Chez Josephine

This was my first visit to this theatre district restaurant despite having lived in NYC my whole life. We went for lunch before a matinee. We loved the atmosphere; it does feel like being in Paris in the 1920s and I suppose at night, with someone at the piano, it would be very romantic (although possibly also loud). At lunch, it was quiet and peaceful. The service was attentive and professional. The food was certainly good, but not great and the wines by the glass not as good as one might expect from a French bistro. All that said, we will probably give this another try mostly because of the atmosphere and service.

Excellent service, cocktails and food. Five of us all enjoyed different meals and sides, all delicious and well portioned. Only slight is on the Brussels sprouts; they were nothing special. The atmosphere is amazing.

Limited menu, but food was very good. Service is average. All servers need to learn how to pour wine and water without spilling it!

We have had dinner here 3 times and have enthusiastically recommended this place to others. Food and service are excellent. Decor and Ambiance are beautiful. Piano players are extremely talented and fabulous. They play wondeful music without interfering with guests’ conversations. We also had Saturday brunch here a week ago. While the food was delicious, the brunch servers were slow, disorganized, and completely inattentive. There were only a few other guests while we were there. so it’s not like they were busy. Had that been my first time dining here, I might not have returned. Hopefully it was a one-time occurrence, because we really love this place and will definitely be back.

Love Chez Josephine, Manuel always welcomes us with such grace. Thank you to all the staff and our waiter Rudy. They are amazing !! See you soon .

Beautiful place with delicious food, great service and live music!

Fabulous spot you really get the feel of the amazing life of Josephine Baker. As a fan of the dancer, model, civil rights leader and icon it was so lovely to take in the beautiful art with piano playing in the background while enjoying really good comfort food and delicious wine. Would definitely recommend.

Great pretheatre

Good! Happy to come here again for my birthday!

It is a beautiful rich sexy space with tons of history on the walls. When you walk in they make you feel like family.

The service is really the most perfect i have experienced, period. They anticipate your needs, know their menus inside out, and things appear on the table with you noticing anyone was there!

The food is superb and you can eat light or heavy depending on your choices, but always delicious.

Excellent food and service. Well worth the price (not overly expensive)

Birthday celebration. Wonderful attention, staff sang happy birthday with piano man !

The service was great as well as the food. They greatest us promptly at the door and seated us right away as our reservation was made. We have eaten there many times and we always enjoy going there Very centrally located to the theater district and a short walk from Penn Station.

Amazing post-theatre spot. Great food. Vibrant atmosphere. The piano in the background makes for a unique dining experience at a place that’s a New York landmark to me.

Food was great! Loved the live music, but it was a bit loud. Decor is quite interesting.

Awesome place. Food. Décor. And, Jacques and Marie! Like Paris without the jet lag.

Consistent excellent food and service. Great brunch and dinner. We love our waiter Rudy.

Wonderful brunch live music is a great touch food is excellent always as is service!

I’ve been walking past Chez Josephines’s for years. I always thought it was great to have a restaurant named after this great African- American Icon. We were attending a play on the same block so I thought I’d try it. I really enjoyed the art work on the walls as well as the fact that they had her music playing. We went for brunch. We had the prefix special Eggs Florentine. We also had one of the best Bloody Marys I’ve ever had. Usually Bloody Marys have to be dressed up, not this one, it was perfect. I’d bring friends back for dinner their in the future just to experience their dinner menu...,I’m glad that it’s still thriving.

Meeting friends from England. We shouted them a great time by taking them to this restaurant. So cool, eclectic, different. The live music was excellent, the servers were friendly and happy and the food was delicious.

The food was delicious and the servings were ample. Service was attentive but not intrusive. The only negatives were that the glass for my Campari and soda was too large, with the result that the Campari was too diluted, and that the menu could be a bit more specific about ingredients.

Good food, great service, great setting, loud relentless piano

Service was outstanding and food was very good. Our first visit wont be our last!

On my third visit at this restaurant I feel like I can write an informed review...eating here is always a delight.
Love the legacy and the spectacular old ambiance.
Service is slooooow though and specially if you’re having lunch you must plan extra time. Today’s waiter was a bit unfriendly , not the norm for this restaurant.
Slim pickings on the menu for vegetarians.
Overall I love this sensual island of retro and baroque taste so unpredictability located in the midst of one of NYC’s busiest streets.

My son who was home from college was taking me to see American Son as my Christmas present & Chez Jo is always our go to place to eat before a play.....was wonderful as always!

