The Lion

Closed?
I’ve walked by here several times in the last few weeks and it’s been completely dark with the doors locked. Did the place close for good?

I’ve been to The Lion several times. The ambiance is amazing. You walk down steps into a cozy bar area and then continue on to vaulted ceilings with an iron chandelier. It’s gorgeous. I’ve never met a carb I didn’t like and I have to say the rolls they bring are amazing. Crispy, buttery, with just the right amount of salt. The pot pie is delicious and I definitely recommend at least one person at the table getting it as their entrée. I’ve also tried several of their fish dishes and can say they are all delicious too!

The Lion is a Greenwich Village staple. It’s located on one of the most beautiful blocks in the city and has that old vintage charm. It’s an awesome first date spot… and the younger male Argentinian bartender [with the great head of hair] mixes the best cocktails and is an absolute joy to be around. He’s been at The Lion for ages and can tell you all sorts of fun facts about the place. The food is absolutely delicious and worth the higher price (: Highly highly recommend this place!

I had the best experience there this weekend, we started with oysters, which were super fresh and delicious. For my main course I had the seared Tuna, and it was exquisite. THE DESSERT WAS UNBELIEVABLE. But in reality what made the night Memorable was Fabio’s (the manager) amazing way of welcoming us and treating us, he treated us like family and he had such great vibe.
Definitely will come back to visit

The bartenders at the lion are amazing — one of my favorites is Mariano –super attentive and makes the most delicious drinks. I will definitely be back!

I had eaten here before years ago and my memory of this place was vague. I guess in restaurant lingo the word «vague» is bad. Every chef and or restaurant wants to be memorable.
Last night, by happen — stance I found myself back here at The Lion Restaurant once again. This time my dinner and this place were indeed memorable!
First and this time foremost the staff and service was impeccable. Really stellar.
The food was also very very good. The kale salad was unique and delicious, the beef tartar was excellent, the brick cooked chicken was delightful and the French fries were big and thick and crisp. None of the Fru Fru shoestring thing going on here.
The biscuits they served us in their bread basket were the show stealers. Crazy good. We had a Panna Cotta desert with some sort of sour apple sauce that was ridiculously good.
New York City has no shortage of very good eating establishments. There are so many that it would take years to hit half of them. Well tonight I just added one more very good restaurant to my already gigantic list!

$ 10 Happy Hour burger is the value meal of the century! My first burger since 2013. A proprietary blend with short ribs plus stewed tomatoes, carmelized onions & a blend of cheddar & provolone which is amaze. Topped with a piece of pork belly.
Herbed fries and some crunchy pickles accompany this blow your mind juicy burger!

The staff were incredibly rude and the food /​health rating is a B. Need I say more. What used to be a pleasant experience now turned into and over priced pretentious establishment that should focus more on customer service than their previous reputation. Don’t waste your time or money. You can do a lot better in NYC.

My sister and I dined here for our last night in New York after hearing about their steak. Being from GA this girl loves a good steak! Bring on the Ribeye and don’t trim the fat #turnup
We were seated right away though I have to express my disappointment with the closure of the main dining room. All the goods on here about architecture and design I have no say on what I haven’t seen. We had to wait a minute but were cheerfully greeted by our server Max. He was extremely helpful and patient and provided great service. He also sounded just like Mufasa from the Lion King (and I mean that as a compliment). Definitely made the evening better.
We split a Rose at his recommendation and both ordered a Ribeye cooked medium well and agreed to share the fries and vegetable side. Where the sides lacked the steak made up for all the damage only… they merely brought out one. Apparently Max thought we were splitting everything… not sure to take it as a compliment or to be offended but they quickly remedied the mishap. They brought a new steak out right away and even offered us a complimentary dessert. Now that’s amazing service.
Some special things to note:
The greens were salty
Fries were ok…
Their biscuits tasted like the Pinterest Recipe of the Red Lobster biscuits
The wine and steak were on point
The service was 5 star
They knew where we were from… extra kudos
Overall, I was impressed and will be back when I visit the city!

LOVED THIS PLACE. Had a great time with my friends.
The potato gnocchi is superb. Love the paintings on the wall and the bar looks so cute. Servers on point. Go any day and check it out,

We had porter house steak, dozens of oysters, fries, browser sprouts, dirty martini and apple crisp.
Steak was very delicious. I’m personally a ribeye person, so it wasn’t as moist as that type, but still very soft and tender. The side sauce that came with fulfilled my satisfaction. East& west side Oysters were great. It tasted a bit more sour than other places though. Fries were a little dry, but it was seasoned well. Apple crisp was excellent, but couldn’t finish it all. It was too sweet.

Really love the ambiance here, it is like the modern and chic version of Waverly… an eclectic artsy setting.
The service is standard, no complaints or compliments. I tried a specialty cocktail, which was quite bad, and I actually returned it. Almost have never returned alcohol! The menu is fairly limited, and the food is really just average. There’s something about this place that just doesn’t quite win me over, and I’m not quite sure why.
I guess its just average for NYC, a staple if you’re looking for a quality meal, with no real wow factor. I’d go back, but I wouldn’t necessary recommend to someone
looking to spend this kind of money on an exceptional meal.

