Wingate by Wyndham New York Midtown South/5th Ave in New York

It's one of those iconic places located in and near other iconic landmarks with it being situated in Bryant Park and right behind the famous New York Public Library. I wanted to try this establishment since it is iconic but I just never got a chance to until until I had a work lunch. Lunch is usually really packed so be sure to make reservations or get there early.

We sat on the rooftop with a nice view of Bryant Park and buildings overwhelming us from above. We ordered a bunch of salads and sandwiches for lunch. The food was standard- the salads were good and sandwiches nicely made. I think you could easily opted for a more economical version at the Wichcraft in Bryant Park, but for the view and atmosphere, Bryant Park Grill is nice.

If you want the chef to completely ignore your cooking instructions (for a hamburger mind you) this is the place to go because they gave me the best RAW hamburger I've ever had. I asked for it cooked medium and when I bit into I promise I heard it moo. To be fair, even though it was not cooked to the point where I wanted it, the burger was seasoned to perfection and the burger presentation was what you would expect form an high quality artesian burger restaurant. Incidentally the price of the burger reflects the quality in presentation and seasoning, it's like $18, but the fries were spectacular so that almost justified the high price. Also if fries are what you are into I'm recommending going to this place just for those. The happy hour prices were quite good for NYC and the draft selection was extensive. The service was a little lacking (because of one specific waiter who will remain nameless) but I wouldn't read too much into that. It was a busy day and our waiter seemed nice enough, just bad at his job. He was fairly slow, even with the traffic, and he forgot some of our orders which were pretty simple. I suspect this was a one off occurrence but still it was pretty annoying. Overall JD's provided an average meal (mostly because of the chef decided not to do what was asked of him) for a normal NYC price.