New York’s Iconic Waldorf Astoria Unveils Three New Dining Destinations

1. It’s all about balancing tradition and innovation.

The Waldorf Astoria restoration project was extensive. “This was not a renovation. It was a complete restoration. There were scaffoldings inside and all of these artists — even a few people that worked on the Sistine Chapel before,” explains Romaniello.

The team thought carefully about how best to modernize without taking away from the history of the space. “Everything that we do pays homage to the heritage of the building. We’re bringing it into the new era with the way that we do things,” Bathurst says, emphasizing the level of personal service the hotel will provide.

This comes into play at Lex Yard, where they source local produce from the farmers market three times a week, and for Yoshoku, the first Japanese kaiseki-style restaurant the hotel has ever housed.

“Obviously, a lot of people in New York and around the world have their eyes on us right now to see what we’re doing,” Bathurst says. “We were always the innovators, the people who created things, and I think there’s an expectation. What can we innovate? What can we do that’s a little bit different?”

2. Lex Yard is the hotel’s biggest new restaurant.

Lex Yard serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and spans two levels, with a slightly more upscale space upstairs and a more relaxed bar area downstairs. Both spaces feature menus of seasonal delicacies from chef Michael Anthony, best known as the longtime chef and partner at Gramercy Tavern.

“I’m thrilled to be aligned with the Waldorf Astoria and their operator. I live in the neighborhood, and I think I’m one of many New Yorkers who are excited to see this majestic building reopen,” Anthony says. “It’s an American menu. It’s focused on seasonality and celebrating ingredients that are grown in this region. Every dish and every gesture is intended to live up to the elegance that’s always been established as part of the driving force of this hotel since its inception.”

The space is as gilded as you’d hope, with a dichotomy of plush chairs and austere columns, and a return to the Art Deco style of the original setting. Anthony says they hope to be as welcoming and relaxed for their guests as possible.

“There’s an obvious connection to the building [in the design]. They’ve made a new restaurant that belongs here,” Anthony says. “If we’re doing this right, I hope it’s everybody’s favorite restaurant in the neighborhood.”

3. It’s a new venture for one of the city’s best-known chefs.

Anthony paid particular attention to seasonal vegetables (after all, he did literally write a book on them) during the design of Lex Yard’s contemporary brasserie menu. These take the form of a roasted fairytale eggplant with pole beans and white miso glaze, a tomato and zucchini gratin, and a tender carrot stew finished with spinach.

Fans of Gramercy Tavern’s iconic burger will also rejoice when they behold the Lex Burger. “It’s a very delicious burger in a different style from the one that I serve at GT,” Anthony says. “We bake the buns every day here ourselves. The burger is cooked in a broiler, so it gets a caramelized outside and a soft, juicy inside.” It’s topped with Thousand Island sauce (another nod to the hotel’s history) and cheddar cheese, and served with a career first for Anthony: French fries, which he’s never had on a menu before.

“It feels kind of fun at this point to just let it all hang out,” he laughs.

There’s also Anthony’s take on the iconic Waldorf salad, updated for modern diners with ice-cold gem lettuce, a lighter dressing made up of a lemon and honey vinaigrette, New England cheddar cheese, and salted, toasted sunflower seeds — alongside traditional celery, grapes, apples, and walnuts.

“We’ll gently allow the salad to change from season to season. We’re really underlining the fact that there’s not one single stroke of genius that could reinvent the dish, but it’s an evolution of seasonality. That’s what the restaurant stands for,” Anthony says.

Upstairs, guests can participate in an exclusive pre-fixe menu or opt for the à la carte offerings.

4. Peacock Alley is the ultimate hotel lobby bar.

It’s hard to choose the most striking part of Peacock Alley. The competition is fierce, from the restored grandfather clock in the lobby that was a gift from Queen Elizabeth, to Cole Porter’s piano, where live musicians will perform throughout the day, to the carefully uniformed waiters.

The cocktail list was conceived by Jeff Bell, of the award-winning bar Please Don’t Tell (PDT), and features a variety of both new cocktails and updated classics. Of course, there is a version of the Rob Roy on the menu, as well as the signature Waldorf cocktail, made with rye, absinthe, and sweet vermouth.

Anthony also designed the food menu for Peacock Alley, which serves food all day, breakfast included, and focuses on easy-to-eat bites that pair well with the drinks. There are pigs in a blanket served with spicy mayo, roasted and raw vegetables with sweet onion dip, and beef fat fries alongside caviar service, loaded lobster rolls, and a red velvet soufflé tart.

“It’s glamorous,” Romaniello says of the space. “You walk in, and you feel like ‘Oh my gosh, I just came into a very, very special place.’”

5. Kaiseki-style dining enters the Waldorf Astoria for the first time.

Yoshoku was designed to feel natural and modern, while still maintaining the glamor of the rest of the hotel. The result is a chic, clean environment, right next to the hotel’s famous “Wheel of Life” mosaic, ideal for people watching.

“Kaiseki is the pinnacle of Japanese dining, and it’s very, very seasonal,” says Bathurst. “It’s the bounty of the season, so we’re using the freshest ingredients.”

Diners can choose from the à la carte menu, filled with dishes like toro tartare with golden Kaluga caviar and a wagyu strip loin, or the six-course tasting menu ($188 per person), with grilled lobster and clarified butter and king crab with tosazu jelly.

“You feel like you’re part of the hotel [sitting at Yoshoku] – you can sit down and watch people coming and going,” Romaniello says. “[With the tasting menu] you don’t even have to decide what to order, since the chef provides all of the dishes for you. You can just watch the scenery.”

Lex Yard is open daily for breakfast from 6:30 a.m., lunch from 11:30 a.m., and dinner from Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m. The bar is open from 11 a.m. to midnight.

Peacock Alley is open daily for breakfast from 8 a.m., lunch from 11:30 a.m., and dinner on a walk-in basis only.

Yoshoku is open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday from 5:30 to 10 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.