Rainbow Room — Attraction in New York

RUN. I usually give places the benefit of the doubt, but the Rainbow Room was such an awful experience from start to finish that I had to share.

Mother's day brunch reservation for 2:15pm was made a month in advance (April 16), confirmed via email that we would eat in the "rainbow room." Entire cost of the brunch was $161.10 per person, paid in advance, no refunds.

----- THE WAITING ----- Our family STOOD FOR OVER AN HOUR in a CROWDED room with over 50 people, waiting for a table. NO COVID safety/social distancing was enforced. My elderly mom has bad legs, but there were only about 5 chairs in the entire waiting space. She managed to find a seat after standing for the majority of the hour. The process was mayhem. There was no time limit for dining, so it was VASTLY OVERBOOKED and reservations were running late. They said they would "call you" if your table opened up, but it was so crowded that it was impossible to hear if your time was called unless you were near the hostess. After the hostess called our reservation time, we went up the elevator only to wait in a SECOND LINE for an ADDITIONAL 30 minutes right outside the restaurant. Everyone was starving and luckily there were some desserts that folks were able to scavenge and eat near the elevators. After 1.5 hours of waiting (~4pm), we didn't even get seated in the RAINBOW ROOM; instead we were given Bar SixtyFive. The Rainbow Room would've required an additional wait (for an unknown amount of time), and after waiting 1.5 hours for a late BRUNCH RESERVATION, we were fed up and decided to take the table.

We were so upset by the long wait that we expected at least a good service. Sadly this couldn't have been further from the truth.

----- THE SERVICE ----- The meal was family-style, but they gave us NO SERVING UTENSILS. Even before the pandemic, you wouldn't scoop a shared chicken pot pie with your own personally used utensils. We had to ask for serving utensils for each course. The waiter would take our used utensils but not give us new ones, so sometimes it would be impossible to eat unless we hailed down someone. Waiter barely came to check on us, so we needed to ask service from others. Waiter never let us know that we could order coffee/tea with our dessert. We had to request it ourselves after seeing/smelling it at the other tables. To-go boxes did not have matching lids, so we needed to request for rubber bands to make sure the containers would stay somewhat closed.

----- THE FOOD ----- It was average. I usually don't expect much from touristy places that pride themselves on the view.

----- THE GOOD ----- Complimentary small bouquets of flowers in paper bags were offered Complimentary champagne was served (upon request) for a few waiting outside the restaurant Small desserts can be taken home (or in our case, eaten before the meal)

We really wanted to love the Rainbow Room. We were having a joint engagement and Mother's day celebration with both sets of parents, eating together at a restaurant for the first time since the pandemic. My parents drove 2 hours just for this occasion, and we arrived at the Rainbow Room 15 minutes early to check in. If we were seated on time, we even would've been able to catch the view before it rained. It was so surprising that a renowned establishment would make these seemingly obvious management errors.

I would have felt better about the experience if any of these were the case: Established time limit for dining Offer refunds, especially for terrible experience Offer seats for long waits, especially for elderly parents on Mother's Day Provide snacks/champagne/water for waiting guests without request Enforce social distancing and keeping others from cutting the line Attentive waiter and/or...

My wife and I had Sunday Brunch here, and walked away somewhat disappointed. Our friend works in the kitchen, and it is our tradition to have a meal at every one of his restaurants, or to treat him to places he aspires to work. Usually, we have a very pleasant experience. However, at the Rainbow Room, we were unfortunately underwhelmed.

The pricing at the Rainbow Room seems very good on paper. $125 per head, not including drinks, tax, or gratuity. The menu is all-you-can-eat, with a bevy of buffet and a-la-carte options. However, we found ourselves disappointed.

First, the positives, as there were a few. The views from the reception area where you wait before your table is ready are extraordinary. You get breathtaking southern views of Manhattan, with the Empire State Building, Chrysler Building, and Freedom Tower all on full display, as well as the Statue of Liberty, downtown Brooklyn, and the Verazano Bridge. If you have the fortune of getting an "outside" (meaning close to a window) table, you get to enjoy a great look at the city. We were not lucky enough to be near a window.

Second, the bacon bar is amazing. Slow-cooked pork belly, smoked turkey, a lightly candied bacon, and a great cut of Canadian bacon were all delicious and available in heaps. Unfortunately, the one server gets a bit overwhelmed by everybody swarming him.

Sadly, it all went downhill from there. The juice bar was good, though the "fresh squeezed" orange and grapefruit juices tasted suspiciously like Tropicana or Simply Orange juices. Still refreshing, but you can taste "fresh squeezed" and this was either packaged juice that was rebranded, or had been squeezed a few days ago and preserved.

We ended our visit on a low note. The cheesecake we had for our small dessert was some of the worst we had ever eaten. It was flavorless, with a bitter aftertaste that was very unpleasant. It placed a damper on the meal, as the bitter aftertaste was cloying and hard to get out of our mouths.

The final reason for the 2 stars though is the poor value. We have no qualms about spending on food, but taken as a whole, the Rainbow Room was bad value. For $125 per person, the food was mediocre and the experience forgettable. The restaurant felt like a white-collar tourist trap, where we were paying the mark-up just to be there.

All things included, we paid $350 for brunch; that amount of money, even in the NYC fine dining scene, goes a long way at some other top-caliber restaurants. Unless you really, really have to go to this restaurant, pay $80 to go to the top of the Freedom Tower with the luxury passes, then go out for a great lunch nearby. It'll be the...

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We love shooting events here and look forward to being back soon. - The Clane...