Lodi — Restaurant in New York

Mediocre food and subpar service.

I was very dubious when I saw this place on this years NYT 100 best restaurants list, given its 3.6 stars on Google. But I'd resolved to hit up all 100 of these restaurants and so I wanted to experience Lodi for myself.

The hostess was lovely and courteous but it all went downhill from there. I was seated promptly after checking in with my reservation, and then for almost 20 mins I was ignored by my waitress while the three tables around me had their orders taken - two of which had people who were seated after I arrived.

The table to the right of me wanted to wine and the waitress talked to them a bit about the wine and made recommendations. She then personally brought them a sample of the wine they decided on to try. When she finally go around to me, I also ordered wine but she was very short with me and didn't bring me the wine herself or let me try it. Someone else dropped my wine glass at my table and left.

Honestly, I couldn't figure out why I was ignored and then iced out by the waitress. I was dressed well (I think, attaching a picture to show that I wasn't a mess or anything), and just sat there sipping my water waiting to order. The only thing I can think of is that I was definitely at least 10 years younger than all the patrons around me and the only non-white presenting person. I have healthy, long history of writing Google reviews and this is the first time I think I've ever mentioned race or age being a factor in a negative service experience.

I ordered the rainbow trout which I was pleased to see was a whole fish and not just a fillet! I love a whole fish. The sauce + capers that came with the fish was delicious!! Unfortunately it was not cleanly deboned. I would say it was 95% deboned which was just enough to lull me into a sense of security resulting in swallowing a few mouthfuls of fish bone - ow.

The verdure side I ordered was absolutely flavorless and I couldn't finish it, even after I poured some of the sauce from the fish on it.

The overall decor was fine. Their AC isn't great even in the innermost part of the restaurant, and the enclosed patio is very very warm in the summer. The tables are pretty crowded together and it felt like I was part of both conversations to either side of me as there was only about a foot and a half of space between the tables.

I don't know if the owner is connected to the NYT restaurant review committee or something but I'm truly baffled as to how it possibly wound up on that list. I've tried between 30 - 40 of the other restaurants on that list and this was the only one that left me disappointed. (I went and got a second meal in...

if i could give them a zero i would. the rudest people i’ve met and it was more than just one employee. i had a reservation at 9:15 and it was my fault that i made it for the wrong number and i am aware of that (that doesn’t couple mean they didn’t have to be as rude as they were) they opened at 8, i tried to call right away to see if i could add one more person to the reservation, and they didn’t answer, which honestly i didn’t expect them to. i was down a couple buildings so i walked down to their “front door” ( a little built on outdoor seating portion) and i saw all the 8:00 reservations walk in ( about 4 groups) and walked to the end of that line going to the door and the man opened the door and asked me if i had a reservation and i said “yes at 9:15” and was planning on continuing with “but i had a question about my reservation” but i couldn’t even get that out because he cut me off and said “then come back at that time” and slammed the door closed in my face. i made him open the door again and said i had a question about my reservation and told him my question. he said he would ask someone to come to the door that i could ask (still not the least but pleasant). i waited outside for him to bring someone and he did and opened the door and asked me to come over where there was some lady he brought over. she asked me if i had a reservation and i said “yes at 9:15” and was planning on asking her my question, but once again she cut me off and very rudely said “well why don’t you come back at that time” i waited a second to see if she was going to cut me off and continued with my question which surprisingly she didn’t cut me off during, which after she said no, and i said okay that’s all i needed thanks and left. honestly, i didn’t even go back for my reservation i left so belittled and talked down to i never wanted to see those people again. i’ve been to nyc multiple times, and even though the city is known for their rude people and i have encountered my fair share of rude individuals, these people take the cake. i would never recommend this place to anyone. if they want to excuse it to stress from just opening, then they just flat out need to learn stress better because they only had about 4 groups of people inside anyway and with their location i would think they would be good with dealing with lots of people....

We had late lunch today 11/09/2024 and left very very disappointed and disgusted from the treatment we received. We were a party of 5 adults, who dine out very frequently. The atmosphere and location of the restaurant were great. We had ordered cocktails and 5 entrees. Our waitress asked if we wanted a basket of bread (never mentioned a fee for the bread). Out waitress was not friendly and seemed distracted as well as frustrated. We ate our basket of bread and asked for another.

Our entrees came out and I will say the Pollo Milanese was paper thin (tasted like processed fake chicken) it came with a bean salad (I got a whole 10 beans). Then the pasta dishes were so small. At the time, our waitress was never to be seen again. She never mentioned anything and never came back. Then a woman came over and started to take over our table (never even told us her name). One of the bus boys cleared our drinks but he took my cousins’s drink that was still a quarter full.

We got our bill and was shocked to see a $20.00 fee for bread. We stated our disgust to the so called waitress and she gave us a bill without the bread fee. She then came back to run our credit card and at the time she stated, “here is your original bill because our manager (Yebbie) stated to her we need to pay for the bread. I have a huge problem with this, it’s like they were playing games with us. Yebbie who was supposedly the Manager never approached our table. I have never experienced that before. My husband and I are business owners and if I found out my manager was hiding in the back, they would be immediately terminated. To me that’s horrible customer service. Then to make matters worse, as the woman was running our credit cards, there was a group of staff (5 men) who were steering us down and talking about us. Another no no! I hope the owner sees this review and ret-trains his/her staff to ensure every customers receives great customers and are happy walking out those doors. I will ever offer to help with...