Central Park Boathouse

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Even if you weren’t thinking of the When Harry Met Sally scene, a meal at the Loeb Boathouse would feel cinematic. In the movie, Sally and her friends discuss their little black books over lunch at a waterside table at this famed restaurant; in real life, you’ll see many similar groups of subtly well-to-do New Yorkers with slightly updated hairstyles. The restaurant’s lights are reflected in the water of the Central Park lake like calming, glowing orbs; the large, wide columns in the dining room seem designed to remind you of the Boathouse’s decades-long history in New York, and in the city’s imagination. Unlike many iconic spots in the city (like, ahem, one that shares a Central Park address), the Loeb Boathouse refuses to rest on its laurels. While the kitchen isn’t turning out the city’s most innovative dinners, it keeps up with trends —chicken is sourced from, the menu tells diners, Griggstown Farm in Princeton; a salad uses farm-to-table-friendly Little Gem lettuces and is topped with “prosciutto crisps.” There are small stumbles (e.g., one night a server topped off a glass of sparkling water with tap), but the service is mostly thoughtful and poised. The menu is pricey (a recent modest dinner for two, with wine from the low end of the menu, cost north of $200), but a nice entry point is the Boathouse’s casual, warm-weather outdoor bar, where the tables also abut the lake. — Mary Jane Weedman

Available for groups of 15 or more.

Trolley 
Year-round, a complimentary trolley picks up patrons from a stop at Fifth Avenue and 72nd Street and drops them off directly at the boathouse. Between November 4 and April 14, the trolley runs only on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays.

Weddings
This time-honored space is set just off the lake in the heart of Central Park; it features wraparound French doors that open onto an English garden and a wooden deck facing the water’s edge, where you’ll see rowboats and the occasional gondola pass by, and where swans and ducks often linger. The boathouse’s event space holds up to 230 seated guests with a dance floor. From $165 per person. No outside catering except kosher.

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Gael Greene's Full Review (6/19/06)

Featured In

• Twenty-five Perfect Places for Outdoor Eating (6/10/06)