Bryant Park Grill and Bryant Park Cafe are staple New York City restaurants that attract everyone in the midtown area. Whether you are a tourist headed to Bryant Park to check off a box on your bucket list, or a midtown employee looking to escape your office, Bryant Park is a popular destination in New York City… and for good reason. The grill is an excellent year-round restaurant, the outdoor cafe is amazing on a nice spring or summer day, and the Christmas shops in winter are the best in all of New York City…
So what should you order on your next visit? To start, a selection of dips nopita, corn chips and guacamole, jumbo shrimp and lump blue crab cocktail, and market seafood ceviche are a few of my favorites. If you manage to not fill up on these apps, I highly recommend the chicken cobb salad (you can sub in shrimp or salmon, too). This salad is filling and just big enough to leave you full but not quite in a food coma. Same goes for the chicken caesar salad nocroutons and the organic baby kale salad. These are light and refreshing, especially on a summer day. Bryant Park also offers plenty of meat and seafood options. The meat/fish themselves are gluten free, but double check its accompanying side. For example, the grilled atlantic salmon is perfect and delicious, but ask for it with no spiced bulgar wheat. The sides are subject to change, so be sure to check in with your waiter! Or play it safe and ask for your entree with one of the listed side orders. Mixed vegetables, sautee spinach, french fries, and more are the perfect addition to your meal. Oh and whatever you do, order the sweet potato fries! These fries are some of the best in New York City. Careful, these fries share the same fryer with other foods containing gluten so if you are sensitive to cross contamination I would avoid.
One menu option I’ve always wanted to try is the vegan organic quinoa salad. This salad sounds delicious, and everyone knows how much the gluten free crowd LOVES hearing the word ‘quinoa,’ but this salad is mixed with wheat berries and therefore NOT nobread approved. Bryant Park Grill is popular at all times of year. Whether you are going for a casual lunch or looking for a nicer venue to host a special occasion dinner, Bryant Park’s restaurants have plenty of nobread approved options and if you haven’t been yet, I highly recommend checking them out soon!