Gran Torino — Restaurant in New York

They melted our wedding cake!!! The wedding ice cake that we brought from Manhattan, decorated by ourselves, that had such a special meaning to us on the most important day of our lives, was melted in their fridge because they did not put it in a freezer, after my husband told them twice.

The owner and waiter did not apologize but instead blamed my husband that he did not tell them that it's an ice cream cake, which was no true!! Because of this, I almost cried in front of my guests on my wedding day. We were so disappointed and felt the heartache that we cannot ever revert the cake or the moment of celebration back...all our guests were disappointed, too.

The food and drinks took forever. They put us in an area (so hot!) where was not preferred as communicated before. The worst thing is really ruining such an important moment without an apology. Not recommend this place!!

*Re the owner's reply, which is full of lies and bullying languages.

Let's review your one and only review B.Q. Yeh, shall we? -- Not nice at all.

You made a regular reservation online for 10 persons without any indication that this was a special occasion ("on the most important day in your life"), you arrived and were 13 persons. Our policy is that groups over 10 persons requires a Prix Fix Menu, however we tried to accommodate you without that requirement since you just walked in with 3 more persons. -- Before we made the reservation, we went there and had a discussion with their staff member. It was clearly communicated that it was for our wedding and the prix fix was optional. Btw, there were 12 of us not 13.

Your husband or friend brings in a cake unannounced 2 hours prior to your reservation. -- My husband and I informed the restaurant about our cake during the first visit. It was a 3-week advance announcement, not 2 hours.

Again we tried to accommodate you as best we can. Our Walk In fridge is set at 39 degrees. If you put a cake in our Walk In fridge for 2-4 hours it will not melt. Also we don't just have plenty of room in freezers to store random things handed to us. We use fresh produce so we only have a small freezer that won't fit a large wedding cake. -- We were asked to pay $50 for preserving our 6" ice cream. It was not random.

Maybe your cake melted in the car while in transport (making a few extra stops to run errands before coming to our restaurant)? -- Not true. We brought the cake back to our freezer, and then walked 10 minutes to Gran Torino. It was not melted at all when we handed it over to them.

Then you complain that food and drinks took forever and that we didn't seat you in the section you preferred. Well sorry but it's not easy handling a 13 top out of the blue. (Hence the Prix Fix option that can be scheduled and timed ahead). -- We made a reservation for 10 ppl 3 weeks ago. If the restaurant cannot accommodate 2 more people, we would have left.

We suggest that if you have an important occasion coming up in the future you should prepare it accordingly and inform the different parties ahead of time. Your disappointment is the result of your own actions unfortunately. -- Not true. We already informed the restaurant that it's our wedding during our first visit. Whether it's our wedding or not, the service shouldn't be as slow as it was. Does that mean that Gran Torino treated groups differently depending on their occasions? They are equally important.

The only thing you are maybe right about is that we should have never allowed any of this. -- Services should be provided if the restaurant wants to do our business. No excuse.

Bending the rules AND then crying... ok Karen... -- Owner made fun of my sadness because our wedding cake was melted by their restaurant and insulted/labeled his customer as Karen. What a bully!

You can apologize for taking advantage and accusing us wrongfully when you grow up. -- The owner insulted me, an adult, as hasn't grown up and demanded me to apologize when they melted our wedding cake? This is...

My wife and I hosted a party in the Velvet Room to celebrate our elopement and highly recommend the venue! After scoping out several other spaces, we decided to host at Gran Torino and found ourselves very pleased with the choice.

Upsides: (+) 1. Venue/event coordinators = The room/venue has a cool vibe and is very nicely decorated and lively, without looking too busy. Our event coordinators (shoutout Ana and Carlos!!) were very responsive and flexible - we had some planning hiccups on our end, but they were so understanding! The venue/party room has no rental fee (VERY rare, based on my searches), only a quite reasonable minimum you have to meet for food/drink. They do not allow decorations, though you can bring an easel and poster or that sort of thing (we did not). This did not bother us since we thought the room was quite nicely decorated! (+) 2. Food = Food was phenomenal, our guests were commenting on it throughout the night (especially big shoutout to the fish tacos.) We chose the dinner hors d'oeuvres and thought there was more than enough food. My wife is vegetarian and I have a serious peanut allergy and there was plenty to eat to accommodate that. Service was impeccable, food came out in a very timely manner, hot and fresh. We were able to pick and denote signature drinks, and our coordinator Ana worked with us to make an adjusted drinks menu for the event. We were able to bring in outside cakes ($50 fee), which the venue stored and cut for us. (+) 3. Logistics = For a party like this, the venue allows you the either put everything on one tab or have people individually pay at the bar - either way everything is counted towards the minimum, so you have the decision whether you want to cover everything or have people pay as they go. (+) 4. Other = LGBTQ friendly, strictly 21+ (good for us, but possible downside if you want to throw a party where people can bring kids.)

Downsides: (-) 1. Party surcharges = There is a slight upcharge on drinks for events which is something to consider financially when planning. It still shakes out to less than a room rental fee. (-) 2. For the Velvet Room, there is an entrance to the downstairs bathrooms in the room, so we occasionally had people who were not part of our party coming in to go downstairs to use the bathroom, but we didn't find it too disruptive or bothersome.

All in all, we were very happy with our experience here and highly recommend hosting your...

I hate doing this but the manager Carlos has to be able to communicate and treat customers better. I’ve worked in hospitality for years and can empathize with everyone in the industry, but tonight was beyond my capacity.

I go in with 2 friends, looking for a table for the 3 of us, letting him now that more friends will join later. For now we were 3 and following the ny rules we would take a table for 3. About 30 minutes after, when our 4 friends came in to eat and drink, we asked if we could take the table next to us (big enough for everyone) *the place was empty besides 2 tables far away from us. The manager would deny the table, offering my friends to go to the bar until we finish our food, even though they wanted to have dinner and drinks. He wouldn’t allow them to sit no matter what we said. To be honest at some point I was upset about it and told him about my experience in hospitality that there was not a single argument about this decision. Kitchen wasn’t closing, the restaurant wasn’t full, they were going to order food.

At the end we just sat there to finish our food while the rest of our friends would wait outside the restaurant. There was one of them talking to him, trying to understand why he won’t sit them. After 20 min, when realizing he had zero arguments, he offers the table. At this point we just wanted to finish our food and go.

I do want to say Pedro, our waiter was the nicest ever and we explained the situation, that it wasn’t personal to him at all, how sorry we were but we wouldn’t tip. This was my first time ever in ny without tipping, hope it helps so the manager changes his attitude to the customers because he was extremely rude. I understand that tips here in ny work completely different from anywhere else but it did felt our only way plus this review that hopefully gets somewhere.

That said I do like gran torino, went a lot of times, the food is great and...