The Musket Room

A non-stuffy Michelin star restaurant with amazing food. And the service doesn't lack even though it's a bit more casual. Vegetarian options: They have a completely vegan tasting menu option. Dietary restrictions: They are very willing to swap tasting menu items out based on restrictions.

Excellent food, great wine pairings, and a fantastic staff took care of us the entire evening. Went with the Omnivore prefixed, added the muscles, stayed with a red wine situation that was suggested by the glass from the awesome somm. He was very kind and answered a bunch of dumb questions from me, and ended up making the evening with some fantastic selections and stories about the wines. Will be back!

Yes, this meal was F$&king solid. Lamb tartare? Sign me up. Each course was better than the previous. The service is top notch. I decided to not go with the wine pairing and my waiter selected three superb glasses of wine that I would never have picked but were perfect for the meal. The room is simple and lovely. The sound is low, not library, but great to talk with friends. I will go back soon. The menu is changing and I cannot wait to try the new offerings. M Thank you for a great night in NYC. Vegetarian options: Vegan 5 course meal offered.

My review is based on our experience at RAF’s nyc which is owned by Musket Room. We have tried to resolve this with RAF’s directly but they have been nothing but unprofessional. If I could rate zero stars I would. I never write reviews on here but this establishment is completely unprofessional. RAF’s charged us a cancellation fee for our reservation on Christmas Eve when in fact, we were there. They had us waiting at the bar for an hour for our table with no apologies or explanation whatsoever. They were acting as if it was totally normal to wait this long for our reservation. It was a Christmas Eve menu for 200 dollars per person (400 with wine). What kind of service is this for such a restaurant? After an hour of waiting, with no complaints from us, they sat us at the worst table in the restaurant, we were literally in the kitchen. My view was the trash can. We politely asked to change tables, they said that’s all they had. You would think after making us wait for so long they would make an effort with the table. They came back and told us to wait another 5 minutes to sit somewhere else. We waited 15 minutes. At this point it was 930-945pm, our reservation was at 815pm. We still have not ordered anything. We decided to leave as our Christmas Eve dinner was ruined by this poor service. The only thing we got from the manager as we left was “Sorry it didn’t work out”. 4 days later, we get charged 200 dollars for “no-show”. I send an email to them right away on December 27th. 5 emails later, January 6th, still haven’t heard from them. I decide to leave a comment on their Instagram. Now I got their attention. They reply to my emails saying we got seated in a timely manner and it’s not their fault we didn’t like the table. Being seated an hour late is a timely manner according to this restaurant. Absolutely disrespectful and very disappointed by this restaurant. Would not recommend to anyone. — Responding to their absolutely unprofessional and disrespectful message, calling me and my husband a liar for not having “stepped foot” in your establishment, and then proceeding to say “we barged in and did not like our table”, obviously contradicting yourself. Also adding a picture to prove we were there staring at the Xmas eve menu for an hour at the bar while waiting to sit at our table. But apparently waiting an hour is “timely manner” in your book. Yep, that’s what their management emailed me back. Oh and I never called the table trash. I said I was seated in front of the trash. Read my review again and please stop arguing with all customers writing bad reviews of your establishment, it seems like it’s a pattern here.

Overall, the tasting menu is excellent. The Kristal Caviar was out of this world and the star of the show. The squab and pork dishes were cooked perfectly. Cocktails were well-balanced and tasty. The jerk ice cream was an interesting twist.

My favorite dish at The Musket Room was the breads and spreads. The house-made sourdough boule wasn’t much bigger than the water glasses and came pre-cut into four chunks. We slathered smaller pieces in briny anchovy butter sprinkled with flakey sea salt, whipped ricotta and olive oil; and chicken liver mousse. I sunk my teeth into the chewy crust. The croquettes capped our round of Musket Room appetizers. We used forked pieces to mop up the smoked saffron aioli, refusing the leave anything for the servers to take away. I expected potato, but rich bechamel oozed into my mouth (nearly burning me) and onto the plate. The Musket Room certainly didn’t skimp on that jamon Iberico sliced thin and folded on top. The two people I was with didn’t like The Musket Room’s Matsutake mushrooms with sunchokes and heirloom rice. I had jockeyed for it and felt bad that this was the dish I’d chosen to share with everyone came out cold and two-noted: earthy mushroom and overwhelming sour cream. At least the island of wild rice was swimming in the tangy sauce (I love sauce). I had hoped for more Matsutake, but wasn’t so lucky. The Musket Room’s duck was perfectly cooked. The seared crust was the best part, and the inside was succulent and juicy. It came with a classic cherry sauce, little dots of labne, and tiny chunks of white turnip. The server spooned an au jus over the duck at our table. After the miniscule entrees, the expected “sooo…anyone want to hit up dollar pizza after this?” half joke happened. To “fill up”, we ordered three spoonfuls of panna cotta. Excellent spoonfuls, but spoonfuls. The piped ruffle of chocolate panna cotta went perfectly with the charred banana puree. Garnishes-wise, I can do without eating gold, but thank goodness for the flaky sea salt. Still not full (because of course not) we ordered a slightly larger dessert (four spoonfuls instead of three): sweet potato with mousse, smoked molasses, and rum. I don’t particularly care for plating and food styling, but the pastry team at The Musket Room made the dish so pretty. A wide ribbon of meringue curled around puffs of airy light orange sweet potato mousse, and three or four circles of sweet potatoes prepared in some mysterious way (maybe cooked and slightly dehydrated?). Without the smoky molasses rum semifreddo on top, it tasted like a deconstructed sweet potato pie. With the semifreddo, it transformed into a sweet potato s’mores kinda deal. The Musket Room had amazing appetizers, and the desserts interesting, but the entrees were underwhelming

Service here was fantastic.

Delightful tasting menu experience, would strongly recommend. Everyone at our table had the omnivore tasting menu. Dietary allergy (shellfish) was well accommodated by the staff for a friend. Excellent timing of courses. Unhurried pace. Lovely experience all around.