Tribeca

Having heard rave reviews about TriBeCa in Giffnock, decided to give this one a try as it worked out better location-​wise at the time and thinking it would be as good as I’d been recommended. However, I was wrong.
For a bank holiday Saturday around noon I was surprised that it wasn’t busier (in hindsight this should have been the first clue) since they don’t take reservations before 5pm. We were seated immediately and offered a beverage while we waited on the rest of our guests joining us but I can honestly say I’ve never had to wait so long for a drink before.
After the rest of the group arrived we had the same issue with the food. It was a particularly long wait, especially with the restaurant being half full at best. The food was mediocre and not nearly as good as expected. The hollandaise sauce was in a word bizarre. It didn’t taste like any other one I’d had before and not in a good way. The French toast was a good sized portion, however, the only sweetness in the ‘vanilla frosted’ French toast was a splash of icing sugar across the middle of the slices like an afterthought with a jug of maple syrup on the side. This meant the French toast egg ‘batter’ wasn’t sweet and didn’t g well with the sweetness of the maple syrup, making for an unenjoyable brunch dish. Perhaps if the ‘batter’ was sweetened and possibly with some cinnamon added it would have been a more tasty option or served without the almost forgotten icing sugar and with tomato ketchup and salt instead. Also, the «drizzle of French butter» was nowhere to be found.
Overall this was a pretty disappointing experience. Staff were polite but not particularly warm and friendly, the wait was far too long for a restaurant that wasn’t busy and the food was not enjoyable. Won’t be returning in a hurry!

TriBeCa is one of our regular treat dinners/​lunch/​brunch meals.
My partner really enjoys the meals there, and I will say the portions are quite sizeable.
Having been a few times, there was a time when they weren’t busy and our order was forgotten about (offered a snow blizzard but I would’ve preferred an offer of a fiver off the bill).
There’s always a waitress/​supervisor (?) there who’s a bit pass remarkable on what you order. It can get a bit irritating. (I ordered a cherry coke and the reply from her was «yuck» :/​)
However, on our most recent visit — service and food was fab. Although they had no chai for tea or a latte but I’ll put that down to it being between Christmas and New Year.
Also a bit cold this visit, but décor is really nice and they’ve tweaked the menu. Nice

I would give this a zero star if I could. Took an hour to get our food, another half hour for the cocktails to come out, and I’m not sure how this could be advertised as an American food joint!
Burger with bacon, but ‘back’ bacon — clearly never been to America before. Chicken strips for my toddler was burnt to a crisp, and my wife’s fried chicken and waffles was basically the same burnt chicken strips with cold waffles and a gravy (???) that had no taste and was so thin. Hmm… Not sure who made this menu!
Needless to say, never to return.

We had got some ITISON vouchers for this place. It was for a build your own burger. My partner is gluten free so we tend to look into this before we commit. They had a gluten free roll which we were very happy about. So we bought the vouchers.
You normally can’t really go wrong with a burger. I’m sorry to say they did. You can pick your meat/​veg option then your roll or no roll and then get 3 toppings for your burger then add a sauce. So there was 4 of us in our party. I had asked for no bun but the lettuce wrap and asked for double bacon. When my burger got to me, my lettuce was wilted with the heat from the hot plate it had sat under. I was missing bacon and mine and my partners coleslaw was actually hot! I had to send them back…
Everyone at the table had a separate portion of chips that were slightly warm. When I initially asked to upgrade my chips to sweet potato fries the waiter informed me that we would have chips to share and I would only be able to order a separate portion of sweet potato fries which I did and was then informed that they had run out so I didn’t get them anyway. However, that wasn’t the case when the food came out as all our chips were separate.
There only seems to be 3 waiting staff on and the restaurant was rather full. Which was probably the reason our meals came out nearly cold.
After we had finished our meal we weren’t offered tea, coffee or desert of any kind. I’m not sure I would have taken them up on it after the meal but it’s nice to be asked.

