Made Nice Is Fast and Casual. But Is It Good?

After reading Pete Wells' write up, and trying Made Nice for myself, I have to completely disagree with Pete on this one. I feel his critiques of the restaurant are way off base, and his comparisons linking Made Nice back to EMP and The NoMad hold no merit. This is a great concept, fast-casual restaurant that links quality ingredients and cooking to an affordable way to eat lunch or dinner. The food is prepared fresh and the attention to detail is surely there for dishes that are $12-15 dollars. I think with this restaurant group has a really a great concept because they are making great food available to the average person who may not be able to afford a place like EMP. Personally, my meals were great! The place was packed, the service was friendly and knowledgeable, and everyone in the restaurant seemed to be enjoying their food very much. Usually Pete Wells is a great food critic, but I just didn't agree with him on this one. Made Nice was great!

"Imagine a chain of Cuban restaurants started by retired employees of the Olive Garden. This could be their arroz con pollo."

Ouch. That's downright mean!

No stars displayed on the review. Is the restaurant so bad that this officially ranks as a zero star review?

chain of Cuban restaurants started by retired employees of the Olive Garden....HAHAHHAHAHA that was really funny

I just got back from dinner at Made Nice. The service was fast and very
friendly. I ordered the curry cauliflower, the texture of the cauliflower was perfect while the curry flavor was not overpowering and it left room for the other flavors. My side of watermelon salad with radishes was tasty and refreshing. Every table around me ordered the roasted chicken. They seemed to be enjoying it and many took home leftovers. I regretfully shared a delicious milk & honey ice cream and wished I had my own.
I thought it was a bargain for the quality and the portion size.
I'll be back soon!

Two out-of-town friends and I tried Made Nice last weekend. I had the smoked salmon salad, one friend had the watermelon and quinoa salad, and one had the chicken and rice. We all enjoyed the meals very much. We were impressed with the notion of no cash, and how efficient the operation ran. We loved the colorful mural, trays as placemats, and comfortable chairs. I already have plans to return there in 2 weeks and I'm ordering the same meal I had before.

I love Made Nice. I know of no other restaurant in NYC where I can eat food as delicious, in 10 minutes, for that price, in as cool a setting. The homemade sodas - not mentioned in the review - are incredible.
I also love Eleven Madison Park and The Nomad, but to compare a fast-casual restaurant to those ultra premium, best-in-world dining events is counterproductive for readers searching for a terrific meal that's Made Nice.

"The rice tastes like tomatoes and needs salt. The chicken seems exhausted."
What a review, no thanks.

Great review. I'll be sure not to try it. It sounds pretty presumptuous to charge $22 for half a chicken and some fries at a fast casual restaurant. Even in NYC.

I have ate at Made Nice multiple times and have always enjoyed the food. It's not a cheap place for weekday lunch. If the food is bad, the place would not be this busy after oening for so long.
Mr. Well, pleasr stop wasting your words on attacking businesses. Instead please go dig out and praise small restaurant owners who work hard. They are waiting for you to take notice and help them out. Rent is expensive these days as you know, they need all the help they can get.

As they say in the contracting biz- Good, Fast, or Cheap. Pick two.

Curry that doesn't taste like curry. Rice that tastes like tomatoes. Dark brick of shredded pork. Chicken that tasted as if all it's flavor had leaked out in order to make the stuffing as gummy as possible. And yet you say that Mr Humm is somewhere offstage waving his magic wand??Where?? Where?? What wand??What magic??

This review is just too negative given the subject matter, and unfair to compare haute-cuisine directly with a grab-and-go alternative to places like sweetgreen and dig-in. When Mr. Wells finds a higher ratio of Quality to Wait Time, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, my business stays with Made Nice.

This sounds mean spirited for a restaurant that tries to provide a good meal to people who can't afford to eat where restaurant critics dine. On the other hand, maybe it's naivety from someone unaccustomed to eating $14 meals.

"... not even by the most elastic definition..."? Don't you mean to say " not even by the most inelastic definition."? (As in "even by the strictest definition...")

