Five Acres
The one appeal that attracted me to try out Five Acres was that they offered a Chicago beef sandwich. For some reason, there are very few places that serve this sandwich that I know of. There used to be Hank’s Juicy Beef, but that closed down. The other Chicago beef place that I know of is in deep Brooklyn. Since we were around this Midtown area, I figured now is the right time to give this a shot. We were able to walk into this restaurant at 4:30 PM on a Sunday without reservations. It’s located in the downstairs promenade of Rockafeller Plaza, where all the sit-down restaurants reside near the skating rink.
From the restaurant’s website:
Chef Greg Baxtrom (of acclaimed Olmsted, Petite Patate and Patti Ann’s in Brooklyn) is excited to open 5 Acres. Located in the heart of New York’s bustling Rockefeller Center, 5 Acres brings Chef Greg’s defining creative, seasonal ethos to Manhattan for the first time.
Ambiance & Service
The ambiance is basically an open cover restaurant that is in the middle of the open space pedestrian traffic of the mall surrounding the rink.
The service is pretty fast, and you can tell this restaurant was geared for those Rockafeller Plaza tourists. They automatically add a default 20% gratuity to the bill without warning.
Food
The Lemonade ($6) was no-frills, and it tasted fairly artificial (or overly sweet).
The Chicago Beef ($22) sandwich came with house giardiniera, garlic aioli, and sports pepper. It was served with fries. On the side, they gave some beef jus. This Chicago beef was not as thrilling as I remembered any Chicago beef sandwich to be. The house giardiniera, which is a medley of Italian pickled vegetables, was not flavorful enough to make it memorable. The most strangest part of this sandwich was the melted, charred cheese on top. The ratio of flavors was uneven in that the cheese really overpowered any pickled sensations from the giardiniera. The one aspect that I did enjoy from this dish were the fries. I normally like mine crispy and near well-done, and these hit those marks.
The 5A Burger ($23) came with special sauce, pickle, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and onion. The special sauce had some horseradish in it (could be the dijon mustard), so if you are sensitive to those flavors, you probably want to avoid this. The burger itself was well constructed, and I really liked the melted cheddar cheese. It was however a fairly straight forward and basic burger.
Final Verdict
If you’re interested in trying out the Chicago beef, it’s quite underwhelming and not remotely worth it unless you absolutely have no other meal choice to entertain. Otherwise, this restaurant is a straight forward American restaurant if you are desperate for just a meal.
Yelp Jabs
My husband had a cheeseburger and he also said it was really good! That’s a bonus from a burger critic!
Burgers are a dime a dozen in the city, especially of the style that Five Acres serves. You can get a decent burger at any of the many Irish pubs in Midtown.
They automatically add a 20% gratuity to your check. Which means service sucks. You can be ignored and given crappy service and the staff will still get 20%.
This restaurant is in the heart of tourist central. It’s unsurprising to meet rent costs and random tourist behavior that they would do this by default. For those that are unfamiliar with New York City, it’s quite common that locals tip 20% on pre-tax sit-down meals.
Revisions
- Dec 1, 2024 - Initial revision.