have normally ordered, and the price was extremely reasonable at $29/person. So that is what we did. On top of that we ordered 1 dozen oysters.They gave us bread with a seasalt butter. The bread was great, one of the best things we ate all night. The butter didn’t taste like it was salted at all. A sign of things to come. The oysters came out and were fantastic, can’t really credit them with that though.The meal…Started off with a scallop dish and a beet salad. The scallop dish was cold like a salad in a creamy sauce. the scallops were undercooked and the sauce didn’t taste like anything at all. The beet salad was good thanks to fresh beets and whatever cheese they had with it. the dressing, if there was any, didn’t have any flavor.Next came a pork shoulder dish and a monkfish dish. Again the monkfish was undercooked and had 0 flavor. The pork shoulder had a creamy sauce and pickled mushrooms. The sauce again had no flavor. the mushrooms were actually delicious. the pork I had 3 bites of. 2 were all fat and i actually spit them out. that was that for the pork. No one in my family could eat it. We left the full dish and half the dish of monkfish.The sides were some rice pilaf and grilled asparagus. The pilaf was ok and the asparagus might have been the most flavorful thing we ate all night and it was still over cooked.So that was the meal. i saw my mother whisper to the the server our disappointment and he was extremely apologetic. The manager came by and asked how things were and i just gave a fake smile and said fine. though all the food was still sitting there almost untouched and no one wanted to take it home.The dessert was actually good I was told, but was so turned off I didn’t even touch it.At the end of the meal i took the check and went to speak to the manager in private. I wanted to talk to him away from the table to try to not bring anything else bad to the meal for my parents. and then was shocked. The manager instead of being extremely apologetic basically told me it was my fault because I didn’t complain in front of everyone when he came by the table. I told him i was disappointed with the table and how all night my mother was being bumped by servers trying to squeeze behind her and how bland all of the food was. And then he told me that Balsan was the best restaurant in the city. I replied by saying I’ve been to many of the best restaurants in the city and given my experience here Balsan didn’t even come close. He backpeddaled saying that it was not their normal menu, to which I responded that if I had known that I would not have come. He then began a negotiation asking me what I expected him to do. I said I’d like to be compensated for my disappointment because him simply giving me his card for my next visit was not enough since i was likely not going to return. They comped us one bottle of wine, about $50.After all was done I have to say that I agree with the group of people that got up and left saying that the manager was an a**hole. Perhaps he was not paying attention to us because we weren’t a celebrity like the 2 I saw there that night. But I will definitely not be returning. And if you are planning on going, I HIGHLY recommend going on any other night than Sunday.Ordered pizza when I got home, sadly that was the most flavorful thing I ate all night.