A place I’d heard so much about but never had the chance to go until now. We went for Sunday brunch to try the famous TriBeCa pancakes to see what all the fuss was about.
It was absolutely rammed, we waited 45 minutes for a table. There’s a lot to choose from on the menu but I had my heart set on pancakes. In the mean time I admired the décor and soaked in the vibe, everything about it just feels New York, I like it.
The pancakes are served with a side of maple syrup and whatever else you want. Mine came with chocolate chips which I didn’t order but I wasn’t complaining. Unfortunately, the pancakes failed to live up to the hype. They were cold and didn’t even taste fresh. I didn’t finish them.
I hope TriBeCa isn’t one of those places people say they like just because everyone else likes it. Despite the service being a bit slow and my pancakes being a major let down, the food around me did look good. So I’m not writing this place off yet. I’ll be back to give it a second chance.

I’ve heard a lot about Tribeca and finally visited today. Unfortunately it wasn’t as good as I’ve heard.
I was very hungry, so went for the pancakes. My first gripe was that near £8 for three pancakes is really pushing it (come on, these things cost pennies to make), especially because you need to pay even more for additional items! But alright. They arrived, and as Hannah R previously pointed out, they are solid lumps of carbs! I managed to eat one and had to call it quits. Way too heavy for my liking and I was expecting light and fluffy pancakes. The additional items are a bit of a joke — £2 for two pieces of bacon? I had a look around and noticed some people went for berries, which is honestly about seven blueberries, four blackberries and three strawberries. I wouldn’t mind paying extra for the bacon or berries if I got a reasonable portion for it.
The service was a real let down. I’m reluctant to complain about bad service but found the service downright rude. There was a queue when I arrived and one of the waitresses was whizzing around — she was clearly busy, but she didn’t acknowledge me or say, «hi there, I’ll be with you in a few minutes». She didn’t acknowledge anyone else either. When people are queuing to be seated, surely it’s only polite to welcome them? On reflection, I should have gone elsewhere. When I was seated, she was uninterested and didn’t actually look at me once. My partner ordered a sandwich of some sort but it wasn’t available and instead of apologising and offering an alternative, he was simply told «we don’t have that». I chose one of the smoothies and it was pretty gross — really watery and just not enjoyable. I would have sent the it back but couldn’t get hold of any serving staff for the life of me, as they seemed to make a point of not engaging in eye contact, and our waitress didn’t check on us once. We were served by a friendly guy when paying the bill and after watching him serve other tables, he seemed friendly and approachable, so it seems we just had a bad experience with our waitress.
The music is way too loud, or at least far too loud for a place that’s supposedly all about that laid-​back brunch vibe. Aside from that, it’s not that Tribeca is awful — the food is passable (I guess), but overpriced and the portion sizes are way too big for my liking. I know that’s the theme, but I think a lot of food goes to waste, which is a shame. It’s worth trying, maybe I just stopped by on a bad day, but it’s enough to make me not go back.

