Sartiano’s opened around June 2023, replacing the former The Mercer Kitchen. The menu is helmbed by James Beard Award-winning chef Alfred Portale. This is located near the SOHO shopping area right across the street from Lure Fishbar. I easily made a reservation for 2 for 5:30 PM a few days in advance.

Ambiance & Service

The interior is very dark, just like the former Mercer Kitchen restaurant. In many ways, they did not change much of the ambiance here. It felt like a very glowing, happening night spot for a nice night out.

The nice part about Manhattan is you can always find something and somewhere to eat, no matter where you are in the city. On this brisk, cold night, my partner was running errands in Soho, so I was tasked with looking up something. Of course, it takes me about 30 minutes to find something, and Osteria Morini is what we ended up on. Even though they had restaurant week menus, we decided to just order off the regular menu.

Lure Fishbar is run by the same hospitality network thath also owns Bar Tulix and Mercer Kitchen, which is closed unfortunately. Whenever we were in the SOHO area, we always thought about checking this place out especially since we couldn’t walk into Balthazar. The restaurant is very seafood straight forward, and it always seems like it has a very steady crowd. The restaurant entrance is actually located down some stairs. We were able to walk in on a Friday evening around 6:30 PM without reservations, but they were only able to seat us at the sushi bar.

We were in the SOHO area doing a quick errand run. Because it was so cold, we decided to eat near the Prince Street subway station. We ended up at The Mercer Kitchen because they had walk-in seating, and it seemed interesting. We were seated in an intimate table right next to the bottom floor’s receptionist. We learned later that this is one of Jean George’s restaurants, and it’s scheduled to close at end of month permanently.

Following our Disney World trip and since I started going back to the office, we are starting to do our Friday date nights again. This restaurant appeared in the local news as a brand new restaurant, so we thought we’d give it a try before the crowds started discovering this and also because we missed NYC food after being in Disney World for a week. The restaurant is a partnership between restauranteur John McDonald of Mercer Street Hospitality with partnership with Chef Justin Bazdarich (Oxomoco). We recalled we had a great time at Oxomoco for their brunch.

Amazing place. The baked alaska and veal tongue were really good. It’s also not too expensive.

Crepes were whatever. Why?

Got their special $68 white truffle burger. Was good, but not worth it. Don’t spend $68 for white truffles when they’ve practically lose their scent on the plane over here.