Spent New Year's Eve with the staff of Chez Josephine and family. Was absolutely wonderful. The food, the drinks, the live music!

I had been to this restaurant previously and had a good experience. This experience was disappointing. We arrived to find a pris fix menu at $90/pp including 20% tip that had a limited selection. While the tuna tartare and lobster ravioli were good, the steak was tough and our guest, who ordered cod and asked that her serving be cooked 'well done' was served translucent fish. When she requested that the serving be taken back and cooked further her plate returned with half the original serving that was still not sufficiently cooked. Our waiter then tried to persuade her that 'this is how cod looks' -- bordering on rudeness. Desert was very good, but overall the experience of a ~$400 dinner for three (including a bottle of Domain Chandon that was overpriced at $60) was profoundly disappointing.

Nouvel an
Repas pitoyable assiette sales
Ravioles pas cuites dessert industriel comme la mousse de foie de canard
Viande correcte et prix exorbitant et je mâche mes mots
Honteux

Went for New Years. Great delicious meal as always. Service top notch!! As always. Ambiance with a live piano. Lovely time.

A fun restaurant at which to celebrate New Year's Eve!

Truly enjoyed every aspect. The place had a great ambience - interesting murals, varied menu, live piano music and attentive wait staff. My cocktail was delicious, appetizer of escargots were tender and yummy, salmon cooked to perfection, wine selection (by glass) was diverse, prices reasonable for the meal we were served. Not inexpensive, but appropriate.
Glad we were not seated close to the piano - that might have been too intrusive.

As usual, our food was delicious, the service was very good, the ambience delightful. We've been many times and will come many more. The friends with us will also make Chez Josephine a favorite brunch or dinner choice. Thanks.

Charming decor. Have been here once before and was looking forward a nice pre-show meal, but this experience was disappointing. Service was inattentive (while waiting an unusually long time for food to be served, our 4 coffee cups were left unfilled, and we finally had to ask). Chicken cutlets were tough and chewy, probably left sitting while our other dishes were slowly finished. Chicken was sent back and replaced by proper food.

Armosphere was great but whoever is in charge of the food is asleep at the wheel:
1) the red wine was frigid, nowhere near room temperature. I shouldn’t have been so polite to accept it with a smile.
2) the green mixed salad came out of a bag, you know the kind you buy all prepared at the food store? Stale
3) the mushroom ravioli was uncooked and very mushy. My Mom is Italian, I know pasta and this one not done properly.
Service was great, same with the atmosphere, but I won’t recommend it with so many other great places to eat in NYC.

Chez J has gone downhill. The bolognese is not near what it once was. The cheese appetizers are gone. No one seems to be in charge, and although I used to go often, they all treat everyone like a stranger. Maybe that’s because these days, no one comes back twice.

Chez Josephine is an outstanding restaurant. You are warmly greeted at the door usually by staff with a welcoming and friendly smile. The atmosphere is a truly unique New York experience. There is nothing “cookie cutter” about this restaurant. The decor is colorful and rich, and there is frequently a talented piano player singing soft show tunes and Broadway ballads. The menu is also unique and my favorites include the escargot appetizer, apple tart and the sirloin frites. For the adventurous, the calves liver is one of the best. The upstairs room is also fantastic for private events.

Terence Law

Great pre-theater menu. Very reasonable. Skate and venison especially good. Recommended.

As always we enjoyed the food, atmosphere and gracious staff. A real value in the theater district, convenient to Port Authority, Penn Station and subway lines. A great place to meet friends for a
tasty meal, conversation that can be heard and no rush to get us out.

Chez Josephine was merely ok. Food was bland and mediocre, despite an appetizing menu description. Skate fish would have been delicious but the oil it was fried in had an off taste. Dressing was distributed in giant mayonnaise-y globs on the endive salad. Boar pate was served on toasts fried in what tasted like oleo. Decor was fun but shabby. The whole restaurant and staff exuded an attitude of lack of care. We actually had a broken glass at our table when we sat down. When the waiter came by, he noticed and asked if it was broken when we sat down... like we had broken it in the minute between him seating us and coming back to fill our water. Overall not our best NY experience.

The restaurant was packed with tens of people waiting to be seated. It looks like the restaurant overbooked. We got seated about 30 minutes late. The service was very slow with waiters not able to handle customer requests. We had to wait close to an hour between appetizers and main course. Food was OK but not great. Management gave us a free bottle of champagne because we complained. On the plus side the music was great.