Really enjoyed the character and atmosphere of this cool space. Our server was incredible and the food was prepared perfectly. I especially enjoyed the artichoke it was superb. My swordfish was moist and grilled to the perfect temp. All I can say is Yummy!

I’m going to start w the pros
1. I like the drinks they are strong and not that bad compared to food
2. Decoration is great. Very romantic
Here are the cons
1. Our waiter took forever to come to our table for anything at all. At some point we had to go grab a menu ourselves
2. Our table was next to the computer where waiters file in food. They were just talking about random shit as we were sitting there
3. Food was extremely mediocre if not bad. I got the duck and it was well done as opposed to medium. The duck sauce tasted like melted orange starburst. Fries were just ok could have been better
4. Gross restroom.
5. Our waiter seems like he’s got an attitude when we said we couldn’t hear him talk. Wasn’t that friendly
So 2 pros — 5 cons is still –3. Not coming back

Executive Summary: Mediocre.
Details:
Pros: Décor/​ambience are awesome
Cons:
Service: Bad. Place was empty on a Monday night. Waiter was not in sight most of the evening. He was otherwise pleasant. Food took a long time to come out despite being empty.
Food: beet salad had a great presentation but was literally just beets on a plate. I could not taste any other ingredients. Mushrooms were very bland and just tasted like grilled mushrooms on a plate with some vinegar on them. I could not taste other ingredients. Burger was completely average. The pork belly on top was very gimmicky as it added nothing and was totally random. Fries were average. Finally, the duck– it was super gross. It was cooked satisfactorily however it tasted like someone melted an orange starburst on top of it. The orange candy/​urinal cake flavor was disgusting.
Cocktails: they were pretty uninteresting, but only $ 12 so could be worse
Summary: I was going to give only two stars but the ambience was really nice and nothing was completely terrible (ok maybe the duck). I didn’t feel totally ripped off but maybe I will in retrospect and lower my rating…

After years of exiting the PATH 9^th street I finally came for happy hour after they started to advertise it on their chalkboard. $ 1 oysters, $ 7 glasses of wine and cocktails, and $ 10 hamburgers. The oysters were sublime with a choice from both coasts with subtle differences. Still there was a favorite. The wine options were very satisfactory.
The staff were the jewels of this restaurant. All were very friendly and cheery with a professional and upbeat attitude.

Hype is well warranted. Incredibly cool and sexy room. Cocktails are top notch. The food, simple and well executed. Burger holds its on with any of the top rated in the city.

Service — Mediocre (service was friendly, but slow)
Food — Solid (best part of the meal was the avocado toast)
Location — Convenient
First impression — Like an Irish bar filled with dark wood, but with less friendly hostesses.
Why the four stars? The main dining room is one of the most GORGEOUS and original spaces I’ve eaten in recently at NYC. I can’t wait to come back just to bask in that ambiance… Run a google image search of «the lion nyc» and you’ll get a taste of what I mean.
I came with a large group of girls and we were seated in a loft/​2^nd floor area that overlooked the rest of the room. We were close to the ceiling window and could take a careful look at the art. Great place for the group!
Highly recommend coming to the Lion; I’m definitely looking forward to coming back.

Tell me why again Jennifer Aniston loves this place?
Great décor, great ambiance, you really feel like you’re going back in time. BUT. The food, the food was the sad, institutional version of FAHNCY food. Edible, fine, not worth 21 dollars or 38 dollars.
I’m writing this off as one of those places that have a fancy historical ambiance so they can slap a 30-​something dollar price tag on so-​so food.
we got:
Ricotta Gnudi with truffle. tender, melt in your mouth, but nothing special. Unless you swirl it in the sauce, you won’t really taste it.
Pork chop: Good, not great, a little dry and tough. The greens underneath tasted like they were brined in road salt. Kewl presentation.
ALL STYLE AND NO SUBSTANCE

Nice place, tasty food but the prices! Holy cow! $ 35 for a tiny sloppy joe, some onion rings and a beer.
Service was nice and I really liked the delicious sandwich but that was waaaayyyy too pricey for such meager portions.

The ambiance and service really make this place. However, the food is just okay. I suspect that others have figured this out as well b/​c brunch was absolutely dead yesterday. Most brunch hot spots in NYC have lines out the door… because this place did not is kinda telling. Plus, they now have some «deals» out there (GiltCity is one I heard of). Hmmm… makes me wonder…
Here’s a list of what we tried and some thoughts on each.
1) Chicken & Waffles — Chicken was fried nicely but had absolutely NO flavor; I had to add loads of salt just to give it some flavor. Waffles were tasty enough but nothing special (note that the bourbon syrup that accompanied the waffles was super tasty)
2) Breakfast Sandwich — You can get a brekky sandwich like this at just about any bodega or counter-​service sandwich shop in NYC. Tasty enough but nothing special… and kinda wimpy & small-​ish. Note that the home fries that were served with these were burnt tasting and had very little flavor.
3) Bloody Mary — tasty but small
All in all, my entire group had a good time. The ambiance was super inviting and breathtaking… and walking into the place was like walking into a scene from NYC’s past. The dining room, for example, features super tall ceilings and an eye-​catching stained skylight… and antiques and art cover every wall. The service was equally first-​rate with all the waiters and the host being extremely polite, super helpful, and attentive. Too bad the food wasn’t equally as impressive.