Hole In The Wall — Restaurant in New York

I had a very nice experience dining last night at Hole in the Wall. Initially, I thought the name is completely ill-fitting, since the restaurants dining room is definitely not small, with a grand bar in the middle, and there is room to sit outside as well, but my overall experience last night set the name in stone for me - I had never heard about this place, nor even found it while searching for places to go, I was just passing by, saw a cute place with a pretty short menu and decided to give it a try; The typical experience with any hole in the wall. But this one was special!

We ordered the Garlic Parmesan Fries - which were addictingly seasoned to perfection, but lacked a key ingredient, there wasn't a slightl hint of real truffles, only truffle oil, or truffle salt, or perhaps a mix of both, but were still good. The rib-eye steak, which was generously served atop broccolini, potatoes and shishito peppers, which were all perfectly cooked, unlike the steak itself which was a little bit tough, but tasted good. The bucatini carbonara with sweet corn was my favorite dish of the night. The corn was blanched, seasoned and popped with sweetness because of it, adding a bright note to the super rich dich that carbonara is. It was perfect, good amount of black pepper, guanciale adding its own note of pepperiness that the meat itself has soaked up, and true egg yolk sauce, no cream, as well as bucatini cooked al dente. Simple dish that proves whether or not someone can cook to me, since there are so many little things one has to nail, and whoever was in the kitchen last night absolutely did.

The draft hazy IPA was brewed by EBBS, a local brewery also in Williamsburg, and they even had their own HITW lager brewed for them, that truth be told I did not try, but thought was very cool! We also ordered The crispy salt and pepper squid with shishito peppers - which were perfectly fried calamari in a neutral oil that was definitely changed from the night before, the pork sausage rolls, that were super soft, flakey, and perfectly seasoned. My only personal preference - I wish it were sausages with a casing, not just the sausage meat.

We also ordered the whipped ricotta, with tomatoes and pumpkin seeds. which was the one true fluke of the night. Maybe I should have looked it up on instagram, seen a picture and not ordered it, but when I go out to eat somewhere I wasn't specifically recommended, I just read the menu description and if it sounds good - I order it. The dish should have been called garlic bread, because, although excellent garlic bread, is pretty much just that, along with a super-thin layer of ricotta that is barely holding together and is more of a mayo in texture, 6 small thirds of cherry tomatoes, and a tiny pile of pepitas. I hope that anytime this dish is sold someone in the kitchen says I told you so, since it's a bet they placed that the dish would sell. It's not worth it at all.

Our server was super nice, attentive, without bothering us a single time with untimely questions of how everything is tasting, the interior - spectacular, the bathrooms smelled great, and were also beautifully decorated, and spotlessly cleaned, the one little thing, was that the bill was supposed to be paid through a qr code, which requires one to mess with a phone when dining, and upon request of the bill, we actually just got the same qr code printed on a receipt with no itemized bill, which was hilarious, but upon asking to pay through the server's machine, we were able to finally see the itemized bill, simply tap a card and tip all at the same time as saying our thanks to the server, which just leaves a lot nicer of an impression, and perhaps, prompted me to write this review. QR codes are for tech firms, dining must remain a human...

Terrible and rude service. They lack basic skills or knowledge of service. I don’t know where to start with how bad the service was. They had to take our order twice which should not have been difficult to remember. We ordered the egg dish and a hamburger and 2 cups of coffee. It took them 30 mins to get a cup of coffee and after asking 4x for it. The eggs dish came out before the cup of coffee. Typically when a table orders food, they should both come out at the same time, but the eggs dish came out almost immediately, which makes us believe that it must have been a mistake from another table and they decided to send the mistake to us. The hamburger came out after my friend already finished his dish. I had to ask for utensils and a napkin from them since they expect us to eat like an animal. The manager is a miserable person who tried to 20% auto-grat the bill because she knew the service was awful. She claimed they do that for any size party during Sunday brunch. No where on the menu was that communicated. Pfft. That’s just dishonest. She started whining like an insolent child that she took the $3 coffees off the bill and how "she as the manager hand delivered" it to us that it should make-up for the overall poor service, which she did admit it was poor service. She then grabbed the bill and declared that she is going to recharge us for the coffees because I didn't want to pay the 20% tip. I was planning on giving the staff the bare minimum 15%, but she decided that her pride and winning some squabble in her tiny mind is more important than her waitstaff earning fair income. What a child. She is a sad person who makes up lies about the computer being down to hide her failure as a manager and server. I don't know what the computer has to do with pouring a cup of coffee that's been already brewed hours ago. She told me that I wasn't welcome back, which is almost a reward in itself, but she also knew that I would never return anyway. Like there's not 100 better restaurants in Williamsburg with better waitstaff and food? I hope the owners know that the only reason this restaurant is busy is because of the location. If it was tucked away on one of the side streets no one in Williamsburg would seek it out to receive piss poor service and mediocre food. Other reviews state how terrible the waitstaff is here as well. I overheard two other tables on that day complain about how their bills were wrong. I guess they're hoping the customers won't notice and pay for things they didn't order?...

whoever had the cheetah print top on needs to be fired. staff takes your order with attitude doesnt feel inviting what so ever. we walk in and a staff member tells us to choose which ever table we wanted because we could sit wherever. few minutes go by and the lady with the cheetah print top comes to us and says, “if a party of 4 comes in we will have to move you to a different table” after the other lady had told us we can choose to sit wherever. This was fine until we started eating and got constant stares from the staff looking at us to see if we had finished our food. the lady in the cheetah print was constantly coming to our table just to see if our food was almost finished. did not once ask how was the food if we need anything nothing. she just walked up to our table looked at our plates and left. as we are eating i look to the side and see her and the other waitresses speaking and pointing at our table overall making it very uncomfortable for us to sit and enjoy a meal. super uncomfortable. the food was good as expected i previously dined there before but the service was terribly lacking. hopefully they train...