Martiny’s — Restaurant in New York

I’ve rarely had such obnoxious service. At exactly 7:31, I received a text message about my 7:30 reservation, literally as my car was pulling up. “Hi, this is Martiny's. Will you still be coming to Martiny's tonight? Please reply back to avoid the cancellation seats in 1 minute.”

I replied yes and entered. My guest was already there. She was informed that we had exactly 1.5 hours in which to drink and dine. Why would the host tell this to my guest?

I have dined in time-limited establishments like this before, such as the excellent Sushi Yasuda, and one expects that such precision about timing would be indicative of precision in other areas of the operation. Not here.

We were approached moments later by our waiter, who was being shadowed by another waiter (perhaps he was in training?). He reminded me in tone and bearing of a prison guard. Do we know what we wanted? My guest looked anxiously at her menu, and the waiter said, and I am not joking, “Shut the menu.”

This was not a gentle request. This will forever be an in joke for us because of how hilariously absurd it was to hand someone a menu and moments later demand they not look at it.

He said he would help us select based on what we prefer in our drinks, and apparently getting a chance to look at the menu wouldn’t be necessary. I attempted to explain that I would like to see what they have to offer, but he was insistent.

I indicated that I like savory drinks and so he suggested the literal top drink on the menu. It was a garlic “B&B Gibson” and it tasted like someone had marinated an armpit in bathwater.

I returned the drink, apologizing because I thought perhaps a drink named Gibson would be something like (or within the known universe of) an actual classic Gibson (remember that I did not actually get to see the menu, and I had to go by whatever he mumbled about the content of the drink). Rude Waiter proceeded to start to argue with me that he told me what the drink was. I put my hand up to stop him (not wanting to argue with my waiter in front of my guest…or at all!) and asked for a few minutes to consider my choice, and he vanished.

A different waiter appeared. I asked whether they could make a drink not on the menu. Yes, she said, they could. I asked if they could make a drink called the Gordon’s Breakfast, which is a variation on Sasha Petraske’s favorite drink, the Gordon’s Cup. They clearly did not know who Sasha was, which is interesting, given that the founder of Milk and Honey and many other world famous bars is commonly thought to have begun the classic cocktail renaissance in New York. Not knowing who this is in the cocktail world is sort of like not knowing who Babe Ruth is in baseball.

The waiter did not know the drink, so I pulled it up on my phone to show her the ingredients. She very oddly asked to take my cell phone behind the bar to show the ingredients to the wait staff. This was another first for me. Why not just take a picture or look it up? They took my phone and came back and said they could not make my drink because, and I am serious here, they didn’t have any cucumbers.

If you’ve been to cocktail bars before you will know that cucumbers are an ingredient in many many cocktails. When my rude waiter reappeared, he said, “I’m sorry we couldn’t make your drink. It was too fancy for us.”

He then slithered away, and we were served by someone else for the next half hour before we left, with no explanation of where he had gone.

The food was excellent, but the drinks were unremarkable. At one point a random waiter asked whether we had received all our dishes. We hadn’t. Not only is the service obnoxious, but it is uncoordinated.

I will never be going...

I have been to more than 10 of the top 50 bars across the world. With this staff working during my visit, I am blown away.

This bar shouldn't make anybody's list based on service alone.

Keywords: Hostile, arrogant, snooty, rude, unfriendly, unprofessional, unaccomodating, unorganized, inefficient

Seating: super tall and unfriendly to disabilities Service: hostile and targeting Building: Incredibly small with no justification Food: Unable to rate. Drinks: Unable to rate. Parking: None Accommodations: Hold onto your belongings - they're going to throw your stuff on a pile in the corner. The tables are very small. Staff: Disengaged, lack communication, unfriendly

10DEC2024: Very excitedly in my slacks, blue button up shirt and black tie, I walked in. I was seated at the bar quickly, and was offered to take my bag (the hostess gestured to a pile of coats and purses in a corner). I politely declined (because my very fragile camera equipment would have certainly been broken from being jostled and rolling off that pile). I was warmly greeted by the other guests; who were complete strangers to me. Not greeted by the bartenders, despite their constant staring at me. I ordered a drink, and some guests seated at a table next to me initiated conversation and within a few minutes of standing with them, they invited me to sit with them at their table to keep talking.

A older man in a black blazer immediately asked me to leave on the spot. For "standing and bothering patrons". Before my first $29 drink I ordered was even being prepared.

I was very confused, and the man unjustifiably grabbed my arm and pushed me out the door with the hostess inquisitively looking on. The strangers in the bar protested and saw this behavior as so grotesque, they left as well, said their nights were ruined, and implored me not to let such prejudiced behavior alter my view of other local New Yorkers, and vowed never to return.

Martiny's website says to expect the "intentional and purposeful - from the hospitality," and "welcoming and sophisticated atmosphere." It's shocking to see a 2 year old business in it's infancy so quickly have no adhesion to their core values. If they don't follow their core values, I can't trust their integrity... If they don't have integrity... How can I trust their quality to a drink?

As far as bars on the map. This one may as well not exist. And it certainly doesn't to me or the strangers that witnessed their behavior.

Overstory bar a little ways away was quite...

When I confirmed the reservation, I timely advised that the reservation party would be dropped from 3 to 2 people. When we arrived, the server who checked us in, tried to hold us for a $50 charge and lower our reservation time from an hour and 45 minutes to an hour. I literally had to take my phone out to show proof of the time that I notified of the amendment to the reservation. I've never had to show receipts so that an establishment would not charge me inappropriately.

We were then told there was a $50 pp cap when we were seated and 1 hour and 45 minutes for the reservation. Yes, I knew but it is tacky to do that. You should wait until it is 30 minutes before the end of the reservation to do that if I person only orders one item because it is nearly impossible to stay under $50 there when you can order one drink and one snack at easily reach that mark.

It then took forever to get water, forever to get menus, and especially forever to get the first drinks and our food. The first food items took at least 30 minutes to come out. I finally had to ask where one of the items where because man, we were waiting forever.

We were then notified after some time that we had 30 minutes left for the table. Say what? When that happened, I had to say to the server all of the issues, I got "we only have two people staffing the kitchen" and an apology with an acknowledgement that are working on their staffing issues. Then why are you guys trying to hold the customer accountable without taking accountability for the fact that your delays contribute to their reservation timing our reservation? And why not at least take the food item (35-40 minute wait for chicken) that took the longest off of our bill as a courtesy? When we were speaking to the server, my husband told him that our experience left a really bad taste. Unless they improve greatly on service attentiveness and turning over orders faster, I don't think that I recommend this place and of all of the 50 best bars entries tried, this one was the worst in...