Blend on the Water — Restaurant in New York

My Sister and Brother in law got married on 10/10/25 and chose this restaurant for us to eat at on their wedding day.The food was good and the Manager on duty that evening was rude, unwelcoming, and unprofessional (the one with the small ponytail in his hair). My Sister made reservations for a party of 13 instead of 16 by mistake. When we got to our table we realized we needed another table added to our party and my Sister notified the manager in which he replied, "you said 13 not 16" and my Sister replied she apologize she miscounted by mistake. He helped add a table with a negative demeanor and attitude as if he was inconvenienced even though the restaurant was half empty of customers at this time. My Sister told him thank you after the table was added and he ignored her as he walked away. There were a few other employees there who gave us an unwelcoming stare which we clearly ignored. There was a photographer present at the restaurant who took pictures of my Sister and Brother in law and our dinner party spent over $300 on photos taken with the Newlyweds in it. As we were about to leave the photographer was getting our last photos together and being paid for it when the manager rudely interrupted us and told the photographer "we need these tables" which in other words he wanted us out of there. I wasn't raised to dislike anyone different from me and I know racism when faced with it and this was a clear case of it. I'm going to be specific by saying our entire dinner party was African American/Black. We were done eating and most of us were standing up about to leave as we waited to pay the photographer who was great by the way. My Sister and I addressed the manager directly and told him we're done and about to leave we were only paying the photographer for the photos we purchased. He said "it can be done over there" pointing to the area near the exit and my Sister told him the photographer asked for the pictures to be taken at a spot right beside our table. My Sister told him "we paid our tab which was a little over $1,000 and spent a little over $300 on pictures from your photographer." The managers' reply was "She (the photographer) has nothing to do with us" and remained very defensive and unapologetic (not that we were looking for an apology anyway). It was disgusting seeing someone in charge with such arrogance and a dismissive attitude. My Sister informed him that she owns her own business also and that's not how you deal with customers at all and I told him that the photographer works in your establishment so it is connected to you (regardless if he was telling the truth or not about her "having nothing to do with" them). He went on to say "there's a 2 hour seating limit here" which we undoubtedly didn't exceed. Furthermore there wasn't even a dinner party waiting to be seated nor one outside of the restaurant waiting to come in either. Clearly he just wanted us out and made it unwelcoming from the time we walked in. Thank God his pathetic unprofessionalism didn't ruin the Bride or Groom's time at the restaurant and we all still enjoyed ourselves as the waitress we had was great. I don't need a comment with a reply from the restaurant stating "we apologize for this experience" or "sorry" because the manager wasn't or isn't sorry in the slightest bit. He will continue to conduct himself in that unprofessional manner and treating people the way he treated us. Very unfortunate having a manager there like that at such a nice restaurant...

This feed back is for Antonio Perez requested from the manager Veronica yesterday night at 7 pm

My friend and I decided to have dinner at Blend Waterfront yesterday evening, as it is conveniently located across from my building . I have frequented your establishment occasionally with friends and family, particularly enjoying the cocktails you offer. However, our experience yesterday was regrettably disappointing, resulting in a poor overall experience.

I had called ahead to make a reservation for two at 7:00 PM. Upon my arrival at 6:55 PM, I was surprised to find that my reservation could not be located. Despite the restaurant being relatively empty, the Veronica who identified themselves as the manager informed me that I could either wait at the bar or near the entrance until my friend arrived, as she was unable to seat me at a table immediately. While this was unexpected, I agreed to wait near the entrance.

Subsequently, when my beautiful friend arrived, she was greeted with a request from the manager, Veronica, to ''take of her hat'' The manner in which this request was made lacked professionalism, with no courtesy extended in the form of "please" or "would you mind." We inquired about the reason for this request, to which Veronica cited a ''dress code'', even though it was a Monday evening after 7:00 PM. While we understand and respect the existence of a dress code, it is the manner in which it was communicated that significantly detracted from our evening.

This incident considerably damaged what was intended to be a celebration of my friend's arrival at my local neighborhood restaurant. When I expressed my concerns to Veronica and said that we will escalate this issue , she dismissively directed me to either speak with Antonio or leave a review on Google so here i am listening to her ...

Feeling disheartened by the encounter, we left the location and stopped by at the other blend location in LIC AND made the effort to obtain contact information for Nicholas and Antonio .And of course i will be also sending them an additional emails regarding this unpleasant experience .

The thing is whatever her defense might be it is obvious that no one would go to dinner to just have a bad experience and bothers to take their time to follow up with that unless it was genuinely very unpleasant.

This review with manager Anthonio perez names and everything evident that Veronica was confident in her actions, believing there would be no consequences for her attitude. However, I am compelled to provide this feedback as I believe it is essential to ensure that individuals employed in hospitality roles are should be educated or trained and possess the necessary interpersonal skills, which she lacked , particularly given the competitive nature of the neighborhood.

I appreciate your attention to this matter and would welcome the opportunity to discuss it...

Over all the atmosphere was great, the food was good but there were some discrepancies that left me and my guests disappointed. I reserved a table for 11 people, along with a deposit that was paid over a week ago. When we arrived exactly at 8:30PM the time of the reservation- the table was not ready and we had to wait 15 minutes for the table to be available. Which defeated the purpose of our reservation. But when we asked to switch tables they told us that table was reserved for other guests. It would’ve been nice if the same consideration was given to us when we came in for our reservation, being that our table wasn’t ready when we arrived.

Our hostess/waitress wasn’t aware of the occasion and came in confused, wishing me a happy birthday although we were there for a graduation celebration. She wasn’t very personable and didn’t socialize much with me and my guests, she seemed very indifferent. We kindly asked in advance for a nice table in a comfortable area.But the area where they sat us at had an angulated booth with individual 2 person square tables, because of the angle of the booth, each table had a gap in between. The gaps in the table made it quite uncomfortable plating wise and seating wise. Our silverware fell through the gaps several times and we couldn’t comfortably arrange our plates.

We had to ask for a kids menu because one was not provided to us by the waitress. When the food was ordered, we received an extra plate that we didn’t order, and the order of chicken fingers and fries for the ONLY kid at the table was delayed 15 minutes. We had to ask where his food was because our hostess didn’t check to see if we had all gotten our food.

The food itself was good and the salmon in particular was fantastic. The salmon and the pernil dish were beautifully plated. On the other hand the Lomo Salteado (Filet Mignon dish) had an off-putting presentation, at the bottom was the rice, above the fries were scattered around the plate, and the “filet mignon” was cut into little pieces and also scattered around the plate. It looked like a plate off of the kids menu. And failed to make the dish look appetizing.

Towards the end of the night we were making toasts and our graduate was making an emotional speech to her family, clearly moved and with tears in her eyes. Our waitress interrupted us twice asking if we were ready to pay the bill, even after seeing we were having an intimate moment and telling her we needed a bit more time and will let her know when we’re ready. Our waitress was not a mean person nor was she intentionally rude, but her customer service was quite lacking and she didn’t put the extra effort to make us all feel welcomed and taken care of. I wouldn’t recommend her for a group party.

We expected a lot more and were left quite disappointed overall. I hope the correct changes are implemented to prevent these occurrences...