Sylvia's

08/08/09

Good food, bad service

by mishoopo at Citysearch

The hostess will tell you the wait is just 10 minutes but if the waiting area is mildly crowded you'll be waiting for an hour. Don't agree for being seated close to the entrance. It is like a train stop. It is too tight and too much back and forth. Remember to ask for everything at once because your waitress, although nice and friendly, might disappear for 20 minutes during your meal. The food is delicious and nutritious and the prices are reasonable but the overall dining experience is sub-par. I wish they will get it together and get more organized. I guess this will not happen soon since they don’t have to do that… customer will be still come there anyway.

• Pros: Big portions, good prices
• Cons: Uncomfortable, long wait, bad service

07/28/09

Best Soul Food in NYC BY FAR

by lizzyred at Citysearch

Visited Sylvia's this past Sunday for their soul food bruch - unreal! Our waitress (Lee?) was so sweet, chatting with us and just being extremely friendly. The fried chicken and waffles were to die for - the waffles were so delicious, no syrup necessary. The fresh fruitpunch went perfectly with the meal. For dessert we ordered sweet potato pie, pineapple coconut cake and banana pudding - the banana pudding should be illegal. Everything was wonderful, and so was the live music. Can't wait to go back!

• Pros: chicken & waffles, desserts
• Cons: none!

05/10/09

Poor customer service, decent soul food

by rabbi2000 at Citysearch

Cons: We (my wife and I) when to Sylvia's for Mother's day. The first thing we noticed was that the staff seemed like they were mad at the world. Our waiter focused on one table (anglo) and ignored ours (african american (AA)) totally. At the end of dinning he even told me to get my own toothpick instead of him providing the correct level of customer service. As far as the food, the banana pudding contained hard banana chunks and seemed thrown together. The mac & cheese was very dry and lacked cheese.

Pros: The braised rib was off the chain, as well as the candy yams and green beans.

Overall: I support purchasing and dining in AA establishments to help the AA communities prosper, but not at the sake of good customer service. Sylvia needs to really evaluate her staff. Its time for a upgrade!!

• Pros: Good candy yams, string beans, braised rib
• Cons: Poor service, i.e. bad attitude, dry banana pudding, mac

04/26/09

Great food, some faults

by MissD at Citysearch

The meal I had was very good, smothered pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes & collard greens. However, the wait time was a little long and I was by myself. But when I was finally seated, Sylvia did apologize for the wait, she was very pleasant. They need a bigger waiting area and it was extremely hot in there. The bus boy was more attentive than my waiter. My waiter never asked if I wanted desert, although I was full from my meal, I wanted to take a piece of cake home with me, I got distracted while waiting for the bill so I never asked, but he should have asked me. Also, I was given a container by the busboy to put my own leftovers in. The products they sell were enclosed in a glass case, but most of the items they had listed weren't available, and when I asked about availability of an item, the person was abrupt like I was bothering him. Also, they were setting up for a big party and the busboy was sweeping the floor close to where I was eating, I did notice that the carpet could have been cleaner, it didn't look as though it had been recently vacumned or swept. It could be quieter, and probably would be if they piped in some soft jazz loud enough to sooth the patrons, thus a lot quieter. Overall, I would return again and plan to ask my sisters if they would like to attend the Sunday brunch that I hear is very good. If not, I plan to return again by myself since I love breakfast food!

• Pros: The food was great
• Cons: Too hot, very noisy, wait time too long, floor not vacumned

04/22/09

I'd go again

by JJ010182 at Citysearch

It was a good experience! for a first timer i ate mac and cheese, fried chicken, and yams! It was really good!

we went on a saturday night and there was no wait!

the wait staff moved people in and out quickly.

only gripe is it was hot as hell in there!

• Pros: great food
• Cons: hot!!!

03/29/09

Rip-off tourist trap

by coreyguia at Citysearch

RIP off!, Tourist trap

We were a small group of people, had everything prepaid by our agency - gave the waitress the voucher and thought we were trouble free.

The spare ribs tasted fetid, the fried fish soggy in oil, the rice and cornbread decent, the best was the collar greens - the experience far from the promoted "OH SO UNIQUE". The music was jazz from the loudspeaker, one singer came around for 10 Minutes - this was the total experience - no not entirely - we were about to be ripped off .

