10 Downing

The location and interior are great and staff is nice, but that’s literally it. Food was really bland and not special despite the fancy names on the menu and this place is extremely slow when it’s crowded. Very unsatisfying meal

(This review is from 1÷25÷12)
A friend and I came here for restaurant week one time. We had shrimp and grits, and a filet wrapped in bacon. For dessert cider and donut holes. The food was pretty good and the ambience was nice.

Four stars for the happy hour. I haven’t yet eaten a meal here, but they have $ 1 oysters, both malpeques and blue points available, which are an absolute steal. Cheaper by the dozen than at Citarella and you don’t have to shuck them! HH is relatively empty on the weekends and you can sit outside as well.
$ 5 pours of nice wines (you’ll have to ask which ones are on happy hour) and all draft beers are $ 5 as well.

Granted I have not been here for several years, but I think the three star consensus on Unilocal is pretty accurate. The food is pretty underwhelming. There’s nothing particularly great about this place so I have not clamored to go back and doubt that I will.

I write this review tentatively, because I only had lunch, and it was Restaurant Week. However, the goods and less-​goods seemed pretty consistent throughout the meal, and the place wasn’t busy enough to give them the excuse of an excessive RW crowd to lessen the «typical» experience.
The ambiance, natural light, service quality (both servers and bussers), and kitchen timing were all excellent. (He happily split our check six ways, which is more than I’ve ever been willing to do.)
But, the food was so thoroughly 3-​star food that it brought down the overall experience to that level. It seemed like our food was made inattentively by a skillful cook; everything had promise but didn’t quite deliver. And I wonder if the chef was feeling a little sick – the flavor balance was off on almost every dish.
–Market greens with beets and goat cheese — real creative, guys.
–Potato Leek soup — giant chunk of leek confit on the top was the meal’s first big imbalance.
–Salmon with arugula, tomatoes, red onions — exactly that. Our table ordered salmon cooked to three different temperatures (house prep was «medium rare»), but all came out well done.
–Fried Chicken with mac ‘n’ cheese — chicken was juicy, but not crispy. Mac was milky and rich, but bland. Portion was too big.
–Duck fat fries — If I can manage to only eat three french fries, something is wrong.
–Panna cotta with cherry — cream and gelatin, spoonful of sugar, three dried cherries cooked down a bit… deeply disappointing.

The service was excellent. The potato leek soup was great! The lemon panna cotta was delicious and I actually savored every bite. I ordered the buttermilk tobasco fried chicken with mac and cheese. I thought buttermilk and tobasco was an odd flavor combination, but the chicken was so bland that you do not taste any flavor at all. The mac and cheese was… blander… I never had mac and cheese that was runny and bland. I almost reached for the salt.
I will give this place another chance. The service was excellent and the décor was very nice. (Oh, the entrance is on the side street, not 6^th ave.)

Came here for restaurant week, but seeing the rosemary chicken for 2 was an obvious choice. The chicken comes out to be presented then returns into the kitchen to be stuck on the spit for a few more minutes and then prepared to be served. It was cooked perfectly and tasted incredible. The subtle rosemary and herbs were aromatic and not overdone complimenting the juicy chicken nicely.
Wait there is more! You get the options of 2 sides. Opting for the grits and brussel sprouts was a winner. The grits were not soupy, but light and fluffy with a consistent cheesy taste and hint of jalapeño. Brussel sprouts were equally as good in their skillet. Grilled and moderately salted. The grilling was done right.
The waiter was slightly pushy with the boos, but we can over look that for him being a nice guy.

