Tartinery has three locations: Nolita, Brookfield Place, and the Plaza Food Hall. The Nolita restaurant is the only full service one, whereas the other two serve the dishes food hall style. I like the Nolita restaurant. Ambiance is great – rustic, modern, clean, high ceilings. It’s nice. There’s also a downstairs, which I much prefer because you can watch people walking above you on the streets. Lots of windows and light. Good music, too.
The restaurant gets most crowded in the evenings for drinks and dinner. For lunch you can usually just walk in. Tartinery specializes in tartines, open faced sandwiches on fresh bread with specialty ingredients. You can order multiple and share some of each or you can just order one for yourself.
Some of our favorites:
Labneh Tartine: labneh (Lebanese thick plain yogurt) with thinly sliced cucumbers, radish, mint, za’tar and olive oil on sourdough. They were great about accommodating my request to add (grape) tomatoes as well. It was delicious, fresh, and a perfect option if you want something a little lighter. By the way, these are mostly freely customizable, so if you want no mint or extra olive oil, etc. feel free to ask.
Fig Tartine: blue cheese, honey, and arugula. We requested ricotta in lieu of blue cheese and again they were very nice about making the substitution. It was delicious. The ricotta is very creamy and good quality. It would be great to try with blue cheese as recommended and I’ll do that next time.
Ricotta Tartine: Ricotta, honey, grape tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, and greens. Served on your choice of country or multi-grain bread.
For something with meat, I’d recommend trying the smoked salmon or the lobster tartines. Of course the classic croque monsieur or madame works, too.
Chestnut soup, butternut squash soup, and the kale caesar are also big hits. Also, order a side of bread for the table if you want something to nibble on. It’s multi-grain from Eli’s and it’s truly delicious.
One thing I wouldn’t recommend is the quinoa bowl. It’s served with asparagus, avocado, baby spinach, edamame, crushed almond, cilantro, and mint. Sounds flavorful right? Wrong. Very bland, flavorless, and had a bit of an off-putting sour taste.
But do end with the cheesecake, which is charmingly described as “just a cheesecake” but is actually fantastic. In a city with tons of cheesecakes, this is truly a good one. The texture is perfect – thick but smooth. It’s topped with a raspberry coulis, which is a great complement and makes it light and fresh.
Overall, I’d certainly recommend Tartinery. Good quality, fresh, and healthy food, great vibe and location, good service, unique concept, and well executed.
