Bar 54 — Restaurant in New York

Though the view is Beautiful as agreed by many in your reviews, Service should be equally, if not more, of a must for management and staff alike. Great Customer Service is a MUST for any establishment. Management has to do better to train and monitor your waiting/serving staff. Management needs to come by all the tables and make a concerted effort to show appreciation and ask how things are going. Not once did management come by our area to any of the tables. As a Trainer for Customer Service and Sales for 10 years, I was quite disappointed with the value and attentiveness given to quite a few of your patrons the night we were there. Because of my experience in training, I am very well aware of the quality of service given at every level. I especially take notice as to how we, the patrons, are treated, spoken to, and what the expressions and body language is. You gave the indication that those at the front of the restaurant (barside) were of more value and given more attention than those seated at the side and back of the restaurant. This is unacceptable. We arrived and were seated promptly A+ to your greeter. The Waiter did not come by for 10 minutes and did not introduce himself. For this reason, he shall remain nameless. Which is not a good thing. Great Service would have given your establishment and staff a Great review with a name to complement the person. As you can see by some of your reviews. We then waited another 10 minutes to be asked what we would like to drink, another 10 minutes passed before he arrived with our drinks. 30 minutes at this point has passed, without an explanation, showing concern or attentiveness, little less, asking a food order. Before I continue, I would like to make clear that you were not understaffed. One additional problem I noticed is that your staff was engaged in conversations for considerable amounts of time with patrons and each other in the front by the bar chatting it up, while patrons sat expecting someone to come by as their expressions indicated. Us included. A True disappointment to us all as we all started to chat it up. The Result = 4 of 5 tables did not order food, including us, because of the extreme lack of service. This being said, the drinks were ok. The prices do not match the quality of your cocktails. I have no doubt this can be improved on. A total of 5 tables with 10 patrons. Multiply this by the same time frames indicated above. The Math = 150 minutes of wasted patrons precious time and financial loss to Ownership. If you possibly consider how many nights this takes place, it may be eye opening. Sad to make known to you as some patrons expressed, you are not worth a review. As we all know in Business, it Starts at the Top. No skyline view is worth the price of a bad reputation. Also, gratuity should not be included for poor service. This makes workers lazy and entitled. I always aim to look for the good when we visit ANY establishment. Unfortunately I am unable to give one to yours. Unfortunately, also, as many also felt that night. Except to your greeter. Friendly, smiled, and pleasantly said you are welcome when we thanked him for seating us. Well done. A Much Better Job needs to be made if you value your Name and Reputation. I truly Hope My Honesty Helps to improve the Quality of service so that you can take increased Pride in what your patrons share by review. So that more do so with Joy, Satisfaction, feel valued, and not feel you are...

I cannot even begin to explain how bad our experience was at this place, so here's the Reader's Digest version:

Do not go here. There are approximately 10,000 bars in NYC and any one of them is better than this place. The drinks are expensive and they are not that great. $112.32 for 3 cocktails is pricey, but when you add in extremely rude staff, it's insult to injury. All of the staff members were rude to us. We spoke to 5 people before even making it up to the bar, and not one of them greeted us or said 'Hello'. One person having a bad day is understood, but 100% of the staff being less than cordial indicates management issues. When we got up to Bar 54 the maître d' snapped at us when we asked if we just could seat ourselves. He said "Seating us is his own personal hell". We could not believe it. We were a party of four and all of us were, from that point on, uncomfortable. We were sat and it took 15 mins for someone to come over to us, in an empty bar...it had just opened at 4:00 and it was 4:03. Our server was miserable, and she barked at us when asking us about our drink order. We ordered 3 cocktails and 1 virgin Piña Colada. She asked for ID (sure I get that), and then she left. 10 minutes later she returns (no drinks) to tell us that she is going to give us one drink, but then we have to leave because a member in our party was not yet 21. Then she mumbled something about security and walked off. We looked at one another with astonishment because at NO POINT were we told by any of the other 6 hotel staff that minors were not permitted at Bar 54 because food was not served. The rule makes sense...if that was even true. We did not get a chance to see menus. So, I cannot even verify if the rooftop serves food. However, if that is the case, someone should have asked for ID, or at least informed us of this before we spent 15 mins waiting for the rooftop to open, and were then faced with rudeness. If a person is working in a bar where the minimum entry age is 21 because food is not served, one would think that is a tidbit of information that would have been shared BEFORE we ordered our drinks and not after all of IDs were verified and the order was placed. Bar 54 has a lot of potential, but it needs to have a clean up/retraining of staff and what it is to work in the hospitality industry. The views are great, but there are a number of other places you can go to hang out with great views and be treated...

My friend was visiting from Texas, & wanted to go to a rooftop bar, so my friend suggested this one. We made a reservation on resy (which is listed here on Google Maps) for the patio at 7:30; they required a $50 minimum per person, but that's easy with the cost of the drinks & food. It seems like they priced things in such a way that you have to buy 3 things. We ate beforehand, so we just opted to get 3 cocktails each. Our waitress was Jay, I hope I spelled that correctly. She was very knowledgeable & kind. They don't rush you to get drinks/food because they expect you to want to enjoy the full 90 minutes. The view was absolutely stunning! The 2 seater tables are right against the glass edge, so we got to see everything & take some fabulous pictures throughout our time there. They usually have new reservations every 90 minutes, but the people after us didn't show up, so we were able to see the sunset & moon rise... absolutely beautiful! You can see the NYE ball, both rivers, & straight through to the southern tip of Manhattan. At the end of the patio there's an area where they don't seat anyone so everyone is able to take pictures at the corner edge. There's even a free binocular telescope on that end if you want to see the landscape more closely. I don't have the best hearing, but 54 floors up I couldn't hear the hustle & bustle of Times Square below. The drinks were tasty, & not watered down or over-juiced like I was worried they might be, but not so strong to get you drunk over 90+ minutes. For my 3 cocktails, & the included 18% gratuity, my tab was about $89. On our way out we decided to hang out a bit longer, so we sat at the bar & got one more cocktail with Jacques... he is an amazing bartender, both in personality & craft!

I forget the name of the first drink I had... but they do change things up a couple of times a year for the season, so they aren't all always available... but, the second drink was Purple Rain, the third was an espresso martini, & the last was Cloud 9. My friend had 3 dirty martinis which she said were really good & an...