Made Nice is not the usual fare for this column. I cannot recall when I last saw a 'Satisfactory; rating, especially from a pair of such well known chefs. I have to wonder how it made your cut list. That said, a couple of the salads do look excellent. That said, I'll never pay $22 for a HALF chicken that apparently did not move the reviewer, great fried or not. (For that same $22, one can buy FOUR whole (cooked) chickens for take-out at COSTCO.7, and that will stay warm for at least 90. Despite the ~~modest rice of the several salads, I think I'll PASS Made Nice when I visit NYC. Eleven Madison Park should have no fear, even with roast chicken! Frankly, I still do not understand how Made Nice made the list, unless it really was desk food, all thee times. (The company buys your lunch, too? What a job!)

Just what the planet needs, more plastic from takeout containers. The irony being that the owners and many of the customers probably sign petitions related to the environment and deem themselves "concerned citizens."
I'd be far more impressed had they come up with something biodegradable.

Will they be able to maintain a level of quality over time?

Will the open kitchen and dining room stay in a pristine state or begin to show signs of wear and tear once the hype ends?

I have my suspicions.

What no stars?!!

Apart from chicken that I am tired of seeing on restaurant menus, some of the salads look more appetizing than the others. In the latter category is something called "salmon rösti" (slide 3) and a salad of watermelon and savory ingredients (slide 7).

Why the comparison with restaurants that are nothing like what this restaurant is aiming for? That part of the review went on way too long.

Made Nice is a quick-food, braggy high-wire act with mixed results based on Mr. Wells' review. Makes sense to me. But hit or miss is not a bet I want to take on a Monday night $22 half chicken with fries. (Where do I go for the rest of my supper?) The chefs should put away the lipstick and go back to $295 tasting menus. Democratizing high-end elitist food is an oxymoronic concept and New Yorkers should either know better or grow up or grow your wallet and do it right.

I cannot comprehend the logic of readers/commentators who have an inverse snobbery towarda any restaurant that doesn't cost the same as a fast food establishment. Nor can I comprehend those who measure whether a meal is good or not based solely on price. The NYT has a respsonsibility to review new and established restaurants of interest regardless of the price That said, I am certain most of the commentators here will happily dine at Made Nice, and feel incredibly smug whilst doing so...

This review strikes me as deeply strange. Who would expect something on par with an EMP or NoMad meal for $15? You can't even eat at Applebee's for $15, and there are plenty of sandwiches out here in Brooklyn that cost that much or more. Looking at the photos, I see no visual cues pointing to EMP or NoMad...does it say something on the menu? What does this chicken dish have to do with NoMad's signature dish? The fact that they both look really nice and they're both chicken? Wells is a very good writer and a true pro, but this strikes me as unfair. For the money, frankly, it looks and sounds like a pretty good deal, especially in under 10 minutes. I hadn't planned to eat there, but now I think I will sometime.

After reading all the comments here and some other reviews my understanding is that Pete Wells knows the comparisons that are invariably going to take place between this new venture and the very very different establishments the owners are known for and he's basically trying to be fair to both the owners and the patrons who will flock to this new place expecting it to be somewhat like the original. Pete Wells for all his charm, wit and brilliance is one of the kinder, gentler, more fair and reasonable NYC reviewers. Maybe he expected more from a team this talented, maybe he wants to prepare the people who will go in with huge expectations to be ready for a different establishment, not a part two. Far from the review being disconnected from reality, as one of the reviewers here suggested, I think he just gave his readers a very real idea of just what to expect. I certainly feel enlightened and will go in with some very real expectations and therefore enjoy the food more, for what it is. Thanks Pete, this is the best review of this place that I have read so far.

A review of the comments reveals a jarring gap between the reviewer's conclusions and the vast majority of patrons, thus calling the reviewer's judgment into question. I was also disturbed by the reviewer's total failure to document or at least specify his assertion that the owners are seeking to tie this place to their luxury venues, and the suggestion that many of the fast-food customers will be referencing prior luxury meals seems to be absurd in its face and again jarringly disconnected from reality. This review is an epic fail of both journalism and editing.

I go to EMP at least annually and the NoMad regularly. Love them both. And now, I'm so happy about the existence of Made Nice. I've eaten there several times and had delivery when I was craving its menu but couldn't quite make it to the Flatiron. I couldn't decide, so I ordered 3 meals and happily ate them throughout the next few days. They held up beautifully!

Everything I've had was fresh, quick, healthy, pretty and most importantly, delicious. My favorite is the cauliflower. Service is delightful and sweet. So nice to have quick food that's not junk.

"But the one at NoMad tastes as if it comes from some lost island where the gene that controls delicious chicken flavor has been passed down intact for centuries."

I've re-read this sentence five times. Love it more every time.

