Medi Wine Bar & Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

I planned to host a private event at Medi this past weekend (my sisters bridal shower) and talked to the owner, Dorian, about using their private space downstairs. The space was perfect for our needs given we needed a private area where our guests could walk around and mingle so they did not bother the other patrons. The owner agreed to let us host the party in his basement, according to him it was the right time given it was June and warming up outside. He said he could use the patio for any overfill from their main dining room.

A week prior to the event I confirmed the headcount and had to follow up a number of times to have the contract reflect the new headcount. On Friday afternoon before my event I decided to call the restaurant to see if we could come in to decorate/set up and a woman named Bella asked what we wanted to set up for because according to her, we couldnt come more than 15 minutes prior to the party. Now if any of you have hosted a prvate event, specifically a bridal shower, you should know there are lots of logistics that come along with the party such as decorations, arranging the tables, display of gifts, etc… the fact that she only allowed us to come in 15 mintues prior to the party really surprised me.

I asked to speak to Dorian and was told he was traveling overseas and unreachable. Bella also stated that she did not want us to "disturb the other diners that woudl be in the room". I was floored when I learned that they decided to use our agreed to private dining space in the basement for overflow. We had a contract that specifically stated this would be a "private dining event" and this action was a breach of our contract. When I asked what changed she said that if we wanted to rent the whole room it would now be $3K. Since that was much more than even the max occupancy * price per person (60 people x $30 pp) I knew that wouldnt work for us but given the shower was to take place the next day I asked if we could compromise and have 1/2 the room.

Bella rudely ansered no, that we would get a table in the back corner and that was the best they could do. When I asked her what I could do with the gifts people would be bring and how we would conduct the shower games, she was very rude and curt and just said that "we would get that corner and there would be no room for mingling." I was desperate on a friday afternoon before the party to make things work so I asked how we could compromise and she just countered back that there was no compromise and the only thing they could give us was the corner table. She then left for the day not looking for a way to settle this. This left me scrambling for a new place just hours before hosting the shower for 25 people.

I normally don't take the time to write negative reviews if I get mediocre service or a bad dish, but I am seriously seeking legal options due to this btch Bella. I would definitely NOT recommend any one dine here or be associated with the type of people who runs this establishment. It's one thing to be rude at a table or serve a mediocre dish, it's entirely another thing to breach a contract the day before an event and try to extort a customer out of more money. My experience with Bella alone has left a terrible taste in my mouth. She has no customer service skills and was a complete btch to deal with. I stumbled upon this place from a referral… but I hope me sharing my experience will make anyone looking to host an event here or dining here...

I rarely leave reviews for my neighborhood restaurants but this one really shocked me! Last time I went in 2015 and it was a good experience but today it was so horrible! We waited one hour after placing the order and nothing came (about 220PM that time) and we went to ask how much longer we should wait, we were told "sorry but the kitchen is busy we are understaffed. nothing we can do but wait. yelling at me won't help". But clearly other tables who arrived later got their food served first. Then after 90mins of waiting, the appetizers came (3 tiny appetizers for 6 starving people). The portions were so small and it was beyond our imagination how such a tiny greek salad could have taken 90 minutes. And when we tried to get an estimate of how much more time for the main courses, and mentioned 90 minutes wait, the server showed us the order detail and corrected us it has only been 85 minutes. How absurd! Then finally at almost 3PM, 2 hours after we got in, we got our main courses which were all less than stellar. The dishes did not come the way we asked. For example, we wanted an omelet with egg white and no cheese and we got exactly regular omelet with cheese. But we settled with that because no one could afford another 2 hour wait. I am willing to assume that the food would have been better if it had not been such a busy time (yes 3PM) for them. This is in addition to a 60 minutes wait to get our drinks and numerous times of getting our drink orders incorrectly. In the end, the manger only apologized and only gave us 20% off the bill after we had to ask for it. Zero sincerity to make things right. This service is just unacceptable. This shows the restaurant is extremely poorly managed and has zero capability to handle exceptions to say the least. Our afternoon was ruined completely by this experience. My recommendation is for this restaurant to learn from China, where the restaurants do not charge for food that comes later than 20 minutes...

The below is my positive review from over a year ago. Very sad to come back here to edit this review now, especially after all the business we've given them and Giardino 54, as well as recommendations we've made to others to go to these restaurants.

But today, five of us had a reservation. Five locals, all who work and live in the area and enjoy supporting the businesses around us. We had a gift certificate directly from the restaurant to utilize, and the manager spent 20 minutes going back and forth saying he would not take it, despite it clearly showing it came directly from the restaurant, calling his higher up, talking with us, and not accepting it no matter what. No people skills, no warmth, not right in this role at all. Truly a shame to have such an unfortunate experience after so many visits over the years, including our entire rehearsal dinner. We've been away for a number of months, and this is what we came back to. Very disappointed and won't be recommending or returning again. They've now lost multiple customers over something that could have been fixed. Perhaps that is why the restaurant was so empty today as well...

Many times to bar and table service over the years, and we had our rehearsal dinner in the lower level space. Great...