NYCReview
photo credit: David A. Lee
Tatiana
Included In
If a night out in Lincoln Center isn’t at the top of your list for a cool date night, you might want to rethink that stance. Chef Kwame Onwuachi, who you might remember from his run on Top Chef, is single-handedly making this little corner of the Upper West Side cool again. The menu at Tatiana in David Geffen Hall is an Afro-Caribbean love letter to New York City, heavily influenced by the chef’s Bronx upbringing, filled with fun mashups like wagyu chopped cheese and egusi dumplings. Ever since this place opened, tickets to the opera and the ballet keep mysteriously showing up in our inboxes, almost as though we bought them just to have an excuse to eat at Tatiana beforehand.
photo credit: David A. Lee
Even though the Phil is the sleepiest, most grandparent-friendly of the Lincoln Center venues, somehow the entire crowd at Tatiana is under 40 and dressed in outfits that seem ripped straight from the NYFW street style section. The moment you walk in, you’re bathed in soft blue light coming through faux clouds that hang from the ceiling. There are silver curtains made from tiny beads in front of all the windows, creating a portal into another world, one where millennials flock to see new operas and exciting brass performances instead of ordering takeout in their pajamas and falling into an endless doom scroll.
Almost no one is sitting at their table taking photos of their food before they take a bite, despite the obvious scene. Maybe it’s the blue light, which renders all photos immediately terrible, but maybe it’s because the idea of waiting to take a bite of the hamachi escovitch just feels wrong. Or because it’s physically impossible not to tear into the Mom Duke’s shrimp the moment it arrives. When you settle into your table here, talking, eating, and drinking are the only things on your mind. You might actually forget about your phone for a few hours.
The restaurant seems to exist to show that New York has always been a study in contradictions, and that’s not changing any time soon. 90s hip hop classics provide the backing track, and even though you’re literally sitting in a building dedicated to classic music, this feels correct.
Food Rundown
photo credit: David A. Lee
Hamachi Escovitch
Egusi Dumplings
photo credit: David A. Lee
Green Caesar Salad
photo credit: David A. Lee
Curried Goat Patties
Truffle Chopped Cheese
photo credit: David A. Lee
Mom Duke’s Shrimp
photo credit: David A. Lee
Short Rib Pastrami Suya
Bodega Special
Rainbow Cookie Panna Cotta