by Omer Mckelvy on Overall: Disappointing at best. Atmosphere: The space is cool and modern. It is mostly a VIP lounge with bottle service and a lot of seating for people with reservations. If you aren't with one of these groups, chances are you'll be standing most of the night. Customer Service: They treated the private party line with less regard than the regular line and we had to wait in the cold for a little too long. We arrived just before 10, and they made us wait till just after 10. When we finally got in, there was not a soul in the building except the staff. Drinks: I don't drink, but I did hear them say that bottle service is $300 for a standard bottle of Ketel One, with a 5 person per bottle limit. Seems steep for such a place that isn't even all that trendy. Music: DJ Slick D has the worst case of ADD when it comes to DJing. He rarely stayed on a song for more than a minute. Someone in our group would hear a song they wanted to dance to, and as soon as we got up, the song would change. Many people in our group were disappointed with his choice of music as well. It was all over the place and the crowd wasn't responding. One could argue that he was changing it around to determine what the crowd wanted, but even when people danced, he kept it up. This LA-style of DJing (as explained to me by my multiple DJ friends) is terrible!!! Crowd: 90% women. Many of them beautiful. It seemed like everyone just stood around watching everyone else and only danced out of boredom. I felt like I was watching a scene out of some soap opera or stage production with everyone just standing on their side watching what everyone else was doing, except for the people sitting. Flow: Stand in line waiting in the front, whether you are a guest, VIP, or whatever. When you go in, most of what is happening is upstairs. If you smoke, you use the side area. If you exit, you have to walk through the back of the downstairs area and work your way out the side exit where the smokers go. Luckily there wasn't a crowd to make it too difficult.
by Lucien Rossean on Showed up here on a whim to impress my Asian side piece, great place for the 20-30 something crowd. Always some north jersey/staten island/long island talent here celebrating a girlfriends birthday. Thats means for you single guys, definitely stop in here if your trying to snag a few third string quarterbacks to dial up at 1am on a Tuesday night. To the Bridge and Tunnerl crowd this place is Tao on steroids, its conveniently located in the heart of the meat packing district. Orginally had reservations at STK across the street(another mediocre/b&T Haunt). There was a door guy outside who was very nice and friendly, gladly helped my date up the stairs and directed us as to where to find a buddy of mine. The decor and design of this place are top notch, they really did put a boatload of money into and that is probalby why it cost a arm and a leg to eat here. Hottie waitresses here as well, though unfortunatley they only work the tables around the bar area; where your guaranteed to pay either 15 bucks per drink or they may harass you to buy a bottle. Ended up tossing back a few drinks at the bar and than were seated for dinner. For a tuesday the dining room was fairly packed, good mix of tourists, sl*ts and annoying non English speaking middle agers. Our waiter and the service in general were terrible, I hear from a few friends its even worse on a busy night(Thu, fri & sat). Still ended up giving the guy a decent tip but really waited about 20 minutes before we were even brought menu's. That ridiculous, listen I am no Yenta, not trying to complain but really the service was horrendous. Here comes the kicker, the food here blows, my steak, requested med-rare, came out well done. Our speciality 18 dollar sushi roll, well I have had better sushi @ whole foods. The rice was dry, Tuna tasted fishy and it was pathetically small. Our brownie was decent as best, even the green tea, though at least piping hot, was weak and mild. They must be use to serving Southerners and other tourist types who dont know what good food is. This native New Yorker was not impressed. The prices, combined with the mediocre food is the equivalent of watching the knicks play this year. You will leave angry, disgusted and a couple of hundred dollars poorer. Next time my strategy will be I'm only getting bombed here, cruising for some talent, spending no more than 45 minutes in this joint and getting the waitresses phone number.
by Kelly L. on I usually come here for dinner before going to a show at the Independent. Cool retro atmosphere and great food. Plus, I love any excuse to be able to eat with my hands. The downside is that it can get really noisy.
