It’s a shocking twist: The new Planet Hollywood has really good food.
The celeb-magnet eatery opened its third NYC iteration two months ago at 136 W. 42nd St., on a corporate block that’s nothing like Times Square around the corner.
After friends reported having tacky, processed-tasting snacks at an opening party, I was ready to laugh my head off over menu oddities like “L.A. Lasagna,” an “icon” from the original Planet that opened on West 57th Street in prehistoric 1991.
Instead, I felt almost embarrassed to enjoy it — and other dishes vastly better than the ones from Planet’s early years, when it was a culinary joke, notwithstanding the backing of Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Demi Moore.
The second Planet at 1540 Broadway closed in 2020. When I first reported in 2022 that founder Robert Earl planned another re-launch, he told me it would be “more complex and more appealing to New York locals as well as tourists.”
We’ll see about that. They might be surprised to find that the three-level, 17,500 square-foot venue which cost almost $20 million to build, is almost entirely without the film posters, costumes and other memorabilia that were the main draw at he original Planet Hollywood and version 2.0.
The colorful, second-floor dining room and third-floor event space have lots of booths, five-pointed stars attached to the ceiling and lampshade-like overhead lights. Video images of Dua Lipa and Daniel Craig’s James Bond randomly alternate with outer-space cartoons and (for no clear reason) pumping oil derricks on screens all around the rooms.
The place has drawn bevies of boldfaces, including Alec Baldwin, 50 Cent and Whoopi Goldberg on opening night and cast parties for Broadway’s “Moulin Rouge” and “& Juliet.” But celebs will eat anything when it’s free, and the last thing I expected was better-than-decent food.
It might not rank with nearby Michelin-starred Gabriel Kreuther and fancy steakhouse STK, of course. The more useful comparison is with the area’s tourist-jammed venues such as Hard Rock Cafe and Bubba Gump Shrimp. Planet’s menu blows them away.
There’s no identified kitchen mastermind, but Earl wanted to make people forgot the dreary fare of Planets past. He tapped unnamed local chefs to oversee the menu and sources quality ingredients, including meat from butcher-to-the-stars Pat La Frieda.
They restaurants delivers what you want from “fun” food — crispy, crackling mouth feel and sugar-loaded condiments that don’t overwhelm the underlying flavors. I have a weakness for this style if it’s done with integrity, and the kitchen nails it.
Cheesy garlic bread ($15) on ciabatta is a mini-pizza with rich marinara sauce, a staple which the house employs well on many dishes.
A half-dozen blackened shrimp ($21) — fresh-tasting, marinated and seared with tangy Creole mustard — made me forget the usually wretched bar snack. Baby gem caesar salad ($16) using crisp leaves, Parmesan flakes and toasted croutons was worthy of a classy steakhouse.
Even after such good starters, I had little faith that sesame ginger salmon ($33) would be grilled medium-rare as I ordered it. But the filet arrived perfectly pink under crisp skin, and elevated to serious enjoyment by soy, ginger and sesame glaze.
I could take or leave the humdrum chicken pot pie ($23), but the 8-ounce deluxe Wagyu burger ($28) more than redeemed it. The monster needed knife and fork to navigate the (again) properly medium-rare patty, bacon slices, pickles, tomatoes, onions, fried egg, avocado and ranch coleslaw on a toasted brioche bun.
The biggest shock was that L.A. Lasagne ($26). It had no evident Los Angeles influence, nor did it resemble any lasagne I’ve ever known. But they can call it what they want. Four crispy, parmesan-breaded pasta tubes were filled with ricotta and bolognese-style meat sauce, and served in tangy tomato sauce. Delicious.
It’s the sort of sinful, guilty pleasure many crave after a night of clubbing, but works just as well at lunch. I hope the folks who work in the great office towers all around the place will forget Planet’s old reputation and give its food a chance.
