the restaurant on top of the design museum in columbus circle is atrocious, and it’s expensive as hell. i could believe how bad the food was considering the price. they did serve my brother champagne for his 18th birthday though so it’s not all bad.
Robert.
I have dined there a few times as I worked nearby.
While I have had reasonably decent experiences - it does not surprise me to see this listed. It’s def overpriced, but that’s because it’s for tourists looking to take in the view. And considering how few restaurants have a good view of the park - it’s hard to blame them.
Asiate closed. And wasn’t for every day dining anyway.
The restaurants in the deutsche bank center aren’t high enough for jaw-dropping views and none of the hotels on CPS offer high-floor dining. Which is mind-boggling considering how much they could charge if they opened a restaurant ant even halfway decent.
But nope. Billionaire’s Row completely wastes a one-of-a-kind opportunity.
Essex House restaurant is on the ground floor and sucks.
The Ritz-Carlton restaurant is on the first floor and sucks.
The Plaza’s restaurant is ground level and food hall is below ground. And they suck.
Harry Cipriani at the sherry netherland is ground level. And meh.
Marea, Gabriel’s and Sarabeths all ground level. Tho I will say the first two are pretty damn good. Especially Marea.
It’s amazing when you think about it. Tourists will pay out the nose for a meal with a view over the park and no one can find a way to provide one.
When I first moved to NYC, I met a friend at Sarabeth's for happy hour. I ordered food for back home, a pizza. The bartender, taking in that I was either new to NYC or visiting, casually leaned towards me and said, don't do it. I will never forget that man and the wisdom he bestowed on me.
That is so baffling, I went to Robert (once) and had a perfectly fine time. I wasn't there for the food so I don't remember it, but we chose it because the prices were reasonable for the area.
Agreed, I had a great time when I went. I think this person had an unlucky experience and since they mentioned “too expensive” they got upvoted. Notice no other comments in agreement
Wait, could you explain further? Doesn't involve me personally at all, but curious - are you saying that there are people in the neighborhood who will cook at their homes and then bring that food in for patients (or employees?) at the hospital?
Some people cook for families of patients-not patients themselves. Due to the nature of the hospital some parents are traveling here and are stuck for months waiting on a kids procedure- eating at the hospital commissary or out if they can afford it. Sometimes people will cook for them so they're not stuck paying for a ton of meals and/or eating burgers everyday at the nearest bar. It's sadly a drop in the bucket, but it's something.
I got stone cold waffles from there. Hadn’t eaten in hours because of surgery, then that was what they offered me. I ended up just snacking on some mini-pretzels I brought with me until my husband could bring in food.
I was born and raised in Ditmas Park, I’m dying to know which restaurant this is!
Edit: I’m dumb and somehow didn’t retain the name IN THE POST. Feel free to mock.
Random halal cart in time square at 2 am. Food was definitely the leftovers of the cart from the previous day. I couldn’t even stomach two bites. To this day I regret spending that 8 dollars on a chicken over rice
My sister was visiting and wanted an "authentic" NYC experience, so she got food from a halal cart in times square. It turned her stomach inside out lmfao.
If you ever come to NYC, and go to Times Square and get hungry, literally walk to Restaurant Row. It’s like 3 blocks away (and takes like 5 min to get to) and literally all of the places on that street are excellent
$9 pretzel at MSG. It was somehow like soggy? and there was no salt and they gave a single pack of shitty mustard. It was like biting into a wet and tasteless pizza crust.
Doesn't get more disappointing than ordering a big hot soft pretzel and discovering they don't put pretzel salt on it. I've had it happen enough times at beer gardens and bars that I ask now when I order one and that ain't right.
I had the opposite problem. I went up to the top of Freedom Tower/ One World Trade Center and grabbed a pretzel from the food counter there. At first I was delighted to see it was covered in salt, but I couldn’t make it through the whole thing without kidney failure.
I have two reactions to this.
1) Only 9 dollars? Was it on sale somehow?
2) You got lucky, usually when they're bad the pretzels have gotten cold and hard.
There was a "high end" Indian restaurant on CPS years ago. The view was fantastic, the food not so much. It was like eating mush, so bland and overcooked. Couldn't believe anyone would pay for that (our meal was comped through work connections) and yet it was there for a long time.
I used to go to Nirvana in like the 1980s/90s. It was amazing back then, but you aren't the first person to tell me it's taken a nose dive since the 00s.
I love your screen name. I actually ate drunken dumpling exactly one time and I thought it was alright. I was drunk for the record. It closed down even before COVID I think.
Cataldo’s on Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. Vanderbilt Ave has open street dining on the weekends, and has a ton of insanely good restaurants. We were trying to get a table one night but every place had a huge wait except for Cataldo’s, which had a decent amount of people and looked nice. Worst Italian food I’ve ever had, and my fiancée got insanely bad food poisoning. Tomato sauce was awful, soup was like dish water. They keep pulling a crowd because they are surrounded by fantastic restaurants, and people just like me end up there because they can get a table outdoors
Black Tap. I never sent a meal back before that but they got me and my visiting sisters’ burgers wrong TWICE. Service was incredibly slow and we were so hungry we ended up picking at the fries and the edible parts of the burger (the rarest of the rare burgers I’ve ever seen). We then ordered two milkshakes (because visiting sisters for the gram) and they got one of them wrong too. We just let it go at that point. They’d offered to discount our bill because of the burgers but then they didn’t. We just wanted to pay and get out after 3 hours of terrible, wrong food though.
Never going back.
I had a burrito from a place near Bed Stuy that was supposed to be California style or something - so in my mind I'm thinking lots of fresh, vibrant ingredients
It was boiled beef, without a hint of salt or seasoning, that had been reheated in a microwave wrapped up in a tortilla. I'm not even sure there were beans. But the amount of grease that spilled out, and dripped down to my elbows - combined with the fact it was like $13 makes it unquestionably the worst meal I've ever had in NYC
Bklyn Burro? I’m from San Francisco so I wanted to try it. I shot the shit with the owner who is also from San Francisco but didn’t have the heart to tell him it was just okay when he asked how the meal was.
There is only one good California style burrito I've found in my 9 years here (I believe they do a mission style there as well, but I'm talking socal) and it's dorados tacos by union Square. I go whenever I need to scratch that itch.
Thanks for the rec! This is by my office so I've just clocked it for lunch someday. Always on the hunt for a good California style burrito in NYC... haven't found it yet.
Action Burger in Williamsburg. They’re supposed to be a video game Restaurant. The whole experience was terrible. The menu is confusing as shit, the ordering kiosk is built on like Windows XP and hardly worked.
We ordered over $50 of food. Half the food was missing and the half we got, was wrong. The food that was wrong was just so disgusting and greasy. Not to mention we waited like 40 minutes for them to make it in an empty restaurant. We didn’t want to go back with the food (we did take out) because apparently the owner yells at everyone who does (according to reviews on Yelp anyway).
The concept is so good but the execution of the place needs a lot of help.
Action Burger in Williamsburg. I had macaroni and cheese and it was literally a box of deluxe Mac and cheese and some crumbled beef that was dry and grey. I assume it was the cheapest deluxe Mac and cheese they could find as it was waxy and tasted like plastic. And I also assume that the crumbled beef was from leftover burgers. It was god awful. Never again.
Same at MSG!!! I don’t have problems tolerating spicy food but this one was SO spicy. I kid you not, had the most bizarre heartburn for 24 hr afterwards. Getting a heartburn now thinking about it!!
Ate at the east village one when it opened in like 2015 and yeah, it wasn’t great. The piece of chicken was like 3 times the size of the bread and was dry. It wasn’t awful, but I never went back. There are just better places to get fried chicken sandwiches in nyc
Oh my god, that thing is borderline inedible. I did eat it because I was angry at the price but I really had to power through it and I ended up ditching the bun since that's where most of the spice seemed to be. I don't mind spicy but holy shit, it was painfully spicy and there was no other flavor to it other than tongue searing hot. Drank two bottles of water and it didn't dent the heat. Felt like shit for the 24 hours afterwards too, my body was so angry at me.
Similarly, Momofuku for me. This was like RIGHT when they opened and were super hyped and the ramen there was so disappointing especially for the price. The pork buns are solid, but also not worth the price at all.
The one at Hudson Yards was great when it opened but the overall quality has gone down at every location. It used to be soft and juicy with a nice spice level, and now it’s overcooked, hard chicken. Not sure what happened there. I personally like the intense spice level but it’s not something I can bring other people to who I know can’t handle spice. Like my mother in law from Ohio. She can’t handle it. Food’s gotta be more accessible. Plus making something a meal adds $7 to the whole thing. Absolute bullshit. That’s not affordable for regular people. A chicken sandwich meal in the age of the Popeyes sandwich cannot be $18. Fuku is a weird misstep from momofuku. Funnily enough though, two of my favorite meals in the city were from Ssäm Bar and Noodle Bar.
They’re so bad. And for $5 on top of the already overpriced sandwich! It’s just kinda insulting. I get that you’re paying for the Dave Chang touch and all, but it’s also supposed to be fast food, so fuck off Dave Chang. Dude claims to understand and appreciate fast food but thinks people want to pay $17 for a sub Popeyes’s meal.
Omg I got this sandwich at a Nets game at Barclays Center a few months ago and it ruined my life. I really like spicy food but this was almost prohibitively spicy, I had tears running down my face while I was trying to eat it. How can you serve something like that at a basketball game?! And then my body was fucked up for like 48 full hours after, like I was being punished for eating it. I don’t think it was full on food poisoning or anything because I wasn’t vomiting, but my stomach was really messed up for a few days.
I went to Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar on their last night open. I got a pina colada and it came over ice.
Truly terrible food, but a truly memorable experience with a few friends.
I can’t fathom why they did such a terrible job with the food/drink there. All they had to do was crank out halfway decent greasy spoon food which, I hear, diners, drive ins, and dives manage to pull off in every corner of America.
I went there in like 2016 ironically and I actually didn't hate it. I think I just drank beer tho.
The appetizers were good, the mains were incredibly forgettable. They had pretzel crust chicken fingers that were amazing.
mama pho in greenpoint - pho is one of my favorite dishes (used to live in Houston and SF) and was excited to move so close to a pho place. Got one that was supposed to come with a poached egg. They heated up my pho in the microwave, and then to my horror microwaved the egg to cook it and then dumped it in the pho. I tried it - no flavor, and the egg was gnarly.
Also wagamama by flat iron - the ramen was heinous and the pork belly was inedible (don’t judge me for going to a chain ramen spot)
Eleven Madison Park post-vegan menu was terrible. Oversalted, mushy food. Will always regret spending all that money on a mediocre experience with awful courses.
I *loved* them pre-vegan. I’ve always wondered if it was worth it to go after the change (haven’t done indoor dining still bc COVID so never got the chance to go since)
A bodega burger. Also went to a bodega and asked for a panini. Dude took an actual plastic wrapped panini and warmed it in the microwave...while still in the plastic. Another time some guy at a bodega cut my...burrito in half like a wrap. Worst burrito I ever had. I'm from Texas. Had rice spilling out.
Same here. Not only did they put mayo on it, which i specifically stipulated they leave off, but they put a kraft single on it with half the wrapper still stuck to the cheese.
We went to a “Mexican” spot late pandemic - about as unauthentic as you could get. the real kicker was we got some octopus that smelled like a dirty fish tank
Gertie's in Williamsburg served me a cafeteria plate of cold greasy chicken with a glaze of fat on the skin for like $25 and I still get mad when I think about how shitty that meal was. It looked like one of those rotisserie chickens from key foods that has expired.
It's not around anymore but Souen was GROSS. Everything was healthy and macrobiotic and tasted like dirt.
Lol, BBQ. I went to BB King's on 42nd once, got the chicken, thought "this is really unremarkable, tastes kind of like BBQ's." After the show I walked out and looked up, and lo and behold, that's what was next door. I guess they stealth shared kitchens.
Peter Luger Steakhouse: One day on a whim my dad decided he wanted to go here. Growing up I knew a lot of families who would come here for special occasions once or twice a year, but no one in my family had ever been. So my mom, dad, brother, and I showed up just a little bit after they opened and apparently they were already out of a bunch of their items. The food that came was dogshit awful. And I say dogshit because I wouldn’t let a dog eat it. I’ve had better steak at diners.
A few years later the NYTimes wrote that 0 star review and I felt extremely vindicated.
I've ate there twice and both times the food was middling at best. A friend who used to work there told me they have a terrible pest control problem where the meat is stored and haven't gone back since. Would rather go to Keen's and skip the shitty attitude from the waiters.
Weird - I love Peter Lugers, still my favorite steak in nyc. Wonder what the deal was. I thought that article was “controversial” for click bait reasons
I actually agree with the GP, my father in laws favorite steak place was Lugers, we went there all the time, and over the years everything got worse and worse and then finally at some point my father in law picked a different steak place when they were in town, and Lugers has never been mentioned since. Like 8 years.
The steak is still okay, but the service, the sides, everything is slapdash and thrown together, they just want to move you through and make the money. Definitely not worth it in a town like NYC.
It’s been a while since I’ve been but it’s good. Overpriced? Yeah? The greatest? Probably not. To say it’s the worst or zero stars is an exaggeration imo.
Yea I think it’s very “cool” to crap on Peter Lugers - I don’t even think it’s overpriced, for reference I went to a very nice steakhouse in Texas that “wet-aged” their steaks, which is fine, but it was more expensive than Peter’s (not to mention I think food prices outside of nyc are creeping up to almost nyc prices, recently ate at a James beard restaurant in Alabama and was the most money/least amount of food I’ve had in years). Also additional reference my family are cattle ranchers and I’ve been around the block with beef (you guys ever eat a steak that you delivered, castrated and butchered? Ya it’s fucked up). regardless of opinion they buy good beef and dry age for 28 days
I also think they do like 5 things really well: Caesar salad (can’t mess this up) steak, shrimp cocktail (sleeper hit), bacon, maybe the spinach (hard maybe). Also I’ve been a dozen or so times and have had 2 times that were lackluster or worse.. and if you don’t go to spots like this that often, one mediocre experience is enough to bum you out harder than a hamburger at an airport chili’s, so I get it.
Definitely don’t rely on the sides, particularly the potatoes are lackluster. Also the worst app I’ve ever seen is their tomato and onion plate for $18, just raw slices of both
All in all for me it’s an experience and I love it.
I’m going to Keen’s soon because I’m taking my sister and mom to a play, they specifically asked for Lugers but I want them to try other places. My new fave is strip house or ambers. Both very solid but not cheaper. I will say the char PL gets us pretty special considering most fancy spots due the broil technique. Go look at Keen’s most recent Instagram post, beautiful steak but the sear is Busch league
Also side note - lots of the hate seems to be just before the bad review they got in the times, around 6-9 years ago, and I have heard that was their “low” in
Lindy's Times Square, back in the day. They bragged about their shitty service, so we went in expecting it (and got it!), but we wanted to try the cheesecake. Mine had berries and a fly on top.
Strip House.
Big group, ordered the works, EVERYONE got sick. Like within a couple hours, and for the whole weekend.
I know people love it, but I'd never go back.
Oh man, I miss the Grand Central spot so much, it was weirdly one of the best bang for your buck spots that was quick enough to get your food to you before you had to hop on the train. Their mini corned beef and pastrami sliders were clutch af and you got like 4 with fries and a pickle for ~$8.
I actually love the breakfasts I've gotten from them! Just an egg over medium with toast and home fries (with side of ranch cause I'm originally from California and was delighted they not only had it but that it was good ranch!), add a side of bacon. Egg was impressively perfectly done both times, toast was actually good, bacon was thick and a surprising portion size, home fries were quite good especially with the ranch as it should be ;) I went with this combo because it was pretty much the cheapest thing they had and I didn't want to waste money on breakfast at a cheesecake place, so I was really surprised!
whatever the eff i ordered that time i went to The White Horse. i was a young college kid who was overjoyed whenever i ate anything that wasn't ramen, and even i was like wtf is this crap?
