I'm leaving this review because the service and overall experience were so disappointing that I…read morefelt it was worth taking the time to share what happened, especially so others know what they may be walking into.
I chose 5Church Midtown for a date because I expected it to be a nice, romantic dining experience. Unfortunately, it was anything but that.
When we arrived, the restaurant appeared to have plenty of available seating and could not have had more than approximately 20 guests. Despite this, we were seated at the very back of the restaurant next to a curtain. After being seated, we waited about 20 minutes before anyone greeted us.
We were eventually told that we had both a waiter and an assistant waiter. The assistant waiter never came to our table, and our waiter, who appeared to only have two other tables, was consistently nowhere to be found.
It took another 15 minutes just to order drinks. When the drinks finally arrived, they were extremely sweet and did not taste as though they contained the alcohol they were supposed to have. We did not drink them and sent them back. Our waiter then told us they were out of the particular alcohol needed for the drinks. That immediately raised another question: Why serve us the drinks in the first place if you did not have the alcohol required to make them properly?
We ordered different drinks, and unfortunately, those were not right either. This time, they tasted as though someone had simply poured an excessive amount of straight alcohol into them, with very little of the flavor the drinks were supposed to have.
Then came the food.
We ordered a pasta dish and a chicken dish, and it took approximately 45 minutes for the food to arrive. After waiting that long, the pasta was undercooked, while the chicken was overcooked and extremely dry.
Getting our waiter's attention to address the food was another challenge. We finally caught him as he happened to be walking behind the curtain near our table. We explained our concerns, and he eventually brought over the night manager, Mary.
Mary apologized for the drinks and initially offered to remove them from the bill. We then explained that the food was also not acceptable. At first, her response was essentially that she could take the drinks off. I finally asked, "Would you eat this?" At that point, the condition of the food, particularly how dry the chicken was, was obvious.
What made the situation even more confusing was that we were then told that the waiter had gotten the drink situation wrong. Mary explained that she was also the bar manager and that they DID have the alcohol we had supposedly been told they were out of. She said she did not understand why the drinks had not been made correctly.
Ultimately, Mary told us that she would comp the entire check and that we would not have to pay for anything, which I appreciated. However, she still brought us the check to show us what the bill would have been. After everything we had experienced--the long waits, poor service, incorrectly made drinks, undercooked pasta, and dry, overcooked chicken--I honestly did not understand the purpose of showing us how much the meal would have cost. It felt like adding insult to injury.
I understand that every restaurant can have an off night. A mistake with a drink or a dish can happen. But this was not one isolated mistake. From the moment we were seated until the moment we left, there were problems with the service, drinks, food, communication, and overall handling of the experience.
What was supposed to be a nice date night turned into an extremely disappointing dining experience.
Unfortunately, based on what we experienced, I cannot see myself returning to 5Church Midtown.
