Boucarou

You know that terrible feeling when your worst fears are confirmed? That’s what it felt like entering this club, when I instinctively knew this was going to be an disastrous experience. I should heeded all the warning signs of an infinite fail, but I sucked it up anyway and gave this venue a shot.
Despite the fact I was told at the door, I wouldn’t be paying a cover I was heavily pressured by the hostess sitting in her high chair and staring at her podium. I told her that I was here for a party, she insisted that I pay a $ 10 cover. I eventually said, «I only have $ 1.00, now what?» And she mentioned there was an ATM around the corner. And like the movies I said, «What’s that over there?!?» and while she turned her head, I walked another direction. The door folks just aren’t that bright.
My Saturday evening here witnessed a super crowded club. While attempting to squeeze through the crowd and navigating the dance floor, I essentially rubbed up on everyone next to me, and as a result getting more action than the geezers running this joint. The ventilation wasn’t great and due to the excessive crowding, there wasn’t much room to dance either. I would also like to add the DBag level was at an all time high and the crowd was not exactly a stellar group of individuals.
VIP tables are situated on the sides of the room and are a complete rip off. My parter of folks were annoyed that people from all over were essentially hogging their space and how the view was severely skewed since everything was waist level. That’s not very VIP if you ask me.
People complained, they didn’t listen. Then people stopped coming and up goes the closed sign.

Avoid Boucarou!!!
I can’t believe I’m wasting my time writing this. Boucarou is a sh*t hole… and yet I feel somewhat obligated to recommend to everyone that you avoid this place like you would a $ 2 herpes-​ridden crack whore.
First off… my friends and I came here because they advertised a weekly karaōke night which supposedly included a complimentary open bar. Lies! The minute I asked about this special, both the bartender and manager looked at me like I was on crack… even after I showed a printed flier with «complimentary open bar» written on the back. Don’t believe me? Go to their website and see for yourself.
They subsequently tried to ‘up-​sell’ us with some open bar VIP deal. Whoa… wait a second pilgrim. How did complimentary open bar all of a sudden become a VIP bottle service special? No thanks.
Secondly… when did food and drinks get so expensive for an East Village venue? Boucarou belongs in the Meat Packing District with all the other over-​priced pretentious fly-​by-​night lounges. We hang out in the East Village because bars in this area are laid-​back and relatively inexpensive. Locals know this… which explains why you’ll only see people from outside of Manhattan (aka B&T and Eurotrash) here.
Last but not least… the staff is unreasonably patronizing with attitude to boot. No… the customer is never right here and you should feel privileged that they let you inside to bask in their glory. Whatever… I’m paying good money so they should be kissing MY ass. The bartender has an attitude… and the manager is simply an angry woman with a chip on her shoulder. Clearly they must be related to the owner (Patrice Bihina-​Parade) because I can’t believe anybody would have half the mind to hire such condescending and rude people.
Ok… maybe I had one bad experience but look at all the other bad reviews by everyone else? Are we all wrong?
Avoid Boucarou!!!

Location is good… so why oh why does this place draw the b&t in everytime? I don’t know why, can’t explain it…
I’ve been here four or five times. Each time I’ve experienced (a) too much drama at the door despite being on the list, a weak crowd upon entrance and © a DJ that was spinning off of whatever radio mix he/​she was streaming…
ugh, please god don’t align the stars that lead me to end up here again… at least not anytime soon. please?!

Seeing these bad reviews, I guessI will start by heavily disclaiming this review: I got in free and got free drinks.
So, it was about 2am on Saturday and the bouncer was in a flirty mood, so he offered to give us free drink vouchers. Having nothing to lose we decided to pounce. The place had maybe 20 people in it, and the bouncers had closed off the dance floor, so only the bar and lounge area were open. The music was still going though and we decided to start up our own dance party. The music was okay, standard danceable stuff, hip hop etc. The bartender was nice and gave us any drink we wanted for free with the voucher. I liked the décor, black and white mainly, and the drinks were solid — strong enough so that you don’t feel cheated. Naturally I will need to return to give an unbiased opinion next time…

