Indochine — Restaurant in New York

I recently attended a bday celebration at Indochine and was not only disappointed but deeply concerned about the staff’s behavior and potential safety issues with drinks served at the bar.

The evening began with my friend arriving 20 min early for our res. While the hostess was polite and suggested waiting at the bar, things quickly deteriorated due to the bartender’s terrible attitude. The bartender, a Hispanic man, was rude and dismissive from the start. When my friend politely tried to order a drink, he replied with, “A momento, señorita,” even though she doesn’t speak Spanish. He laughed in her face and served other guests who had just arrived, ignoring her for about 15 min.

When she tried to order again, he told her, “If you’re not happy, report it to the mgr. I don’t care,” laughing and making comments in Spanish, adding to her discomfort. He even complained about her to another server nearby. This unprofessional behavior was unacceptable, but what followed was more concerning.

Once seated, we ordered drinks, including a martini for one of our friends. The drink tasted strange—unlike any martini. My friend mentioned a weird aftertaste, raising concerns that the drink may have been tampered with. Given the bartender’s attitude, we were seriously concerned.

When my friend asked the waitress to replace the drink, she became defensive, arguing for several min before reluctantly agreeing. Instead of addressing our concern, she acted frustrated and dismissive. Her negative attitude persisted throughout the night, and out of caution, we didn’t order any more cocktails.

Throughout the meal, the waitress—clearly unprofessional and irritated by our requests— showed visible signs that something was wrong — frequently sniffed during service, which made things even more uncomfortable. Despite us informing both the hostess and the waitress that it was a bday celebration, service worsened as the night went on.

To make matters worse, food arrived extremely slowly, despite us ordering only one course each. We were seated for 2.5 h, till 1:15 am, with only two other tables in the section. The food came out cold, and the waitress never cleared the plates between courses—even after we requested this three times. She argued with us, even as dessert was served.

The mgr finally came over and offered a lemon pie as “compensation,” but this fell flat as the waitress didn’t bring a bday candle, despite multiple reminders that it was a birthday celebration. Meanwhile, another table celebrating a bday received much better service.

The entire evening was marred by hostility, unprofessionalism, and a complete lack of basic customer service. The most troubling part was the suspicious martini. As professionals in the media, fashion production, and finance industries who often dine at high-end restaurants, this experience was deeply concerning.

Indochine used to be known for excellent service and food, but this experience was far from that reputation. The bartender and waitress’s toxic attitudes, long delays, cold food, and dismissive responses raise serious concerns about the restaurant’s standards—especially the safety of the drinks. We hope mgmt takes this complaint seriously and addresses these issues before something worse happens.

I would strongly caution anyone considering dining here to think twice. The poor service, unprofessionalism, and questionable safety standards fall far below what anyone...

If I could rate it 0/10 I would... I am traveling from Australia with my sister and her fiancée and was given a recommendation to attend indochine... if I had known the sort of lack luster service, unimpressed waiters and pushy servers that run this restaurant I would have preferred to go anywhere else.

The evening was the 1st of April 2022 and started on a low note after our table was given away, after we arrived 10 minutes late for our 6:45 booking (NY traffic 5 minutes, and waiting in line behind other patrons another 5 minutes) causing the 10 minute delay... which we were told was our fault as we should have called, after they had seen us waiting in line.

We were given another table and told we had till 9:30 which we agreed too after we confirmed this on two occasions, thinking it was ample time to dine and enjoy the meal... wrong!

After sitting down we were pressured to order straight away and get things going, when we had barely even opened the menu.... after ordering our drinks and meal, we did a bit of people watching only to see Staff on their phones, doing laps of the restaurant not engaging with patrons at all, I even had to get up to get their attention at one point as they refused to acknowledge me.

Once our food was delivered, we took our time to enjoy the appetizers, but as we stoped for a brief moment to check the drinks menu once again, the waiter came over and began clearing our plates and dishes that clearly had ample amounts of food left.. we were shocked that they didn't even ask and several other staff did the same on multiple occasions, even when we stopped them, they looked very confused that we were telling them to stop taking away our dishes before we had finished ...very rude.

After dealing with that issue, the final straw amongst other issues was when at the conclusion of the meal, we were asked if we wanted anything else, I asked for a cup of peppermint tea.. of which the waiter looked around and informed us he needed the table. At this point it was 8:45 and we were under the impression we has another 45 minutes until we had to vacate the table.... we then were told, they needed the table back at 9, Which was the 1st time we were told after they had told us twice we had till 9:30.

At this point we asked to see the Manager, of which when approaching our table had an attitude and obviously didn't care. we explained our situation of being told we had until 9:30 and also mentioned how the staff kept clearing our plates and drinks even before we were finished... he told us that because we were late it was our fault and their was nothing he could do and they needed the table and it was also our responsibility to tell the waiters to stop taking our dishes away.

He was extremely unhelpful, rude, an left a bitter taste in our mouths that tainted the whole experience... he was very patronizing and in a condescending tone mentioned he had removed the drinks from our check... thinking it would fix everything as he walked away without hearing us out.

I wouldn't recommend this restaurant, there are so many more that have a better atmosphere and staff that are helpful and accommodating. Additionally the decor of the restaurant is tired and needed a uplift.. if the lights were not so dim which is most certainly used to mask the sad looking floor tiles and outdated palm leaves on the walls, it feels like a poor excuse for a place to dine.

Indochine...

The staff is not there to serve you and their attention to detail is nonexistent.

Starting with the hostesses, all of them were there to advance their declining modeling careers and not to make sure that you are seated. Our group had reservation to which we had to add 1 person. My girlfriend went in to what the wait time for that change would be. The hostesses told her 15 minutes. 45 minutes later we were still not seated, meanwhile, 2 groups of the same size as ours were seated before us. Didn't they know the time for table turn over??! I'm complaining because if they had told us that we will wait 45 minutes we would have gone somewhere else and this review would have not been written. Those girls have no idea how to host. (edit)

We were seated on the last table, right before the phone booth, which usually should seat 3 comfortably since the staff passes by all the time with food behind and customers going to the restroom. With some creative engineering, they were able to turn the table to seat 5, taking away some of the room for people to pass by. I ended up being rubbed against and bumped into a few times.

The waitress was polite, knew the menu and was able to answer all of our questions. She took our drink orders and moved on. When the drinks came, my girlfriend's prosecco was room temperature (I'm pretty sure it's not the waitress fault). Once we had placed our appetizer and main course order, a guy with a pitcher of water came and started refilling the glasses. I had ordered seltzer, drank half of it and he proceeded to with tap water, despite that there were two glasses in front of me.

I had ordered the Pho soup as my main mean and it came 10-15 minutes earlier than the rest of the group. Why they would do that is beyond me. I had to ask for it to be reheated. We shared everything (including deserts) and the food is slightly above mediocre.

The men's bathroom has a weird sink. You can't wash your hands without constantly rubbing against the drain and the back wall of the sink. It might sound like complaining, but

Definitely not going back there, and the Yelp review of 3.5 stars is closer to reality. The staff really...