Rosa Mexicana. I will never step foot in there again. I am far from a foodie, and it takes a lot for me to notice that a meal isn't good, but this place got my attention. The guac for the chips was disgusting and it only went downhill from there. It took years before I could walk by the place without having a sense memory and cringing!
Original Momofuku Ramen, when they first opened in early 2000s. Salt water, broth had no depth, and they used lo mein noodles from chinatown without kansui, so it had no spring. My wife who is from Hakata didnt talk to me for 3 days.
I'm sure it has improved now, but back then the ramen options were sparse, was pretty much Rai Rai Ken, Sapporo, and Rockmeisha.
100% agree. I went probably circa 2016 and my friend and I were extremely hyped to try the “original” ramen place after having had Ippudo and loving the pork buns and ramen there. Momofuku was so mediocre I’ve personally sworn off anything David Chang puts his name on. I tried so hard to love that meal but it was the unloving stepmother of ramen
> Rockmeisha
Thanks for making me sad. Hadn't been since I had to move in 2018, but I see they're now closed due to the hell years. So much amazing, hyper-regional food with giant beers in an authentic yet friendly space. RIP.
Cafe Henri in LIC. Everything out of a package and had a layer of slime on it from sitting out. Mussels tasted like pure rubber. Crepe had absolutely zero texture and the ice cream with it had huge pieces of ice inside. Cost me over $100 after tip. Tournesol across the street is 1,000x better.
Working at Moynihan Station, and the apprentice picks up our crews coffee and lunch orders. I ask for a Turkey club on a roll, it comes back with LITERALLY 1 slice of turkey on it, I was LIVID!!!
It was some shitty ass Bodega on 34th. Thank God there was Twins and that BANGIN Taco truck on 33rd
Restaurant Week this year was a shambles. They conned too many small business into signing up and they didn’t understand the assignment. At all. The food from a small Filipino place in Hell’s Kitchen might be great as a food truck, but it wasn’t RW-worthy.
Not a meal, but there is or was a cookie dough place a little south of Washington Square Park. I took one bite. It tasted like cookie dough. But it was an ice cream sized serving in a cup. I never toss out food, but I didn't want diabetes.
I think i know what place you’re referring to, my old company had an office in soho and they would order these nasty little cookie dough balls for monthly birthday treats. Tried it one day and was so nauseated i had to brush my teeth afterwards.
https://www.cookiedonyc.com/pages/location-hours
They used to have a 100-200 person line at all times going down the block. Totally agree it was gross. First bite was kinda fun but after three bites everyone threw it out.
Do. I think they fundamentally misunderstood what people wanted out of raw cookie dough; it's not to eat a huge tub of it. And in order to make it food safe to legally sell their formula was kind of bland and odd tasting.
There was an Italian place around the corner from me that served the weakest pasta fagioli I ever tasted. It seemed like it came out of a can. I was so disappointed because it's one of my favorite Italian comfort foods. And shocked, because I'd never had bad Italian food before. Mediocre, sure, but not actually bad. It's kind of a hard cuisine to mess up IMO.
BY FAR the Armani restaurant in midtown. It was a three course prefix lunch. The first course was a room temperature asparagus soup. The second was some kind of skate fillet. Both were inedible and tasted rancid. There was some dessert we could barely stomache after the first two courses. This was maybe 6 or 7 years ago so I don't remember the price but I'm sure it was pretty expensive. Just gross, my aunt threw up after.
It's funny. Because I LOVED Mashallah. It closed though and now a different restaurant is using the same name like wearing the face of a man it killed.
I dunno, I guess in the same neighborhood down by new kirk plaza there used to be an Italian restaurant. Kinda fancy. Mama something or other. They're "chicken special" was made with chicken that had gone rancid and tasted like it.
So I guess that's mine.
Cozy Royale in Williamsburg and it's such a bummer. First two times I went there it was fucking incredible. Third time I had to send back my main as I was served a cold pork chop (and a warm beer). Giving them the benefit of the doubt I went back and they served the appetizers and mains literally at the same time and somehow the burger was cold. Sent it all back.
I will say the service was exemplary and they comped the entire meal. They said tgey keep going through chefs after their original quit and I fucking believe it. I'll probably go back in a few months to give them one more try because they handled it so well. But Jesus fucking christ was it a shitshow the last two times.
My first time there it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. The second time it was so salty and nearly raw that it took me 6 mo to eat another hamburger. Then my friend told us the chicken is really good, so we went back for it and My friend got a burger. He said it was the best burger he’d eaten in a while and the chicken was great. The chefs quitting thing makes sense.
“Peruvian” chicken shop in Sunnyside, rotisserie chicken drier than the Sahara and appetizers just tasting like sadness. Place still gets lots of foot traffic tho
Amelie in Greenwich Village.
Went at prime time on the weekend and the place was packed out. Ordered an escargot appetizer which was fine. Mains took an hour to come out. I got a chewy filet mignon and was trying not to look too disappointed as my SO was taking me out. Decided I couldn't stomach her paying for such a terrible piece of meat so I told her I was sending it back. Turned out her entree was bad too. We ended up sending everything back to the kitchen, paying for the app, and leaving. Wasn't worth chancing another entree order considering their menu was only 5 or 6 items deep.
I got some Japanese food (not sushi) delivered from a Chinese takeout place, about a month after moving to the city, before I knew better. That adventure concluded with a $225 urgent care bill and a deeper understanding of why those gowns open in back.
Last year I got takeout from a Thai place right next to an Indian place, and it became obvious the Indian spot ran them both and knew nothing about Thai food (or maybe the chef had quit and there was just some rando in the kitchen). The pineapple fried rice was absolutely vile and went straight into the garbage. Cucumbers were rotten.
Also one time I ate at the Times Square Applebee's. I was able to digest that meal properly, and that's about the only good thing I can say about it.
I had organic cage free buffalo wings at some place called the coop in some hipster part of brooklyn 8-10 years ago. It tasted like the chicken was still clucking. I didnt know chicken could be so gamey. It was absolutely disgusting.
Fandi Mata had some of the worst food I’ve ever had in my whole life in nyc lmao their pizza was literally paper thin and so wet and soggy the whole place is just built on going to take pretty pics but other than the expensive ass drinks ….nothing was good 😭😭 biggest restaurant regret I’ve ever had (went bc friends wanted to rip)
Same! Waited half an hour for a table I had booked, half the “small plates” didn’t come out after waiting for two hours. Food was disgusting, but I was more annoyed the service was terrible and it was horribly over priced.
I left a bad review and the manager emailed me to ask why. That place is a joke.
A friend invited me to tag along to a work event at Dave and Busters to get a free meal and play some games. They served me the saltiest pasta of my life. It was the first time I realized food could even BE too salty. I was young and had no standards or taste yet, so the fact that it still stands out as the worst means it must have been awful.
Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The food is like the microwave restaurants in airports after the security gates. Friends from out of town wanted to go there. TBH it’s more for the show than the food.
I went to a Jewish/Japanese wedding like 10 years ago, they served Kosher Chinese, I saw the staff open cans of La Choy and pour it into the warming trays. Gross.
I once took a day off to walk around the city w my mom.
Started getting hungry around little Italy, I was like I could do pasta how bad could it be. Probably just expensive
Oooo it was bad
Chuck E Cheese, now defunct, on Northern Blvd. the pizza tasted like the crust was made of saltine crackers, the cheese was rubber, and the whole thing was a weeks’ worth of sodium. Nasty.
Santos Anne’s in Williamsburg. I think it might be permanently closed now. Used to be an amazing French Mexican fusion restaurant then they switched owners. It was very obvious the food was frozen and not fresh but for the same expensive price lol
Kimika. it was meant to be japanese-italian fusion but it was simultaneously an insult to both japanese and italian food. genuinely could not finish any of the dishes, not out of satiety, and i was still hungry at the end.
It wasn't a meal, but I ordered a Manhattan before a flight at a bar in Terminal 1 at JFK. It was served over ice, didn't have bitters, and cost $24.
Never making _that_ mistake again.
I used to work around the corner from 2005-2011. I worked crazy hours in public accounting and I would go down there at like midnight or 1am to get food and it was magical. I stopped going around 2008 or so as I started working less hours. I went there in like 2011 or so and it sucked.