Sometimes you make a mistake and go to dinner at a restaurant that was deemed «hawt» 3 years ago. You’re hitting up American Apparel across the street because you need shiny lycra for a costume. You spot the awning across the street, forgo Bar Pitti, because you’ve been a couple of times recently for cocktails and snacks and the bartender has been a delight.
You walk in to a half-​empty restaurant. The hostess says she has to move some «things» around to get you seated, and wedges you between two tables that have a ton of crap on banquette. Of course, you have a ton of crap to put on the banquette. They don’t bother to pull the table out when you go to sit, so you put your butt in the faces of the table of guys next to you. Unfortunately, they’re gay and don’t go for a grab.
You peruse the menu. It’s odd. Not really «british» (yes, I get that it’s at 10 Downing… but), not really «american», not really «italian», but maybe a little bit of all three. Their version of the Zuni Café chicken for two beckons, but the «two» is not in the mood for chicken… and do we really think they’ll do a serviceable Zuni Café roasted chicken, the gold standard?
You’re perusing the menu. Still. Finally, the hostess asks if we like to order a cocktail while we look at the menu. It’s a little late for that, you’ve dissected the menu but hells to the yeah you need, want a hot toddy. It’s the first day of cold (again) after all. Drinks arrive. Waiter arrives, apologizing that he got all tied up, so sent the hostess over for the drink order. All tied up with those 3 other tables? You think, «what happens when there are other diners»…but you have a feeling that really doesn’t happen here anymore.
Orders placed – (1-​you) order roasted beet and arugula salad ($ 14) and mahi-​mahi ($ 27). (2-«two»)-orders a side of grits as the app, and the tuna tartare and a side of fries as her dinner.
Food arrives. Salad. Small plate of tuna tartare. Oh yay, two says. I’m having a carb overload as my entrée. Why didn’t the waiter tell us it was an app or reverse the order? Confusing. Yummy salad, though. Not checked on once. Mahi-​mahi good. Cheesy grits also good. Try to order glass of wine. Wait. Wait. Wait. Flag another waiter down, eventually. French fries meh – good skinny fries but nothing particularly special.
At these prices, you expect both excellent food and at least attentive service. What you get is a decent meal (of epically small proportions… which works for me) and disinterested service.
You leave, wondering how long til Gilt City is going to be offering a «special» prix fixe deal or 10 Downing will become 10 «Drowning».

What led me here was the pork belly, but eating here wasn’t my first choice for the evening. However, my girlfriend and I ended up at 10 Downing last night after the ABC Kitchen had a 1.5 hour wait and we didn’t feel like trekking back uptown for The Bar Room @ the Modern.
So, I guess you could say that we settled on this place, but overall it wasn’t too bad. The lights were dim and the ambiance was very nice, especially since it was mostly empty at that time. However, there were a few things that detracted. On the plus side, I called around 6:15 and asked if they had any openings and they were able to pen us in at 6:45, despite being pretty fully booked.
Anyways, we arrived and were seated and offered water, drinks, bread, etc. Our server also explained the menu and took our orders. The service was always attentive, especially in the beginning part of the meal, before the place really filled up. After it got busy, the service did wane a bit, but that’s to be expected.
We ended up deciding on the tasting menu, which is three courses plus dessert. At $ 49, it’s quite a steal. For our appetizer, I had the Fresh Garden Vegetable salad, which was fresh, crisp and tasty. My gf had another salad, which I can’t remember the name of — something with Frisee in the name, which was also very good. In addition to the greens, it had bacon, hard boiled egg and tomatoes, among everything else.
Following that, we both had the tuna tartare, which was again, quite yummy. The tuna was quite seasoned tho, but it was still good. However, it doesn’t out do the amazing tuna tartare at Gotham Bar & Grill.
For our main course, I had the Crisp Pennsylvania Pork Belly with grilled peaches (one slice), baby arugula and green lentils, while my gf had the Ottomanelli 21-​Day Dry Aged Ribeye with grilled asparagus (one asparagus), squash, basil mashed, red wine reduction.
This is where, in my opinion, the meal took a nosedive. The rib eye was really not flavorful at all and just very bland and average. The squash was good tho, as were the basil mashed potatoes, but the fact that just one asparagus was served had me scratching my head. As for my pork belly, I didn’t care for it, but that’s my fault for not knowing that pork belly consists of skin, a huge layer of fat and hardly any meat. I will say that the meat that was in there was really good, but the skin and fat I didn’t touch. However, the lentils also weren’t that great — they were rather mushy and stuck together.
For dessert, she had the PB&J, which is peanut butter mousse, chocolate ganache, grape-​jelly sorbet. This was a pretty darn good dessert, tho the grape jelly sorbet tasted a little off. I had pumpkin ice cream, hazelnut ice cream and cantaloupe sorbet. The hazelnut was the best. Really good. The pumpkin ice cream didn’t taste much like pumpkin at all and the cantaloupe sorbet tasted like watery cantaloupe, tho the flavors did improve as the ice cream melted.
Up until this point, things were overall, pretty good. Sure, we were disappointed with the entrees and it got rather loud as the people packed in, but what can you do? Everything else was pretty good and for $ 49 each, the meal was a steal. I guess however, that tipping 15% at a place like 10 Downing just doesn’t cut it. After we settled up and were standing by the door, putting on our coats, our server picked up the receipt with tip on it, looked at it and immediately went over to another server, showed it him and pointed over at us.
Well, it’s not like we were going to come back to begin with.

