Friday night, the Hubby and I dined at Cafe Sabarsky, the oh-so-old worldy ersatz Viennese cafe that’s part of the Neue Gallery, renowned for its extensive collection of Klimts. Friday nights, many museums are open late in New York.

I’ve eaten at the cafe before and the highlight is always the desserts — classic German and Viennese confections like Sacher Torte and Black Forest Cake. This time, we decided to eat dinner as well, and it was disappointing. The Hubby’s goulash was under-seasoned to the point of banality. My herring sandwich was fine, except the menu advertised eggs as part of the dish, and they were missing.

We should have skipped the main course and gone straight to dessert. The Rehrücken Chocolate torte–marzipan cake with orange confiture–was rich, chocolaty and moist, a treat for true almond lovers, while the Mozart Torte was enrobed in velvety mocha butter cream, luscious and buttery and not too sweet.

Cafe Sabarsky isn’t the only place to dine well at New York musuems. Of course, there’s Danny Meyer’s The Modern at the MoMA, but if you go upstairs to the second-floor cafe, Cafe 2, you can have a perfectly lovely meal served to you after you order from the counter—-I had a board of cheeses, speck and prosciutto–that’s less expensive but still yummy. Then there’s the Morgan Library restaurant. I haven’t eaten there, but I hear good things. At the Met, the members’ dining room features “ladies who lunch” types of dishes– delicate sandwiches and salads. Go for the view of Central Park, not for the food.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
New York, New York 10028-0198
General Information: 212-535-7710

The Modern
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
9 W 53rd St
NY, NY 10019

Cafe Sabarsky
1048 5th Ave
NY, NY 10028
212-288-0665

Related posts:

1. Hungarian Pastry Shop: A Slice of the Old World
2. Easter Menus Abound at NYC Restaurants
3. Brooklyn: Free Cooking Lessons on Historic American Foods at Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum