Blend Astoria — Restaurant in New York

If there is one word to describe our NYE experience it would be awful. We arrived on time for our reservation. Upon arrival there was a line to enter and check in for our reservation which ultimately led many of the patrons to checking in after the 15 minute grace period. The line was due to other parties waiting to be seated and not being delegated on where to go. The hostess staff attempted to tell my party and the one before ours that because we checked in late we would have to wait for a table to be available. When we explained we all arrived at 10pm and were waiting to check in, we were met with attitude (check the cameras for proof if need be). We checked in late due to the incompetence of the staff. There were 6 parties, including mine with 10pm reservations waiting for more than hour for tables. One party of 5 left, because they weren’t going to be seated before the ball drop. The manager explained that a few 8pm reservations arrived late. The waiting staff clearly therefore allowed those parties extended time, which unfortunately cut back on mine and other parties NYE experience. While waiting for a table there were no accommodations being made, such as a beverage even if it was just water. We the patrons had to grab chairs from outside for the elderly to sit down. My party and 4 others were eventually seated between 11:15-11:30pm. My party and another party of 3 were on two person high top tables that I requested be done in order to have some food and drinks before the ball drop. The management attempted to seat parties outside in the cold weather. It wasn’t until one of the members of that party called someone who knew the owner, who then accommodated the party and sat them in the middle of the entrance area. Another party of 2 was sat right behind the hostess desk. The food we ordered was cold to lukewarm. If you’re going to warm food in a microwave at least serve it hot, because having cold ropa vieja was not pleasant. We were offered a discount and only an hour and 10 minutes to enjoy our NYE rather than the allotted time we deserved. I’m not for anyone losing their job during these times, but MUCH TRAINING needs to be given to the staff to learn how to manage such a high volume event. You can definitely tell they were in over their heads. I will not be returning to this establishment after...

We waited too long for the food to come out. I noticed that the waitress had asked a bus boy to go check on our food while she's standing around doing nothing. The food was a small portion for the price we paid. The waitress never came to our table to ask us if we were OK or if we needed anything else. I manage a recommended the item we order and unfortunately what we ordered was not what we got and the waitress never told us that they didn't have item. Instead she just substituted the item that was missing from the plate. When we told the waitress, her statement to us was that we probably don't have it so we gave you this item instead. We informed the manager and he offered us a drink on the restaurant which is very upsetting because we will looking forward to eating what he recommended as one of the best plates at the restaurant yet not once did she come to us and say hey can we give you this item instead because we don't have the other item. So when we told the manager we notice that he pulled her to the side and he'd had to tell her if is an item on the menu that we don't have you must inform the customer. The food that my friend had ordered had no taste but what I ordered did have taste and it was very delicious. As we ordered our appetizers the waitress recommended 2 types of appetizers and we told her we wanted one yet she brought us two different types of appetizers. She never mentioned that it was 2 different prices. She made it was one price when in actuality it was per price. Hot 97 DJ Camillo is always bragging about this place yet I just couldn't understand after my experience what all the hoopla was about. What I also notice about the waitress was that she tended to the table right next to us more maybe because they had more people. We didnt get that much attention and I feel if you working as a waitress or a waiter you should definitely pay attention to all your customers so you can get a really nice tip and not get a bad review like the one I'm giving. If I would have known that this was the experience I was going to have, I would never...

The two stars are for the hostess & our waitress. Other than that the experience here was so disappointing! We were a party of 16 and it was my cousin's bridal dinner party. It was her first event since she got engaged. We were super excited to kick off her important life event at this restaurant. BLEND ruin that! My cousin and her fiancé booked in advance and pre-ordered and paid for a dinner for their friends & family on 4/15. Our reservation was 8:15pm, we all arrived at 8pm. As we waited patiently we started to notice it was now 8:30pm, 15 minutes late of our seating time. To keep us distracted they took us to the back of the restaurant and allowed us to order our drinks while we waited longer! We were all cold!! sitting in the rain in heels and dresses. I had to walk over to the hostess and asked her what is going on. The MANAGER, a woman, never introduced herself to us or took the initiative to walk over to us to even apologize. WE WERE SEATED AT 9:30PM!!!!! My poor cousin was so embarrassed, although this happened our group made the best out of it. We missed our second event due to this experience.

The manager only compensated us 10% for the inconvenience, mind you my cousin's bill was close to $2,000!!! I had push for an additional 5% but even that wasn't enough! The hostess and waitress wanted to pay some of our bill for what happened! that's how bad the situation was handled! We still tipped the server and she did not even want to accept our tip because they felt so bad! but they truly helped make it better!

The manager did not handle this situation professionally or RIGHT! She has very POOR managing skills-

-1 hour and half late seating -ruined my cousin's first event with her bridal party -no professionalism -sat in the rain and cold -lost our money for our second event because we couldn't make it.

AND SHE OFFERS...