El Pingüino — Restaurant in New York

We had a terrible experience at this restaurant, mostly due to very rude staff and very bad service.

1. We ordered drinks after about 15 mins of waiting. Then the drinks took approximately 30 minutes to come (this is always a bad sign). Around 15 minutes, I followed up with the waitress about the drinks (politely) and she said in a condescending tone "the restaurant is full. Your drinks are coming" - as if the restaurant being full is an excuse for drinks taking 30 minutes. This just means the restaurant is understaffed or they should have less tables.

It's not up to the customers to expect that service should be severely delayed when a restaurant is "full".

2. At this point, we decided we were going to probably just pay for the drinks and leave. However my wife was very hungry and asked to just order a few oysters - she asked how long it would take, as we had made a new reservation next door. The answer - 25 minutes! 25 minutes for oysters! They literally just have to take them out of the fridge. Once again, the server communicated this in a condescending tone.

I would highly recommend if you want to have a nice waterfront dinner, you go to to 21...

Much anticipated place and it ended up being mostly good but not without issues. We came for a happy hour on Wed at 6:30pm. The place is tiny and you really want the bar seating. It was 3 of us so we sat at the table in the back which was weirdly pointed towards another table — ok, I guess they envision some sort of communal dining. It’s a vibe but def. lacking privacy. Both Japanese and pickled martini were good but I don’t think they were $22 good. I ordered them thinking that they’re $12 due to happy hour and the waitress never mentioned anything until we got our check and were surprised to see both of them being at the regular price. Basic courtesy would be to make it clear. All of the snacks—boquerones, razor clams, scallops—were delicious, although $27 for a can of clams made me weep with memories of getting same thing in Barcelona for just a few euro. The worst part was waiting for oysters; I get that this is half-priced happy hour so I can wait maybe up to half hour, but ours came 45 mins after ordering. Kind of unacceptable. Oysters were small but tasty. Good deal if you can get in on it at the...

For some reason whenever I come to el pinguino it’s the perfect temperature, it’s golden hour, transmitter park is poppin off, and I’m on an absolute bender. I end up drinking one too many dirty martinis while make audible pleasure noises while downing the anchovy pepper skewers. The folks behind the bar really seem to love their job, the food they serve, and the drinks they come up with.

The first time I went they poured us a drink and then let us pop out to transmitter to have a glance at the sunset before even paying our tab. That kind of trust in the community is rare and beautiful.

El pinguino is a lil slice of heaven in greenpoint.

This writer pens this review begrudgingly because he doesn’t want this spot to blow up. Part of the magic is the intimacy. But because he wants the good people at the Pinguino to succeed he feels compelled to...