ROBERT B. CARMODY

Meals were excellent, as were the cocktails. . Restaurant didn't seem very busy for Saturday night. Service was good, server knowledgeable of menu and Peruvian food/drinks in general.

+8

Yutthapong Wichitpanyarak

This become one of my favorite restaurant in NYC, very nice decoration, good vibes and beautiful plating on every single dishes Would recommend don’t miss the ceviche, it’s basic but won’t be disappointed. The Bib Lettuce also look simple but very refreshing. My favorite is a shrimp and rice, it is a risotto with perfectly cooked shrimp with caramelized onion. Very yummy!!! I will keep coming back.

+2

Mony Kiem

All the dishes were amazing but the desert stole the show. It’s a beautiful venue to say the least. Thoughtfully decorated with enough spacing to feel comfortable. Had the vibe of a cocktail lounge + modern restaurant seamlessly blending into each other. Our waiter was energetic. Gave good recommendations and provided excel service overall. We shared out dishes family style. The ceviche was near perfection. Most ceviche just squire some like and call it a day, but this had a sour taste that didn’t overwhelm other components of the dish, still allowing the octopus to shine. This was followed by calamari and yuca, both were above average. I was especially impressed with the sauce for the calamari. The yuca, prepared two ways was unique but I felt it was overpriced for what you got. Moving onto the market fish and filet mignonette. The filet upon first bite was good but ordinary. But I had missed an important component which was the sauce. When I took another bite with the sauce, I was in heaven. That was the perfect sauce for the filet mignon. The fish with the crispy skin and tender flesh balance out steak dish. Land and sea coming together. I was still kind of hungry at this point so we ordered desert and I was glad we did. The presentation was beautiful and full on f comped flavors all coming together. There were so many elements in the desert and all it came together in harmony. Our whole party was impressed. Props to the deserts chef. I pondered a lot about the cost…to determine if price matched value. I do feel it’s on the expensive side, but well worth your money all things considered. I would go back and recommend this place to friends and family.

+2

Yvonne Lee

Delicious food and great ambiance with vibrant energy! Thoughtfully curated dishes with high quality ingredients, so things are on the pricier side. But great for a special occasion or just a fun night out. Plates are great for sharing so you can order more and try everything!

+6

Judith N (Judy)

Located inside a hotel, popular is a beautifully decorated oasis. The food was amazing. Definitely get the oysters! So yum. The portions are very small for the price of the items. Drinks were great and strong

Katerina

Great place in NYC, interesting very very flavorful food. We shared a lot of dishes and all quite good. Live music starts in the lobby in the evening which was a very nice addition. Side dish potatoes and main ribs were my favorite. My friend got the Fish entree and it was lighter in flavor and excellent.

+2

Naile Ruiz

I came here for the three course restaurant week dinner. Service was nice. The classic ceviche was alright, the flavor was more toned down than a normal ceviche. We also had the fish with tacu tacu. The fish was perfectly cooked but the tacu tacu was very small. The dessert, lucuma bomboms was crazy delicious! I could've had 20 of them at once. The chicha morada was authentic and delicious, but not worth the $14/glass.

+2

Andre Olivier

Enjoyed a lovely dinner here, first had the Pisco sour and the margarita to drink. The pisco sour was excellent and would definitely recommend again. To eat had the burger and the steak frites. The steak was cooked at a medium rare, we asked for the burger as medium well but it came out medium rare. The service was excellent from checking into our reservation and the waiter being informative of the menu.

+1

Wendy Appelle

This restaurant is nestled inside of the PUBLIC hotel so it has great vibes and is fun for going out/drinks. The food was very good truthfully but pricey. They recommend sharing dishes, which would have been good to know beforehand (like tapas). A heads up that a lot of the dishes are dairy based. Excellent pisco sours!

Javier Kohen

Good food, great presentation, small portions, and not cheap. At the end of it all the flavors blended together too much and there are few distinct memories left, which is a let down for me. Very hip atmosphere, clearly a dating spot. The service was fine, though the waiter asked me too many times if I really didn't want a drink.

Delilah K

***This review was edited after a recent visit Popular used to be my go-to dinner spot for when friends visit, but a recent visit left much to be desired. They took the best ceviche (elegante) off the menu, and two of the five dishes we ordered were tasteless and bland. Don't get the warm snap peas or cooked oysters. _______________________________ Portions are fairly small but food is spectacular. Ironically forgot to take photos of both but the best dishes were the Ceviche Elegante and Citrus Honey Butter Scallops. The Horchata Tres Leche was probably the best desert I had this year, rivaling Cosme's Corn Husk Meringue. The atmosphere is swanky but loud, probably better for a girls night out than an intimate date.

Jodie Ng

Nice space, service was pleasant and helpful. We ordered the (ahem) 'popular' dishes, and it would not be something to recommend. The duck tasted of duck, and only duck sans seasoning. Conversely the bed of rice on which it sat never met a grain of salt it didn't like, you wouldn't need electrolytes or a salt lick ever again. Ceviche was fine, the prawns were definitely missable with an over sweet approach. The saving grace of the meal were the seaweed crackers and the royal trumpet anticucho. Drinks are good. Don't come for the food.

Caroline Habib

Unreal experience, everything kept getting worse and worse and ended in tears! Hosted my bachelorette at the hotel and decided to book a 10:15am reservation for brunch on Saturday. It clearly has good reviews and I was excited! However the restaurant was nearly empty on a weekend morning and now I know why! We were seated by the male host pretty quickly, but we sat without service or acknowledgment for around 30-40 minutes, which was wild especially again considering the restaurant was NOT BUSY! We were definitely hungry and looking forward to coffee by this point so I got up from the table and asked the male host who seated us if we could please order some coffees. About ten minutes later a waitress came and by this point we were starving (two of the girls were pregnant and needed to eat) and we had nearly an hour to stare at the menu so we ordered food and coffee together. We asked why the service was slow and were told we were seated by the host in the wrong area as if it was our fault. One would also think there would be an apology or maybe even some sort of rush or acknowledgement on their end after it’s been brought to their attention that we’ve been waiting almost an hour to order coffees. Nope! Coffees didn’t come for another 20 minutes at which point it was 11:15am an hour after our reservation. More time passed, and we were uneasy that our orders had even been entered in. Once again we got up from our table to ask about this and were assured they were working on it. More time passed and at this point we’re approaching close to 2 hours since the time we sat down and 3 plates came out from the kitchen.. for four of us. The third plate of food was nothing any of us ordered and the kitchen took it back. We also realized plate number two was incomplete and missing a side of fruit that it came with. When we said something to the male host who seated us who was the only person we could find he got defensive, snappy and rude and made us feel EXTREMELY UNCOMFORTABLE. We asked to speak to the manager who offered to comp our coffees that we waited an hour for and seemed to care less as if this happened all the time!? At this point it had been two hours and I cried. This was my Bachelorette brunch at Popular and one of my biggest regrets. The way we were treated was extremely cold and unwelcoming. Great way to start our day and end our trip together. I’ve truly never experienced service like this before, let alone on such a special occasion. I’m still in complete shock that there is an establishment that exists and operates this way. Totally understand that mistakes happen but every opportunity they had to make it better they made it worse! By the way this was handled I’m certain this wasn’t a one off situation, and I want people to be aware. I should have stuck to the 1Hotel like I had originally planned, and they will be getting my business when I’m in NYC from now on. Please do yourself a favor and just stay away from here, especially if it’s a once in a lifetime event with time you can’t ever get back.