Bar Blondeau — Restaurant in New York

Bar Blondeau is the trendy Wythe Hotel bar known for its sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline. There are about ten seats at the bar, various two tops, along with banquettes that accommodate larger groups. As expected, the view from the floor to ceiling windows is beautiful. If you are on a date, request one of the two tops by the window, so that your partner can enjoy the view - unfortunately, you will have your back to the window, but at least your date will be happy. They also have a pleasant outdoor terrace, but don’t expect sweeping views of Manhattan as the vast majority of the seats face southeast towards Bushwick or southwest towards the Arlo Hotel.

I was at Bar Blondeau twice on Saturday - around 3 PM to grab a quick drink to check-out the view and around 9 PM with reservations for dinner/drinks. As you can imagine, the atmospheres were completely different. At 3 PM, the view of Manhattan is clearly visible out the window, it’s not very crowded, and you can pretty much walk-in and get a seat at the bar. The afternoon clientele was pretty eclectic as it seemed to consist mostly of people staying at the hotel (like me). At dinner, though, the bar was completely full, and we saw people getting turned away - it’s not a place to just show up and hope for an open table. The view at night is nice, but a bit harder to enjoy due to reflections from inside the bar. The people seemed to be evenly divided between couples on dates and groups of young Brooklynites out for a good time.

Prices for alcohol are a bit on the high-side, but pretty much what you would expect from a high-end hotel bar in Williamsburg. I would say that the bartenders are very good though, and my sidecar was really enjoyable. As for the food, I think it should be better given that the bar is owned by the same people who run Le Crocodile on the first floor. It’s not bad, but neither the fried chicken nor the frito misto were particularly memorable. Overall though, Bar Blondeau is a good place to go for drinks with a date or...

I had a poor experience here. The staff was inattentive, the drinks were expensive and not special, and the extra fees were exorbitant and never warned about.

We had a weeknight happy hour reservation here on the rooftop for 12 people for a friend's birthday. Another friend brought a cake and cake slicer for the birthday girl. We were not sure whether we were going to eat the cake at Bar Blondeau or bring it with us after.

Part way through the evening, the waitress asked the birthday girl if she'd like them to cut the cake for her. My friend said sure. They took the cake and the cake slicer we brought and cut it for us.

At the end of the evening, there was a $120 cake cutting fee on our bill.

I have never seen a cakeage fee this high at a bar, but that's not the problem. The problem is they never informed us about the fee. When the waitress graciously offered to cut the cake, she never mentioned a fee at all, let alone such a significant one. If she had, we would have cut it ourselves (with the cake cutter we brought and they used) or took it back to my friend's apartment with us. Instead, the Bar Blondeau staff chose to offer us assistance (which we didn't need) under the guise of good service, but it was actually just to hit us with a large, totally unwarned charge.

We addressed it with the staff. They cut the charge down, but refused to remove it, despite the fact that they never informed us over the phone, they have no notification about such charges online, and their waitress OFFERED to cut the cake without any warning about the cost.

It is bad business to offer a service without being up front about additional costs in any setting. It makes the establishment seem deceitful.

There were other small issues throughout the evening, like inattentive staff. The cocktails were not worth the high cost. However, the worst was definitely the $120 cake fee they slapped on completely without warning.

I would recommend you take your business to a different...

We came for my birthday with a group of 9, having reserved a table for 6-7 people with a note that a couple of people might join. The hostess was super nice, took our jackets, and mentioned that since we were nine, it might be a bit tight for us to sit together, but we could move two chairs to the table, which we did. As we started choosing drinks, a man (after some time we realized that it actually was a manager and not a bar’s guests) approached us without a introducing himself, greeting, or asking how we were doing. Instead, he told my friend to open her eyes and lift her head from another friend's shoulder (she had closed her eyes for a second due to a headache). We initially thought he was joking, as the idea that someone was sleeping seemed ridiculous. I replied, 'Don't worry about her; she'll be fine in a minute.' The manager responded that he wouldn't allow this and that our friend would need to leave if it happened again.

Shocked by his response, he continued by telling us to separate and sit at two different tables since we were more than 6. A week before, my dad celebrated his birthday at the same bar with 10 people, and there were no issues. When we asked the manager why and if there were any other options, given that it was my birthday and the hostess hadn't mentioned any problems, he bluntly said, 'No. You either separate, stand up and wait until the bar space is free, or leave.' Then, he turned around and left.

Feeling upset and embarrassed in front of my friends, I asked my husband to talk to him again, but the manager's response remained unchanged. Frustrated by his rude and unprofessional behavior, we decided to leave. This incident occurred on the 19th of January. I hope higher management addresses this issue so that it doesn't happen to...