The Penthouse — Attraction in New York

NO. NEVER. NO. For the love of god if you have self respect or taste, or expect to actually be fed decent food in a timely manner... JUST SAY NO. Don't even do it as an "adventure" or a joke.

Internet stranger, I don't know you but Please!! spend your money in a place that has any level of service other than this, you are in NYC... Five Guys is classier than this "Penthouse".

Was invited here for a B-day dinner and against red flags and personal good taste, thought "lets do it for a friend, might be fun". Upon entering: Nice view of the city- if you like smoke stacks and construction in the way of the skyline and lots of cut rate Kim K wannabes from Jersey, S.I and perhaps even Pennsylvania (and the douches who love them) in sausage dresses and hooker heels, taking selfies on the rail. Everybody rocking it, Instagraming their awesome night and pretending to be somewhere that actually mattered or had any credibility. The Hostess didn't even know that our party was already seated and made us wait long enough for us to leave the reception area on our own and hunt to find our group, who were already there for 20 min.

Dress Code/Door guys? Really? As NYers who have been here for 15+ yrs we knew what was up, we didn't have rose colored glasses, we assumed we would waste our money on bad food, expensive watered down drinks and the "watching tacky people pretend to be fancy" ambience. Penthouse 808 met and exceeded our expectations on all levels.... this was the creme de la creme... Pro TIp* any place that has a dress code that they email you in advance assumes that their target audience is heathens and can''t be trusted to follow basic social norms. This is a classic "Red Flag", learn from our silly mistake because we didn't trust our gut and we regret it.

Be prepared to drop crazy $$$ on watered down well liquor and garbage food, which will take easily over an hour to get to your table. Let me repeat- had reservation at 8. Entire party was at the table at 7:50. Server first stopped at 8:10 (we suspect he may have been a bus boy, who was nice, but was in waaaaay over his head). We placed a drink order (simple 7 shots of tequila + a few basic mixed drinks) and at 9:10 had to get up and ask a manager if we would ever be served our shots and cocktails. how long does it take to pour 7 shots of tequila and stick a lime in it?.. still took another 15 min- so apparently 1 hour and 30 min. ** 7 people sat for over an hour without a single thing to drink at an empty table with no staff checking in... After 1.5 hours of crickets we were given a mea culpa tiki drink for the table and the mediocre food and the rest of our drink order we placed an hour before came. (oh wait, they forgot some of the drinks) .

Hands. down. most. awful. service. food. drinks. and atmosphere, in the 15 years I've lived in this city. I've eaten in some really questionable places too! It ruined everyones evening with the absolutely awful service, bad food, (did I mention we had to go hunt a manager down for the bill after too?) and the bill was still over $700 before the tip.

In total, we interacted with a server/staff 2 times in 4 hours of hell.

"Penthouse"808 if you want to charge $16 for a watered down well tequila on the rocks and $30-50 per entree, step your s* up. I'm all for an expensive meal but if I'm paying $50 a plate you better pretend like I'm actually in your restaurant... We could have gone to Jean Georges and spent $20 bucks more per person and had a 10000% better food and service in a legit place.

This place is a joke. Snooki wannabes enjoy this spot- You Have Peaked Darling. Take some selfies on the "veranda" for me and hashtag it...

Update: Ok so I don't even know where to being with this. Penthouse 808 used to be good. That doesn't really much as the standard it was compared to were other overpriced rooftops all throughout the city. This was my 3rd time visiting this space, and I don't know if they have new management but the service has gotten considerably worse. Firstly, they only have dinner there like once a month, if that because most times it is closed for private events. Since I had not been there in a while because of this reason, I figured if they have an opening I would go back there before reservations close up again.

The problems started even before we arrived. There was unusual traffic going from Manhattan to this place, so I called to see if I could move it to 9pm. We were told that the closest other time they had was 9:45 and even then we could wait by the bar and see if a seat became available. We reluctantly said alright, and once we arrived things got much worse. We noticed that the place was not packed at all. There were people there but an entire section of the space was without any patrons and yet they gave us such a headache about the time. Once we were seated, someone came and brought us water and that was it. The person disappeared and no one bothered to come to our table until at least 20 minutes later. We sat there intentionally just to see how long it would take them because we had never experienced something so ridiculous before. To make matters worse, some of the waters were standing by the entrance not tending to anyone, and others were busy removing napkins and kitchenware from the site of the restaurant that I said was empty when we arrived. That annoyed us even more.

A waitress noted our annoyance and finally asked if we had been serviced, we told her no and explained how long it had been. She just said, "I don't know who your waiter is but I'll take care of you give me one minute." She comes back and takes our order, the food takes pretty long to come out and when we want to change our drink she's nowhere to be found. She comes back almost 5-10 minutes later and we finally get to change our drink.

