Song Lu

From the moment we enter the restaurant, the service is outstanding. Hands down one of the best service I have ever experienced. The food is amazing as well. This is easily within the top 3 French restaurants among all the ones I’ve been to.

+1

Lillian Jovanovic

I was here the other day with my mother for a late lunch early dinner. The ambience is amazing, as it will transport you out for NYC for a brief moment. The staff are sweet, attentive, and very knowledgeable. We ordered 3 appetizers, 2 mains, 2 desserts and maybe a couple glasses of ;) the food was beyond delicious. From start to end, it was an amazing experience and I will frequent more with my mother and make new memories.

shai shani

An old school-style French restaurant, As in France the waiters are courteous and professional. The dishes are very tasty and served with full care. Also,the outdoor terrace gives the restaurant a pleasant atmosphere. For a meal in Orsay you get full value for money.

+3

Orsay is a wonderfully consistent French brasserie that delivers across all the right areas. The food is well prepared and authentically French — classic dishes executed with care and confidence. Service is polished and attentive without being overly formal, striking just the right balance for a brasserie setting. The atmosphere is elegant and inviting, with that timeless Parisian cafe charm that makes every visit feel like a special occasion. A reliable and thoroughly enjoyable dining experience.

Sam

Menu is good, not great, that's the only reason for 4 stars. Atmosphere is excellent, service and staff are excellent. GREAT bar and scene. Private room upstairs if you have a special event. Terrace seating available too. I will go back here.

Iteriah C

Place was low lit, upscale, and quiet. The host welcomed us and even opened the inner door for us upon entry and exit. Everyone was polite but not very friendly. The general vibe was one of surprise and thinly veiled contempt, which our family is used to when fine dining. Our waiter was initially polite, but warmed up to us quickly and was very pleasant and attentive. The coat check lady was not very nice and could benefit from being more friendly. She kept looking at us like we were beneath her. The bread was amazing. They had an excellent wine list, and even a mocktail menu my daughter could order from. My husband loved his French onion soup, and the escargot wasn’t the best I’ve had but it was very good. Our entrees (pictured below) were delicious and we especially loved the marrow and broth for the beef. I probably wouldn’t dine here again but it was an enjoyable experience and a flawless presentation.

j handy (Handyman review)

What a treat! Great large restaurant with old french flair. Outside or inside you will be very happy. Service was outstanding with everyone working as team. Now for the food. Presentation was excellent for all dishes. We tried the liver mousse and french onion soup, steak and fries. Eggs with salmon and had to try dessert. The liver mousse was my favorite. Creamy and rich. Steaks were perfect and fries crunchy salty. Soup so good but the desserts ohhh the desserts just yum.

+3

tnypco

Orsay has been around forever. It melds UES pretense with supposed old-school French brasserie fare. It's a neighborhood restaurant, serving lightning speed very expensive food, with daily specials and day-of-the-week specials. My husband likes Mondays, as a slab of rare beef washed down with their Isle Flottante dessert makes his week more complete. I don't. Yes, you can get escargots floating in garlic butter, but sorry, you can't get a decent baguette on the side with that. Pate? Sure. French onion soup? Why not. And a $31 hamburger? It IS the Upper East Side after all. Service beats the speed of sound, so please don't linger, they will get you out FAST. And a propos sound, it's noisy, so don't plan on having a deep conversation. In short: he likes it for it's traditions. I don't.

C W

Extremely noisy. Very crowded. Can’t carry on a conversation due to the noise level. Food was good, but how can a French restaurant serve bread without also serving butter? At this place, you have to ask for butter.

Andrew Corso

We celebrated our 10-year anniversary with a date night at Orsay. The restaurant is beautiful, with a slow, relaxing vibe — perfect for a summer evening. We sat right on the cusp of indoor and outdoor dining, which was a lovely spot. The escargot was delicious, though the tuna tartare fell a bit flat. Our entrées were excellent, but the service was lackluster; it felt like we didn’t have one set server, and after waiting 30 minutes for our second round of drinks (the rosé spritz, which is a must-try), we canceled them as we were finishing our meal. To their credit, once the manager found out, he brought us two glasses of champagne to end the night, which was a thoughtful gesture. Overall, a beautiful setting with great food, though service could be improved.

