Updated through January 17, 2019.
Barolo East on 49th. $50 cork fee. I likely wouldn’t be back. Mixed experience on food. Excellent red sauce (no water on the side, no dilution, nice and concentrated). Great quality of ingredients. However, grilled shrimp was served lukewarm and we wondered if it was freshly cooked. Mushrooms were well made, but serving over lettuce made them a bit hard to eat (and portion could have been larger). Ravioli were a very thick, like Chinese pork dumplings. Spaghetti bolognese was on point. Red pepper dipping sauce were on point. Overall portion sizes slightly small and we were slightly hungry or needed dessert. BYO corkage fee is high as well.
Fragole, Italian restaurant in Caroll Gardens, Brooklyn has fantastic food. $25 Corkage fee. Definitely worth checking out if your in the area!!
Maison Yaki - $35
Good neighborhood restaurant, would love having a glass or wine of two, a few skewers and a couple games of pétanque.
Donburiya in Hell’s Kitchen, awesome Izakaya menu with enough sake, Japanese whisky and Japanese beers in their list. But, a byob bottle of 2001 Clos des Papes CdP still worked out quite well with most of our ordered dishes. $30 corkage with uninspired wine glasses. Good overall service. But will suggest calling in advance to make sure about corkage fee as, I suspect, it can change depending on who happens to pick up your call.
http://www.donburiyany.com/
Ortzi, advertised as a Basque restaurant in Midtown west, with good dinner menu and welcoming/good byob-wine service. There are better Basque foodie joints in town, imho, but Ortzi have sufficient food gems and overall polite-efficient service, for me to consider going back (dined 2x this year). Spacious ambiance, too, for those jaded by tight seats/tables in most Manhattan tapas joints. Can’t beat midtown NYC location for convenient meet up. Can’t quite recall, but either $25 or $30 corkage per bottle with decanting service, if preferred.
Remi (Northern Italian cuisine)
$40 corkage.
Balthazar, SoHo. $35 per bottle, $70 per mag, 2 bottle limit. Dining room gets hectic, so I came with a corkscrew, too. But big burgundy glasses came quickly upon request. We enjoyed the food and atmosphere a lot. Food was fresh and carefully prepared. Service was efficient and attentive. Balthazar bread, burrata salad with strawberries and rhubarb, steak frites with Bearnaise sauce served on the side and very crispy fries, blueberry mllefeuille plated to order with a fresh lemon custard, and killer cafe americaino. Raw bar looked excellent.
Benjamin Prime - $45 cork fee. Rib eye steak and sea scallops were delicious.
The Fat Radish. Was quoted $25/750 and $35/sparkling on the phone… no discount for halves… later learned were charged $40 per 750
Feast in East Village was $25 for one 750 bottle. Creative cooking, rustic setting. Stemless wine glasses. House made bread and pasta.
I noticed a lot of restaurants are not consistent with their fees. I started recording my calls when getting quoted for fees so I don’t get screwed over later.
ABCV vegetarian just told me $40 per bottle.
Seems like cost of eating out is going up. Free corkage days are a big plus to keep the price down and drinking solid.
Temple Court, the Colicchio Restaurant in the Beekman Hotel (downtown Manhattan, east of / not far from the Oculus). $45 per bottle… but FREE corkage on Sunday eve. Lovely extensive Restaurant Week menu. Did not find their wine list on their website but brought bottles they were unlikely to have. Craft’s wine list has also disappeared from their website.
Keens charged me $30 corkage last night. chateaubriand was phenomenal.
That’s up $10 from where it was a couple of years ago.
In all due respect this is so sad. Do you realize how low profit margins are in the restaurant business and what the average kitchen staff earns?
I dont understand. What does that have to do with giving misinformation to customers?
I agree the restaurant business is struggling. But won’t a fair corkage policy lead to more business, not less profit? When I go to Sunday or Monday free corkage restaurants, I am far more liberal with the dishes I order and the tip I leave. And usually pay in cash to save cc fees to the owner.
Well you are by definition complaining about corkage. I personally could care less if corkage is $25 or $40. I could see your point if you were told $10 and it was $50 or something like that.