Service: with a smile.
Drinks: Greek white that made me smile all the way through my entrée.
Food: Delish.
These guys make amazeballs gnocchi — daily, or so they say. It’s really nice and soft and chewy, in a good way, like burrata. It’s not your typical al dente version but more of the al fresco kind. I was a bit down on the particular mix that I had with the lobster, as I felt the lobster got overcooked a bit and the mix with asparagus and fennel wasn’t anything to Unilocal about.
The tuna tartare app was nice and clean. Mixed with avocado, soy and sesame oil it had a very straight forward asian taste to it, but then they kicked it up another notch by throwing a side of potato chips, and that crispy saltiness was just perfect with the tuna’s softness and creamy avocado. Good stuff.
What made me real happy was the fact that they put a lot of veg on their dishes. This place does not skimp and give you three mushrooms on the side of your salmon filet and call it a day. They put a real nice chunk of lentils, hefty pile of greens and plump slices of peach next to their oh so crispy and fatty slab of pork belly. When they wrote veg salad on the menu, they meant it. It had greens, fennel, corn, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli and other things than I cant even recall now. A far cry from your typical sad pile of salad greens drowning in some brown, generic dressing that’s as thick as engine oil rather than light as a vinaigrette should be, imho.
Skipped on dessert, so no comment. All in all: 3.8÷5 gimblies.

It’s always good to eat a good dinner with a great view of 6^th Ave. Okay, maybe just a view of a man’s bald spot and someone parking their bumblebee colored smart car.
The restaurant is beautiful and the food was awesome. I loved everything I had, usually I tend to have issues with a course. Started with the shrimp and cheddar grits with jalapeños. The texture of the grits and the massive amounts of shrimp and spice definitely hit a home run in my mouth. Next, I had the pan seared grouper with corn-​potato hash and piquillo peppers. The crispy skin and the meatiness of the fish was a perfect match for the hash. And of course, I had to end with my most infamous dessert… panna cotta.
I am absolutely recommending this restaurant.

Like one of the other reviewers noted, the entrance to 10 Downing isn’t on Downing, but around the corner. I made the mistake of entering from the front, and was brusquely informed that I needed to go to the hostess station. Just the first of several service gaffs here.
I found the attitude of the hostess staff condescending and unwelcoming.
The hostess station is crammed in by the front door, and servers and the hostess staff (seemed to be 4 of them on staff that night) are all shoved in there. I felt like I was having to dodge servers while I was standing there.
I had a server almost knock me over pushing by me while I was trying to check in, with no acknowledgment on her part.
The main host, a tall fellow with interesting glasses, was a pompous ass. Yes, I know I have to wait until my whole party is here. You don’t have to be snide about it.
Long waits between courses, with little attention except from the water guy (hey, 10 Downing, I would have ordered a second glass of wine, but NO ONE EVER CAME BY OUR TABLE).
Food is decent, but not worth the service blehness.
Disappointing.

I told one of my clients I was going to NY for the weekend and he said hey, you know it restaurant week right? I told him no I didn’t know. I immediately went online to check which restaurants were participating and this place had a high ranking. Dinner was $ 35 a person… awesome!
Reservation was set for 8PM, but we got there at 7:30. It wasn’t a problem as they were able to seat us immediately. Nice, attractive crowd in this place as it had a very romantic setting. Artsy portraits on the wall was a good touch as well. The bar area was packed and all the patrons looked as if they were having a good time and enjoying each other’s company. Awesome menu by the way! Our very awesome waitress recommended I go with the cheddar grits and shrimp for my appetizer. Great reco as it was good, but not too filling. For my entrée, I went with the Braised Montana Beef Shortrib complete with glazed vegatables and potato purée… very tender & delicious and packed with flavor. The wines they paired up with the meals were fantastic.
Our waitress took very good care of us and gave us great recommendations. She made sure our glasses and stomachs were full. I wish i could remember her name so I could recommend everyone to ask for her when they show up. Love the ambience and the mood… great date spot!

I’m surprised by the mediocre reviews. My night here was fantastic. A friend took me out to dinner here and we both decided to order the 4-​course tasting menu ($ 49).
Here’s what I ordered:
–shrimp and cheddar grits: never had grits before but if it’s made like this, I’ll eat it all the time! It came in a bowl and looked like a thick soup. It was definitely cheddar flavored and the concoction was smooth and tasty. There were about 5 shrimps on top… definitely no skimping on the seafood!
–striped bass ceviche: refreshing with the lime and grapefruit.
–confit of suckling pig: the kimchi was too spicy for me so I stayed away from that. The pig was tender and moist and the skin (which, by the way, I never eat) was the best part. It was crunchy and yet, melted in your mouth.
–classic spiced carrot cake: the cake itself wasn’t sweet, but when you ate it with the candied baby carrots, it was a perfect accompanyment.
I found the food well prepared, fresh, delightful to eat and the service by our waiter, Christian, was as good as the food. He checked in on us frequently (not to the point where it was annoying), was friendly, patient. and always had a smile on his face.
I would definitely come back again and the 4-​course tasting menu was a perfect amount of food, each dish with perfect portions, and the tasting menu price isn’t bad either.

