by William H. on MUST SEE WHEN IN NYC. Remarkable sunset, awesome views of the river, food is pretty good. Sit back with a cold one with friends and enjoy the sunset over the NJ skyline. Seriously spectacular. Pizza, fries, calamari, and oooh they have Sangria! I saw a lot of people eat the lobster and shellfish, must be excellent as well. Took a while to get seating. I had to play waiter and clean up some seafood mess some people left behind to get a decent table. Watch the floor for any puddles or wet spots, I almost took a dive with a tray full of food, but saved myself. Standing ovation from the drunk party of 12 next to the puddle. Holla! But the views across the river and behind, oh, this is New York.
by Jamar Paquin on Weird place, good for novelty at best. Pod is "high design," but it's amazing how quickly the Wallpaper look has dated, but that's all you are paying for. Food is divided into two principle types: half-decent deep fried chinese (think updated general tso's) and subpar sushi. The price is ludicrous for a university area meal. I guess students have more cash on their hands than I did or perhaps just don't understand their loans, but seriously... I spent $40 for some awful sushi and some sake. I felt lousy about doing it. Lots of money, nothing to show for it. Would've eaten better at Au Bon Pain, no question.
by leeann m. on I recently visited this establishment while on my first trip to the city. I had made reservations two weeks in advance because it has an amazing view (located on the 21st floor, right next to Union Square). I made them for 8pm because we weren't planning on staying long, and we figured we would get in and out . When the three of us arrived we had to stand next to the elevators because we were 10 minutes early for our reservations. As more customers entered they also stood in the tight area with us, constantly moving as the elevator doors opened. Despite the fact that we were the first ones to arrive and the fact that we had reservations, we somehow were pushed to the back as others entered . None the less, we got to the rude host. An out of town visitor that was looking for a great view of the city, I was also unaware that this was more of a bar than a restaurant. Unfortunately one of the girls with us ( I say girl because we are 24 and the rest of the crowd were men and women 50 and older, mind you on a Saturday night) left her ID in the car. The man at the front was angry because I was unaware that we needed to prove we were 21 to get in. We offered to get the ID and come back, but after insulting us and the fact the we were from Southern California, he told us that we could still enter. For some reason he didn't feel the need to check the IDs of the two of us that had them. She should have had her ID, and we take full responsibility for that, hence the fact that we told him that we would go and get it. Shocked that he was so demeaning, we proceeded into the bar to be greeted once again with a name request. After giving my name, they seemed to have a problem locating my reservation (even though I had received a call the previous day confirming that reservation). What a shock for the man that there were two pages of reservations! Seemed a little strange that he couldn't figure that out, but he finally found us. On to our seats. We sat, placed an order for drinks and appetizers (of course the friend without the ID ordered water) and were disturbed that the man at the door wouldn't stop staring at us. After our orders were delivered service was nonexistent from that point on. I waited about 10 minutes to get a fork so that I could eat, and we had to ask our waitress if we could have our empty waters refilled (it was strange that we had to say "excuse me "serveral times as she walked by before she actually looked our way, even though onme of the waitresses actually bumped my foot while passing our tabe because the area was so tight). After we had finished we were definitely ready to leave. When the waitress approached our table, my friends explained how we felt neglected because of the way that we were treated at the door, in addition to being ignored because of what we could see, was probably our age. She didn't seem to care, and we later found out, that she told the man at the door what we had said. As we were signing our checks, the man from the door approached us and told us that we needed to leave as soon as we were finished signing our checks. Then he escorted us to the door where he opened the elevators for us so that he could get us out faster. Obviously unhappy with the way that we were treated, we described our incident to an attendant downstairs who called the manager down for us. The manager also wasn't too concerned about our story and accused us of having fake IDs (despite the fact that the man upstairs didn't even look at them), and then said that we had given our side of the story but he would check with his staff. He had no intentions of taking us seriously. We got his manager's name, and that manager's name as well. Don't think it will make any difference though. So basically, as we felt, we were discriminated against because we were young and it was assumed that we didn't have money to be there or tip well. Coincidently, we were talking about our experience in a parking garage and a woman overheard us and asked if we had just been at the Starlight Room! We couldn't believe that she knew where we had just been! She explained that she had worked there and that it was regular policy to treat younger customers disrespectfully. Apparently the staff equates youth to poor and unimportant. It's really unfortunate that this experience took place because the hotel (Sir Francis Drake) and the Starlight Room was amazingly beautiful. It has a breathtaking view and classiness reminiscent of the 1930s. I only gave one star because of the view and the decor, and also because I had to in order to submit my review. My first trip to San Francisco was ruined because of the appalling behavior of the staff of the Starlight Room.
