Jams — Restaurant in New York

Three years ago my wife and I visited this restaurant, we had a fantastic experience and an incredible breakfast. Therefore we decided to return to it and take our friend for lunch. Unfortunately it was the complete opposite dining experience this time around which has completely changed our feelings towards it.

Firstly, the hostess didn't seem to want to be there, never mind trying to interact with us or even have general pleasantries with us whilst checking availability.

Secondly, the service received from the waitress (who I won't name and shame but am happy to share with the owner/manager) was probably the worst we've experienced as she was incredibly rude to our friend. There were clearly three of us sitting at the table and after taking my wife's drink order and mine she proceeded to walk away without even acknowledging him, then again when returning with our drinks. My wife even had to stop the waitress and say our friend needs a drink before we order food. Things got worse when the food came as there were no check-ins regarding our satisfaction and the restaurant was at approximately 40% capacity so it really wasn't down to being busy.

On a positive note, the food was well presented and very tasty!

Thirdly, due to the lack of engagement from the waitress we had to get up from our table in the middle of the restaurant and go up to the bar to request another drink and then whilst my wife and friend were still eating I had my plate removed (I'm a fast eater). I've never had this happen in a nice restaurant, it made things feel awkward as they now began to feel like they had to hurry up and my wife even ended up leaving half her meal. All of this and what followed made us feel like we weren't welcome here and that several of the staff didn't want to be there either.

Finally, when the remaining meals were finished and the plates were cleared the bill suddenly arrived. No, how was your meal, would you like anything else. It just made us feel like we were being asked to pay and leave, frustrating as I'm a desert lover and had chosen what I wanted before I'd even picked my main so I ended up having to go elsewhere for it.

We were extremely disappointed with this experience! I told my friend that this was a beautiful restaurant, with great food in an awesome location that was a must visit for his first time in NYC, however this certainly wasn't the case. In the future I will tell friends and family to avoid this restaurant and after reading some of the other reviews it looks like I won't be the only one...

If I could have give no stars for service...

CHECK YOUR BILL, WRONG CALCULATED TIP & OVER PRICED WATER, (I don’t mind spending money on a good meal, drinks, service etc) but when they asked us what type of water we wanted (sparkling or still?) there was no mention they are going to charge you $15 for each, soft drinks aren’t listed on the menu. We were charged $15 for 1 bottle of sparkling, and $15 for a bottle of still?! That’s insane, are we at the airport or something? Hey management: There’s literally no need to gouge people on water, just charge higher prices for the food and drinks if that’s what you want, and offer water at regular prices, also offer tap - NYC tap water is fine and should be an option. I scrolled through the reviews afterwards and see that someone else did mention the crazy $15 for water previously.

A real issue we had was incorrect billing. I had lunch with my friend and we asked for the bill to be split in half (which is very common and should be easy math = total divided by 2) however when we got the split bills, the amounts on the separate bills were more than half of the total bill (with no explanation) and the suggested tip amounts on each of the separate bills were higher than the tip amounts on the combined bill (simple math: 20% of $150/ by 2 is less than 20% of $150) so clearly there’s either an issue with their cash register system or a human error issue, but either way not a good sign of management oversight or check out procedures? I suggest you DOUBLE CHECK YOUR RECEIPT ESPECIALLY IF YOU SPLIT IT, AND CALCULATE THE TIP YOURSELF.

Finally - the stuff we SHOULD HAVE FOCUSED ON (if we didn’t get distracted by the checkout/ billing) Food: was well presented, the chicken was a little dry, but overall the crispy chicken paillard was tasty.

Atmosphere: calm and inviting, place is nicely decorated on the inside and out. Went at lunch didn’t feel over-crowded. Our server was attentive, checked in with us several times, and we didn’t feel rushed.

Overall, It was a mixed experience, which is why I gave...

This spot is located inside the 1 Hotel Central Park. It had a nice amount of seating, although not huge space.

We started off with some drinks. I chose Grapes of Wrath. The interesting thing was that they had some sugar on the outside rims, but only about half of less than half the glass rim was coated… Did they forget to do the other side, or they realized after half way that they were not supposed to do that??? My hubby went with Apple Crusta. It was more lemony than apple, which was a bit confusing…

We ordered Maplebrook Burrata and Salt Cod Brandade to share as appetizers, and they were both really great! We all enjoyed it a whole lot.

For main, I had Coconut-Curry Seafood Stew. It was delicious, spicy and full of jewels of the sea! The others went with Berkshire Pork Chop, and Pan Roasted Atlantic Hake. I heard it was the best pork chop she ever had, and the hake was a big hit too. We also had one side dish to share: Fried Fingerling Potatoes. Sooo good, it disappeared quickly!

Since we all enjoyed the food massively, we decided to push our luck with desserts. We had Cranberry-Almond Tart, Ginger Sticky Toffee Pudding, and Chocolate-Peanut Butter Baked Alaska. They were all really good, but the tart was the crowd's favorite.

The bathrooms were not in a great shape. I heard one of them were not tidy (toilet paper all over on the floor), and another one, the toilet was not flushing. I went into the one with the broken toilet, and since I am a proud handy-woman, I fixed it for them before I used it. Seems like several people had used the toilet before I came along, so I wonder when any of their staffs went to check the cleanliness of the bathroom… The rest of the space and the food was amazing, so it is very disappointing to see that they are not putting enough care to their bathroom…

Other than that, the service was great. Our water glass was always filled, and we were well taken care of. I would love to go back and try more of their...