1. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    Dry-aged burger at the Clocktower

  2. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    Uni risotto at the Clocktower

  3. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    Skirt steak at the Clocktower

  4. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    Tuna tataki at the Clocktower

  5. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    The Clocktower

  6. Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz
    Photograph: Paul Wagtouicz

    The Clocktower

Review

The Clocktower

3 out of 5 stars
  • Restaurants | American
  • price 2 of 4
  • Flatiron
  • Recommended
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Time Out says

For the past five years, Jason Atherton has built himself a neat little empire—a tapas bar in Singapore, a soon-to-open hotel restaurant in Sydney and, most significantly, his London flagship Pollen Street Social, for which he grabbed a Michelin star in 2011.

But no matter how prolific or far-reaching, any chef with real global goals knows that, eventually, he has to tackle New York. It’s the if-I-can-make-it final frontier, and though many international chefs go limp in the city’s pressure-cooker dining scene, Atherton stays solid by focusing on no-fuss tavern fare done well at the Clocktower, his handsome, mahogany-trimmed partnership with Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr inside the New York Edition Hotel.

There’s no toad-in-the-hole Anglicism on the menu (only imported Dover sole and upmarket fish-and-chips tip to the chef’s English heritage), but there’s a beautifully seasoned, ruby-centered skirt steak with triple-cooked chips and a gravy boat of thick béarnaise ($33), and a duteously funky dry-aged burger, laden with salty bacon, melted cheddar and Churchill sauce ($24). And the best thing on the menu isn’t even listed, a complimentary round of oven-warm, quartered sourdough with a whip of buttermilk butter.

It’s when Atherton kowtows to the room—a five-suite expanse of rock-god portraits, purple-felted pool tables and sharply bobbed diners—that things go off-kilter, with trendy gaffes like uni risotto that smacks too hard of yuzu peel ($21) and white asparagus that drowns in heady chicken-thigh jus and teeth-shattering “cornflakes.” Atherton, and the Clocktower as a whole, is better suited to craft over cool.

Details

Address
5 Madison Ave
NY
10010
Cross street:
between 23rd and 24th Sts
Transport:
Subway: N, R to 23rd St
Price:
Average main course: $33. AmEx, MC, V.
Opening hours:
Mon–Thu, Sun 5:30–11pm; Fri, Sat 5:30pm–midnight
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