I made a promise to myself when I first became a Unilocaler that I would never write a bad review. However, promises are made to be broken, so here it goes…
I had a dream last night that involved pancakes. It also involved Ryan Gosling in a hard hat, but I edited that part out when recounting the tale to my boyfriend this morning. Being the good egg that he is, John offered to take me round the corner to Tribeca in order to fulfill my pancakey fantasies.
Now the staff are very pleasant and attentive, and the restaurant is bright and comfortable. The menu is quite large and gives you ample choice of both sweet and savory brunch options, but naturally I made a B-​line for the pancakes, which promise to be stacked high and as fluffy as they come. Being a glutton, and seeing as I wasn’t paying, I asked for the chocolate chip and coconut pancakes with a pot of berries on the side, while John ordered the full cooked breakfast.
What arrived was three lukewarm pancakes with ¼ of a Bounty bar sliced up on the side of the plate. Oh, and three blueberries, a couple of strawberries and a token blackberry constituted my «pot of berries». These weren’t really the buttery, pillow-​soft pancakes of my dreams, rather a solid lump of carbs that made me feel hideously sick after a few bites. John’s breakfast looked much more grand than mine, but on closer inspection the plate was swimming in oil and grease.
As I watched the man I regularly describe as a «human bin» push his anemic looking sausage round the plate and try to guilt me into relieving him of one of his three poached eggs, I was saddened that this hadn’t really been the indulgent and hedonistic feast I had hoped for. Where I had envisaged my stack of pancakes filled with shards of fresh coconut and molten chocolate chips, instead i’d been served a fun-​sized chocolate bar and paid £3 extra for the privilege. Don’t even get me started on that aforementioned «pot» of berries…
Add to this a cold latte, a not-​so-​fresh tasting glass of OJ, and our bill came to £30. As a starving art student, my boyfriend can barely afford to be splurging £30 on a sub-​par meal anyway, but £30 on a breakfast that neither of us even made a dent in? Unforgivable! I was wracked with guilt.
The server informed us as we were paying that they’re bringing in a new menu soon, with crayfish and brioche and a wider selection of salads, but with tastier and better-​priced brunch menus available in the Westend I don’t see how this would tempt me to go back.
(as an aside — when I got lost en route to the toilets, our server told me to go down the stairs and I could find them there. I went down the stairs and stood for a good 2 – 3 minutes trying to work out which of the two doors I should go through. «Am I a Time Square or a Hudson Avenue? What does that even mean? I mean, I know that gender isn’t binary, but this is some proper abstract nonsense!» …Just as I was starting to get panicked, I did a 180 and was confronted with two very standard «male» and «female» toilet doors. Oh how we chuckled.)

The décor is an odd mismatch of the classy cool vibe the Richmond had going and a cheap faux American dinner. The beautiful mirrors had been covered with pics of New York. The cool industrial lighting of the Richmond is still there along with the ‘R’ mosaic at the front door, but dotted around the walls are American style posters and licence plates. The seats were comfy and the tables were large enough for the massive plates, but the tables are so squashed in that I had to apologise to 4 tables on my way out as I bashed every single one of them over the back of the head… so embarrassing and a cardinal sin in restaurants in my opinion.
The staff were pleasant enough but slow. It took someone 10 minutes to come take our food order (there were only about 6 tables in) then our food took 40 minutes to arrive (yes FORTY!!) and then by the time we wanted the bill the restaurant was full and it was impossible to catch anyone’s eye to ask for it so we had to go to the counter to pay.
Here is where my real problem with TriBeCa comes in… I had heard things about the pancakes being served out of the TriBeCa restaurants, but never one to believe stories or hype I decided to ask them directly so I could hear straight from the horse’s mouth. Now on the menu they are described as ‘Fresh Buttermilk Pancakes’ — I asked the waitress if they’re made fresh to order? The response — No, they’re reheated! My issue is this, they are not selling fresh pancakes they are selling reheated pancakes so I feel the menu is lying to me right off the bat.
They are not offering fresh pancakes and it is in fact being very loose with the truth which I have a pretty big problem with.
I ordered the breakfast 5 egg omelette which consisted of sausage, bacon, hash brown & ranch dressing with toast. I asked for the ranch dressing on the side. After the 40 minute wait it eventually appeared and the portions were MASSIVE! In the omelette were 2 cut up cheap pork sausage, I have zero issue with this because I quite like cheap pork sausages, 2 rashers of well cooked bacon and 2 frozen hash browns and this was served with 2 door stopper sized pieces of toast. The omelette was slightly over cooked which left it rubbery but it was alright and I could eat it again.
My ranch design never appeared, but I never realised this until after I was finished so while I never got it I never brought it to anyones attention either — easy mistake to make which I am sure would have been quickly rectified had I asked for it.
I take you back to start of the post, I can see why some people really love Tribeca — it’s all about quantity and style which a lot of people enjoy, the size of the portions were massive and it really sells into the American breakfast thing us Brits love. To be fair the food wasn’t awful so please don’t think it was, I actually have no strong feelings on the food I neither liked it or disliked it.
Tribeca just seriously didn’t float my boat in the slightest. I’d much rather visit The Drake, Left Bank, Stravaigin or Enjoy which are all within a minutes walk and all doing far better food.

