Applejack Diner — Restaurant in New York

The Bald manager that said his name was Nick sat down in the restaurant after he walked away from his cash register & sat directly behind one of my female actors restaurant seat in a very tight cramped booth for a single person & turned his legs & body positioned directly in the back of her. He was listening to her speaking to the four of us at our own booth while we were waiting for our food. He was frowning & looking at her as if she had released gas directly in his face. He was extremely comfortable sitting directly behind our booth giving very rude faces in her direction. I didn't understand why he would behave in that manner being that he could have sat down at any of the large open tables in the diner that were not occupied. It was 3:25am when I received the final restaurant receipt so the restaurant was not crowded. The food was good 👌 however what really turned me off about this restaurant is that they gave us 2 cookies which they claimed was on the house. Yet handed me a receipt that had no space for a credit card signature & had a $22.00 tip added to a $131.15 food charge. The total amount charged was $153.15. So I asked for our waiter George to come back over to our booth to speak to me about a unauthorized $22.00 tip & a " no signature" receipt that he just had Nick charge to my credit card. George apologized than went in his own pocket & gave me $22.00 in cash back. Then said I didn't need to sign the credit card receipt that Nick printed from his cash register. He called over Nick the manager. Nick brought over many of his customers credit card restaurant receipts & said " see no one else signed so there is no need for you to sign either". " That's the new rules in the banking world. George said that was the restaurants " New Policy" that they were following now. I travel the world & eat in restaurants almost every day of my life & this is the very first time that I have seen a restaurant charge my credit card for a automatic $22.00 tip without my permission & charge my credit card with out my signature. Therefore I would not eat at Applejack Diner again. Nick the manager obviously could care less about his customers credit...

My friend and I decided to have a small post-birthday celebration and chose to sit down at this diner instead of going somewhere fancy. We both like diners because the food is usually tasty, comforting, and reasonably priced — nothing complicated, just a relaxed place to enjoy a meal and chat.

We placed our order — I got the salmon with mashed potatoes and spinach, and my friend ordered Veal Cordon Bleu with baked potato and broccoli. But almost immediately after taking the first bite, my friend noticed a large, thick black hair in her broccoli 🤢

We waited about 10 minutes to get the attention of the only server working that night — a woman who was clearly overwhelmed and rushing between All tables, trying to manage the entire restaurant ALONE. When she finally approached us, before we could even finish a sentence, she interrupted with, “No, no, no — give me the plate,” and snatched it away. No apology, no acknowledgment, no explanation. We were both shocked by how rude that interaction was, and even more surprised that she never came back to check on us or say anything else at all.

No manager ever showed up, and no one took responsibility for what happened. It felt like no one in the place cared. We understand that being short-staffed is hard — but even then, saying a simple “I’m sorry” should not be that difficult.

To top it off, when we received the bill, we noticed they automatically added a credit card service fee — even for a debit card. We understand this is becoming more common in NYC, but it still feels frustrating when you’re already dealing with poor service and then get charged extra just for paying with a card.

Yes, the food was decent overall, but the lack of basic courtesy and professionalism completely ruined the experience. We didn’t feel comfortable leaving a tip after everything, and we won’t be...

I thought any diner can be good at the heart of the city, I am wrong! I can’t believe this place survived that many years here. I had a $20 shrimp scampi, it was basically some pan fried shrimps and spaghetti dipped in oil. No flavor at all. My wife had a lox egg benedicts, the salmon was not even smocked salmon, and the eggs were not pouched eggs, they were just half cooked pan fried eggs. The worst is the $50 T-bone steak… we asked for medium rare, it was well done. I expected better at this price point.

Here is the the worst part. They gave me a bill with the food added up for around $80. They add $10 for tax and $$15 for tips.

I questioned about the $10, he said tax plus the additional 3% for using credit card. With a tax of 8.75%, I have no idea how that was $10. Not to mention that adding additional fees for using credit card is illegal in New York. I don’t even want to argue about the tips, which is supposed to be discretionary. In fact, if they didn’t add $15 to my bill, I could have given more because of the usual practice of give 18% or over in California. The bad food should not have affected how much I tip the waiters. I am just not happy with the way they bill me. It was the my first meal this trip and it really gave me a very bad impression.

I will never come back...