I went here last night for a book group meeting and initially it was perfect — the music was soft and the place was pretty empty, so it was easy to hear the conversation. They also have a pretty decent happy hour for wine — 2 for 1 from 6−9pm. The servers were super friendly also. So great first impression.
I was careful to ask the bartender as soon as I walked in if I could get 2 different glasses of wine and still get the happy hour special, as long as they were both the same price, and he said that was totally fine. My first glass, the Malbec, was great, and for my second glass I asked about the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon and ended up asking for the Cab. They accidentally brought out the Chardonnay, but it wasn’t a big deal so I didn’t ask them to fix the order. At the end of the evening, though, the bill was more expensive than it should have been, and a woman who seemed like the manager tried to insist that my second glass of wine had been a more expensive white than the Chardonnay I’d received. It was literally a $ 2 difference, and she ended up fixing the bill so it was fine, but my problem was with her attitude. She said the 2 for 1 special only applied if you got two glasses of the same type of wine and that we should remember that for future visits, acting the whole time like we were the ones that made the initial error and never acknowledging that we’d been misinformed by the bartender to begin with. It was also kind of ridiculous that she tried to tell me I got some other white than the Chardonnay — I drank the damn glass, so shouldn’t I be in a better position to know what I just consumed?
I want to like this place, I really do. It had pretty décor, comfortable couches, live music on Tuesday nights, fabulous international music playing not too loudly in the background, and both the servers who helped us were really nice… what’s not to love, right? Especially for future book group meetings. But the manager with her attitude left a really bad impression, I guess. I’ve not written off this place yet… I’ll update when I go back.

hey! i like this place. It’s hard to find something a little less kitschy and a little more ‘sexy loungey’ in the LES and this place has it.
Music is a decent mix of everything but as you get into the early morning hours, it turns into a whole lotta House music. When I went there was a drummer drumming to the beat, and I love dancing to drums so that was a plus too!
Crowd is cool — an interesting mix of hipsters and hip-​hop lovers which could really only happen in this part of the city.
Good place to go if you’re not feeling the more hipster-​like bars in the area — plus no cover (at least not that night) and lots of room to dance. I’ll definitely go again — although to be honest, it has more of a club vibe than I generally prefer.

Boucarou is the worst bar I have been to in NYC.
First off, there is a $ 10 cover. You would think that if they charge this outrageous price that it would be a big, roomy space. In reality, it is a long narrow room that is separated from the VIP section to a much smaller bar area.
Next, they force you to check your coat which costs an additional $ 3. Here was where I had a big problem. I checked both my jacket and scarf. When the night mercifully ended I was just given back my jacket. I told them I had a scarf as well. They said the jacket was all that was on the hanger. When I said that maybe it fell on the ground, they without checking said it hadn’t to which I replied «So that’s it then?» to which the coat checker tersely replied «yes.»
The bar is a joke. First off, it is tiny and despite the fact that they cram 3 bartenders back there it still takes them 10 – 20 minutes to finally serve you your $ 10 watered down mixed drink or $ 8 beer. Speaking of beers, my beer clearly had not been refrigerated and my buddy’s beer tasted like it had expired about 3 months ago. On top of that they add the tip onto your bill so that you can’t give them the tip they actually deserve.
Finally, the «dance floor» is so crammed that there is no way to dance and the DJ plays your typical top 40.
It’s the LES. There are about 200 other bars that are within walking distance that are all probably better than Boucarou. That includes the market where you can buy a 6-​pack and drink it on the sidewalk.

Threw a surprise party here last Fri night.
It was a bit difficult to arrange — the event coordinator was unresponsive to emails/​phone calls, he re-​negotiated pricing of drinks, gave a hard time in reserving seating area, limited the time frame of the drink deal, and false promises to not give anyone coming into the party a hard time.
The party started at 10:30. By the time I arrived with the birthday boy at 11:00pm, I was given a hard time to enter. People that arrived (and dressed nicely) prior to this was told that the «space was too crowded», which was false after entering. People that arrived after 12 was told the «list» was closed. There was no list.
When we were ready to leave, there was a bit of a scuffle with the waitress to accommodate the original deal. I had to hunt down the event coordinator in order to have this done, which to their credit, was adjusted pretty quickly.
The space itself is nice but the crowd is a huge mix of meatheads to the meat packing esque. Very strange.
My guests had a good time but mainly because we were able to get about 50 people to come out and create our own party.
The DJ was not bad.

