Peacock Alley at The Waldorf-Astoria, Park Avenue and E. 50th Street in Midtown

[DonRocks]

"Inspired by the grand social promenade that connected the original Waldorf and Astoria hotels, Peacock Alley today creates an environment in which 'to see and be seen,'" the Waldorf-Astoria website says.

Well hell, that's enough for me. I was thinking of catching the Acela up there for a $17 Waldorf Salad, but there's just so much to explore on this menu that I was hoping someone could guide me through it.

Shall it be breakfast, for a $12 bowl of Frosted Flakes, $16 Traditional Steel Cut Hot (!) Oatmeal with "silvered" almonds (and at that price, they'd better be), or the $28 Poached Eggs Benedict with "brekafast" potatoes? Washed down by a $9 glass of "V's" juice, or an $8 cup of "orang" pekoe, or maybe "gyptian chamomile," tea?

Or perhaps brunch, with its "Benedict Station" featuring "vegetables pork loin," then maybe an "orrechiette" pasta salad, and a side of roasted breakfast potatoes with "Julianne" peppers & onions.

Maybe instead I could sleep in and enjoy lunch, starting with a $22 Chilled "Pekeeytoe" Crab & "CaviarCake," moving on to a $29 Grilled Chicken Brie & "Portabella" Sandwich (can let this one slide), or the ever-fashionable $20 Panini Caprese with "buffala" mozzarella, all wrapped up with a $14 Chocolate Mousse Bar with "rasberry" coulis, or the lemon-scented "Crème Brule?"

Better still, small plates featuring a $22 Peekytoe Crab Cake with "schiracha" mayo, or the $16 "Artisinal" Cheese Selection highlighted by a "Medium flavored goat’s milk cheese made from Northwestern Spain" (not in; from).

You know what? Maybe I'll just stay home and mail them a business card.

[clayrae]

Don, this is too funny!! Here is the story: we are budget travelers, especially when it comes to NYC, we go for NYC, not to sit around in a fancy hotel room. But, I still like fancy hotel rooms, and so when I saw that we could get a room at the Waldorf=Astoria for half the usual price I couldn't resist trying it out. So we paid $275/night for the room, and got a $50 credit per night which could be used on food or other incidentals.

So, the hotel room: totally not worth it. Nice enough, but not $175 nicer than the rooms we usually get at the Comfort or Days Inn.

And the food. We only ordered off of the room service menu (as there are too many actually fabulous places to eat out and about in NYC) and I did not notice all of the spelling and grammar errors there!! All room service has a 18% gratuity and $5.25 service charge added to the bill:

I ordered breakfast, which was two scrambled eggs, potatoes, 2 strips of bacon, toast with butter and jam, coffee with cream and orange juice. Cost: $53.58

Late night snack was the Waldorf salad and weird panna cotta peanut butter ice cream sundae thing. Cost: $46.15

To make sure we had spent all of the $100 credit my boyfriend had a can of Diet Coke out of the minibar. Cost = $7.62

IN.SANE. If we weren’t laughing so hard about the whole thing we would have cried!

So it was fun, and we will never do it again. We ate lots of actually fabulous things in NYC, including multiple stops at the Grand Central Market for cheese and things from Murray’s, insanely good stuff from Earls Beer and Cheese (Double-Cream Brie, Blackberry Mostarda on Brioche grilled cheese and The Earl’s Eggo Waffle Gourmet Style: Foie Gras, Aged Cabot Cheddar, Coffee-Cured Bacon, and Syzzurpy Goodness) and Stilton Fondue with pears and dried beef for lunch at Artisanal Bistro.

[DonRocks]

Don, this is too funny!! Here is the story: we are budget travelers, especially when it comes to NYC, we go for NYC, not to sit around in a fancy hotel room. But, I still like fancy hotel rooms, and so when I saw that we could get a room at the Waldorf=Astoria for half the usual price I couldn't resist trying it out. So we paid $275/night for the room, and got a $50 credit per night which could be used on food or other incidentals.

So, the hotel room: totally not worth it. Nice enough, but not $175 nicer than the rooms we usually get at the Comfort or Days Inn.

And the food. We only ordered off of the room service menu (as there are too many actually fabulous places to eat out and about in NYC) and I did not notice all of the spelling and grammar errors there!! All room service has a 18% gratuity and $5.25 service charge added to the bill:

I ordered breakfast, which was two scrambled eggs, potatoes, 2 strips of bacon, toast with butter and jam, coffee with cream and orange juice. Cost: $53.58

Late night snack was the Waldorf salad and weird panna cotta peanut butter ice cream sundae thing. Cost: $46.15

To make sure we had spent all of the $100 credit my boyfriend had a can of Diet Coke out of the minibar. Cost = $7.62

IN.SANE. If we weren’t laughing so hard about the whole thing we would have cried!

So it was fun, and we will never do it again. We ate lots of actually fabulous things in NYC, including multiple stops at the Grand Central Market for cheese and things from Murray’s, insanely good stuff from Earls Beer and Cheese (Double-Cream Brie, Blackberry Mostarda on Brioche grilled cheese and The Earl’s Eggo Waffle Gourmet Style: Foie Gras, Aged Cabot Cheddar, Coffee-Cured Bacon, and Syzzurpy Goodness) and Stilton Fondue with pears and dried beef for lunch at Artisanal Bistro.

I don't know why your Facebook post inspired me to go digging, but the deeper I dug, the funnier it got - would you post your picture of the Waldorf Salad here?

In 1989, I had a Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna that was about on par with your Waldorf Salad.

Once you're there, you have to do it - you just have to, even though you know in advance that you're going to get hosed.

Your $53.58 breakfast *was* for two orders, right?

Trivia: The Waldorf-Astoria was the first hotel to offer room service.

[clayrae]

Here it is, in all its glory, The Waldorf Salad.

Yes! Room service, the Waldorf Salad, and apparently (I haven't been able to verify this) they popularized, if not invented, Red Velvet Cake.

And no, the boyfriend isn't a breakfast eater (except for Diet Coke) so that was the price for breakfast for one...