+3

Steph W

Ambiance (3/5): We were seated on the main dining floor with tables that were a tad too small and the tight alongside other tables. Luckily, there was no one seated next to us, but it still felt like the tables made us feel like sardines in a room. The decorations are lovely and make the place feel fancy and ready to wine and dine you. It is dimly lit and voice levels moderate. It was a great date spot! Service (5/5): We were seated immediately when we walked in on a random weekday. The waiter was extremely courteous and explained the menu recommendations when asked. He noticed that I was bothered by the wobbly table, he came over and gave us a wedge (which unfortunately still did not do the trick) Food: Escargot (6pc) (4/5): The escargot was pre-scooped from its shell and was dredged in a buttery garlic and parsley sauce that was very rich and flavorful. The escargot was cooked right with a soft bite. The pieces were rather small. The bread that came with it was impossibly crispy! I wish there was enough bounce in the bread to dip into the sauce. Luckily we had a side of brioche from another app to dip instead. Foie Gras (3/5): I know their guests have often enjoyed this dish but it was very very rich and lacked any flavor. The cherry compote and toasted hazelnuts helped to accompany the bite, but did not hit the mark for me. For the price point, we felt we couldn’t waste it despite really only eating one of the slices. Aile De Raie Sauvage (3/5): This was my first time having skatewing! There was absolutely no fishy taste it and had a lovely outer crisp to the sections of the fish. The whole presentation looked lovely with the splash emulsion sauce on the side! Overall, I felt like the dish was good but the taste was just meh. The sides of the baby turnips and bok choy felt disjointed with the overall dish. Paillard De Filet De Bœuf Au Cognac (4/5): The tenderloin was indeed very tender. The gravy sauce smothered the filet and provided a nice juicy bite! Portion sizes were appropriate. I enjoyed this dish the most in the evening. Profiteroles (cream puff) (5/5): I loved the dessert drizzled with chocolate and the vanilla ice cream inside was a great way to end the meal. Unfortunately, the food here did not meet expectations of French food I’ve had other restaurants. While I enjoyed my dining experience, I do not see myself returning.

+4

I used to actually like this place. The food was solid, the vibe was decent, and it felt worth the price. Clearly, those days are long gone. What showed up at my table this time felt like a sad, reheated tribute to what the menu used to be. The flavors were flat, the portions mysteriously shrank, and everything tasted like it had been sitting under a heat lamp contemplating its life choices. And then there's the manager. If indifference were an Olympic sport, they'd be on the podium. Rude, dismissive, and somehow annoyed that customers expect edible food and basic courtesy. When we politely mentioned an issue, we were met with eye-roll energy and a tone that suggested we had personally inconvenienced them by existing. It's impressive, really -- not every restaurant manages to downgrade both its food and its customer service so dramatically. If you're feeling nostalgic for how good it used to be, save yourself the heartbreak. Some memories are better left untasted.

We had an extremely disappointing experience with the manager at this restaurant. We made a reservation for a party of 8 and called not once, not twice, but three separate times to remind the staff that we would be arriving with a baby and stroller. We were assured each time that it would not be an issue. In fact, we have dined here many times before with our baby and stroller and have never had a problem. However, when our entire party arrived, the manager abruptly turned us away. There was no attempt to accommodate us, no effort to problem-solve, and no acknowledgment of our prior calls. Instead, we were met with a dismissive attitude and a literal turned back as if we were an inconvenience. It was especially frustrating and embarrassing to be sent away in front of our entire group after taking the time to confirm details multiple times. Clear communication was made on our end, yet we were treated as though we had done something wrong. We understand that policies can change, but professionalism and basic courtesy should not. Unfortunately, the way this was handled was unacceptable and left a very poor impression. We will not be returning.

This place has potential, but the glaring issues outweigh the few perks. Sadly, for a local, the food is underwhelming. At least 4 other french spots in the neighborhood exceed Orsay in an extreme way. Then there is their famously confrontational front-of-house manager. I have personally witnessed at least a dozen neighbors get in an argument with this guy, he has no business in the hospitality space, it is so bad Orsay came up in our Co-op board meeting. This guy will sink the ship. This is a space with potential, but an owner asleep at the wheel, with meh food.

Henry M. Hocherman

If you enjoy paying a fair amount of money for the privilege of sitting at an uncleared table for almost an hour waiting for your main course to arrive, then Orsay is the place for you. We were two couples out for a weeknight evening of food and conversation. All of us had been to Orsay before and had liked it enough to return. Drinks were relatively quick to arrive and were OK but overpriced. Appetizers were mediocre at best but we didn’t have to suffer very much because they were tiny portions. Following the appetizers, we got to stare at the empty dirty plates for close to an hour as we waited for our main courses. Of the four of us only one main course was even reasonably good. The Coq au Vin came out cold. Two of us had the poached salmon which mercifully also came out cold as it was supposed to, but the salmon was mealy and tasteless. The only dish that came out at least passable was the Bronzino, which was at the proper temperature, but was also bland and uninteresting. All in all, not a great experience. Add to this to the response we received when we intimated that everything was not perfect, and the evening gets its cherry on top. As I mentioned, we had all been there before, but we will not be there again.

G. C.

Make sure you have a big group of people before going to this place. It’s one of those places that if you go by yourself for a quick dinner, server will ignore you and/or rush you. I ordered the special salad, 5 minutes later, because I stopped eating just to answer my phone, someone asked me if I was done or still working on my salad, even though there was food on my plate! The restaurant was empty! It was clear that they didn’t want me there because just one person “is not enough money to waste time”. The waiter asked me if I was ready to order, I ordered something from the “special of the day menu “ that was not available today but I didn’t know… it was my first time there…and he explained to me as if he was yelling at one of his kids. Very unfriendly and rude. He would be a good bartender in a dive bar maybe. I finally decided to order something else, lamb, one of my favorite dishes ever… unfortunately, It came completely burned and tasting as a burnt cast iron… I don’t know how to explain. P.S. they need to fix the bathroom door. It doesn’t close properly.