Our NYC tour guide was not sitting at our table, therefore we where probably eyed as a good "rip off" group. The Manager of the restaurant came around and presented us with a $60.00 bill, saying that there was some "open difference" to be paid. We were about to pay it, when one of the group informed our tour guide who was waiting for us at the bar. The tour guide confronted the "surprised" Manager, (who had not expected us to be with a local representative) gave him some well deserved "no way Jose", called immediately the local agency (on a Sunday!!) - who reconfirmed, that we - the guest - were not to pay anything. After leaving the restaurant we left for the airport to fly back home to Amsterdam, with a bitter taste in our mouth after an otherwise wonderful 3 days in ol' NYC

Thanks to our tough NYC tour guide we were saved from a perfect rip off.

Our suggestion: There are 14'000 wonderful restaurants in NYC, any Deli or Diner in the city serves better food then this tourist trap called Sylvia's!"

03/09/09

Great Experience

by eugenek at Citysearch

Fried chicken and garlic mashed potatoes were to die for. Mac&cheese and banana bread pudding were a little too dry but enjoyable nevertheless. House special cocktails were superb. Highly recommended.

• Pros: great food
• Cons: long wait

03/05/09

Awesome.....

by CSMobileUser at Citysearch

Yes if your ready for some home cookn this is the spot. The mac n cheese n fried chicken off da chain....!

11/22/08

Below Average service... AND I WAS SITTING AT THE COUNTER!!!!!!

by yourwarmembrace at Citysearch

Okay so I said I wasn't going to do this... I mean... it's Sylvia's. But bad service is just bad service. I couldn't complain to anyone there because it didn't appear that anyone there cared. From the cashier who did not even greet me but instead just extended her hand for the ticket (and the same for my credit card) to my server who had me waiting for desert for 10-15 minutes. It must have been a good 10 minutes before it was even communicated to me that they were out of what I wanted in the cooler on the line and that someone in the kitchen was looking for more. And again, I was at the counter... it's not like my server had to walk to the ends of the dining area. When it finally came, it was like it had been whipped together. It was Banana Pudding and it had a few chunks of unripened banana or at least I hope that is what it was. I thought maybe I had bitten into plastic fruit. I didn't want to seem ungrateful after they had gone through all that trouble so I scarfed it down and left. Also. the counter could have used a wipe-down.

ADDENDUM: October 5, 2009. This place has gone from bad to worse. I will not be returning. The food was so bad that I stopped off at CVS for a bag of Lay's potatoe chips afterwards just so that I could have something with flavor. I would once go to Sylvia's and have take a photo of my plate as it looked too good to be true. What I got tonight was bland and on the colder side of warm. I ordered the fried shrimp entree but the shrimp was so lightly battered that they may as well have been grilled. There was absolutely no crunch and being that the batter holds the flavor... well... no flavor. I'm led to believe that the star chef only works on weekends. The times I have gone on a Saturday or Sunday, I’ve been floored and I propose that If they can't measure up on weekdays then perhaps a weekday menu with below average prices to match the below average quality of the food being served! I now wish I had walked ouot when my plate arrived instead of handing over $20 for garbage.

• Pros: Can't think of any at the moment
• Cons: Below average service

09/01/08

Good food, service needs improvement.

by speoples at Citysearch

I have lived in the neighborhood for a couple of years, but avoided Sylvia's because of the whole "food prepped for tourist" rumour.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the food is delicious. I order the the same meal- well seasoned and well prepared-every time I eat here. The sides are delicious, except for the yams which I recommend avoiding at all costs.

The service, unlike the food, is awful! The waitresses at the counter-area seem to always be involved in some indepth conversation with their friends and the dining room service is slow and a bit inattentive.

If this restaurant wasn't so centrally located and the food (and lunch specials) weren't so good...I would never come into Sylvia's again.

Another plus, Sylvia is often seated at a table right inside the first dining room. She seems like a pleasant and friendly person!

• Pros: Good food, good value, near subway.
• Cons: Poor service!