They have changed your old menu, the food has been severely overpriced and their so-called "lobster" did not even taste like Lobster and I'm honestly not even sure what that was. The food itself was decent, but I've had much better for 50% less, and I understand there's a whole "paying for the views" mystique going on but the price does not justify it's taste whatsoever.

At the end of the night, they arbitrarily added an 18% tip to the bill, even after the horrible service they gave and if I was not so over the place and ready to leave, I would have asked to speak to the manager. I certainly had no intentions of tipping because honestly the service was horrendous and I'm an extremely generous tipper. The entire night had me so upset and I don't know if it is because of new management or whatever the case may be, but the place has gone downhill pretty quick. I will not be going back there ever again.

Original: Penthouse 808 is where you go when you want to take in a great view of Manhattan and enjoy a drink or meal. The prices are pretty steep, but you're paying for the view more than anything. It gets pretty cold up there in the winter time and the menu is pretty stringent...you can't ask them to substitute or take much out of the meal so be aware of that. We had the samurai wings, pineapple fried rice with shrimp and the steak with grilled pineapples. They were all pretty good, not great and the waiters were not the best I've seen. Overall, it is good for what it is if you want an excellent view of Manhattan...

I dnt normally write reviews. Had a lil time to digest still pretty annoyed. It’s embrassing to invite ppl out telling them what you been told then getting the complete opposite. 😬🤭Too bad I can’t give zero stars

So I wanted to celebrate my birthday this year. 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 Turning 40 is a mile stone age🤣. Decided penthouse 808 using GameTight (partnership which neither partner knows the other🤣🤦🏾‍♀️)

Food and views were ok. Service 👎🏾. Prior to making my reservation I asked a lot of questions getting answers that made me comfortable. (If you know me you know I like details🤷🏾‍♀️) I asked every question I thought would impact me and ppl I invited out and They explained and answered to get business (how I feel) Once there it was a different story. NOTHING I WAS TOLD WAS TRUE; INFORMATION I WAS GIVING DIFFERED FROM WHAT WAS GIVING TO THE OTHER 3 friends who made reservations; Reservation Management and GameTight just wasn’t on the same page😕😒😠

Arriving: reservation was for 8pm. Was told each reservation would be treated as its own reservation. First table arrived at 7:45. Second and third table 8- we didn’t get seated til abt 8:45 after waiting almost an hour for the host to come to us😕. Fast forward After finally being seated taking pics and eating (all nice) til the bill: It comes they didn’t take off the $65- we send the bills back ($120/$115/$90/$125) They corrected the bills by deducting the $65 then adding 20% gratuity 😠. Trying not to make a stink bcus I didn’t mind giving the waitress a $20 tip which they sd was added to my bill bcus I used a Groupon ( Laura’s service was Good- she was fast and on point and kept a smile dealing with ME while annoyed😋) I DID have a problem when they bought the bill out you have to sign and her tip amt changed from $20 to $10 yet the bill amt stayed the same. MANAGERS EXCUSE PRICELESS.

FYI- Gratuity (your tip) will be added at the MAX 20% using Groupon I had a group of 9 for dinner. They said gratuity was being added bcus if the size of the group then recounted saw it was under their number switched up and said it was bcus we used Groupon Mind you that I was told my friends could get and use their own Groupon without a problem when I made my reservation which is the only reason I told them about the place in the first place.

Making reservation was told that dinner and after party were different and I would be ABLE to use both of my Groupons. so I was confused as to why they refused TO ACCEPT THE SECOND FOR A FREE BOTTLE & ROUND OF SHOTS. It seemed like I was dealing with 5 ppl and no one was on the same page. Management blamed Reservations and GameTight. Reservations blame Management and GameTight. GameTight didn’t blame anyone bcus NO ONE FROM GAMETIGHT WAS THERE to clear up the matter.

Dress Code: Then ppl for my celebration weren’t allowed in the building. They said ATTIRE was STRICTLY ENFORCED or at the discretion of security. LIES LIES LIES. Took pics of abt 20 ppl out of code . Their explanation was jus as bad as the managers on the bill. I went down to speck to security and security blamed management. Manager said he was coming down and never did.

I was left upset and angry trying to celebrate my Birthday. My sister said she wld never go out with me again.😪😳🤦🏾‍♀️ Overall experience SHITTY.

Advice- if you discuss arrangements with anybody make sure you get the name of the person. If your placed on hold make sure you ask for the name again bcus they transfer and switch without telling you your speaking to someone else.

Apologies to the friends who made reservations as well as all the ppl that showed up. i really only ENJOYED the night bcus You...