Bistro at Le District — Restaurant in New York

Made a reservation online for 3 people on Saturday, 9/4 at 8pm. Arrived on time and went to checkin so we can be seated. The manager said, she couldn't find our reservation in her system.. we asked her to look again as this would have been our 4th time going to this restaurant and never had this problem before. The manager seem annoyed and started to raised her voice saying well I can't find you guys in the system you will have to wait 30 minutes or, we can sit you at a high top table right away. We decided on the high top table. So one of the other girls brought us to the high top table and said she will returned with the menus; never did after 8 minutes of waiting.. I walked back to the checkin area to asked for menus. Again approach by the manager with a loud aggressive voice yelling in front other staffs and guests to me...yes, you didn't get a menu yet because we (as she presumed) gave her attitude. I told her I'm not deaf and she doesn't need to raised her voice at me and I don't want to further engage in speaking to her based on her tone as I just needed the menu. At this point she says loudly well we will not serve you! As I said this would have been my 4th time here and I never saw her there on any of those prior occasions! Each time we went to this restaurant we spent over $300 plus. It's unacceptable and unprofessional for a manager of all people to raise their voices at customers just because they can't locate a reservation made online! And to top it off she ask me to leave the restaurant because I went back to ask for menus. As I was planning a birthday party of 25 people in October but after this incident I wouldn't even spend a penny to support a business that allows employees to speak to customers this way! Like I said prior to this "manager" I never dealt with this behavior! To turn away a customer that spends money to support your business and to disrespect them with an audience is beyond rude! I would never recommend this place or attend there again! They deserve no stars!!!! Also, when that manager couldn't locate our reservation her excuse was they don't do same day reservations. Attached is a screenshot example that the business does do same day reservations!! Not only was she unprofessional for yelling but she’s also a liar! As you can see I went back online on Sunday morning and booked a reservation for Sunday evening 7:45pm and the online system did process the reservation! So for her to acted like we were lying about our reservation time on Saturday stating the establishment DONT do same day reservations shows that she have no idea how the restaurant online system works and seems to get angry when told...

The disco music should have been a clue.

A year ago we had a wonderful meal at the Liberty, augmented by a live music serenade from a traveling violinist. Although I don’t remember what we had for dinner, we left sated and happy. We wanted to relive that experience a year later.

Instead, we had to fight fruit flies all.evening.long and finally removed oil-covered lettuce to the planter next to us to try to steer the bugs in that direction - see pic. It worked to some extent, but there went our greenery. When my partner mentioned the bugs to our waiter, he said, "Did you order sweet drinks?" as if we'd brought it on ourselves. If the bugs are a problem outside, don't seat people outside. It wasn't like there weren't any tables available inside - see pic. The restaurant was completely empty, and on a gorgeous Friday evening, that's just odd.

The food was just OK - the pasta was cold and the steak tartare was meh. Our water glasses were never refilled, and it was hot out that night. Also, we ordered cocktails before dinner, and mentioned the wine we'd like with dinner when we ordered. The food came way too quickly (I guess that pasta had been ready for a long time...) and we had cocktails and wine at the same time - ?

The soundtrack never shifted from disco. Maybe that’s great if you’re at a retro party at a club, but it doesn’t fly when you’re trying to have a lovely dinner to kick off Labor Day weekend. Maybe this place changed ownership - by the time we left, even many of the outdoor tables were empty, and this place is usually (or used to be usually) jumping on a Friday night.

Our waiter seemed completely surprised when we told him our experience was less than ideal. We were too, honestly. You can't beat the views here (hence the two stars) but do yourself a favor and pick another...

I used to live Battery Park and frequented this spot on lovely summer days. For so many years, I enjoyed the scenery, I loved people-watching, and I loved taking friends and family who came to visit to dine here because it was consistent and the vibes were quite literally wonderful. I have probably dined here near a hundred times, and what shock it was when I came during a Tuesday afternoon during a low traffic hour to taste the menu with my mother in hopes of securing this location for my wedding party. What intended to be a tasting turned into an awkward and uncomfortable high stool seated dining whilst inhaling secondhand cigarette smoke. We were told that the stools in the shade were the only options while women in athleisure were seated at the wonderful round tables in the warm sun. They did not have a reservation. Fine, all that was fine because at the end of the day, we would have booked out the entire patio and we were here to make sure that the food was still up to par. It was not. We were given two different menus, with different options and after deliberating the items that we wanted to try, we were told it was not available because I had been deliberating over the wrong menu this entire time. We settled on a few items eventually and were waiting for what seemed like forever for menu items that didn’t even require cooking. The most cooked item that we ordered were the steak frites that was ordered rare. Blue rare. And came well done. I attended an engagement party for a friend at this venue and thought the execution was a dream. I was so comfortable with this location and view because I was a resident here. To say the least, this entire experience for a really important decision making day was incredibly disappointing. If you were wondering, I will not be booking a...