Serendipity 3: NYC
Whipped cream is one of the best discoveries ever. It just makes everything so much better. You know what else makes everything seem so much better? Sappy, mindless, romantic Christmas movies. The ones that play out like this: two lost souls are to marry other people who are so clearly wrong for them and, by chance, they meet each other and, boom! They fall in love in minutes. One such movie combines the best of love and desserts: Seredipity. From the moment I saw John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale bond over a frozen hot chocolate piled high with whipped cream at NYC's Seredipity 3, a visit was on my Christmas Bucket list. However, because everyone else seems to have this on their bucket list too, it's nearly impossible to get in there on the weekends between Thanksgiving and New Years... unless you have a day to wait, are a Kennedy, OR(!) you called in August and made your dinner reservation. That's right folks! With a little planning and a reminder pop up on your outlook calendar in August, you can make dinner reservations. Boom! For the price of dinner, you're now guarenteed admission. You're welcome.
We arrived the Saturday before Christmas. As expected, the line waiting for a table stretched all the way to Terra Haute. We struggled to open the door and squeeze through the crowd of like-minded tourists to let the hostess know we had arrived. She abruptly cut me off and informed me that we had a three hour wait but lightened up a smidge once I informed her of our reservation...again, placed in August. She let us know it would be a wait for our party of two, but we could stand beside the display cases of items that, I suppose, were supposed to be kitschy but instead channeled local flea market trash (if you need to purchase a case for your iPhone 4 while waiting, take solace in knowing that's an option here). We waited 45 minutes for our reservation in that tiny space, breathing in air scented of breath, apologizing each time my hand accidentally brushed up against somebody, but we didn't mind so much bc at this point 1) we were starving and 2) excited for the meatloaf we had read so much about!
We arrived the Saturday before Christmas. As expected, the line waiting for a table stretched all the way to Terra Haute. We struggled to open the door and squeeze through the crowd of like-minded tourists to let the hostess know we had arrived. She abruptly cut me off and informed me that we had a three hour wait but lightened up a smidge once I informed her of our reservation...again, placed in August. She let us know it would be a wait for our party of two, but we could stand beside the display cases of items that, I suppose, were supposed to be kitschy but instead channeled local flea market trash (if you need to purchase a case for your iPhone 4 while waiting, take solace in knowing that's an option here). We waited 45 minutes for our reservation in that tiny space, breathing in air scented of breath, apologizing each time my hand accidentally brushed up against somebody, but we didn't mind so much bc at this point 1) we were starving and 2) excited for the meatloaf we had read so much about!
Finally, it was our turn and we were led upstairs to the table right beside the one in the film! The lights, the decorations, it was all the same! The waiter came over to take our order and looked uncomfortable when we told him we both wanted the meatloaf. "We're out." Really?! Ummm...ok. We reviewed the menu for 10 minutes, he returned and we tried to order another item and received the same reply, "we're out." I kid you not, this process was repeated until I asked, "what do you have available?". It was like that scene from The Jerk where Steve Martin is handing out a carnival prize..."well, you can order from here to here, but not here, here, or here. Or there. Nothing over there." Shepards pie. Yup. That was pretty much it, so that's what we ordered. It was adequate. Not great, not terrible, just adequate. Again, whatever, we came for the dessert and that was up next!
The frozen hot chocolate arrived and was beautiful... and HUGE! I took a big gulp and it was quite tasty. I grabbed my spoon and shoved whipped cream in my mouth and nearly gagged. It was like they forgot the sweet, just a glob of tasteless greasy fluff. Total disappointment there. We drank the concoction, careful not to ingest their sad version of whipped cream and headed off for a nightcap discussing the disappointing events that had just transpired. Sigh.
Thank you for joining me as I took the scenic route reviewing Serendipity 3. I get it, my experience is limited to one visit there on clearly what was a very busy day. But what we agreed upon from this experience is this: the service was slow, the space is used heavily and looks such, and the food was, well, adequate but it has one hell of a history and following. I love the concept of frozen hot chocolate, and where I Live there is a gas station chain called Sheetz that now sells a version of it for less than $4, and the whipped cream is awesome. My suggestion (which I write cautiously bc I know many people might want to ban me from NYC for saying this): go to the gas station for a better and less expensive version of this desert, save your time and money and next time you are in NYC, go to R Lounge, have a delicious cocktail while drinking in the best view of Times Square.
Rating: 2 candy canes out of 5
Location: 225 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022
The frozen hot chocolate arrived and was beautiful... and HUGE! I took a big gulp and it was quite tasty. I grabbed my spoon and shoved whipped cream in my mouth and nearly gagged. It was like they forgot the sweet, just a glob of tasteless greasy fluff. Total disappointment there. We drank the concoction, careful not to ingest their sad version of whipped cream and headed off for a nightcap discussing the disappointing events that had just transpired. Sigh.
Thank you for joining me as I took the scenic route reviewing Serendipity 3. I get it, my experience is limited to one visit there on clearly what was a very busy day. But what we agreed upon from this experience is this: the service was slow, the space is used heavily and looks such, and the food was, well, adequate but it has one hell of a history and following. I love the concept of frozen hot chocolate, and where I Live there is a gas station chain called Sheetz that now sells a version of it for less than $4, and the whipped cream is awesome. My suggestion (which I write cautiously bc I know many people might want to ban me from NYC for saying this): go to the gas station for a better and less expensive version of this desert, save your time and money and next time you are in NYC, go to R Lounge, have a delicious cocktail while drinking in the best view of Times Square.
Rating: 2 candy canes out of 5
Location: 225 E 60th St, New York, NY 10022
Comments
Post a Comment