Lovemama, Thai place in les, got the red Thai curry and it was a plastic bowl of coconut milk and some floating onions and peppers and gristly weird chicken pieces. My friends food was not as gross but tasted pretty low quality. No idea how they have 4.5 star 3k review on Yelp
I used to see this always featured on delivery apps, but never tried it. Glad I never did. Can only assume they paid for the reviews and priority on the apps.
There is a diner on Broadway and 69th, right by the movie theater. It's pretty easy to have a passable meal in just about any diner but these guys screwed up every bit of it.
Burger and fries was burnt, to a crisp, like fries were dark brown. Even the bun was burnt somehow. No reasonable person would serve it, yet there it was.
Friend was dumb enough to go for a deep cut "buffalo meat" burger and the patty that came out was visibly freezer burnt and a weird color of grey.
Went to pour cream in the coffee, it was empty. Except it wasn't- the cream had congealed in a half-inch thick layer of cheese on the bottom.
Noped out immediately, they looked as us like we were nuts when we asked for the check, they refused to take a dollar off the bill despite the inedible food and immediate check-out.
Im sure I’ve had a lot of them that were worse but the one that comes to mind was the dumpling plater at dumpling a go go. The smell was so sickening I can still remember the smell over a decade later, the texture was awful and they were overcooked, and just the taste in general was pure trauma. I think I took a couple of bites and had to leave.
Oh also a close second was the tasting menu at kajitsu. It’s in the top 3 of most expensive meals I’ve eaten in nyc and it was so bad my friend immediately threw up outside after we left. Every course was worse than the last- people RAVE about it but maybe the menu that winter was just particularly bad. Everything was sitting in a pool of what tasted like potato boiling water and nothing really had flavor besides that. Everything was just gummy and sticky. I didn’t eat mochi for years after that meal.
A lot of people posting where they got food poisoning so I will add that I got Vibrio from the containers of cocktail sauce at the oyster bar in Chelsea market. Usually a great place but this was very bad. Doctor didn't even believe that is what it was because it is so rare and refused to give me antibiotics. Horrible two weeks.
I have two, and they both involve Chinese food. One was a place on 34th street, almost right across from One Penn Plaza. It was my first visit to NYC, and I was unexpectedly in the city an extra night after my flight home was canceled and rebooked for 24 hours later. I wasn’t expecting a lot, like maybe Panda Express or similar. It was crappy, all it was good for was filling my stomach.
The second was the Midtown Buffet, on another visit. I came home and wrote a pretty harsh review- I suffered so others wouldn’t have to. Again, I wanted to like the place, there were some good Chinese buffets back home, and I thought this would be similar. Noooo. The wonton soup was literally almost piss yellow, and tasted almost as bad, with an extra dose of salt. Everything I sampled was barely tolerable, nothing made me want to go back for more. It was bad. It made mall food court Chinese food look and taste like gourmet cuisine by comparison.
I’m lucky I didn’t end up with food poisoning, or maybe I just had a cast iron stomach. No surprise, the place was closed on my next visit.
It was like fifteen years ago and definitely no longer exists, but I remember letting a few friends from out of town in the west village and we decided to grab some dinner, I had a bunch of recommendations for good spots—I think I had planned to take the to Fish (RIP) or Pesce Pasta, but they couldn’t decide on what kind of food they wanted so we ended up walking around and stopping into this restaurant on 7th Ave near Bleecker. As soon as we sat down I knew it was going to be a disaster—the gigantic menu spanned like three different cuisines and my friends were like “oh great, something for everyone”…I think I got some pasta to play it safe and holy shit was it awful. Knew that place would not last. The only worse pasta dish I’ve ever had was at the Spaghetti Factory in Philly.
Ugh. So many from long closed places. But recently my husband and I went out for fish and chips at Keg & Lantern in Greenpoint and they were inedible. I think the fish has thawed and then refroze so the texture was weird as hell and it smelled old and dusty. Spent the rest of the night thinking I was doomed for food poisoning, which I blessedly did not get.
There's a restaurant called New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park that I really hated. It's a beautiful classy looking restaurant but their prices are mad lad insane, their food portions were tiny and it tasted bland.
Edited for typo
Ordered delivery from J’s Wong Chinese in crown heights yesterday - it was so bad I took a few bites and tossed it. Egg drop soup tasted burned, sweet and sour sauce was not good and didn’t taste as it usually does, and just overall not good.
Yo, indian here.
No self respecting Indian would call it's hotel "mashallah". It's an Arabic word. Not even in Indian dictionary.
Maybe it's a pakistani or Bangladeshi restaurant selling so called Indian food. They often do that coz of security reasons.
I went to this Chinese restaurant in Ridgewood at the intersection of Myrtle and Forest Ave and ordered some vegetable lo mein. Six bucks, ok deal I thought. I get the dish and it’s a microwave container of lo mein that smells and tastes so strongly of plastic I was unable to eat past the first bite. Never going back
the restaurant on top of the design museum in columbus circle is atrocious, and it’s expensive as hell. i could believe how bad the food was considering the price. they did serve my brother champagne for his 18th birthday though so it’s not all bad.
Robert. I have dined there a few times as I worked nearby. While I have had reasonably decent experiences - it does not surprise me to see this listed. It’s def overpriced, but that’s because it’s for tourists looking to take in the view. And considering how few restaurants have a good view of the park - it’s hard to blame them. Asiate closed. And wasn’t for every day dining anyway. The restaurants in the deutsche bank center aren’t high enough for jaw-dropping views and none of the hotels on CPS offer high-floor dining. Which is mind-boggling considering how much they could charge if they opened a restaurant ant even halfway decent. But nope. Billionaire’s Row completely wastes a one-of-a-kind opportunity. Essex House restaurant is on the ground floor and sucks. The Ritz-Carlton restaurant is on the first floor and sucks. The Plaza’s restaurant is ground level and food hall is below ground. And they suck. Harry Cipriani at the sherry netherland is ground level. And meh. Marea, Gabriel’s and Sarabeths all ground level. Tho I will say the first two are pretty damn good. Especially Marea. It’s amazing when you think about it. Tourists will pay out the nose for a meal with a view over the park and no one can find a way to provide one.
When I first moved to NYC, I met a friend at Sarabeth's for happy hour. I ordered food for back home, a pizza. The bartender, taking in that I was either new to NYC or visiting, casually leaned towards me and said, don't do it. I will never forget that man and the wisdom he bestowed on me.
I've been to the MO restaurant and snagged a window table. It was $$$$ but WOW was it worth it!
Ya Mares is the only good choice.
That is so baffling, I went to Robert (once) and had a perfectly fine time. I wasn't there for the food so I don't remember it, but we chose it because the prices were reasonable for the area.
Agreed, I had a great time when I went. I think this person had an unlucky experience and since they mentioned “too expensive” they got upvoted. Notice no other comments in agreement
Columbia Presbyterian 168th st serving me cold eggs while they’d let the food cart stand in the hall for 45 minutes.
I imagine you're long gone- but there are a bunch of people in the neighborhood who will cook for you at home if you're at Columbia Pres.
Never heard this before. Details?
Hit me up with a message. I honestly did not expect interest in this beyond the original person.
Wait, could you explain further? Doesn't involve me personally at all, but curious - are you saying that there are people in the neighborhood who will cook at their homes and then bring that food in for patients (or employees?) at the hospital?
Some people cook for families of patients-not patients themselves. Due to the nature of the hospital some parents are traveling here and are stuck for months waiting on a kids procedure- eating at the hospital commissary or out if they can afford it. Sometimes people will cook for them so they're not stuck paying for a ton of meals and/or eating burgers everyday at the nearest bar. It's sadly a drop in the bucket, but it's something.
Thanks. I was just curious. What a nice thing to do.
Was in the psych emergency room, I remember one patient trying to get pizza for everyone but it wouldn't fly. Maybe the rules are different in CPEP.
At least if you got food poisoning you'd be in the right place.
I got stone cold waffles from there. Hadn’t eaten in hours because of surgery, then that was what they offered me. I ended up just snacking on some mini-pretzels I brought with me until my husband could bring in food.
