Loft

A certain review below should be ignored – you are wearing a furry pink hat – therefore your rating should be thrown out the window just on that sole fact alone.
LOFT is excellent. I have stopped in here for drinks with friends, thrown an event and had a couple great dinners. The ambiance is perfect and its an excellent addition to the UWS. Great for a date or some late night drinks – its excellent.
Highly recommend this place for throwing an event. The event planning staff is very accomodating and the prices are reasonable. They have great menu options and it was overall, a stress free experience.
On the weekend, this place earns its keep – it is always packed and reservations are highly recommended. During the week, you can walk in with little problem.
Also, their berry martinis… incredibleeeee. You have a couple of those and you are surprisingly done for – they really sneak up on you!
Cheers!

Loft has a LOT of potential. It’s big, it has nice furniture, the drinks are good, the food *looked* good and the menu offered a good selection (didn’t try it, though), and it’s in a decent area of town. I guess my only reason for giving it just three stars is that the crowd it attracts just doesn’t give it much of a scene. It’s an older crowd, but not in that diverse we-​attract-​all-​types way. Just in the this-​is-​an-​over-​30s-​single-​scene-​period way.
We went there as a sort of time killer/​pregaming thing, though, so it was good for what we wanted. It’s the perfect place to stop on your way downtown if you live on or above the UWS — unfortunately, though, it’s not a good final destination.

My friends and I had a good time catching up at Loft. Granted it was hell getting to Loft in the first place because apparently the blowing up of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloons by Central Park has become an event in itself with barricades and cops. How the fuck did that happen? IS and I had to wade through throngs of people, their kids, and their strollers. Needless to say, it wasn’t fun at all. We finally arrived at Loft, found K and G at a back table, which we ended up co-​opting for hours since we were still afraid of the mayhem outside.
Loft has strong drinks and I opted for the 2-​for-​1 martinis for $ 13. The white peach ones were so good that soon my 2-​for-​1 became 4-​for-​2. Foodwise, I liked my picks. IS and I shared the foie gras (needed more toast points), I had the ENORMOUS moule frites, IS had the truffle sirloin flatbread, G had a steak, and K had the scallops.
Bonus points for a celeb sighting: Paul Sorvino was part of the large party next to us. Where was Mira?

It’s nice enough, I guess. They project cool old movies — like A bout de souffleby — across the bar in the front, have an interesting bathroom setup, and have comfortable loungy seating.
But really, if you don’t live in the area or have some type of a function to attend to, Loft isn’t anything too special.
We were also asked to leave because they were closing up. I really can’t tell you what time it was, but I am certain that it wasn’t at a reasonable hour. We had to move on to some bar and ended up playing Pacman for a while.

Huge disapointment. The menu is all over the place & the food suffers as a result. Tuna carpaccio drowned in oil, dry lobster risotto (where’s the lobster?), overcooked steak, mac & cheese also served dry, mushroom pasta swam in butter and the desserts were pretty forgettable. Upside? The space is nice & they poured a stiff drink.

We ate here recently for Natasha’s birthday dinner. I found the food AMAZING, but oddly enough, we were the only one’s there.
Dinner was at 8:30pm on a Monday, and the place was empty. I didn’t quite understand.
Given it’s location, in the conservative Upper West Side, that may have something to do with it’s popularity. Hell if I know…
But don’t worry. The music is chill. The food is excellently prepared and very tasty, and the waitstaff, since we had them all to ourselves, was very punctual and friendly.
Décor: Rating 10 out of 10. This place is great.

What can I say about The Loft? My dear friend brought me here last week for my birthday. To Sam’s comment above — both my friend and I have breasts — some were even partially on display — it didn’t help with the service.
It’s a GREAT place for cocktails (The Red Berry Martini — YUM with it’s fresh raspberry purée) — although the bartender that night was both snappy and rude with a bitter personality.
It’s one of those places where they turn the lights down too much (can’t see your plate) and the music up too loud (can’t hear your date.)
It’s not so hot for dinner. It was both of our first time there and the salads we had to start with were YUM! The side dishes — especially the haricots verte — YUM. The main courses though… $ 31 for a tough piece of overcooked steak (came medium not med. rare)… I felt bad allowing my friend to even pay for it! She got a fish special that she was less than pleased with (which I knew from watching her push it around her plate.) She did state that perhaps it would have been better with the addition of the crab meat that her allergy to shellfish made her remove.
I’ll go back for drinks — but will move on for dinner!!!

I’ve been walking by this place lots of times without looking at the menu.
One day I see this woman with a nice seafood tagine and I’m like hmhmmhmhh I have to try this !!
So one evening, my husband and I felt l like eating out and thought: why not try the LOFT!
We didn’t really like the «trendy» and cold atmosphere.
We had a very nice cocktail though, the APHRODITE.
Then we shared a seafood pizza. Super for people taking care of their diet, not for people xpecting a eesy crust piza ;) but I was very happy with what I got. It’ s a huge pizza, nice taste… they could just put a little more seaffod on it …
Then we shared the famous seafood tagine. Presentation was very nice, taste was great but it was really a small portion and here as well, they could’ve put more fish !
Then we shared a desert: cheese cake. I loved the taste but my husband didn’t at all. It was kind of expensive and really too small.
I think if you’re looking for a trendy place to impress a girl on the first date (girls don’t eat that much on the first one), then it’s a good place to go!

