Legasea: A Swanky Seafood Spot In New York's New Moxy Times Square

The chic Moxy Hotel (a Marriott offshoot) recently opened a few blocks south of New York City's Times Square, and we had the opportunity to drop by for dinner at the hotel's primary restaurant, Legasea, and a cocktail on the rooftop bar, Magic Hour.

All of the hotel's food and beverage operations are handled by the Tao Group, which is best known for its variety of "clubstaurants" like Tao and Lavo, so we were expecting the bass to be pumping and the lights to be dim at the seafood-focused Legasea. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised by a more subdued vibe, with plenty of polished copper, subway tile, and nautical touches. The long, rectangular space is accessed by ascending a staircase through a standalone entrance around the corner from the lobby, and it's smartly designed and nicely-sized with 145 seats and a fairly large bar.

The menu, from Craft and Gotham Bar & Grill veteran Jason Hall, is fairly expansive but certainly seafood-centric. There's a nice raw bar selection and a couple seafood towers; six "From the Grill" seafood options served with farro salad, lemon, and olive oil (branzino, head-on shrimp, red snapper, lobster, scallops, and Scottish salmon); a lobster bake and Alaskan king crab boil for the table ($65 and $75, respectively); and entrées including moules-frites, fish and chips, flounder francaise, and yellowfin tuna au poivre. But there are also plenty of non-seafood items: fried chicken, half lemon chicken, NY strip steak, a burger.

We opted to sample some seafood offerings for dinner, with largely positive results. A starter of yellowtail sashimi with yuzu marmalade, serrano chile, and hearts of palm was certainly derivative of hundreds of similar preparations across the country, but it's a flavor combination that works, and it was very tasty. A seafood tower contained East Coast and West Coast oysters, shrimp cocktail, clams, half a chilled lobster, crab claws, tuna tartare, and cucumber salad, and could easily rank with any of the city's best. The From the Grill filet of red snapper was perfectly cooked, with attractive grill marks, a punchy farro salad, and grilled lemon half on the side.

The only disappointments were the flounder francaise, which was mushy under a heavy (and unnecessary) coating of egg batter; and a side of steamed new potatoes, which were overcooked and floating in a pool of butter. For dessert, we decided to eschew the "World's Fair Sundae" option (which certainly looks like a lot of fun – you can choose from six varieties of ice cream and sorbets, four sauces, and 11 toppings) and instead opted for the chocolate caramel cake, a huge, addictively tasty slice that was recommended by our waiter.

After dinner, we decided to head 18 stories up to the 10,000-square-foot rooftop bar, Magic Hour, which we accessed through a separate outside entrance that, at the time of our visit, commanded quite a line. It's the city's largest indoor/outdoor hotel rooftop, and it has multiple bars and seating areas, carousel seating, a topiary garden, and a mini-golf course with "life-size animals in naughty poses." It's all a bit over-the-top, but it definitely stands out from the pack. The space was also absolutely hopping, and the cocktails we sampled were well-made; the state fair-inspired food menu also looked pretty good. For those who don't want the night to end, the bar also offers 19 small "crashpads" for $99. If the Tao touch wasn't immediately evident downstairs, it certainly is up here.

The Moxy Hotel has done a very good job of differentiating itself and its culinary offerings from the surrounding fray, and it's detached enough from the Times Square scrum to be a destination for tourists and locals alike.