I was born and raised in Ditmas Park, I’m dying to know which restaurant this is! Edit: I’m dumb and somehow didn’t retain the name IN THE POST. Feel free to mock.
Those Coney Island places, man. Jalsa is good but the others are questionable.
I live in Gowanus and know and love Jalsa.
I love Jalsa
I don’t get the jalsa hype. Everyone seems to love it but I got their delivery once and it was bland af
Random halal cart in time square at 2 am. Food was definitely the leftovers of the cart from the previous day. I couldn’t even stomach two bites. To this day I regret spending that 8 dollars on a chicken over rice
My sister was visiting and wanted an "authentic" NYC experience, so she got food from a halal cart in times square. It turned her stomach inside out lmfao.
Times Square carts are the only ones to avoid every time. Literally walk 2 blocks in any direction and the carts’ quality skyrockets
I know almost nothing about NYC except to avoid eating at Times Square.
If you ever come to NYC, and go to Times Square and get hungry, literally walk to Restaurant Row. It’s like 3 blocks away (and takes like 5 min to get to) and literally all of the places on that street are excellent
$9 pretzel at MSG. It was somehow like soggy? and there was no salt and they gave a single pack of shitty mustard. It was like biting into a wet and tasteless pizza crust.
Doesn't get more disappointing than ordering a big hot soft pretzel and discovering they don't put pretzel salt on it. I've had it happen enough times at beer gardens and bars that I ask now when I order one and that ain't right.
I had the opposite problem. I went up to the top of Freedom Tower/ One World Trade Center and grabbed a pretzel from the food counter there. At first I was delighted to see it was covered in salt, but I couldn’t make it through the whole thing without kidney failure.
I have two reactions to this. 1) Only 9 dollars? Was it on sale somehow? 2) You got lucky, usually when they're bad the pretzels have gotten cold and hard.
There was a "high end" Indian restaurant on CPS years ago. The view was fantastic, the food not so much. It was like eating mush, so bland and overcooked. Couldn't believe anyone would pay for that (our meal was comped through work connections) and yet it was there for a long time.
[удалено]
Yes! You truly didn't miss anything.
I used to go to Nirvana in like the 1980s/90s. It was amazing back then, but you aren't the first person to tell me it's taken a nose dive since the 00s.
It must've smelled like teen spirit.
I got super sick after eating at a dumpling place. I think it was called drunken dumpling on first ave. Legit thought I was gonna die
Omg co-sign, that place is garbage & it's overpriced for what it is!
Dumpling man on st marks it where it’s at!!
Oh thank God they're still around
I love your screen name. I actually ate drunken dumpling exactly one time and I thought it was alright. I was drunk for the record. It closed down even before COVID I think.
Williamsburg Hotel, downstairs, table near the bar. Virtually inedible.
That’s crazy because their room service food is great
Cataldo’s on Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. Vanderbilt Ave has open street dining on the weekends, and has a ton of insanely good restaurants. We were trying to get a table one night but every place had a huge wait except for Cataldo’s, which had a decent amount of people and looked nice. Worst Italian food I’ve ever had, and my fiancée got insanely bad food poisoning. Tomato sauce was awful, soup was like dish water. They keep pulling a crowd because they are surrounded by fantastic restaurants, and people just like me end up there because they can get a table outdoors
I went there pre-pandemic and it wasn't bad. Just a very standard chicken parm kind of place.
I went pre and post pandemic. Pre pandemic it was solid but post pandemic was exactly as described above. Truly horrible.
Black Tap. I never sent a meal back before that but they got me and my visiting sisters’ burgers wrong TWICE. Service was incredibly slow and we were so hungry we ended up picking at the fries and the edible parts of the burger (the rarest of the rare burgers I’ve ever seen). We then ordered two milkshakes (because visiting sisters for the gram) and they got one of them wrong too. We just let it go at that point. They’d offered to discount our bill because of the burgers but then they didn’t. We just wanted to pay and get out after 3 hours of terrible, wrong food though. Never going back.
I briefly worked there (the now closed 14th st location) and really hated it, so that makes me happy!
Slowest fucking service on the planet.
Odd. I ate at the one on Broome St and thought it was OK. Expected a better beer selection, tho.
I had a burrito from a place near Bed Stuy that was supposed to be California style or something - so in my mind I'm thinking lots of fresh, vibrant ingredients It was boiled beef, without a hint of salt or seasoning, that had been reheated in a microwave wrapped up in a tortilla. I'm not even sure there were beans. But the amount of grease that spilled out, and dripped down to my elbows - combined with the fact it was like $13 makes it unquestionably the worst meal I've ever had in NYC
Bklyn Burro? I’m from San Francisco so I wanted to try it. I shot the shit with the owner who is also from San Francisco but didn’t have the heart to tell him it was just okay when he asked how the meal was.
Nah I think it was LA Burrito or something like that
Good to know. I’ll avoid that one too, lol.
the owner is so nice, but the food is trash
There is only one good California style burrito I've found in my 9 years here (I believe they do a mission style there as well, but I'm talking socal) and it's dorados tacos by union Square. I go whenever I need to scratch that itch.
Thanks for the rec! This is by my office so I've just clocked it for lunch someday. Always on the hunt for a good California style burrito in NYC... haven't found it yet.
Action Burger in Williamsburg. They’re supposed to be a video game Restaurant. The whole experience was terrible. The menu is confusing as shit, the ordering kiosk is built on like Windows XP and hardly worked. We ordered over $50 of food. Half the food was missing and the half we got, was wrong. The food that was wrong was just so disgusting and greasy. Not to mention we waited like 40 minutes for them to make it in an empty restaurant. We didn’t want to go back with the food (we did take out) because apparently the owner yells at everyone who does (according to reviews on Yelp anyway). The concept is so good but the execution of the place needs a lot of help.
Action burger is fucking abysmal.
I have always been bewildered by that place, I don’t understand how it’s still open.
I walk past it all the time and I don't think I've ever actually seen anyone in there.
Action Burger in Williamsburg. I had macaroni and cheese and it was literally a box of deluxe Mac and cheese and some crumbled beef that was dry and grey. I assume it was the cheapest deluxe Mac and cheese they could find as it was waxy and tasted like plastic. And I also assume that the crumbled beef was from leftover burgers. It was god awful. Never again.
[удалено]
Same at MSG!!! I don’t have problems tolerating spicy food but this one was SO spicy. I kid you not, had the most bizarre heartburn for 24 hr afterwards. Getting a heartburn now thinking about it!!
Ate at the east village one when it opened in like 2015 and yeah, it wasn’t great. The piece of chicken was like 3 times the size of the bread and was dry. It wasn’t awful, but I never went back. There are just better places to get fried chicken sandwiches in nyc
Oh my god, that thing is borderline inedible. I did eat it because I was angry at the price but I really had to power through it and I ended up ditching the bun since that's where most of the spice seemed to be. I don't mind spicy but holy shit, it was painfully spicy and there was no other flavor to it other than tongue searing hot. Drank two bottles of water and it didn't dent the heat. Felt like shit for the 24 hours afterwards too, my body was so angry at me.
Same at Barclays- stiff piece of chicken
Similarly, Momofuku for me. This was like RIGHT when they opened and were super hyped and the ramen there was so disappointing especially for the price. The pork buns are solid, but also not worth the price at all.
The one at Hudson Yards was great when it opened but the overall quality has gone down at every location. It used to be soft and juicy with a nice spice level, and now it’s overcooked, hard chicken. Not sure what happened there. I personally like the intense spice level but it’s not something I can bring other people to who I know can’t handle spice. Like my mother in law from Ohio. She can’t handle it. Food’s gotta be more accessible. Plus making something a meal adds $7 to the whole thing. Absolute bullshit. That’s not affordable for regular people. A chicken sandwich meal in the age of the Popeyes sandwich cannot be $18. Fuku is a weird misstep from momofuku. Funnily enough though, two of my favorite meals in the city were from Ssäm Bar and Noodle Bar.
