Balzem — Restaurant in New York

A group of 6 of us had a reservation here last night (Saturday), we even called to confirm that all was set for our reservation as we had a time constraint and it was confirmed. When we arrived, our table was not ready. We totally understood that this happens and isn’t always in the control of the staff at the restaurant. The host was amazing and really sweet, brought us complimentary bubbles which we appreciated. However, the 15 minute wait turned into a 45 minute wait (yikes!) and we were starving by the time we got sat. We were sat at a community table in the center of the restaurant and wait staff and patrons kept colliding with our chairs and dragging their coats across the top of our heads. It was insanely hectic sitting in the middle of the service pathway and so loud. At this point, our party was super hungry and ready for drinks. It took our server over 15 minutes to take our drink order and when we tried to put in food right away, he tried to deflect us and have us wait till he came back with our drink order. We insisted on putting food in and our server was clearly irritated. We ordered a taster plate for the table ($55) and when it arrived, it was clearly meant for 2 people. We had to ask for extra pita 4x and the portions they brought were minuscule. This share plate was insanely over priced for how little food it was and when we received our entrees, the “grilled” vegetables were practically raw, the lamb was tasteless and quality did not align with the price. Our server was clearly irritated with us when we complained and only offered remaking the entree for my friend instead of comping the meal. We were all mostly done eating so this made no sense especially since we had already been waiting over an hour for our food at this point. I had to call out our server and request the meal to be comped in order for us to be taken seriously, sooo uncomfortable. By the end, our server did send us complimentary desert which we appreciated but as we were already way behind in our schedule, didn’t quite suit...

Honestly, I don’t even know where to start. We were a large group and majority ordered burgers, the waitress told us no extra charges would be made if we chose truffle fries instead of regular. After ordering, the waitress then came back and said “we don’t normally charge extra for the truffle fries, but since you guys are a large group, it’s going to be $2 extra.” Most of us then declined. We waited over an hour for our food to arrive and when we got our food we were surprised at how small the portions were. I think my plate literally only had 5 fries on the side with the burger. However even with the wait, we did not complain or start a problem. Then we got the check, and we noticed they charged us extra $ for cheese on the burger?? We were not made aware that a slice of cheese on the burger would be an extra charge. We were also charged extra drinks. We spoke to the waitress and the manager about the situation and the manager said “you guys took up my table for 2 hours for $20, come on.” That just completely ticked us off. We did not wait there for that long just to waste our time, we were waiting on the food? On top of that we had to then tip 22% because gratitude was included. I would not recommend this place to anyone, food was not even good and their customer service was horrible. They completely rigged us and were disrespectful when we were a large party paying an expensive bill. After insulting us with the $20 comment, the manager then told us he would take the extra charges off. The situation could of been handled in a much more respectful and...

I think my experience qualifies as an epic failure. It was probably one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in the last 5 years. First, we had a reservation, we specified on the reservation that we had just gotten engaged. When I arrived, the hostess did not even look at the reservation even though I specified that we had a reservation. We were seated and waited for a very long time to be greeted by the server. It was an odd, uncomfortable experience sitting, waiting, hoping someone would come talk to us. The server finally came, by which point we had our complete order ready. We received our drinks and they were mediocre. The food was profoundly disappointing. The baba ghanoush was bland and small. The Turkish Cheese rolls tasted like they came frozen from Trader Joe’s. After eating these two dishes and being grossed out, we decided to cancel the salad we had also ordered so we could close out. The server hesitantly obliged to cancel it. Then the cherry on top was that the busser started clearing the table and spilled a full glass of water all over my new fiancé’s pants. Nothing was taken off the bill aside from the salad we had canceled. Nobody cared to ask us about our experience or why we decided to end our dining experience early. Sloppy restaurant in a city with ENDLESS options. Steer clear. The one redeeming quality was it had nice lighting. Don’t be fooled by the photos online.

*Edit to mention that I remembered we were even charged for the water that they spilled on my...