Charlies Bar & Kitchen — Restaurant in New York

Extremely disappointed and OFFENDED! My family wanted to enjoy and support this "local" restaurant in the "BRONX". However, after we spent over $1,500 on dinner (over $50 per person) not including all the money our guest spent at the bar, $15 drinks. They charged us an additional $1.00 extra per person for bringing "Wrapped" cake-pops on a stick (lollipops), souvenirs for guest!! How “thirsty” is that?! I didn't make a big deal of it then because I did not want to embarrass my daughter or her guest. To add insult to injury, the restaurant charged for 27 pops when we only had 23. Four extra ppl showed up last minute for dinner that we were not expecting and we didn’t have extra pops; I know this sounds petty but the AUDACITY to charge in the first place, and then do so before taking an accurate COUNT!! At this point it's not about the MONEY it is about the lack of regard or appreciation for the clients business. I called to speak to the owner not to ask for the money back but to let him/her know what had transpired. However the owner did not take my call, the person on the line defended their actions calling it dessert, they said someone get back to me. BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. It was a birthday dinner, for 23 people, with a pre-fixed menu about 55 pp with no desdert. I was trying to be cost effective not trying to cheat them of business. I wanted something nice but honestly could not afford, on top of dinner, to purchase a cake and then pay an additional $3 per person a total of $69 for them to serve it. Charlies Bar and Kitchen charges a $3 per person fee if you bring your own cake. That's their policy if you don’t purchase dessert from them. Some other restaurants do this, no problem, we get it. But we still have a budget so instead we baked cake pops on a stick and wrapped them as souvenirs for guest to take home as a small thank you for coming. Of course we wanted to sing Happy Birthday to my daughter so we created a centerpiece made of "Styrofoam". We decorated it with a martini glass in the center and 2 on the side, we put clear shredding to make it festive looking and bubbly, we placed one of the "wrapped" cake pops in the glass and we glued a party blower, a kids 99 cents birthday hat and stuck it on to the styrofoam, then placed 4 small size candles in the front. It was a prop not a cake; nothing for the wait staff to serve or cut. (See attached photo). We were being creative so that we could sing happy birthday. On a separate plate we placed all of the other "WRAPPED" cake pops for family to take. We NEVER asked for a break on the price of their menu or for anything unreasonable. We asked for a pre-fixed menu for 23 ppl 6:00 on a Sunday 27 people showed you made more money. SHAME on you Charlies Bar & Kitchen your business is in the BRONX. Your clients are a struggling working class community. 27 ppl and I am forwarding this to all of them and I’m asking that they post the review on their social media. I personally will NEVER VISIT OR SUPPORT YOUR restaurant again. To the owner next time consider taking the call when a customer is...

I ate here with a friend as a last minute option since our original choice on the same block was too busy at the time, and honestly it wasn’t worth it at all. There was live music that, despite the band genuinely playing well, was just way too loud the entire time in such a small restaurant that not only did my friend and I have to yell just to communicate (until we eventually just gave up and ate in the loudest silence ever), but the waitress tending to us had to lean over into our ears and yell as well just so we could hear each other. I’m the end, we both left with headaches. Furthermore, our waitress was switched halfway through for whatever reason, we were hardly checked on, and service was ridiculously slow, to the point where once we eventually decided we were over it all and wanted to go, we still sat waiting for the check for another 20 minutes trying to wave someone down. My friend liked her food but mine wasn’t worth the price at all. I asked for my steak to be prepared “medium”, yet when I got it, I only managed to get a couple bites before giving up because I was literally fighting with my plate trying to saw off slices from the toughest steak ever. The sauce/seasoning admittedly tasted good, but the steak itself was like a car tire. By my friend’s suggestion, I considered asking for my food to be brought back and fixed/replaced, but I decided against it for the reason that i didn’t want to sit waiting another 30min for my food to come back. I also kept telling my friend I was worried I was gonna knock things over off the table with how much force I was using, and the plate given was actually a bit small for the portion size too that my vigorous (but necessary) sawing motion kept knocking fries off my plate. Considering this was the first time hanging out with this new friend, the whole situation REALLY put a damper on things. Maybe I just caught this place on a bad day, but I honestly wouldn’t return and definitely wouldn’t recommend...

We went last nite with friends from out of town. Another friend had been there before and spoke highly of the place. Let’s start with the Pros. The food was decent and we didn’t have to wait long for it. I ordered the fish and chips and it reminded me of school lunch. So depending on if you liked a crunchy coating and a mushy middle, it was fine. The hubby had a burger and I thought it was great, along with their signature Charlie drink. Now the Cons. The wait staff seemed distracted and somewhat annoyed that actual patrons were in the spot. We were seated immediately and was given a carafe of water for the 4 of us. It wasn’t enough water to fill any of our glasses. It was like they were rationing it. We eventually ordered but the waitress was short and rushed. Once the food was ordered, no one came back to take our drink orders. I had to flag down the waitress and again, she seemed bothered that we were interrupting her. It was obvious the entire wait staff was focused on all the take out orders and on the folks picking up food. It was disappointing. The last time I dined out was literally months ago and I was disappointed that the experience others wrote about and had did not match mine. No one came back and asked how our food was, no one asked if we were Ok, no one asked if we wanted more water or anything. Nothing. There was a older white guy that worked there and tried to support where it was lacking, it was still not enough. We ordered food to go, it was incorrect on the check. Just rushed. We will not be going back nor do we...