Lenny's Clam Bar — Restaurant in New York

My wife and I have been eating at this restaurant for several years and the food and service was always amazing. In fact we had dinner there in January. Tonight that all changed. We arrived at 7:10 pm it was busy but there were several open tables in the front where we would alway be seated. For some reason, we were shuttled into Al almost empty back room where there were 4 othe small groups. My wife is African American and I am wife. We both immediately noticed that everyone else seated in this room were either black or brown skinned. There was only one party of two senior white people seated in a corner. The waiter did did not come to our table for almost 15 minutes and when he did, it was to flop 2 menus on the table. He came back a few minutes later for drink order which arrived several minutes later. After about 20 minutes, he finally returned to take our food order. The appetizers arrived almost 20 minutes later. The main courses finally arrived more than 30:minutes later. I order a broiled Captains Platter. It was discracful. There were exactly 3 small sized shrimp, 3 medium scallops and a small paper thin piece of filet of sole. The platter it was served in was almost 25% bare. It only took me a few small bite to eat the filet. For this meal they had the audacity to charge almost $30.i have ALWAYS had trouble devouring my complete meal there in the past, but, this night I went home looking for additional food. The waiter not once came to our table to either see if everything was ok, if we wanted anything else, to remove an otherwise cluttered table and waited until, I asked for our bill and asked my wife if she wanted desert to himself ask if we wanted anything else. This was probably one of my worst dining experiences ever. We actually received better, more friendly service for the car attendant then from the indoor staff.each time we have dined there, the check, before tip averaged around $110- $120. My wife and I will NEVER patronize this restaurant again. Their loss.

Sun Apr 7 I just checked my email and noticed that there was a reply to this review from the restaurant. The email also said that the restaurant has posted “thank you”. I went to the Google review site to see this reply and the restaurant left the reply blank. Basically a slap in my face because this restaurant did not have the common curtesy to at least reply to my complaint. Also, I forgot to mention in the original posting that each time we dined there, I would mention the owners name and my wife would enjoy a glass of wine (due to injuries I received in the military, I cannot consume alcohol). I actually mentioned this to the waiter when he asked for our drink order. He returned several minutes later with a soda and a pitcher of water. I decided not to persue this because I was already becoming agitated at the overall lack of...

It's the 50 year anniversary of Lennys Clam Bar which makes this review very difficult to write. Many of our close friends are from Howard Beach and grew up with this restaurant as a much loved neighborhood staple and "go to" place for excellent Italian food. Not so much anymore... Firstly, just walking in was really strange as there were 3 younger girls behind the counter not paying much attention. Finally after some uncomfortable standing there we finally got noticed and one girl was told to seat us and scrambled to do so. We didn't expect the Taj Majal but this girl seating patrons was wearing a white and blue tye dyed hoodie sweatshirt which just seemed really unprofessional. The decor is dated and the lights were too bright. The tables were uneven, old and wobbly. The man that brought over bread 🍞 had dirty hands and fingernails which was extremely off putting. The waitress came over who was also wearing a hoodie sweatshirt...and gave us the special deal food list much after we had already looked through the menu.. The waitress was polite. We ordered baked clams and Fried Calamari and were discussing what main dish to order. I had an espresso Martini which wasn't served in a Martini glass and didn't seem to have any alcohol in it... The bread was warm but stale. The bruschetta was ok but lacked esthetic appeal. The baked clams were greasy and practically tasteless. The Calamari was ok... but was served on a small plate and was awkward to eat it without it slipping off the plate trying to get a piece... Under the small portion was the typical piece of bread to absorb the oil but we realized that took up most of the plate! The "sweet" marinara dipping sauce tasted too sweet and weird. We decided not to order any entrees after all because we weren't confident they would be any good. We did order dessert which I will say the Tiramisu and Italian ricotta cheesecake were good and we were told they are made on the premises. We had to request whipped cream for the dessert... The presentation of the dishes was poor... Upon every occasion we were trying to get our servers attention she was sitting up by the bar eating... Bizarre... In reading the reviews quite a few people have said similar to what we experienced. We always support local businesses and this review is not to purposely hurt this establishment but in being 100% honest hopefully, someone reads this and steps up the game there so they can stick around for another bountiful and successful 50...

I ordered a combination of scallops,calamari, and shrimp fried with linguini in lennies sweet tomato sauce. They forgot to give me the linguini but gave me the tomato sauce. I had ordered a strawberry daiquiri, which was very good.

I ordered a clams casino appetizer, which was overcooked and rubbery.

The dinner the calamari was too rubbery to eat. I complained about the calamari but complimented the scallops and shrimp. My dish was taken, and finally the pasta was brought with a few addl shrimp.

My son ordered the rack of ribs, which was a large portion and well made. The service was acceptable. My sisters in law My four sister's in laws ordered fish and seafood. One had scallops that were good. Three had fish filets, which were not hot - but tepid with oreganato but with no flavor. All three had yellow rice, which had no flavor whatsoever.

The desserts were competent: Better than the food! My wife ordered a cannoli in which the filling was very fresh and good. i had a tartufo of expresso ice cream served with chocolate syrup, which was really meant for two! An oreo sunday was had by my son which was large. A chocolate cake (very good) chocolate and the cheesecake was okay. The restaurant began to fill up and was very noisy. Noisey is when everyone has to shout to be understood and near headache levels. It was our 40th wedding anniversary, and we were hoping not to have to return items or be disappointed. Overall, my reaction is that the food was competent aside from rubbery calamari. We dined in. They did have a parking lot, which is a boon. Unfortunately the price paid aside from the desserts was not worth it. Next time I'll get the ribs! Since there is no outside and the place has no sound baffles it gets very noisy when it fills up. I'm very disappointed with the lack of care of the rubbery calamari and no serving of pasta although my wife and I were celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary. I see the mgr has responded to my review and I do wish them well. But a clam bar restaurant that serves "tepid (cold fish) and rubbery calamari and clams and forgets to give a pasta side that goes with the ordered dish may need a simpler menu....

Possibly start serving pizza again as...