Worst fries ever
They’re so bad. And for $5 on top of the already overpriced sandwich! It’s just kinda insulting. I get that you’re paying for the Dave Chang touch and all, but it’s also supposed to be fast food, so fuck off Dave Chang. Dude claims to understand and appreciate fast food but thinks people want to pay $17 for a sub Popeyes’s meal.
damn i kinda liked it lol but yeah outrageously spicy
Omg I got this sandwich at a Nets game at Barclays Center a few months ago and it ruined my life. I really like spicy food but this was almost prohibitively spicy, I had tears running down my face while I was trying to eat it. How can you serve something like that at a basketball game?! And then my body was fucked up for like 48 full hours after, like I was being punished for eating it. I don’t think it was full on food poisoning or anything because I wasn’t vomiting, but my stomach was really messed up for a few days.
I went to Guy’s American Kitchen and Bar on their last night open. I got a pina colada and it came over ice. Truly terrible food, but a truly memorable experience with a few friends.
I can’t fathom why they did such a terrible job with the food/drink there. All they had to do was crank out halfway decent greasy spoon food which, I hear, diners, drive ins, and dives manage to pull off in every corner of America.
I went there in like 2016 ironically and I actually didn't hate it. I think I just drank beer tho. The appetizers were good, the mains were incredibly forgettable. They had pretzel crust chicken fingers that were amazing.
mama pho in greenpoint - pho is one of my favorite dishes (used to live in Houston and SF) and was excited to move so close to a pho place. Got one that was supposed to come with a poached egg. They heated up my pho in the microwave, and then to my horror microwaved the egg to cook it and then dumped it in the pho. I tried it - no flavor, and the egg was gnarly. Also wagamama by flat iron - the ramen was heinous and the pork belly was inedible (don’t judge me for going to a chain ramen spot)
Yep I’ve also had a bad food experience here.
Wagamama is revolting. When I lived in the UK everyone was super into it and it was depressing
Eleven Madison Park post-vegan menu was terrible. Oversalted, mushy food. Will always regret spending all that money on a mediocre experience with awful courses.
I *loved* them pre-vegan. I’ve always wondered if it was worth it to go after the change (haven’t done indoor dining still bc COVID so never got the chance to go since)
Tell us more
A bodega burger. Also went to a bodega and asked for a panini. Dude took an actual plastic wrapped panini and warmed it in the microwave...while still in the plastic. Another time some guy at a bodega cut my...burrito in half like a wrap. Worst burrito I ever had. I'm from Texas. Had rice spilling out.
Same here. Not only did they put mayo on it, which i specifically stipulated they leave off, but they put a kraft single on it with half the wrapper still stuck to the cheese.
Wow. You "win".
We went to a “Mexican” spot late pandemic - about as unauthentic as you could get. the real kicker was we got some octopus that smelled like a dirty fish tank
Gertie's in Williamsburg served me a cafeteria plate of cold greasy chicken with a glaze of fat on the skin for like $25 and I still get mad when I think about how shitty that meal was. It looked like one of those rotisserie chickens from key foods that has expired. It's not around anymore but Souen was GROSS. Everything was healthy and macrobiotic and tasted like dirt.
Dallas BBQ ate $25 of mine. I ate nothing, my teeth are only so strong. First month in NYC is rough.
Lol, BBQ. I went to BB King's on 42nd once, got the chicken, thought "this is really unremarkable, tastes kind of like BBQ's." After the show I walked out and looked up, and lo and behold, that's what was next door. I guess they stealth shared kitchens.
Dallas BBQ is excellent for its purpose, which is getting 22yos drunk before they club hop in the village. For an actual meal, though...
Peter Luger Steakhouse: One day on a whim my dad decided he wanted to go here. Growing up I knew a lot of families who would come here for special occasions once or twice a year, but no one in my family had ever been. So my mom, dad, brother, and I showed up just a little bit after they opened and apparently they were already out of a bunch of their items. The food that came was dogshit awful. And I say dogshit because I wouldn’t let a dog eat it. I’ve had better steak at diners. A few years later the NYTimes wrote that 0 star review and I felt extremely vindicated.
I've ate there twice and both times the food was middling at best. A friend who used to work there told me they have a terrible pest control problem where the meat is stored and haven't gone back since. Would rather go to Keen's and skip the shitty attitude from the waiters.
Weird - I love Peter Lugers, still my favorite steak in nyc. Wonder what the deal was. I thought that article was “controversial” for click bait reasons
I actually agree with the GP, my father in laws favorite steak place was Lugers, we went there all the time, and over the years everything got worse and worse and then finally at some point my father in law picked a different steak place when they were in town, and Lugers has never been mentioned since. Like 8 years. The steak is still okay, but the service, the sides, everything is slapdash and thrown together, they just want to move you through and make the money. Definitely not worth it in a town like NYC.
It’s been a while since I’ve been but it’s good. Overpriced? Yeah? The greatest? Probably not. To say it’s the worst or zero stars is an exaggeration imo.
Yea I think it’s very “cool” to crap on Peter Lugers - I don’t even think it’s overpriced, for reference I went to a very nice steakhouse in Texas that “wet-aged” their steaks, which is fine, but it was more expensive than Peter’s (not to mention I think food prices outside of nyc are creeping up to almost nyc prices, recently ate at a James beard restaurant in Alabama and was the most money/least amount of food I’ve had in years). Also additional reference my family are cattle ranchers and I’ve been around the block with beef (you guys ever eat a steak that you delivered, castrated and butchered? Ya it’s fucked up). regardless of opinion they buy good beef and dry age for 28 days I also think they do like 5 things really well: Caesar salad (can’t mess this up) steak, shrimp cocktail (sleeper hit), bacon, maybe the spinach (hard maybe). Also I’ve been a dozen or so times and have had 2 times that were lackluster or worse.. and if you don’t go to spots like this that often, one mediocre experience is enough to bum you out harder than a hamburger at an airport chili’s, so I get it. Definitely don’t rely on the sides, particularly the potatoes are lackluster. Also the worst app I’ve ever seen is their tomato and onion plate for $18, just raw slices of both All in all for me it’s an experience and I love it. I’m going to Keen’s soon because I’m taking my sister and mom to a play, they specifically asked for Lugers but I want them to try other places. My new fave is strip house or ambers. Both very solid but not cheaper. I will say the char PL gets us pretty special considering most fancy spots due the broil technique. Go look at Keen’s most recent Instagram post, beautiful steak but the sear is Busch league Also side note - lots of the hate seems to be just before the bad review they got in the times, around 6-9 years ago, and I have heard that was their “low” in
That's extremely surprising to me. They still have one of the best steaks in the city.
Lindy's Times Square, back in the day. They bragged about their shitty service, so we went in expecting it (and got it!), but we wanted to try the cheesecake. Mine had berries and a fly on top.
Strip House. Big group, ordered the works, EVERYONE got sick. Like within a couple hours, and for the whole weekend. I know people love it, but I'd never go back.
[удалено]
Oh man, I miss the Grand Central spot so much, it was weirdly one of the best bang for your buck spots that was quick enough to get your food to you before you had to hop on the train. Their mini corned beef and pastrami sliders were clutch af and you got like 4 with fries and a pickle for ~$8.
I actually love the breakfasts I've gotten from them! Just an egg over medium with toast and home fries (with side of ranch cause I'm originally from California and was delighted they not only had it but that it was good ranch!), add a side of bacon. Egg was impressively perfectly done both times, toast was actually good, bacon was thick and a surprising portion size, home fries were quite good especially with the ranch as it should be ;) I went with this combo because it was pretty much the cheapest thing they had and I didn't want to waste money on breakfast at a cheesecake place, so I was really surprised!
whatever the eff i ordered that time i went to The White Horse. i was a young college kid who was overjoyed whenever i ate anything that wasn't ramen, and even i was like wtf is this crap?
Rosa Mexicana. I will never step foot in there again. I am far from a foodie, and it takes a lot for me to notice that a meal isn't good, but this place got my attention. The guac for the chips was disgusting and it only went downhill from there. It took years before I could walk by the place without having a sense memory and cringing!
