Oven – Not So Hot?

By on June 30, 2007 5:07 pm in Food

The much anticipated Oven at 60 Henry Street has been open for business since mid-week. People posting on restaurant website Chowhound are giving it mixed reviews:

"Peter" posted:

Walked by Oven last night and it was open and relatively full. (I skipped it and went to Petite Marche where we each had a solid Steak Frite)

Anyone been?

P.S. It's kind of odd. They have those wooden venetian blinds down — but rotated so you could see in — but it still blocked a lot of the view inside. We both got all the way past without even noticing it was open until one of us saw it out of the corner of our eye and doubled-back. They might want to do something about that.

"fishermb" adds: I walked by there around 9:30 last night and there were only people at 2 tables, it was dead. Might try it tonight, or will get around to it some time over the weekend.

Have you been? Planning?

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  • Pete

    ummm, not expecting great things but since when are two people walking by considered “reviews?”

  • Arthur_G

    i wish i had a chance to get their before all the third-day-open reviews arrived.

  • Jimbo

    from the bland food to the clueless service- oven is a bust…another abortion at the worst corner in bklyn heights.

    oh, is there any legal avenue available to compel those assholes to remove the scaffolding already?

  • timebandit

    hey folks
    went their on opening night, by accident , i didn’t know it was opening night, the inside of the place is rather stall and bland, the food really wasn’t spectacular if we were talking about a road side diner then i’d say it’s not bad but, for a dinner which i paid 80 bucks for two people on wednesday night ( two glasses of so so red wine)………it’s really a bust.

    i don’t think this place will last too long, especially behind that scaffolding

  • AvidEater

    I’m curious, since you has such stron impressions, what did you have to eat?

  • jason

    Road side diner?

  • CstConshuz

    Are Wednesday nights generally more expensive?

  • Bklyn Native

    First Impression:

    Walked by Oven this afternoon and peeked in and checked out the menu.

    #1. Way too expensive. I can get great pizza and antipasto at Casserta Vecchia on Smith for 30% less, same at Frannies in Parks Slope, same at Loucalis in Carroll Gardens (which is highly recommended).

    #2. So-so decor. If I’m going to be fleeced with high prices, I want to see some better decor.

    #3. #1 and #2 don’t encourage me to get to #3 which would be to actually try it.

  • curious george

    Skip it. Burgers from Five Guys, cheap and YUMMY!!!!!

  • http://www.hillsidedogs.org Matthew P

    Is Five Guys open???!!!

  • eat what?

    as one reader pointed out, a couple walking by does not make a review.

    frankly, the place looks quite nice — much better than the previous occupant, and i’ve heard only good things from several people who have been there.

    if you prefer a franchise burger joint to a locally-run restaurant with a distinctive flavor, good luck to you. you’ve got plenty of junk to choose from.

  • timebandit

    to respond to all the comments following mine, the food was not terrible, it was tolerable but for that price you expect more, the service was a bit confused, the wine list is actually distinct but for those prices you can eat somewhere in the city or at Savoia on Smith Street and get a reall top of the line dinner and atmosphere to boot,

    maybe they need time to settle in, i certainly do support any local independant place rather than a chain in our little corner of civility

  • Melissa

    My meal there was terrible and I don’t imagine ever returning.

  • fishermb

    I never claimed to be a review…?

    Anyways it seems they are definitely off to a slow start, I wound up eating at Noodle Pudding Friday night, and on the walk home around 9:30/10:00 noticed there were only people at 1 table (my previous comment on ChowHound was RE: Thursday night).

    I’m going to check out Oven with a friend tonight, mainly because I’m going out of town for a week, and who knows if this place will still be in business since it seems to be getting so-so reviews and I haven’t seen more than 4 people dining in there yet.

  • jason

    I had a great meal at Noodle Pudding last night but they were empty, as was Petite Marche, and Henry’s End too. While Oven was empty too, they did have more than four tables when I walked by, which was around 9:00. The busiest place on the block was the Ale House. My waiter at Noodle Pudding told me at has been slow as of late. Perhaps it’s the time of year?

  • any mouse

    I think this place is run by the same guy who serves the rubbery trash at busy chef. that would explain the overpriced, mediocre food.

  • Cranky

    I liked the food. The service was good. I thought it was a little pricey though.

  • Cranky

    La Petite Marche is still my favorite of all the newbies. Haven’t tried 5 guys yet.