Ughh Ughh Uggh … I generally want to be fair in a review but this place has given me little choice. Throughout my experience at Boucarou I kept saying to myself it would get better but it was one mess up after the other.
First lets start with the bar (a personal pet peeve of mine). Listen up bartenders when folks order a premium bourbon you pour in and old fashion glass or a rocks glass anything else REQUIRES you to go back to school. Furthermore when you ask for it neat that means NO ice. Even the bartender at TGIF know the difference. So strike one … you would think it get better when you politely send it back with the waitress. Nope… the bartender actually takes the ice out and pours it into a plastic tumbler. A) your premium drink is now watered down B) it is in a PLASTIC tumbler!
So let move on to the service which was just plain poor. The orders had to be given multiple times… They forgot to take our menus… Wrong orders and we had to ask for water throughout the whole meal. Strike two
The service was so bad at this point we started chuckling and ended up connecting to the next table as we both began to comment on the poor service as we ordered desert which in true form to the evening came out without our apéritif or coffee … like i said it got worse.
Strike three occurred after we spoke to the manager who fairly tried to correct the situation by giving us a comp on our dessert and coffee. At this point I’m feeling like Ok they had a bad night … Oh no … they comp us but charged us for stuff we canceled or did not order … Strike three.
I get that some places in NYC can be a little snooty and its par for the course but generally at least the service is decent, However for a too cool for school place it was a disappointment.

So I go because I WANT to feel like I’m not in Manhattan anymore, and then I get there, and I dance for a little, and then the guy on the couches with the bongo drums starts freaking me out a little, and I end up leaving because I start to get scared that I’m really somewhere other than Manhattan.
It’s a pretty cool place as it’s different for the LES — if you go earlier it’s still got that half bar/​half club vibe which can be cool — if you go later it’s ALL club. Reminds me of spring break 2005 in Acapulco when the flaming bottles are opened on the dance floor. The DJ is sexy and he knows it so he lets girls in the booth to stroke his ego further, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Had dinner here last night. While the company was great :) the restaurant will never have the honor (ha) of my presence again.
Walking in for a 7pm reservation there were maybe 6 total other customers in the restaurant. The place looked like one of the bars that probably looks good in the dark, but looks like a frat house basement with the lights on. And it smelled funny — musty even. The back part of the room looked like it had been cleared out for a bar mitzvah and really made the room even more unpleasant.
The two stars above are for the friendly prompt service, the small but impressive (and inexpensive) wine list and the Tuna Pica, the appetizer we split.
Tuna Pica-​Tuna, Black Currents, Avocado, Almonds, Pickled Cucumber, Soy Glaze and Gyoza Skin. This was really light and delicious, even though the currents were raisins and the almonds tasted more like peanuts. It came plated as a glorified napoleon with the ingredients resting atop crackers in a mini tower of piza. The cucumbers were pretty unnecessary, but the dish was enjoyable.
Sadly, our main courses were not up to the same standard. My companion had red Snapper, with Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Kalamata Olives, Roasted Artichokes and Shellfish Tomato Broth. This dish came out luke warm, and the fish was so-​so. The potatoes were the best part. My main course (actually from the small plates menu) was the Pan Seared Sea Scallops with Organic Baby Greens, Cherry Tomatoes, Yuzu Tobiko, Truffle Oil. The best part of this dish was the Yuzu Tobiko. The scallops were over seasoned and over cooked, the baby greens were in a Dijon type vinaigrette which didn’t match well with the seaweed and Asian type influences, the truffle oil was non existent and the cherry tomatoes were not cherry, they were regular slices.
I miss star foods. :)

this place really doesn’t even deserve the one star. my friend had made a reservation for ten here for her birthday and we casually walked up to the doorman, who gave us a ridiculously hard time. We had a pretty diverse group ready to go in.
Basically, the doorman had the audacity to say that we wouldn’t like it in the club; it was too «urban» for us. Racial profiling at its best, people.
Just don’t go here. The doorman is racist.

If you were the DJ at this place on April 12^th, 2008
— Please get another job. Your technical skills are horrendous.
Learn to fade and cut.
I didn’t buy a drink cause we had a table– which is really how you should do it cause it was crowded.
I needed a name to get in even with 3 ladies accompanying me and I was dressed nice (the ladies I was with told me so).
Music was ehh, atmosphere was typical yuppies thinking they are cool and the place was just Ok as far as space.

I came here with friends and had an excellent dinner. We started off with the truffle dusted french fries and it was the best fries we ever ate! We were practically licking the plate because it was so good. I ordered the lamb chops and it was awesome! I had a bite of the wild king salmon and the sea scallops and they were delicious as well. Everything was beautifully prepared. We got some chocolate cake or mousse for dessert and it was okay. It was a bit too rich and sweet for me.
Service could have been better. We found a tiny bug in my friend’s wine and when it was replaced, the wine tasted watered down so she had to ask for another glass again.

