10/09/09

Worst Experience Ever

by Chad Beguelin

This was my worst dinning experience in all of my twenty years of eating in NYC. Terrible service, the food had to be sent back and not a soul in the restaurant cared. Avoid this shit show at all costs. What a waste of time and money.

• Pros: None.
• Cons: Everything.

05/17/09

Kind of Disappointed

by JES

I really wanted to enjoy this restaurant after having heard nice things, but even our dinner companions (who have been many times to Tocqueville) left disappointed. Like the other recent reviewers, we too suffered from poor service. It was a combination, we would guess, of chaos in the kitchen and inept servers who we suspect may not have a great command of English in some cases.

Food was decent, though not great nor worth the prices but service fell apart as soon as the appetizers arrived. Servers were unsure of which dish went to which person for every course...and there were large gaps between courses...the most notable was between dinner and dessert where we waited for over a half hour before the simple desserts we ordered came (all either ice creams or frozen/pre made)...coffees and teas were also messed up and delivered to the wrong people. Like the prior reviewer we too were given some extra desserts on the house...they must be so accustomed to doing this now it's like autopilot. The maitre 'd seemed unmoved by our complaints on the way out...clearly he/they don't get it. We won't be returning and could recommend any number of restaurants in the neighborhood over this one.

• Pros: Nice setting/dining room
• Cons: Slow service

03/04/09

Really Fussy, Bad Service

by birdie145

Like the previous reviewer, I had a bad experience at this restaurant and have de-recommended it to others. Overpriced and fussy to begin with, the service was horrible. I took my husband there for his birthday dinner recently on a very cold night; coming in from the cold, the blond hostess at the door gave us an icy reception, even after telling her we had reservations. The restaurant was also freezing, like they couldn't bother to up the heat.

After going out for a smoke right in front of the restaurant, in between the L-O-N-G wait between courses, when we came back in, the staff again asked us if we had reservations. How tacky. The waiter was a humorless automaton and the food was laughable - including the fancy names of sub-par dishes. The salad with "farmhouse cheddar" had absolutely no flavor and the cheese was probably purchased at the deli down the block. Some other ludicrous name of a forgettable dish actually included the word "crumbs"! They also kept us waiting about 1/2 hour for the desert (but in all fairness, made up for it by sending us a few desserts on the house).

All in all, skip this one. For the over $200 for 2 that you'll pay, you can enjoy a better meal elsewhere.