I think she might be a little old for Serendipity. But who cares? I think 21 is the best idea so far and if not 21, even Sardi's, if not for the food than for the theatre-district atmosphere. Just for curiosity, where is your daughter getting these ideas on where to eat?

Thanks ekscrunchy for finally asking the logical question. If a friend of hers told her it's great then she'd probably like it. She had to hear about it somewhere and must have some reason to want to go there.


Personally, I'd say it was the nastiest place we ever ate. Two young mothers with their kids finally leaned over to us and said, "can we ask you a question? What on earth are two middle aged men doing here?" They had that right. I can't imagine it possibly entertaining anyone over the age of 12 (and even that is a stretch). The five and six year olds were loving it though, screaming their lungs out.

So why did you stay, if you thought it was so awful?? Just curious....

Yes, friends told her to go to J&H and Serendipity was from the movie. I will ask her about the 21 though. Wish us luck, we leave tomorrow night. Thanks for the advise.

Why did I stay? I'm not in the habit of sitting down in a restaurant, ordering, then getting up and walking out.
We were told by a local businessman that it was a great place to eat and it was fun as well. To this day I haven't figured out if he was playing a joke on us or what. By the way, when we entered, the "entertainment" hadn't started. Once it did, we picked at our food a bit, paid our bill quickly and left. What would you have done, socialworker?

By the way, the bar in the Village by the same name is still there or was a year or so again anyway. We had been
there before. The two are not related, I have now been told. The one in the Village is a fun place to go for a drink -- actually kind of a hoot, not a place geared for pre-adolescents. So it was an honest mistake on our part to think the midtown one was similar.

Oh and by the way, I LOVE the Haunted Mansion at Disney World. I don't see the comparison.

HI--I guess I just thought that it was pretty obvious from the get-go what the place was like...so I would have guessed that you would not have stayed once you entered and grasped the "concept". I did find it amusing and had no illusions that I was going for the food. Mr. SW and a 20-something son found it to be a fun place too. As I said, not at all NYC-like but, for me, fun nonetheless. The similarity to Haunted Mansion was the theme and the mock seriousness of all the staff/actors.

The atmosphere of the decor was fine. So again, I had no reason to be surprised or disappointed when we entered, sat down, and ordered. But unlike the tongue in cheek actors who say things like "come to the DEAD center of the room" at Disney, these kids (not actors) did nothing but scream and simply acted crazy. There was no "clever script". Mainly they ran around the room screaming at little kids to scare them (there were a bunch of 6 year old birthday groups, I'd say. Having someone scream inches from my head over and over for half an hour was not entertaining to me. "Mock seriousness"? You and I saw totally different shows, I can assure you. Maybe it has changed. Maybe the regular actors didn't show up that day so they turned it over to a local junior high school. I don't know. As I said, I enjoyed the campy "haunted" atmosphere of the Village Jekyll and Hyde, and this decor was similar. It was the "show" or rather the total lack of one that I didn't like. Food wise, I wasn't expecting Le Bernardin, but I thought it would be decent -- maybe like a Heartland Brewery or a Virgil's, but it was far from either of those.

Also I'm clearly not alone in my opinion. Zagat's gives it a 10 for food (the second lowest -- only Mars was lower -- that I could find leafing through the entire book). They also say to beware of subpar food and surly, careless service.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. I didn't. OK?

You are absolutely correct. We had totally different experiences. Had it been the case when we were there that "they ran around the room screaming at little kids to scare them", I would have been appalled.

To throw a wrench in things, I attended a private dinner one night IN the Haunted Mansion at Disney and the food was incredible.

Why can't you just take her there so she can say she's seen it. You don't have to eat there, just stop in for a drink/Soda.

I just have to post this: Yesterday I was walking past Serendipity (there are many antiques stores in the area) and two women with strollers were sitting outside. One was yelling into her cellphone: "They should have told us they did not allow strollers...this is a place for kids..how can they not allow strollers? We are sitting outside there now and have no idea where to go..this is so horrible.." and on and on. So heads up: they don't allow strollers! Not that your 17-year-old would be in one, but maybe it wil help someone else.

We wanted to take my kids to J&H over the summer. The food can't possibly be worse than Mars, can it?! (My younger son LOVED Mars, and really wants to go back. I'll take him, but have no idea what I'm going to eat).

Anyway - what is the difference b/w the J&H near Central park and the one in the Village? Is one better?

The food is probably along the same lines as Mars (it's been years since I've been to either). The J&H in the village is the original, and has been around much longer than the other. I haven't been to the midtown one, but I would imagine that is was designed to be a tourist attraction. The orginal, was designed (I think), just to be something different in the village.

When my kids were elementary school age, we took them to the village one a couple of times for lunch. They enjoyed it. We never went dinner time, but during lunch, there are many families with young kids.

Thanks, MFNYC. Has anyone been to both?

If they are comparable, I'd rather walk around the Village - my kids haven't been to this area of NYC yet. But I'll endure the one near Central Park if it's better.

Yes, I've been to both. Village in late nineties and West 57th Street (actually Sixth Avenue I think) in the early 2000.

Bar food only, food tastes like ass.

Gee--there's an expression I have not heard in a few years.....

I suppose these are the reasons why I see 11 year olds lined up outside daily.

I think 17 might be a bit too old for J&H. Hard Rock Cafe seems to have that age group lined up.

GoTravel - pretend you are 11&13 y.o. boys. Would you prefer one location over the other?

Have you had the pleasure of dining at Mars?

Thanks to fodors, I've compiled quite a great list of chocolate places - most around the Village. So if we end up at the Village one, I can eat very little food and just eat the chocolate!