After arriving on a damp Sunday afternoon out in town I needed comfort food and pronto. Unfortunately when we arrived the smoke menu didn’t start for another 35 mins. We salivated over the menu and when the time came I knew what I had to try, pulled pork and sweet potato fries.
Massive portions were brought to our table and I devoured every inch of my plate.
Only negative was I was freezing! Place had air con on whilst it is icy outside.
Cannot wait to try more from this menu.

Fancy a relaxing Sunday brunch at Tribeca? It was my shout and all three of us were curious about the new restaurant replacing an old favourite, so off we went. I hadn’t expected it to be so packed to the rafters on a filthy wet Sunday afternoon where the streets were empty, but the place was jumping. We bagged the last free table and chose fairly quickly once we’d established that the Smoak menu was only available in the evening — a fact that was not immediately clear from their online presence. Oopsie.
I perused the vegetarian options and was briefly torn between the eggs florentine and classic veggie burger with fries. The latter won the day though it didn’t really pass muster and had all the allure of a value range veggie burger you might find in the supermarket deep freeze. I’ve had so much better in Glasgow where most self-​respecting burger places have a decent homemade vegetarian alternative.
On the up side, the hungry twenteen loved the french toast with bacon and syrup. If you can imagine half a loaf of bread cut into three slices then dipped in egg you’ll have an idea of the humungous size of the thing! Even with a little help, there was still food left on the plate at the end.
There was none of your relaxed laid-​back brunch vibe at New York themed Tribeca. The boom boom boom music coming out of the speakers made conversation without shouting just about impossible. «This is worse than the garage on a saturday night!» mouthed she who knows about these things.
I do wonder if it was turned up high to drown out the customers complaining about waiting an eternity to get their food. One table left in a huff without having eaten. The staff were under some serious pressure and I felt a bit sorry for them.
As we were getting ready to leave the restaurant emptied and they turned the music right down low. What a relief. A staff member shared that they’d had a difficult service and were finding it a real challenge to serve people quickly enough. Having the kitchen downstairs was causing logistical problems. If they manage to solve that problem, and if they turn the sound way down low, I might give them another chance.

We breakfasted here as a party of three (1 toddler) on a Saturday morning at around 9am. We were greeted warmly upon arrival as the only patrons and sat in a spacious window seat with high chair complete with crayons and a drawing mat for out daughter (godsend!)
My husband ordered the pancake stack which came with maple syrup plus an «extra» of berries. I went for eggs benedict and a pot of tea.
We braced ourselves for disappointment given the overwhelmingly negative chat we had seen on social media about the TriBeCa group generally.
I have to say, we were pleasantly surprised. Staff were lovely and couldn’t have been more attentive and accommodating. Portions were so huge we struggled to finish — both more than acceptable taste wise in the context of the NYC vibe.
My two observations were that the food took slightly longer than it probably should have (20 mins) given the order and secondly the «crowd pleasers» — e.g. pancakes, French toast & huge fried breakfast were ££. In their defence, topped bagels etc looked extremely good value at less than £5. Portions generally are very generous so again — you do get a lot of grub for your buck.
Would we return? Yes, but only as a treat given the price. Pancakes, eggs Benedict, toast & tea came to £23! The spacious luxury of the Richmond décor has been retained thus far which is a plus point.
It’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea but naysayers shouldn’t write this new branch of TriBeCa off without trying it for themselves as they might just be pleasantly surprised.