I work in the neighborhood and eat at Made Nice about once a week. It's one of my favorite local work lunch spots (second probably only to my favorite dosa place on Lexington and 26th). As the comments demonstrate, it compares very favorably to the comparable places in the area. I never expected my $12 take out lunch to be like a meal at 11 Madison or NoMad. But I also didn't expect it to be as far superior to their actual competitors who also mainly serve lunch to working folks in a bit of a hurry, which it is. I love the cauliflower dish, and order it frequently. It, like all the dishes I've tried here, has a level of subtlety that is nowhere to be found among the competitors (I am glad they didn't try to make it like a traditional curry, since you can get tons of that for less money a couple blocks east). I also appreciate the friendly, unhurried and yet magically speedy service, which I never expect at other comparable places. The fact that their prices are not a whit higher than their competitors amazes me, because the quality of the food is much better. If you're looking for a fancy meal with exquisite food, don't go anywhere that serves primarily takeout. But if you want a really tasty lunch when you only have an hour, and don't want to spend more than $14, Made Nice is the place.

I think you're supposed to compare this with McDonalds - not 5 star restaurants. Simple, healthy, and tasty food is the future of fast food.

It seem to me you're setting unfair expectations here, comparing reasonably-priced fast food to meals that cost hundreds of dollars. The question you should be asking is how the food compares to the food at comparable restaurants.

I read this without first noticing the writer. As I moved through it I thought, "oh no, it sounds like Pete Wells has gone to another restaurant!" (I should have noticed when I read about otter videos.) Always vibrant, fun to read, and dead on. Thanks again.

Disagree with this review. Ate here in-store a couple weeks ago and thought it was terrific. The sundae is a marvel. This is a grumpy and unfair review.

This review is a little too inside-baseball, Mr. Wells; gummy stuffing, unevenly cooked cauliflower and the mistakes on your delivery order are legitimate complaints, but unfavorable comparisons to restaurants that have some kind of connection to the owners that the average diner wouldn't know or care about are not. I look forward to trying this place when I visit NYC in a couple of weeks.

I don't understand why Mr. Wells felt he must compare a take out place with high end restaurants. Surely readers would have been better served by his accepting the situation and, if needed, judging the restaurant against comparables in style and price range. And if the only reason to review this establishment is the connection to the high end places, why bother?

I'm sad to see this review for a restaurant that I have tried often and really liked. But I am not too worried for these guys. Assuming others have the kind of experiences I've had there (very tasty and well plated food, great beverages, warm service, low cost) then Made Nice, as a concept and a restaurant, will continue to hit it out of the park.

This reads like a Yelp review:
"To test it out, I ate one of my three Made Nice meals at The New York Times Building. My order showed up about a minute late, which counts as early given Midtown rush-hour traffic, and was pretty much as advertised."

No Stars!
What is next, Chipotle?

I'll never understand the US obsession for fast when it comes to food. Sad when eating, which should be a pleasurable pursuit, is reduced to a version of beat the clock.

Yeah I don't know about the review. I've eaten here - and yes, I had higher expectations because of the hype behind the owners. And I loved it. I ate inside, my wait was quick, the food was good, and for the price I think it was a great deal. So I will be going back.

I think instead of comparing it with nomad or eleven madison, you have to compare it with sweetgreens or shake shack. Where you end up getting a good meal and still end up paying $15 for a meal. Compared to those concepts (and others) I think made nice's food is better, and they provide just enough service to make you happy.

Brave yes, but sounds like you need to check your expectations on the sidewalk. I welcome it and especially anything from Daniel Humm's arsenal of creativity and curiosity!

The food looks pretty appealing based on the photos taken by The Times' photographer. And credit to the owners for coming up with the idea for a restaurant where your meal doesn't have to extend for two-plus hours and where the prices are more than reasonable. I just couldn't figure out why Mr. Wells' tone seemed so negative throughout the review.

I've had every dish mentioned in this review and my biggest criticism is the salt level-extremely high-in every salad I tasted.
I will add that the chicken makes a nice take out for two hungry working people on some nights.

Interesting review and educational per the trends of "ghost restaurants" or an "iceberg restaurant." Nonetheless, my wife and I dined on a whim here earlier in May and we were more than pleased compared to the review given. It was a great meal given the value, and although brief, the service was prompt and above par. Props to these two owners for trying to break through a ceiling of delivering fine dining to a larger audience.