Branded Saloon — Restaurant in New York

This was my first time at Branded Saloon. We were told to just pick a table to sit, so we did. There were no physical menus given to us and no QR code on the table. When the waiter Antonio approached us, he didn't ask how we were doing and just went to "do you know what you want?" Well, we didn't because we didn't have menus. Antonio rolled his eyes at us and said the QR code was on a board, off the sidewalk on the street. We asked for water and he said with a tone, "Water is over there. If you want it, you can go get it." We then ordered spicy margaritas. My friend's margarita was muddled with so much jalapeno that it was undrinkable. When we asked if that could be changed, Antonio went straight to "no" and told us with attitude that we would have to pay for it because "it's spicy for a reason." Then I said, "well would you be able to mix in more simple syrup and make it more mild," which is what Antonio should have offered instead of being rude. We didn't say we weren't planning to pay. We just wanted the drink to be fixed. I then ordered Greek fries and added bacon. I asked Antonio if the bacon would be bacon bits and cut up, to which he said yes. When the fries came, they were overcooked and with a side of long bacon strips. Has anyone ever put long bacon strips on fries? Makes no sense. I barely ate them. At the end we were FORCED to pay the 20% auto-gratuity on our party of two on top of it all. It was outrageous. The service from Antonio was terrible. When I asked another waiter, Andrew, for the auto-gratuity to be taken off and explained what was happening, Antonio came over and told me in front of the other server that "we were the ones being rude." To which I replied, "How have I been rude to you?" Antonio had no answer to that and said, "You can go on the website and complain." Then Antonio walked off with a smirk and giggling. I just moved down the block and now plan to never go back to this establishment. There was also no management on site. The servers were working on their own clearly unsupervised. Andrew asked me to leave my phone number so he could try to reach management to do something about it, but nothing was done. Hence...

Went here after a show at the Barclay's. Sat up front, but there was a leaky AC vent, so we went to the back. Server took about 10 minutes to check in. Food and drinks came out in pretty good time, but the table was really dirty. When we asked for it to be cleaned, server took the napkins she brought with our food to wipe the dirt in circles and basically just spread it out (no wet rag or anything to actually clean it). The food was not so good - typical bland 2am drunk bar food, except we weren't drunk. The bar was extremely limited and they charged top dollar for bottom shelf liquor. We asked for water and they brought it in a used rose bottle. It tasted like shower water that had sat for 3 days in a cooler. Waiter never came back to check on us or to give bill or to know I needed utensils. Went to register to pay bill and I wasn't handed a receipt. I paid cash then doubled back to ask for receipt to understand how two drinks and $15 entrees was so much. Turns out there was an automatic 20% gratuity, which on top of the tip I gave, made the full tip 50% of my bill! I was appalled that they didn't even mention there was an automatic tip when I told them the change was a tip. They were legit going to keep my money. I thought that was very dirty to do!! I wont ever go...

Really bummed about my experience here recently. I LOVE this place, good food, fun vibes. On this night there was an event going on, it was very busy. Our waiter (who usually rocks) was understandably pulled in all directions. We were fine with expecting the service to be delayed. Our food came out OVER an hour after ordering, and was ice cold (fried food ..!). We had to ask him multiple times, we saw him watching the show between serving tables, and I think he genuinely forgot about us. (barely a 'sorry' was uttered). Still, we were understanding. We asked simply for the cold food to be comped OR even a round of drinks would have made us happy! Very surprised this wasn't immediately offered by him? He was very short with us, promptly said all he could do was a round of shots, and rudely left the check and walked away. ANDDDD added an auto-gratuity of 20% ... (there were four of us dining) ... We would NEVER have stiffed him, we were very understanding and polite to him! To be forced to pay a 20% tip with no option, when we got literally cold food and had to wait so long ... it was super...