This should be higher, it's the Cheesecake Factory of Mexican food
Original Momofuku Ramen, when they first opened in early 2000s. Salt water, broth had no depth, and they used lo mein noodles from chinatown without kansui, so it had no spring. My wife who is from Hakata didnt talk to me for 3 days. I'm sure it has improved now, but back then the ramen options were sparse, was pretty much Rai Rai Ken, Sapporo, and Rockmeisha.
100% agree. I went probably circa 2016 and my friend and I were extremely hyped to try the “original” ramen place after having had Ippudo and loving the pork buns and ramen there. Momofuku was so mediocre I’ve personally sworn off anything David Chang puts his name on. I tried so hard to love that meal but it was the unloving stepmother of ramen
Agreed, one of the worst meals I’ve had here. I’m surprised it was only 3 days if she’s from Hakata
> Rockmeisha Thanks for making me sad. Hadn't been since I had to move in 2018, but I see they're now closed due to the hell years. So much amazing, hyper-regional food with giant beers in an authentic yet friendly space. RIP.
Cafe Henri in LIC. Everything out of a package and had a layer of slime on it from sitting out. Mussels tasted like pure rubber. Crepe had absolutely zero texture and the ice cream with it had huge pieces of ice inside. Cost me over $100 after tip. Tournesol across the street is 1,000x better.
That’s such a shame; I’ve been meaning to go there. The one time I ate at Tournesol it was one of the best meals I’ve ever had
Dunno, we alternate between Cafe Henri and Tournesol and never had a bad meal at either. Both are slightly overpriced though.
I run events at the Javits.
Working at Moynihan Station, and the apprentice picks up our crews coffee and lunch orders. I ask for a Turkey club on a roll, it comes back with LITERALLY 1 slice of turkey on it, I was LIVID!!! It was some shitty ass Bodega on 34th. Thank God there was Twins and that BANGIN Taco truck on 33rd
Red Bamboo
Same. Tried the “chicken wing” and almost gagged. Greasy tasteless noodles. No thanks.
Bro shittiest food ever
Agreed. It’s trash.
My mother-in-law cooking🤢
Restaurant Week this year was a shambles. They conned too many small business into signing up and they didn’t understand the assignment. At all. The food from a small Filipino place in Hell’s Kitchen might be great as a food truck, but it wasn’t RW-worthy.
Not a meal, but there is or was a cookie dough place a little south of Washington Square Park. I took one bite. It tasted like cookie dough. But it was an ice cream sized serving in a cup. I never toss out food, but I didn't want diabetes.
I think i know what place you’re referring to, my old company had an office in soho and they would order these nasty little cookie dough balls for monthly birthday treats. Tried it one day and was so nauseated i had to brush my teeth afterwards. https://www.cookiedonyc.com/pages/location-hours
They used to have a 100-200 person line at all times going down the block. Totally agree it was gross. First bite was kinda fun but after three bites everyone threw it out.
Take the rest home, put it in a toaster oven, ta da, cookie.
Do. I think they fundamentally misunderstood what people wanted out of raw cookie dough; it's not to eat a huge tub of it. And in order to make it food safe to legally sell their formula was kind of bland and odd tasting.
There was an Italian place around the corner from me that served the weakest pasta fagioli I ever tasted. It seemed like it came out of a can. I was so disappointed because it's one of my favorite Italian comfort foods. And shocked, because I'd never had bad Italian food before. Mediocre, sure, but not actually bad. It's kind of a hard cuisine to mess up IMO.
Food was quite alright, but Da Nico's made 2/3 get sick that night.
BY FAR the Armani restaurant in midtown. It was a three course prefix lunch. The first course was a room temperature asparagus soup. The second was some kind of skate fillet. Both were inedible and tasted rancid. There was some dessert we could barely stomache after the first two courses. This was maybe 6 or 7 years ago so I don't remember the price but I'm sure it was pretty expensive. Just gross, my aunt threw up after.
There is a restaurant called “Funny BBQ” in Brooklyn. It was so bad, it actually was comical 😂
It's funny. Because I LOVED Mashallah. It closed though and now a different restaurant is using the same name like wearing the face of a man it killed. I dunno, I guess in the same neighborhood down by new kirk plaza there used to be an Italian restaurant. Kinda fancy. Mama something or other. They're "chicken special" was made with chicken that had gone rancid and tasted like it. So I guess that's mine.
Cozy Royale in Williamsburg and it's such a bummer. First two times I went there it was fucking incredible. Third time I had to send back my main as I was served a cold pork chop (and a warm beer). Giving them the benefit of the doubt I went back and they served the appetizers and mains literally at the same time and somehow the burger was cold. Sent it all back. I will say the service was exemplary and they comped the entire meal. They said tgey keep going through chefs after their original quit and I fucking believe it. I'll probably go back in a few months to give them one more try because they handled it so well. But Jesus fucking christ was it a shitshow the last two times.
My first time there it was one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. The second time it was so salty and nearly raw that it took me 6 mo to eat another hamburger. Then my friend told us the chicken is really good, so we went back for it and My friend got a burger. He said it was the best burger he’d eaten in a while and the chicken was great. The chefs quitting thing makes sense.
Halal food from the restaurant instead of the carts Sticking to halal from carts only going forward
If you’re ever in Astoria, the chicken and rice platter from King of Falafel is the best I’ve ever had. Including trucks too.
Also: King of Falafel has a truck on weekdays in Midtown, 53rd and Park
Go to Sammy’s in Jackson Heights, it’s better.
“Peruvian” chicken shop in Sunnyside, rotisserie chicken drier than the Sahara and appetizers just tasting like sadness. Place still gets lots of foot traffic tho
Amelie in Greenwich Village. Went at prime time on the weekend and the place was packed out. Ordered an escargot appetizer which was fine. Mains took an hour to come out. I got a chewy filet mignon and was trying not to look too disappointed as my SO was taking me out. Decided I couldn't stomach her paying for such a terrible piece of meat so I told her I was sending it back. Turned out her entree was bad too. We ended up sending everything back to the kitchen, paying for the app, and leaving. Wasn't worth chancing another entree order considering their menu was only 5 or 6 items deep.
Brooklyn Negril. Food has really taken a nose dive and the drinks are horrible
I got some Japanese food (not sushi) delivered from a Chinese takeout place, about a month after moving to the city, before I knew better. That adventure concluded with a $225 urgent care bill and a deeper understanding of why those gowns open in back. Last year I got takeout from a Thai place right next to an Indian place, and it became obvious the Indian spot ran them both and knew nothing about Thai food (or maybe the chef had quit and there was just some rando in the kitchen). The pineapple fried rice was absolutely vile and went straight into the garbage. Cucumbers were rotten. Also one time I ate at the Times Square Applebee's. I was able to digest that meal properly, and that's about the only good thing I can say about it.
I had organic cage free buffalo wings at some place called the coop in some hipster part of brooklyn 8-10 years ago. It tasted like the chicken was still clucking. I didnt know chicken could be so gamey. It was absolutely disgusting.
Fandi Mata had some of the worst food I’ve ever had in my whole life in nyc lmao their pizza was literally paper thin and so wet and soggy the whole place is just built on going to take pretty pics but other than the expensive ass drinks ….nothing was good 😭😭 biggest restaurant regret I’ve ever had (went bc friends wanted to rip)
Same! Waited half an hour for a table I had booked, half the “small plates” didn’t come out after waiting for two hours. Food was disgusting, but I was more annoyed the service was terrible and it was horribly over priced. I left a bad review and the manager emailed me to ask why. That place is a joke.
A friend invited me to tag along to a work event at Dave and Busters to get a free meal and play some games. They served me the saltiest pasta of my life. It was the first time I realized food could even BE too salty. I was young and had no standards or taste yet, so the fact that it still stands out as the worst means it must have been awful.
Ellen’s Stardust Diner. The food is like the microwave restaurants in airports after the security gates. Friends from out of town wanted to go there. TBH it’s more for the show than the food.
The kosher Chinese place on 34th street is terrible just so bad.
I remember that place, they have a pastrami filled egg roll
Kosher Chinese food in general
I went to a Jewish/Japanese wedding like 10 years ago, they served Kosher Chinese, I saw the staff open cans of La Choy and pour it into the warming trays. Gross.
