Jekyll & Hyde Club

We went to lunch at the Jekyll & Hyde Club on 6th Avenue (a.k.a. Avenue of the Americas) between 57th and 58th Streets. Great place! OK... it might not be great for little kids. My 13 year old daughter screamed when one of the cast members came to our table with a very large, hairy, wiggling, rubber spider. And she nearly hit the ceiling when he dropped it in her lap! And I was laughing. As far as I was concerned, that part alone was worth the entertainment fee (just $2.50 per person), that was tacked onto the bill.

As you can undoubtedly guess, it's a comedy/horror themed restaurant. It's very well done. Seating is spread across several floors. The floor we were on was split into multiple areas, so you couldn't always see what was going on, but you could definitely hear the screams ;-)

There were television screens strategically placed around the floof, showing Young Frankenstein, with interruptions every few minutes for skits by cast members and various animations. Cast members included someone my daughter referred to as "Mr. Brains", who greeted us at the door, carrying... you guessed it... brains. There was a butler, of course, and "creepy guy", who followed my daughter around when she took a walk around the floor to see some of the other rooms. And then there was the "lieutenant", who came to our table and told my daughter that she needed to stop dating older men, and the spider guy, too. At one point, a voice started shouting over the PA system, saying "Attention, everyone, please be quiet! There is someone here trying to make a cell phone call." Then it repeated, even louder, and again even louder. It reminded me quite a bit of the Adventurers' Club at Pleasure Island, but Jekyll & Hyde Club is a full service restaurant.

Service was excellent, and the food, though expensive, was very good. I did manage to sort of stick to low carb, having extra vegetables substituted for the mashed potatoes with my steak. Unfortunately the vegetables were soaked in butter, and the South Beach version of the low carb regimen isn't as permissive about fat as some of the other versions. I also strayed a bit by having a couple of the jalapeno poppers that my daughter ordered. They were, without a doubt, the tastiest that I've ever had, although I wouldn't have minded if the jalapnos were a bit hotter. For anyone who doesn't know, a popper is a hot pepper, stuffed with cheese, coated with a light batter and deep fried. The batter makes it a no-no on low carb plans.

Anyhow, the way I figure it, if you're going to pay midtown Manhattan prices for a meal anyway, you should expect very good food and, very good service, but that's not always the case. It was definitely the case with lunch at Jekyll & Hyde, and we were entertained, too.