Hutong New York — Restaurant in New York

Where to begin with this review.

My friends and I were looking forward to this reservation for a long time! We are from Boston and my friend scoured the internet to find an incredible restaurant to celebrate a milestone birthday at, so we landed on Hutong. She called in advance (weeks in advance) arranging the reservation, the table, and confirming payment logistics mentioning we wanted to be able to pay with multiple cards and they assured us this was totally fine and they would be happy to accommodate us.

The day of comes of our reservation and we get to the restaurant and already the service is subpar in comparison to other tables around us. We are a big group of primarily young black women, and we're watching our table get bypassed by our server multiple times while watching him accommodate the other tables around us. Even just getting the basics like the full menu for the emperor meal (which was not included at our table for some reason, only the a la carte menu which is priced differently) and getting straws for our drinks was a hassle. I had to ask our server 3 different times for a straw while my drink melted and he actually gave me a bit of attitude and refused to give me straws until he was done taking our orders (but then forgot after he was done taking our orders so I had to ask again.)

He actually overlooked our birthday girl while taking orders and then disappeared quickly before we could have her put the order in, so we had to try and flag him down and when he came back to the table he was getting distracted during the order and then left right after she put in her main item and she didn't even get to ask for the dim sum she also wanted to get.

The table we were seated at was also right next to the wine cellar hallway which created a breeze coming in so it was very chilly in that spot.

When the food came out not only was it just ok (a bit overpriced for the quality in my opinion) I actually ordered the emperor dinner set and he asked if I wanted my food to come out one at a time and I told him no I would prefer for it to come out altogether as I like to eat a meal as a whole... but he still only brough it out one at a time. It was weird because I was the only one at my table who ordered that so I was the last one finishing my food and everyone was waiting on me because of it.

They also forgot to bring out my dessert part of the set for some reason so after I finished my last set they started cleaning the table and taking dishes (our server was again nowhere to be found but I'm seeing him service other table) and 20+ min pass and there's still no dessert. I finally have to flag him down AGAIN to ask for it and then he asks ME if I received the dish....? Which obviously I hadn't since he never brought it out and hasn't even visited our table in 20-30min.

On top of that never once did he come back and ask if we wanted another drink or more water... after our first order the only times we saw him we had to beg him to come over to our table.

Even to get our check we had to ask multiple times. And finally when we got it he says we can't split cards, even though we specifically called in advance and had talked to management that said we could. We try to tell him this and he refuses to help. We finally have to ask for a manager who says we can pay for multiple cards, it's just not typically offered. Which is fine, but we had arranged to be able to do this before and was part of the reason we chose this restaurant?

Even so, the manager was able to accommodate the request, one the server Shamim was unwilling to.

And then after all this we had to pay over $110 for gratuity for a server we NEVER saw, had to beg to come over, beg to accommodate us, forgot our dishes and gave us a hard time to pay with our cards.

We were hoping for a luxury dining experience however Hutong disappointed us. And it was very apparent the treatment we received versus the other counterparts in the restaurant. Would not recommend based off the service, pricing to quality ratio, and...

TLDR: Beautiful decor, delicious food, expensive rice, attentive service.

We (party of 3) arrived around 6pm on a Thursday. Though we had not made reservations, we were quickly seated. A coat check was offered though we declined. The restaurant was huge, spanning an entire lower level of a building the width of the block. We were seated on the side closer to 58th Street, in a corner, at a table that had two chairs and one large corner sofa. The seating proved to be more than enough for three people. Our only complaint was that it was right next to a large glass door, which was an issue for two reasons: firstly, because people kept trying to open the door not knowing that the main entrance was around the corner, and secondly, because cold air was leaking through it. At the center of the room was a large, regal bar, lit up to show various alcohols. The decor of the restaurant was beautiful; black as a primary color worked well to create a luxurious, exclusive mood, penetrated by warm lighting and candles at the tables.