I really dig the vibe of this place early on in the week. The food is awesome and while it was only the second time here for me, I enjoyed my steak frites and the desserts were spot on. Come early and check out the bar scene for a bit, there’s a good crowd of people and the drinks don’t disappoint.

Loft reminds me of a place you might find in another city, that bills itself as «very downtown New York», but you and I both know, it’s not.
The space is nice with a sort of modern/​slick style (it borrows from styles that you see in a lot of restaurants with high ceilings and candles on the walls), and considering the neighborhood, a good place to meet if you feel like wearing high heels but not going too far out of your way. The prime table is definitely the one at the back with the live tree.
Food is OK, with some dishes being better than others — I had tuna tartare and coconut shrimp on couscous. I’d probably stick with drinks and appetizers next time, rather than spend the money on a full meal. Drinks are good.
It seemed like there were a lot of people on staff, and service was pretty good.
Not a destination, but good to know about if you are on in the neighborhood and chilling out with a cocktail.

Um, what kind of bar runs out of beer? A group of us ventured there after a party, so it was fairly late, after 2 I think, and all they had were a few Chimays left. Good beer, mind you, but by the second round they were out. Zilch. Nada.
The place just plain felt strange. There is a front bar area that was very pretty girl Upper West Side yuppie, beyond that there is a seating area that was almost entirely empty, and to the back there is a stair that goes down to a small dance floor. I think it was a private party going on, but it was crazy packed, just in that little area, and crazy loud.
So we went back upstairs to the table area to hang out for awhile, and they didn’t want us to sit there because food service had ended. The waitstaff was really strange about us getting our own drinks and sitting there.
Maybe it’s better earlier in the night, or for dinner, but I’m pretty indifferent about finding out.

There are few times in my life when I wish that I had breasts, but my visit to Loft proved to be one of those times.
A good friend was having a birthday celebration here and had called to reserve some space a few days in advance. When she called the night of said event to confirm, they said they knew nothing about a reservation, and that they normally don’t reserve space in the front of the bar anyway. There was much protesting, but as it was too late to change the plans, we decided to take our chances.
The host who greeted us said he believed us that someone had taken the reservation, but that it had been a mistake and there was nothing he could do. Our birthday girl was distraught, so her two savvy friends, after deciding that our host was a straight male, decided to divide and conquer.
Friend #1, me, the one without breasts, took the b-​day girl to the bar while Friend #2, very breastfully endowed, went to see if she could work a little of her… ahem…magic to finagle something for us. By the time we returned from the bar to the little corner we had carved for ourselves, our breasty friend was beckoning us to the back, the manager standing behind her. We wandered downstairs where an empty booth was waiting for us. I tipped my hat to Friend #2, who’s only response was «What can I say? The girls were expensive, but worth every penny.»
Breasts and reservations aside, Loft is certainly not a bad choice for a bar/​lounge/​club in this area, in fact, it may even be the best choice, but it’s trying a little too hard to bring a TriBeCa type feel to the Upper West Side, and I wish it weren’t trying so hard. Even it’s website says it’s trying to create a downtown feel uptown, and I find the endeavour to be more than a little belaboured. But the drinks were good, and the décor is well done — love the wooden cage lanterns. I’d like to come back here not on a Saturday night because I think it would be a lovely place to just come for a drink — I just hope I can get one with out the requisite rack.

I’ve only been for drinks and usually on off nights. But, it’s a good place to meet up with friends for a nice drink in beautiful surroundings. Very nice relaxing indoor garden type lounge. Happy hour is a pretty good value, and it’s not too crowded. The martinis are really good. The bartender is not the most attentive or friendly (even when it’s empty). But, once you get his attention, it’s fine. The other staff are pretty friendly.

Loft is nearly the complete opposite of Mod, the previous incarnation of 505 Columbus Ave., where I had some memorable nights despite the admittedly dingy digs. In contrast, Loft is a very pretty restaurant with a smallish bar space in the front near the entrance.
I’ve only been for drinks so I don’t know about the food/​service but as a place for drinks, it’s not too bad if you’re in the UWS and want to enjoy a cocktail in a quiet-​ish, lounge-​y atmosphere. The bartenders/​staff are pretty friendly — one who may or may not still work there is named Gandalf and I immediately yelled «You shall not pass» to the amusement of my friends and myself.
Only other comment is that both times I’ve visited, it was relatively empty so that just sort of reiterates my point that it might be a nice place to have a drink and talk to a friend but not what you’re looking for if you want that hot spot energy/​vibe (at least not yet).