With the intention of having a Thursday curry at the Richmond, we walked into something altogether different. Tribeca!
Warm welcome from the lass at the door and waitress even entertained my humour of ‘it looks like Richmond but it’s not’.
Had a chat on what they were doing and the new menu. Sat us at table and took drinks order. Gutted to hear that they’ve stopped doing west beer, but this is a NY concept I suppose.
I love buttermilk fried chicken so had to have that. Fiona had pulled pork, her dad a mustard hot dog and my mum had fried chicken side order.
Didn’t take long to wait for the food, given the waitress knew we were in for a quick bite before heading to see still game.
Portions size were decent, although the fried chicken burger itself wasn’t large compared to the side order portion. Flavour was a little lacking in seasoning and tasted of the oil it was fried in. Having made buttermilk chicken, it really is just seasoning, garlic powder and paprika. I would revisit the seasoning and use a larger piece of chicken for the burger.
Pulled pork was actually very tasty indeed and the hot dog looked great. Ian enjoyed it but I didn’t get pouring the mustard all over the bun itself. Keep it on the dog man :-)
I wouldn’t have said the meal was stand out, but it was OK. We do pop in every 4 – 6 weeks to Richmond, so no doubt we will be back and give it another go. I can see why it would have some teething troubles. That was shown in handwritten bills (lovely handwriting by Karen!) and a different waiter saying he would bring us the bill despite us already paying and him checking back with the other waitress in case we were lying.
Given time, it will probably suit the location and no doubt do well.
You Gotta At Least — try eating here :-D

I was excited to head down to the new TriBeCa for breakfast on opening day but our experience left me wishing we haven’t bothered.
When we arrived there were no other customers there and two workmen standing at the bar, I was concerned that they weren’t actually open but then I staff member popped up from behind the bar and said ‘Are you guys alright there’, no hi or welcome to TriBeCa, no enthusiasm from the staff during the majority of our stay actually.
The menu has a good range of dishes with a lot of popular breakfast and brunch options. We decided to go for their large Manhattan breakfast and some Brooklyn pancakes with a side of fresh berries to share, with coffee and tea. The drinks came out pretty quickly, minus the milk which we had to ask for, but I was unimpressed with both the tea pot and milk jug which were heavily stained, chipped and cracked. I can only assume the crockery came from another TriBeCa?
We overheard the table next to us ordering and unfortunately a few items they were trying to order were not in stock, as today was opening day, personally I get quite upset if the staff don’t tell me when giving me the menu if any dishes are unavailable, so I’m glad it didn’t happen to us.
Our food also arrived quite quickly, as when we ordered we were the only table there, the Manhattan is a very generous portion! Lots of bacon, two sausages, mushrooms, hash browns, two large pieces of toast and three eggs. Well it was supposed to be three eggs, we only got two and when I mentioned it to the waitress she apologised and said she would speak to the kitchen. She came back two minutes later and said ‘chef said there were definitely three eggs on there’. I can only conclude she was implying we had eaten one already???
The pancakes look impressive, a large portion and light and fluffy when you cut in to them but they were very dry and didn’t taste of anything. You get a small pot of maple syrup (which is proper maple syrup not maple flavoured syrup) which just isn’t enough for the size of the portion. At the TriBeCa on Dumbarton Road you are given a glass jug of maple syrup which is much larger. If you want more maple syrup it will cost you £1.95. This makes the pancakes a very expensive option as it’s £7.50 for the plain pancakes then £1.95 or £2.50 for any of the toppings. We had already paid for the fresh berry pot.
I’m afraid it then got worse, the workmen we’d seen when we arrived were outside varnishing wood and this was then brought in to the restaurant when it started to rain. The smell would have been unpleasant enough anyway but when we were trying to eat food it was simply unacceptable.
I can’t see myself going back, especially when there are so any other options for great food and friendly staff near by.