elNico — Restaurant in New York

I came here for Saturday dinner reservation for a Party of 4. Immediately we were sat at our table. There were plenty of free tables around us inside and outside. Prior to our arrival, my friend had requested we sit outside to the hostess, but it seemed she had forgotten, so she went to ask her again. Our waiter came by our table and took our orders. The food & dessert menu fit in a single sided sheet. They came back again to let us know the appetizer ribs and the carnitas tacos (which we all had ordered) were out. Which I found strange it being at 6:30/7pm on a Saturday, when the restaurant wasn't really busy (from the empty seats around us). The server apologized for being out of the items, but no recommendations or substitution suggestions were given, so we all needed more time to revise our order. A few people came to run our food items to us, which made it confusing because we were unclear as to who our server was, they would all say they would relay the info to our server, which made it obvious our server was a little absent from our table. Then the hostess offered to move us outside after we place our order and had our drinks, which was nice of them. The view was a little obstructed with bushes, but nice nonetheless. We received our food and it was Ok: the guacamole was fine, I had the chicken taco (not spicy, dry and flavorless), broccolini taco (overtly spicy to the point where it almost drowns out the flavor, but definitely more savoury) and the shrimp taco (a nice in between in spice and flavour). I also received 2 slender lime wedges for 6 tacos, which I was splitting with my spouse, which I found odd, since the pictures make it seem like they give you a lime wedge per taco (as it should be). Anyway, we had our round of cocktails and food and I had no complaints with my wine. I tried my husband's second round of cocktails, a guava chimoy cocktail and it tasted like juice/punch, very sweet and no hint of the liquor used. They brought out desert (dessert churros had some parts where the dough was still raw and wet inside) and we noticed a man sitting at the table next to us had barfed, and not like a cutesy and demure barf, I mean he BARFED a 3 course meal, and it was left there for a solid 10 minutes next to our table. No one came to our table to check on us, or apologize for the mishap, or MOVE US. It seemed like all the staff disappeared after this happened and delivering our dessert and went into hiding because no one wanted to clean that amount of puke. I get it, it's gross and it's a lot of puke. But imagine being a patron, seeing and smelling it, and being served food next to it. It was so much. It was gross, and it killed our appetite and definitely killed the swanky sophisticated vibe they were going for. In all my years eating at restaurants, this has never happened, so that definitely stood out. Eventually the table couldn't stomach having our desert next to the massive amounts of vomit, so we tried to find someone, ANYONE, and asked them to please move us. They offered a booth (which was across the puke) which we declined, since that was too close to the puke, and asked to be seated inside. Inside, we finished our dessert which was now tainted by the vomit incident and ordered the bill. Once again, our table was left unattended to the point where we had to go look for a server to pay the bill, our server was gone(?) and after moving us inside, no one checked on our table again. I did notice that as they moved us inside someone with a bucket and mop and was cleaning up, but that took way too long sitting out there before the staff cleaned it up. Another point, to picture how MIA the staff was, another table of white ppl waved at me to come serve their table, because I was Latina & some of the staff were Latino and presumed I was a server, even though I was not wearing a black uniform, nor a black apron like the servers were. But then it made sense, I looked around and saw NO Latinos AS PATRONS 🚩 The kinds of people that come here are White & assume any Latin@ must be their...

Don't come here if you are black..... Just go to another rooftop boo. This place is on top of the Penny Hotel which the view is amazing. Even the ambience is beautiful and comforting. HOWEVER, the service was abysmal. I made a reservation and the dry bland face hostess told me where to sit. I sat there for ten minutes before I flagged someone down with a white tshirt & jeans. Prior he was asking how everyone was doing and looked dead in my eye.. didnt say anything. Come to find out he was the manager... he asked how I was.. I told him I was okay but I was waiting for a while. He said with an attitude that alot of people called out, he was running a few roles simultaneously, customers and all this stuff. I apologized (which HE DID NOT) but what does that have to do with the customer service? I then asked to sit outside which he did so but still I was waiting. When I finally got the waitress who attended to other people who was already there before me.. she was nice but not no five star. I got a mocktail with guacamole & chips which were really good. But again it took a while for service. They also had a limited menu with an already limited menu. The only top service were the bussers, they were genuinely & attentive. The server kept asking me if I want to close my tab... mind you I ordered another drink which she didnt even bring me. I felt so uncomfortable I had to ask her did she want me to leave... I dont understand. She was like noooo you can stay but the tabs are being closed 🙄 I would not go back here because in Summer 2025 why should I feel uncomfortable in an establishment I wanted to go to so I can relieve the day i had. It's disgusting to say the least. Small white tshirt manager & annoying prissy fake nice waiter was not my cup of tea, energy sucks and I will never support this establishment. BUT the views from the rooftop is astonishing. Go inside the penny hotel, take the elevator to the 11th floor, go outside, take an ig picture with the amazing view in the back and leave...

Gosh I really want this place to be better. Rooftop vibes✅ great location ✅ just the right balance between trendy and casual✅ but it has work to do to be a no-brainer go-to spot for me.

We arrived and it was basically empty but they told us they could only seat our party inside when there was a row of empty standing tables on the balcony we would have been glad to hang at. Then they proceeded to seat our 5 person group as a 17-top conference table in the middle of the restaurant, like what??🤯

Cocktail menu is too long - especially for bespoke random cocktails like a tomato martini. Took my friend 20 minutes to decide on a cocktails and they weren’t very good. Slim down the menu and master what you have - we can’t handle the decision fatigue.

I didn’t even opt for a cocktail but instead went for the mezcal and the pour was incredibly stingy for the price I paid.

Service was really slow, took very long to get simple drinks like wine and beer.

As the sunset and the disco lights went on it became nauseating to stay there - going from bright orange bathrooms to bright green interior made it really difficult to see. Someone needs to make some fine adjustments to the lighting.

When we asked for the check they gave us a non-itemized receipt for a group of 5 which was just really suspicious to me.

Finally as we left we walked out onto the balcony to check out the view and take pictures we got flanked by overly concerned staff asking us whether we checked in.

Overall this place has potential but I just saw orange flags from the moment I checked in and likely won’t be back unless compelled by another group outing where I have no control over the locale.

Hope my note provides some quick wins...