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Long X.
Location: New York
Blog Posts: 7
Member Since: 11/30/2007
Favorite Cuisine:
anything comforting
Recent Eats
Oct 3rd
Sep 5th
Jul 31st
Jul 23rd
May 15th
never again...
I never mind paying for a good meal, or even not so good as long as i dont feel cheated. They had an option for a $85 chef's tasting, kind of expensive since their most expensive entree is $27. They did not list what was inluded in the tasting, so having worked in a few kitchens, i understood that this meant they would cook whatever was convenient fo the kitchen at the time. Usually not a big fan of this i decided to pick my own 5 courses and let my friend get the tasting because thats his thing, initally we were told 'sounds great', after putting it in, we were told that it would be impossible to do and we would both need to order the tasting, i agreed for my friend.
The courses we got following, were all from the a la carte menu(as expected) except they were smaller(typical of tastings) and as it turns out more expensive. If we had ordered the courses we eventually got on our own, instead of having the 'chef specially assemble' them for us, we could have:
a. gotten more food
b. paid less
c. had exactly what we wanted from the menu
Its to be expected that you might not get everything you want when you order a tasting in hopes of finding something else you like better than you had expected, not the case. We got essentially 5-6 courses split for $170. When i mentioned this to the manager, we were told that the time the chef took to specially design a menu for us is taken into consideration blah blah blah, i hate bullshit. Simply put we get less food for more money because we were stupid enough to pick their chef tasting, what a rip. After arguing with them for 20 mins and finally having them concede to reducing our bill slightly, which i agreed to because the gesture was appreciated, the host came and told us he needed the table back, i gladly obliged if we could only get our corrected bill. After 15 more minutes, the manager came back and told us that coincedentally perfect timing, the machine broke so they couldnt cancel and change our bill, and if we wanted it changed we would have to wait at the bar for it to be fixed. My friend and I had had enough, we signed the bill and left. This was the first time i've ever stiffed on the tip because i felt so helpless, and gotten so little help from the service staff and the management.
After frank bruni called this one of his favorite neighborhood restaurants, i had expectations that at the minimum the food would be good, it was at some spots, and bad at others. Never have i felt so cheated or mistreated at a restaurant. Do not patronize this place, too many other great places to waste your time.
Resto
111 E. 29th St. (bet. Lexington Ave. & Park Ave. S.)
New York, 10016
Tel: (212)685-5585
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1 Comments
yeah, resto never struck me as a place to have a chef's tasting... it's usually just a burger and fries along with one of their many beers... too bad their service sucked so bad!