Bagatelle

I finally got to go to Bagatelle for their famous, or infamous depending on how you look at it, Saturday brunch. Bagatelle is a trendy French bistro in the Meatpacking District that's known for its loud and crazy atmosphere. Many also think of it as being transported to St. Tropez for 2 hours. All are true...well except the St. Tropez part...I imagine St. Tropez would be more beautiful than a restaurant. Never the less, Bagatelle is a place where the Meatpacking District crowd comes for after dinner drinks or a quick dinner before heading to Kiss & Fly or Simyone (SL). But on the weekend afternoons, Bagatelle turns into the club. Loud house music is blasted from all ends of the restaurant and everyone is dancing whether it be on chairs, tables or by the bar. I've been to Merkato's brunch & I Tre Merli's brunch (both ran by Day & Night) and I can say easily that Bagatelle is the best out of the city party brunches. Merkato was inconsistent towards the end of its run (that's probably why it was the end of its run) and I Tre Merli is a more toned down than Bagatelle. The only thing about Bagatelle is that the restaurant is really small so dancing any other place but on a chair or table can be a bit of an issue space wise. The prices are also not exorbitantly expensive. I was reading Yelp reviews and the way people were describing it to me was almost like I was going to pay Harry Cipriani or Nello prices. When I looked at the menu it really wasn't awful. Sure you have the $16000 bottles of champagne and the $80 bottles of Rose that you know they bought for $15 but the food itself isn't so out of line, price wise, with the Meatpacking District. Bagatelle has a good amount of dishes for under $20 and I don't think more than three dishes were over $30.  I ordered the eggs benedict with a salad and truffled potatoes and my friend ordered the tuna tartare. Both dishes were fine, nothing spectacular but fine. Then again the food only has to be fine as no one is really partying at Bagatelle thinking "I hope my Tuna Tartare is good". The service is friendly, though I feel they give you an overall feeling that they don't like their job. But if your job was to navigate through pompous Europeans and serve them absurdly overpriced magnums of Rose, you wouldn't be too thrilled either about work.





Overall I have to say that Bagatelle is the best party brunch in New York City...as of now. We have Villa Pacri opening their brunches late this summer and the Koch brothers opening up a new spot in the old Los Dados spot. But until then, if you want a full force club in the afternoon Bagatelle is the place to be!