Celeste — Restaurant in New York

This is one of the very first CASH ONLY restaurants patronized that does not take bank cards. When making the reservations earlier this evening whomever spoken to, mumbled something over the phone unintelligible to make out whatever said?? So, presumably did not take heed. Then waited for my colleague to arrive and head over to this restaurant for the 7:30 reservations. Upon arrival I moseyed into the main dining area where we were greeted and asked if the reservation was indoors or outdoors? It was indoors. There was a larger table directly across from ours with up to 17-18 hospital employees dining. An admixture of Chinese-Americans, East Indian fellows, Hispanic, and a few other decisively ethnic Caucasian males and females all seated together in a conference styled manner facing one another—at the tables pulled together. It wasn’t long after we were finally settled in and had ordered wine that there was this unmistakable chatter led by one of the young ladies leaning over stating « He’s a man? Right? » « No. He’s a Man who identifies as a Woman … » and the Chinese doctor in hospital scrubs chimed in to confirm their seance, about this individual. Of course seated as closely as we were overhearing the entire conversation, word for word per verbatim. It obviously smacked of true ‘heterosexism’ given the age distributions between these young ladies discussing that relevance (23-29), and the males anywhere from (24-29) at most. Very mature for their age and intelligence, yet what was so defining that it helped identify how consensus among those within a «unionization » can sociopolitically conjure up make-believe responses and clear cutting facts as if it were in fact undeniable. Gathering that this (like AOC) and other Democratic Socialists, rely heavily on solidarity—to settle differences in factors affecting judgement calls and identifying individuals in their perspective realities like gay males do to each other or within the broader context of American ‘Woke’ acculturation. Evidently it’s inescapably more strident to contest how the labeling garners « sexual discrimination » or plainer make-believe ad hoc psychodynamic biopsychosocial déterminants to render their consensus to score unsuspectingly against another. Like The Boston Tea Partyers—movement. In any event this barrage of laughter and answers that filled the entire evening as we sat having our say with our meal on the premises. What became more ad nauseum was the malcontentious nature surfaced as normal standardized protocols. Round table discussion. Briefing and conclusion all mete out in a matter of moments— suggesting this is how Mt.Sinaï placed that identifier on my Discharge Summary as one being a « 61-Year Old F-T-M  recovering from Covid-19». Of course, ultimately perhaps the semiotics were untimely but the recursive was indeed brought to topic literally in my presence as one of the same reasons. It appeared my colleague’s efforts to keep me from lending insight from them than spending more time on a prefixe meal or ordering items separately. Leaving certain preponderance about everything in the long term questioning, even the meal. Aside the horrendous defame made by these hospital employees as a whole, the physician included, albeit aiding the young ladies to “think harder and more clearly” seemed utterly distasteful for ever having chosen coming there for dinner since it wasn’t a place normally we would patron. On the other hand, this restaurant has a high popularity among the Westside residents and is well established. Though when it came down to the tab, not realizing they took cash only left me no alternative than to walkover to 86th & Columbus to go to the bank. Which for the amount of time and undesirable effort to and from this establishment was secondary to not really a terrific place to dine after all was said and done in that duration. Freely being there anti-sociably with these other Asian people. It’s unimaginable to also predicate your views at strangers and using every means to dissuade. One place I would not...

We are confused by Celeste. It has one of the highest ratings of any restaurant on the UWS but our experience has been mixed. We keep returning because of the very good reviews thinking that we are missing something. We have had pretty good food but not consistent with the 4.7 average rating. Unfortunately, at this point I don’t think we will return. There are just too many better options in the neighborhood. Our primary issue is the inflexibility of the restaurant. When we order wine they do not provide a small taste to make sure we were happy. You have to order the wine without knowing if you will like it, which is inconsistent with other NYC restaurants. When we ordered the breakfast pizza on a recent visit we asked for the egg on the side (one of us is allergic) but were informed that was not an option. You have to have the egg on the pizza or no egg all. The pizza is described as having crispy panchetta and caramelized onions but both are very small portions on the pizza and we could not really taste either one on our pizza. In reality, the breakfast pizza is nothing but a layer of cheese. For dinner on our previous visit, the service was equally less flexible. The food was pretty good although the spaghetti was a little dry. When we asked for more sauce we were informed that there would be an additional charge. The service was pretty good overall (they are clearly trying) but the waitstaff kept saying they have strict rules that they must enforce, which makes the restaurant seem not particularly receptive to its guests. The single bathroom is on the dirty side and they had run out of hand towels (perhaps a one-time issue). Overall, the restaurant is not bad but definitely not worth...

My party arrived to our reservation on time and were seated at least 45 minutes late. We had to wait outside as it was heavily raining for 45 mins. Then, the owner was going to charge us a fee to serve the small birthday cake we brought. We asked that since we had to wait in the rain for 45 mins when we had an indoor reservation, if he could waive the fee. He said no. His reason was because we didn’t call ahead to tell him about the cake. I thought that was rich since I didn’t get a heads up from the restaurant that they seated a party at our table who arrived late to their reservation, making them unable to seat us on time (this is the reason they gave us for why we had to wait to be seated). Fine, we get seated, order our food, and right before they bring out the cake, the waiter comes by to tell us that if four of us leave a good review, they’ll waive the cake serving fee and give us free desserts. I don’t blame the wait staff, because they’re just the messenger. In my opinion, the owner lacked class, explicitly bribing us to make up for what? His lack of empathy for making us wait in the rain for 45 minutes with a reservation. Come here if you like to feel uncomfortable while having a meal with your friends. The food was okay, but certainly not worth the attitude from the owner, who walks around the restaurant the entire time. I didn’t expect anything other than a simple “sorry for the inconvenience”, but didn’t get even that, and got a bribe instead. Weird...