  • landy

    Decided to try it last night (Sunday) and it wasn’t completely dead..i’d say there were about 5 tables full. Also I found the service to be pretty decent. But that’s really the only thing that is decent. The wine list actually has some really nice choices on it however I wouldn’t be compelled to spend $70 or $80 on a bottle in a place that feels like a candlelit citymarket. So we did end up getting a bottle of red wine, which arrived colder than white wine should be served…i didn’t say anything…i figured it would warm up a little, but i guess it never really had a chance with the ceiling vents blasting AC down onto the table. It was seriously arctic in this place and it wasn’t even hot out last night. The music didn’t help with the atmosphere either. I think tablecloths would help tremendously to warm up the space. Anyway…onto the food. We had a duck pizza with scallions and cucumber and a five cheese pizza. The duck pizza was actually good flavorwise, but the duck pieces were huge and spread out so you would only have duck on one bite. The five cheese pizza was actually awful. The tomato sauce was not seasoned AT ALL. It literally tasted like canned tomato paste, and there was so much of it that it overpowered the taste of the cheese. And finally this place is “closely affilliated” with busy chef and uncommon grounds. I heard it right out of the managers mouth. They even went over to uncommon grounds to run our credit card!!!! The same thing was done at busy chef a few weeks ago when my fiance tried it out. (stay away) Uncommon grounds also has one of the rudest “baristas” in new york. She greeted me with “what do you need?!” anyway these places are shady and i’ll never go into any of them again…3 strikes.

  • Bob Dobolina

    You mean shady like this?
    Read story

  • Jordy

    Why is it so difficult to get those goddam “corner of cranberry” losers out once and for all. Are they getting free rent or something?

  • http://adsformyself.blogspot.com Tim N.

    I know it’s kind of apples and oranges, but there is no reason to darken the doorway of this place with Fascati’s a stone’s throw away. It may not be haute cuisine, but it is excellent old-school pizza, fresh and well-prepared. I’ve lived in three boros (at one time on Arthur Ave in the Bronx) and Fascati’s may have the best restaurant sauce of any of the places I’ve been to. Delicious and authentic… as opposed to the corner of Cranberry, which by most accounts seems to be neither.

  • Jordy

    type in http://www.cornerofcranberry.com and see where it takes you…umm and donating to your daughters schools has little to do with any decision im going to make about supporting local restaurants.

  • martingould

    I don’t get what the big deal is about a website that links to another website. Is that supposed to be something bad?

  • ike

    h

  • not clueless

    “So we did end up getting a bottle of red wine, which arrived colder than white wine should be served…i didn’t say anything…i figured it would warm up a little”

    If you knew anything about wine, you’d know that red wine is supposed to be chilled a bit. I guess that you normally dine at the places that concentrate on everything else.

    While serving wine at proper temperatures isn’t everything in a restaurant, the food isn’t bad. The place hasn’t advertised all over the place. They may wish to have a soft opening, so that everybody has a chance to get used to everything. How many times have each and every one of us been to a brand new place and seen mass confusion? One too many for me.

    I have a feeling that once everybody that works there has the time to settle in, it will be great. You don’t like one big piece of duck on your slice of pizza?? Mention it to management and they will probably fix it. New places need time to work out the kinks.

    Anywho, I like the comfort of the place. Nothing feels too rushed and (I don’t know why I’m disagreeing with someone else) it isn’t that expensive (It’s usually pretty hard for 3 people to be full off of a good dinner and have a nice bottle of wine for $100 in NY). You don’t have to fight too hard to get to the place, and just blocks away is a great nighttime view of Manhattan and the Statue.

    Congrats on the opening. I hope to make it back there soon.

  • Kilgore

    It’s one thing to ask for time to work out kinks — but when you’re trying to open 3 restaurants at the same time, well, wehen’s it going to be done? Uncommon Grounds has a good atmosphere, so it would make sense to focus on that, plus there’s a need for a sit-down coffee place in the north.

  • landy

    in response to “not clueless” I am well aware of the temperature that red wine should be served..slightly chilled. As I said in my post it was served colder than white wine should be served…it was ice cold. And I normally dine at places that concentrate on proper wine service AND everything else…like the food.

  • JGirl

    has anyone been there this past week/weekend? has ‘oven’ been able to work-out any of the kinks?

  • not clueless

    That’s funny, Landy, because our red wine was just fine….both of the nights that we visited.

    Anywho, if I lived up there, I’d already have made it one of my weekly dining spots.

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