NYCReview
Included In
A Norah Jones album. A partly sunny day. A dog that sheds minimally and sometimes plays fetch. These are all perfectly nice things, and here are a few more. A crisp white T-shirt. Ray Romano. The Smith.
The Smith is the equivalent of a cover band at a wedding or a cold glass of 2% milk. It’s that pleasant-enough person you run into sometimes but can never seem to remember. But, most of all, it’s an East Village restaurant that turned into a chain with four locations in NYC, one in Chicago, and two in DC. It’s a useful place to know about if you ever need to eat with people who want something predictable, attractive, and a little bit boring.
The menu here at the original location is the same as all the others. It reads like it was built by committee, and much like a drunk text or a drawing by M.C. Escher, it makes less and less sense the longer you stare at it. There’s bibimbap, fried green tomatoes, and Sicilian cauliflower, for example, and there are also a few pastas, a burger, and a bunch of entrees like salmon and brick chicken. And, for the most part, these dishes range from fine-but-forgettable to actually-pretty-good. The salads are exactly what you need them to be, the short rib cavatelli is surprisingly satisfying, and if you want a burger, the one here will help you scratch that itch and move on with your life.
This place exists to please the maximum number of people, and you can tell just by looking at it. It’s a big open room with plenty of tables both large and small, and, much like every other location of The Smith, it feels like a semi-trendy hotel restaurant that woke up one morning and wandered away from its hotel. With its big windows and white tiled floors, it’s an attractive space, and it’s as consistently busy as the main concourse at Grand Central.
So yes, The Smith gets a little noisy, and it can also often feel like an after-work mixer for young professionals who appreciate cold martinis and bathrooms with adjacent photo booths. But you can usually find a spot at the bar, and making a reservation is about as easy as trading for a middle seat on an airplane. More importantly, you can use it for just about any situation. Just think of this place as a nice pair of khakis or a spare tire in the trunk of your car. You’ll never be upset with either of those things, and they might just come in handy.