Docks Off 5th — Restaurant in New York

I just got back from having dinner here tonight and I definitely will NOT be coming back here again. I am not one to write reviews but sorry. Though, I want to start off with saying that it was such a delight to walk into a restaurant that was predominantly woman and have a time eating in a safe space.

On to less positive, the lesser of my issues was the food being smaller portions for the prices they are asking for like $14 SIDE OF BRUSSELS SPROUTS?? I understand prices can be a bit unreasonable but that really got me. It tasted decent but I would probably knock the items down a bit.

Now going to the bigger issue…the service. This is coming from a server standpoint so I can always offer the benefit of the doubt but I have never seen a slower server IN. MY. LIFE. This girl took a bit to greet our table, probably about 10 minutes, didn’t bother us much because it was an almost fully sat restaurant. But, she chose to greet us once 2/5 of our party was gone but thankfully the rest of the table knew what drinks they would like. A few minutes passed and she brought the N/A beverages and eventually our cocktails then took our food orders. Mind you, she had her Toast handheld flat on the table while hunched over with one hand on the table. I am all for a personal experience but not an unprofessional one. Act like you care how you’re perceived. Fast forward, our appetizers come out, finish them and we ask a support staff for more water since there were no water jugs at the table. They say yes then never bring it. Okay, that’s fine, I understand you can forget. Finally, our entrees come out and we are never acknowledged again by our waiter until we’re on our last bites. Which we asked for waters again and were told yes once more but two seconds later we watch her run drinks to another table and check in on the other tables in her section. We finish up and ask for the check that takes another 5 minutes to reach our table and we almost immediately put the credit card down. Now, we’re in search of boxes because once the credit card was placed, she ran at lightning speed before we got the chance to ask. This was probably due to her putting a 20% AUTO GRATUITY on the bill knowing she didn’t deserve it. (I will always tip a server 18% or above but an auto grat on a 5 top that you barely did any work for is CRAZY) So, we wait about another 5 minutes and look over to see her leaned over the service station of the bar chatting and laughing with the bar tender. It isn’t until we ask another support staff for boxes and she sees him heading towards us that she remembers she placed a bill down. We finally check out and my little cousin wanted to take pictures with the flower stairwell. I look up and see her slowly stepping down while vaping all the way.

Please if you want your customers to have good service with such an amazing and beautiful environment you have created, check in on your servers and how they maintain...

This place has so much wasted potential. I’m sure with better management, it could be a great brunch spot. I was extremely dissatisfied with the service and standards of this restaurant. The dishes, glasses, and table were not polished/cleaned well; service was extremely slow (considering staff were always walking around seemingly aimlessly). I also witnessed staff having full conversation over food on many occasions. These things outweighed the facts that our starters and drinks were good. Not sure if I’ll ever make it back to this restaurant, definitely won’t recommend.

Upon arrival, there was no hostess available to seat my party, as well as two additional parties, for at least 10 minutes. Even with us asking other staff to alert them that there were guests at the door.

Once assigned an empty table, it took an additional 5 or so minutes to be seated, as we waited for cups. Once seated, our waiter didn’t come to our table for almost 15 minutes, not even to ask us if we’d like water. A staff who I presume isn’t a waiter had to bring us some water while we waited for staff to figure out which of them was to wait our table. Finally a waiter came, said he wasn’t our waiter, but then came back some minutes later to serve us anyway. (He didn’t ask us what water we wanted, and automatically brought a pitcher of tap water. Wouldn’t have been a fault, if the woman that helped us earlier hadn’t done such a great job of that, even with a very obvious language barrier).

Our starters, the Lava Shrimp and the Angry Sushi, were tasty. For our mains: The Dock’s Benedict was flavorless and unseasoned. The potatoes were mid, and the skin was very chewy. Very underwhelming. The chicken and waffles were okay. The bone-in chicken was a bit tougher than I’d like but it had good flavor. The waffles were waffles. We both got Mango margaritas with Don Julio. The drinks weren’t strong, but the mango flavor was great. (This was another time the waiter didn’t ask us what we preferred as it pertained to our rim).

To make matters worse, throughout the whole time, they were receiving deliveries through the dining hall. The bathroom could also use some upkeep (with the bathroom appliances and supplies). One of the doors was broken, and both sink faucets were broken. The soap pumpers were very difficult to work.

The entrance was beautiful but I look forward to hopefully seeing a more accessible entrance. The stairs are beautiful but with so many steps, it does limit who can access the space (lesser abled folks, older people, people with wheelchairs and other devices).

I hope the manager sees this and is able to course correct a lot of these problems. It is a beautiful space and the food seems to be good, and great at times. It really just requires some more training for the staff and probably a more...

Came here on a Saturday with my girlfriend after discovering this place on instagram. Found out they just opened a month and a half ago. The decor you immediately see once you enter going downstairs like a hidden place. The floral is all around the stairwell. Came on time and made a reservation but had to wait by the bar over 40 minutes which was insane. My girlfriend ordered a white wine and was filled up 3.5 oz for $18 which is outrageous considering we have had more amount of wine in other places in the city, in the same glass for less. Another bartender came and filled up a good amount which was thoughtful. Finally we got seated, but then it took 20 minutes for a server to come for us to order. I ordered the lava shrimp and my girlfriend ordered the lobster bisque. What it says on the menu for what our appetizers said in the order did not taste as described. It took 30 minutes for our order to come out and the lava shrimp said spicy was not spicy at all and it was cold. My girlfriend has never had so much lobster for every bisque she has tried. The bisque was good but there were large lobster pieces but barely any bisque.

Now to our main course we each ordered the island salmon. We are hoping it will turn out well, nope. The salmon had mango habanero glaze to give it a nice kick and the sauce was great, it should’ve been on the lava shrimp while the shrimp was hot or warm. The salmon tasted frozen after a long time waiting for the food and the coconut rice was more of jasmine rice, cold with no coconut taste but put small flakes on it. The asparagus was not good either, We’ve had much better asparagus than this. The server felt bad for the long wait so took the appetizers off our bill.

The lava shrimp is not worth $20, the bisque not $15 and the entree was not $38 dollars worthy yet we almost spent $100 dollars because of gratuity. If you want to take pictures for social media for it’s beautiful decor you can come, but even when you reserve a table it’s not guaranteed you will be seated quickly it will depend on how the service of the kitchen staff prepares food because we were there for 2.5 hours for awful service and poor food quality. The prices along with the description of some appetizers and entrees are not as described...