Stop 125

Great food, great (FREE) jazz on certain nights, and really friendly staff… super bummed that it closed! I was there when it first opened, only about a year and a half ago. Yes, it was in a pretty random location, was small, and unadvertised, but aw, what a shame.

Heather was right as usual — it’s closed.
I get the feeling that the same owners keep trying to see if they can find the magic formula — I don’t think it’s changes hands, just cuisine. Three times now. But Stop 125 was (IMO) a nice enough restaurant that cost a bit too much, gave you a bit too little food, and always had people in it. So I don’t know why it went under.

My brother got a gig here on Saturday night, so a friend and I went to check the place out. I thought the ambiance was nice and the place was decorated well. The GM was telling me they are going through a transition period and making the place a little nicer: changing the menu a bit, getting better beer, etc.
They have a kind of Faux Latin thing going on; instead of bread and butter they brought out plantain chips that were seasoned with garlic salt or Adobo or something strong, but they were tasty. Although things were pretty well priced, we just had two bottles of wine and the very nice waiter refilled the chips like 4 times.
On their break the band got some food that i tried. The drummer got this sweet-​seasoned duck that was pretty good, and my brother got a mushroom ravioli that was tasty and plentiful. My friend then caved and got the chocolate molten cake with the vanilla gelato, which was really really good.
All in all i was surprised at the reviews this place got, since I had a pretty good experience and would definitely return. Maybe they’ll have put in a beer tap when I stop by next…

Went with some friends here on a recent Saturday night. In the spirit of full disclosure, I should tell you this was our third choice of eatery. But given long waits in other places and the furiously could weather, we ate at Stop 125.
Overall, it was good. Not great, but not bad. Apparently, they changed the menu and set up a few times since they opened early in 2008. The set up they have now is pretty good. Cozy if a somewhat bland environment, good wait staff and a menu with a mix of contemporary American dishes and some classics (from Duck to Seafood Ravoli to a Vegetable Napoli.).
The food was tasty, but nothing to write home about. The price was reasonable and the wine selection was not too thorough. There was also some live jazz (probably) made up of students from the neighboring Manhattan School of Music. The crowd was a nice mix of the Columbia crowd and local residents.
In short, it was a good experience and my meal for good enough, but it didn’t leave much of an impression. Would I go there again? ‘Eh. I’d rather try something else new in the neighborhood..

Ghastly. The food was mediocre or worse. Service was poor, and worst of all, we were lured in by the woman outside offering 25% off the menu. This ended up being a classic bait-​and-​switch. When we got the check without the discount listed and asked about it, the manager said that discount didn’t apply after 7pm (it was after 7pm when the woman offered this to us). There was no apology — we were out of luck. Needless to say, we won’t be back.

You know that storefront that seems to rotate in a new restaurant every year… sometimes every six months and you’ve liked all the restaurants that have been there and you just don’t understand why they keep failing because there are other restaurants on the street so you know people go there to eat and really the food has always been good at these places, but somehow, just as you get attached to the place, it goes under? Well, Stop 125 has set up shop in the former home of Blue Angel and China de Puebla. I know too much about this store front to get my hopes up that Stop 125 will stay forever, but I’ll try to frequent it while I can.
Currently, they’re offering all kinds of promotionals to get people in the door. A few days ago, it was 20 percent off before 7:00 p.m. and a free bottle of wine. Today, my friends and I were of the first 10 to come in that door and benefited from a bonus of 50 percent off our bill. So we went a little crazy and ordered some small plates (chorizo and figs, sliders, and mac and cheese), two entrees (steak and mushroom ravioli), and a cheese fondue. It was a lot of food and it was all solid fare. Plus, everything tastes better when it’s half off.