The six of us were unanimous in our low opinion of the restaurant. We will not return under any circumstances.
We were offered water. We requested tap. We did receive three refills from somebody with a pitcher in the three hours we sat there. We were advised that they couldn't leave a pitcher on the table due to Covid but that bottles were available. So, we were coerced into buying plain water in pretty blue bottles at $10 ea. It was 45 minutes before anybody decided to ask for our orders beyond beverages.
We were asked if we wanted 'bread for the table' which was three slices of bread cut in half. We got the bread. Ten minutes later we got olive oil. Ten minutes later we got two melon balls of whipped butter that had been sitting out in the heat for awhile. Ten minutes after that, I got a salt shaker. We went through the bread and requested a refill. It took a good while before three more slices cut in half were dutifully brought out.
We were told of a special not listed on the menu of a porterhouse for two.
There was a steak frites on the menu for $44. My wife and our friend decided on the porterhouse. Other orders were for fried chicken at $25, sea bass $34 and a smash burger for $22. The waiter got to me last as he rounded the table. I was very hungry and thought I just might have a porterhouse all to myself. I asked how much it was. He told me that it was $195. I giggled and said I must have misunderstood as the other steak on the menu was one fifth the price. I didn't hear incorrectly. I got the smash burger. The fact that it felt like this was the first night the place was open made me go less ambitious with the 'smash burger' for $22 with caramelized onions, bacon and some sort of cheese. I requested no cheese which somehow cost me the onions, too. The Smash burger chain makes a bigger, juicier better burger with better fries. I got a mini ramekin of ketchup smaller than a single stroke on a ketchup pump at Wendy's. Also, somebody decided the salt shaker had spent too much time on the table which required another ten minutes to wrangle back to the table.
Wait, there's more. We ate there because our friends were in from out of town staying at the Vanderbilt Hotel so this seemed like a simple place to converge. The front desk advised they would receive 25% off as part of their stay. They advised the waiter when he finally showed up that they were guests. The check showed no discount. Our friends reminded the waiter of the discount. Alas, the 25% discount was denied as something only available 'last week' and 15% substituted. It took complaints and escalation to get the originally promised 25% off. The justification for $195 for a 24oz of steak on a bone was that it was well aged. I tried a piece of it. It wasn't aged, in my opinion. I also don't think it was grass fed or even grass finished.
Refills on water ended when we bought the bottles and nobody seemed interested enough to take an order for more, anyway.
We all decided against dessert.
So all in all, incredibly mediocre food, even going stingy on salt, water, butter and ketchup for crying out loud, service that although very polite, was difficult to come by and not readily cooperative and no thought from the wait staff that a special costing almost five times the regular steak on the menu might be worth mentioning price made for a remarkable dining experience in how little value was delivered over an unnecessarily elongated period. Other staffers at the hotel inquired as to our meals as we made our way through the hotel to our cars. When they heard our responses they all said "yeah, that's what we keep hearing, too".
A Perkins would be an improvement. read more