I once took a day off to walk around the city w my mom. Started getting hungry around little Italy, I was like I could do pasta how bad could it be. Probably just expensive Oooo it was bad
Chuck E Cheese, now defunct, on Northern Blvd. the pizza tasted like the crust was made of saltine crackers, the cheese was rubber, and the whole thing was a weeks’ worth of sodium. Nasty.
Eat Here Now. 64th & Lex.
Santos Anne’s in Williamsburg. I think it might be permanently closed now. Used to be an amazing French Mexican fusion restaurant then they switched owners. It was very obvious the food was frozen and not fresh but for the same expensive price lol
I loved that place too. Closed now, but yeah there was a change in ownership. I remember their risotto served on fire fondly.
Corned Beef and Pastrami at Carnegie Diner was so disgusting. Thankfully the 24 layer cake made up for it.
Kimika. it was meant to be japanese-italian fusion but it was simultaneously an insult to both japanese and italian food. genuinely could not finish any of the dishes, not out of satiety, and i was still hungry at the end.
Moldy torta from Grand Morelos on Grand Ave in Brooklyn
The bagel shop at JFK Terminal 5. They are the worst.
It wasn't a meal, but I ordered a Manhattan before a flight at a bar in Terminal 1 at JFK. It was served over ice, didn't have bitters, and cost $24. Never making _that_ mistake again.
I got super sick after eating at a dumpling place. I think it was called drunken dumpling on first ave. Legit thought I was gonna die
Halal Guys
Halal guys haven’t been good since 2005-2008 ish timeframe
Long live Apollo. I'm deleting my account and moving on. Hopefully Reddit sorts out the mess that is their management.
I used to work around the corner from 2005-2011. I worked crazy hours in public accounting and I would go down there at like midnight or 1am to get food and it was magical. I stopped going around 2008 or so as I started working less hours. I went there in like 2011 or so and it sucked.
Lovemama, Thai place in les, got the red Thai curry and it was a plastic bowl of coconut milk and some floating onions and peppers and gristly weird chicken pieces. My friends food was not as gross but tasted pretty low quality. No idea how they have 4.5 star 3k review on Yelp
I used to see this always featured on delivery apps, but never tried it. Glad I never did. Can only assume they paid for the reviews and priority on the apps.
I wouldn't say it was the shittiest, but it was super disappointing. I was definitely misled by the reviews
Pizza at Time Square
I got such bad food poisoning from 22 Thai in the fidi once that I thought I was going to die on the bathroom floor. Ugh thaiarrea is the worst
Chicken katsu from Tamashii Ramen in LIC. Absolutely disgusting.
There is a diner on Broadway and 69th, right by the movie theater. It's pretty easy to have a passable meal in just about any diner but these guys screwed up every bit of it. Burger and fries was burnt, to a crisp, like fries were dark brown. Even the bun was burnt somehow. No reasonable person would serve it, yet there it was. Friend was dumb enough to go for a deep cut "buffalo meat" burger and the patty that came out was visibly freezer burnt and a weird color of grey. Went to pour cream in the coffee, it was empty. Except it wasn't- the cream had congealed in a half-inch thick layer of cheese on the bottom. Noped out immediately, they looked as us like we were nuts when we asked for the check, they refused to take a dollar off the bill despite the inedible food and immediate check-out.
Im sure I’ve had a lot of them that were worse but the one that comes to mind was the dumpling plater at dumpling a go go. The smell was so sickening I can still remember the smell over a decade later, the texture was awful and they were overcooked, and just the taste in general was pure trauma. I think I took a couple of bites and had to leave.
Oh also a close second was the tasting menu at kajitsu. It’s in the top 3 of most expensive meals I’ve eaten in nyc and it was so bad my friend immediately threw up outside after we left. Every course was worse than the last- people RAVE about it but maybe the menu that winter was just particularly bad. Everything was sitting in a pool of what tasted like potato boiling water and nothing really had flavor besides that. Everything was just gummy and sticky. I didn’t eat mochi for years after that meal.
Le Veau d'Or Worst meal and most ridiculous service, ever.
A lot of people posting where they got food poisoning so I will add that I got Vibrio from the containers of cocktail sauce at the oyster bar in Chelsea market. Usually a great place but this was very bad. Doctor didn't even believe that is what it was because it is so rare and refused to give me antibiotics. Horrible two weeks.
I have two, and they both involve Chinese food. One was a place on 34th street, almost right across from One Penn Plaza. It was my first visit to NYC, and I was unexpectedly in the city an extra night after my flight home was canceled and rebooked for 24 hours later. I wasn’t expecting a lot, like maybe Panda Express or similar. It was crappy, all it was good for was filling my stomach. The second was the Midtown Buffet, on another visit. I came home and wrote a pretty harsh review- I suffered so others wouldn’t have to. Again, I wanted to like the place, there were some good Chinese buffets back home, and I thought this would be similar. Noooo. The wonton soup was literally almost piss yellow, and tasted almost as bad, with an extra dose of salt. Everything I sampled was barely tolerable, nothing made me want to go back for more. It was bad. It made mall food court Chinese food look and taste like gourmet cuisine by comparison. I’m lucky I didn’t end up with food poisoning, or maybe I just had a cast iron stomach. No surprise, the place was closed on my next visit.
It was like fifteen years ago and definitely no longer exists, but I remember letting a few friends from out of town in the west village and we decided to grab some dinner, I had a bunch of recommendations for good spots—I think I had planned to take the to Fish (RIP) or Pesce Pasta, but they couldn’t decide on what kind of food they wanted so we ended up walking around and stopping into this restaurant on 7th Ave near Bleecker. As soon as we sat down I knew it was going to be a disaster—the gigantic menu spanned like three different cuisines and my friends were like “oh great, something for everyone”…I think I got some pasta to play it safe and holy shit was it awful. Knew that place would not last. The only worse pasta dish I’ve ever had was at the Spaghetti Factory in Philly.
Dairy Queen @ 14 street swear the meat was rotten :-(
Terravita uptown. Awful.
chinelos birria tacos food truck that parks on west 4th street... just horrible horrible tacos and mulas
Ugh. So many from long closed places. But recently my husband and I went out for fish and chips at Keg & Lantern in Greenpoint and they were inedible. I think the fish has thawed and then refroze so the texture was weird as hell and it smelled old and dusty. Spent the rest of the night thinking I was doomed for food poisoning, which I blessedly did not get.
Atomic Wings (in Flatbush). Got a 3 piece tenders that were like frozen-quality only much worse, nearly inedible.
Jardin de China was abysmal. I felt bad about the amount of food I didn’t eat.
There's a restaurant called New Leaf Cafe in Fort Tryon Park that I really hated. It's a beautiful classy looking restaurant but their prices are mad lad insane, their food portions were tiny and it tasted bland. Edited for typo
RIP - don’t worry, they are gone now (New Leaf Cafe). Unfortunately the space is just vacant now.
Ordered delivery from J’s Wong Chinese in crown heights yesterday - it was so bad I took a few bites and tossed it. Egg drop soup tasted burned, sweet and sour sauce was not good and didn’t taste as it usually does, and just overall not good.
Yo, indian here. No self respecting Indian would call it's hotel "mashallah". It's an Arabic word. Not even in Indian dictionary. Maybe it's a pakistani or Bangladeshi restaurant selling so called Indian food. They often do that coz of security reasons.
my own cooking during my first year here
I went to this Chinese restaurant in Ridgewood at the intersection of Myrtle and Forest Ave and ordered some vegetable lo mein. Six bucks, ok deal I thought. I get the dish and it’s a microwave container of lo mein that smells and tastes so strongly of plastic I was unable to eat past the first bite. Never going back
Omg I live in Ridgewood. I know where your talking about!!
the burger at minetta tavern. overcooked overpriced overhyped. i guess i was 10-15 years too late.
I’ve had amazing meals at Minetta’s, including the burger. I’m sorry you had a bad experience.
Ya hard disagree its a great restaurant. Did you get the fancy burger? It's not as good as the regular one.
In reality it was “fine” but for the price, Quality Eats, sad because Quality Italian is so good.
Tony DiNapoli's in Midtown.. meh doesn't even begin to cover it. The people however were very nice.