Was disappointed by my experience at 10 Downing F+W, given the generally high marks on this site and others. The kitchen seemed to cater to a bland palate, where it concerned savory dishes. The shrimp and grits appetizer and Arctic char + artichoke entrée were flavorless and required generous salting at the table. My pork confit + brussels sprouts entrée was very good (seasoning and preparation). But the meal ended on a bitter note: my coconut flan was doused with an overburned caramel syrup which rendered it too bitter and acrid for consumption (my friend’s flan was fine, however).
Does this prove the trend that RW is generally to be avoided?
The positives: generally decent service, great art on the walls, good crowd, great for those seeking restrictive diets due to hypertension, cute décor, central W. Village location near subways, ultimately a good deal (tasting menu available year-​round for $ 49)

NYC Restaurant week rocks!
10 Downing is a place I’ve always wanted to try, its been on my list for a while now.
First off, its a beautiful space. Great layout and the scenic view of the West Village can’t be beat. Also, a great date spot if your trying to impress.
Their food selections are great, 10 Downing offers homemade pastas as well as some funky sounding burgers that I want to try soon after the snow melts. For today I choose the Blue Cheese salad with red onions as well as a salmon omelet. Both dishes were outstanding.
Next, my favorite dessert in the entire world. Flan. If there were fluoride in flan I would brush my teeth with it.
Outstanding. and I loved the dried marshmallow paring.
Great place and I’ll be back for those burgers!

I love the ambiance here. It is so cute and reminds me of cafes in Paris. It’s located at the corner– the set up has a quaint little bar and the seating area is very café like. I was drawn to try this place because of the lighting and that it was at the corner of downing st. The food was really good, however I was disappointed by the portion sizes. The pricing isn’t bad but I was just surprised at how small everything was.
There is a nice wine special before 7 or 8pm… so if your dinner is earlier, the wine is pretty cheap. I think you have 4 or 5 types to choose from :)

Almost tempted to give it 5 stars!
Really was going to turn away as the place was pretty much empty on a Tuesday night but we had a gift certificate. After 3 terrible meals out, I was seriously wondering if NYC has any good restaurants anymore… 10 Downing came to the rescue.
The cod, and Scottish salmon were excellent. Fresh, prepared very well — not with too much oil. Perfect. Same with the sides. And the hummus they serve before dinner was the best hummus I’ve ever had.
It’s a bit of a limited menu but the excellent food turned out to be a total surprise and someday will definitely go back.

Dined here with 3 friends the other night for Restaurant Week. I was rather disappointed throughout the meal, but couldn’t put my finger on exactly what the source of my discontent was. When one friend later said that the entire meal reminded her of tourist food, I knew she hit the nail on the head. The meal (the majority of us had the restaurant week menu, and ended up selecting the same dishes — salmon carpaccio to start, then the beef tri-​tip, and then a custard with strawberry sauce for dessert. Food was nothing to write home about. I usually write fairly descriptive reviews, but I just really can’t say much about the food; it was that unmemorable for me.
Service was poor: Our server never came over to ask how we were doing. We had to ASK two or three times for water refills, when most other restaurants do this on their own. My friend and I had to wait 10 minutes for our Diet Cokes to arrive.
To me, 10 Downing is a restaurant that’s trying too hard to be «NYC-​trendy,» but falls short due to unmemorable food.

One of the reasons I love restaurant week is that it encourages me to try out new places.
Now, I’ve heard about 10 Downing Food & Wine from my brother, who raved about the eclectic desserts. So when I saw the restaurant listed as a participant a reservation was immediately made.
Their RW menu varies, so don’t go by what is online because it might not be what you’ll be getting in house. And that’s fine because the food is delicious. I had the celeriac soup for my starter, the dark and white meat chicken with white beans as my main and this intriguing lemon granita dessert.
The dessert was beautiful — a palette pleasing mix of lemon sorbet, a cloud of lavender cream and… raisins? It sounds strange, but it was the perfect end to the meal.
I want to come back and try the lamb prosciutto on their charcuterie plate.
I’m a fan!