Ehhhh it was more so so than a bottle of stale non-​sparkling water.
I thought that the mandatory coat-​check was just plain foolish — considering that they decided to use the steps in the middle of the goddamn place (which caused an obstruction as large lines of people were forced to pay $ 3)
The actually design of the bar is ridiculous also — old school ridiculous — as in stupid. The elongated bar with 2 people working behind it is located next to the entrance. You have to fight your way to the general area where you can oogle at the VIPs as they have their «flaring» bottles delivered to them by a dancing waitress.
I was especially fond of the well drinks, which despite being watered down cost me $ 11

Well depending on what you go here for my review varies.
For Dinner — 4 Stars
For Lounge — 1 Star
Dinner — Very tasty experimental dishes. The truffle risotto with the lamb of rack was mouthwatering. The lamb just ok. The filet was tasty. The filet spring roll was good and interesting. The nori tuna app was bland, tasted like chicken. But the rainbow and eel sushi rolls were surprisingly very good. So food, thumbs up.
But then at 11p it turns into a lounge…
Lounge — Ugh… like I get it, you’re a sleek nice looking lounge with upscale atmosphere, but drop the attitude. The staff is rude, rushy, and unaccomodating. PLUS THE SCENE IS CORNY! The DJ was rocking to Paula Abdul «Straight Up» and the crowd was young and yeah corny summed it up pretty good.
Too bad, because its a pretty and romantic place, but the overall experience was, ill never go back.

I was not so into it. From the snobby host man at the door to the bland music, it did not impress. Bottle service and a tired flare as the cork when it comes to your table are not so much my scene. Coat room was the half landing to the side, very open to the room helmed by one inattentive girl. Didn’t make me feel safe leaving anything there. Perhaps going back for an earlier first stop dinner would be better, but the location and prices will probably keep that from happening. Oh well.
It has a fun name though — sounds like Caribou. That’s worth a second star ;)

A group of us went Sat evening, booked thru opentable. It was ok, agree with another reviewer that eating in a lounge position is not the best. Have to say the food is excellent. But its expensive.
Our waitress offered to have a seating area for us to drink in after dinner. But she failed to come up with the goodies and we left. Actually she told us we have to leave as another party was coming at 10.30. That sucks.

1÷13÷08: Went back to Boucarou for a birthday dinner. What I liked about it was that there was enough space to accomodate over 20 people and also it was pretty quiet around 8 pm so it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
The cons: I think Boucarou should decide if it wants to be a lounge/​club or if it wants to be a restaurant. Like one of those phones that can play music, receive phone calls, take pictures, it does everything but does nothing well.
First, there was the matter of seating. Boucarou only offers lounge chair style seating, meaning that all the tall people were cramped and everyone else was hunched over. It was hard to have a conversation because the music was too loud. One of the doormen made us check in our jackets even though at around 8pm there was no one there but our group. The kitchen was not equipped to handle such a large group, resulting in late food or food not coming out at all.
On top of it all — the food wasn’t as good as I expected. The sushi wasn’t fresh and the salmon that I ordered was practically drowning in cream and butter.
Plus, as we were leaving, they had no idea which coats belonged to who and that took about 10 minutes to clear up.
I don’t think I would go back again for the food or the experience.
In 2007: Awesome place. Great music, great drinks, great people. Arrived here after 10 pm. I had no problems getting in.

Friday and Saturday night this place is the best kept secret in the LES. Just opened in March ’07 by DJ Patrice Parade with exec chef Malik Fall, this place is brilliance from start to finish. My only qualm is the short, staple-​driven wine list but the exquist fusion cuisine and incredible scene on the weekends more than makes up for it.
For dinner, i highly recommend the grilled wild salmon – its seasoned to perfection, and the west african inspiration is delectable. Also, the vegetarian udon is to die for and is SPICY SPICY SPICY! yum yum yum.
Come for dinner and stay for dancing after hours. The DJs are incredible and when the city finally gives this place a permit for the retractable roof, this secret will totally be out of the bag! it’s luxurious without being too over-​the-​top, and the music is energizing. If you’re someone who loves experiencing culture, you might trade in your traditional bar night for an outing in the East Village.
Its my latest obsession!