New York's Park Room Unveils A New Menu

Created by executive chef Lawrence Sloves (he joined the hotel's culinary team last month), the new menu at the Park Room is full of sumptuous classics and a couple of surprising, innovative additions.

Offerings include a luscious crab cake BLT, a melt-in-your-mouth lamb burger served on a brioche bun, and what Sloves describes as a "French take on nachos," a warm potato chip creation made with melted Gruyère, pulled pork, and Shiitake mushrooms.

If you want something simple like, say, a chicken Caesar, you're also in the right place — the chicken on that Caesar is juicy and succulent, not dry like it is on many salads.

With an entire wall of large windows along the northern-most side of the restaurant, the Park Room overlooks the pond at Central Park, and the view is stunning (yes, even to a native New Yorker like me).

Once upon a time, hotel restaurants may have been considered a pricey place to lunch, but 18 bucks for a burger and $22 for a basil crusted Atlantic cod is pretty standard these days, unless you're eating at a diner or leaning up against the food truck you ordered from.

I strongly suggest dining on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, when 100-year-old piano playing legend Irving Fields will be tickling the ivories. Seriously, the guy's a legend, and he'll shuffle over to your table and take special requests.