We were greeted soon after being seated and offered a choice between tap, still, and sparkling water. We were also asked if we had food allergies. We chose to order the Sichuan Shredded Beef as an appetizer and the Chilean Sea Bass, Ma La Beef Tenderloin, and Zhenjiang Pork Ribs for entrees. We ended with the Bao & Soy Milk for dessert. The appetizer came out pretty fast. The beef was shredded into very thin pieces and fried to a crisp, covered in a sweet and slightly spicy glaze. This was very good to us, though the mealy texture might not be for all. The entrees arrived a bit later. The Chilean Sea Bass was served as a few pieces of sea bass ontop a bed of rice noodles in a sweet, sour, and spicy soup and pieces of red pepper arranged to resemble a star. The sea bass was tender, flaky, and rich. It paired well with the soup. The rice noodles were soft and springy. The pepper was sweet and crisp. The Ma La Beef Tenderloin was delicious as well. The beef cubes were incredibly tender and juicy. The mala spice was powerful, numbing the tongue, yet serving up an umami and savory flavor storm. This is not for the faint-hearted. The Zhenjiang Pork Ribs were fall-off-the-bone, juicy, tender, and coated in a sweet and savory black rice wine sauce. This was a relief from the spiciness of the other dishes. Finally, the Bao & Soy Milk dessert was delicious and very creative. It consisted of a white chocolate shell, molded around a sesame-based filling and with caramel in the center, all shaped to look like a pan-fried bun. Pan-toasted sesame seeds were scattered around the plate. The soy milk component was in the form of a scoop of ice cream on the side; this was delicious: creamy, rich, and full of the taste of soy. The dessert overall was lovely, delicate, and a work of art.

It's worth mentioning that on the side, we ordered two bowls of white rice, which came out to be 8 dollars a bowl. This was our only grievance of the night: 8 dollars is too much for a plain bowl of white rice, even with the prices of the rest of the menu. I'd recommend trying their fried rice or noodles for the same price as two/three bowls of rice.

The service was attentive throughout our stay. Our waitress was friendly, and the other staff who brought us our food and cleared our plates and table were constantly checking in. At one point, we asked for the curtain blocking the door to be shut because of the cold air leaking in; the staff gladly complied.

Overall, I would say we had a lovely experience and will be returning. For the admittedly pricey price, you're treated to great ambience, good service, and...

I am genuinely perplexed by all of the rave reviews. I found the food at Hutong to be mediocre and the entire experience mostly underwhelming. To begin with, Hutong has a policy of not seating guests until the entire party arrives (which I understand and am not opposed to). The problem here is the layout of the restaurant. The hostess asks guests to have a seat in the bar until everyone arrives, but most people just stand around waiting in the vestibule since the bar is down a short hallway in a separate room. It made a poor first impression of cramped chaos (and people deciding to wait outside rather than in the bar) in what was supposed to be a high end restaurant. Once inside the dining room, which is an elegant and well appointed space, we found the chairs to be incredibly heavy and uncomfortable, and like many NYC restaurants, the tables are close enough together that you can hear entire conversations going on next to you, even when you are trying not to. We also could never figure out who our waiter actually was since different people took our food, drink and dessert orders - but we were later ignored by some of the very same servers, making service sloppy and inconsistent. I ordered two cocktails, the Red Lantern and the Comfortably Numb, both were very good and I would order again. The food, however, was not as memorable and most of it I would not want to have again. We ordered the Wagyu Beef Millefeuille. This is one of the two dishes that I did like, despite the fact that it is not a mille feuille and it is described as being slow cooked with black pepper, but it is, in fact, incredibly sweet (similar to the Chinese BBQ pork flavor found in pork buns) without any pepper flavor. We then had the dim sum platter. This was mostly a miss with all four varieties that are included, but the biggest offender was the spinach dumpling. The spinach was bitter and mushy, tasting like it came straight out of a box of frozen vegetables right before being boiled to death. The others were neither awful nor delicious, they were just there. We were then served Ma La Chili Prawns - a "fiery" Sichuan dish made with peppercorns, garlic and ginger. The prawns were incredibly over-salted with zero detectable heat or flavor (despite being served on a bed of dried red chilies) and Dan Dan Noodles, which I did think were flavorful, despite the fact that there was also zero detectable heat in this traditionally spicy dish. At this point, we decided not to order any other savory dishes, although there were others we had initially thought we wanted to try. We ordered the Bao with Soy Milk for dessert (the peach tears had to be explained to us, and the description of chewy resin on top of refreshing ice was not at all appealing). I have mixed feelings about this dish. If you got to the middle of the "bao" (it's really white chocolate filled with sesame and semi-sweet salted caramel made to look like a dumpling), where the caramel was, it wasn't bad, but the outer portions of this dessert had a very strong sesame taste (similar to halavah - which I also dislike) and the soy milk ice cream did nothing to add or detract from the dish - like the dim sum, it...