Mr Chow — Restaurant in New York

I took my daughter to Mr. Chow for what I hoped would be a lighthearted, special summer girly outing. FWIW, we've lived in the neighborhood longer than the restaurant has been around, and while I’d always thought of it as more of a flashy scene than a great meal, I figured it was finally time to see for myself what the fuss was about. I decided to give it a try, so I made a dinner reservation on the early side to keep things light. We dressed appropriately for a fine dining experience and showed up on time. We were greeted by warm hosts, but unfortunately, our table service was rude and dismissive from the moment we sat down. I ordered a large bottle of Pellegrino and an appetizer for myself, but before my daughter, who is high school aged and very poised, had a chance to speak, the waiter interrupted to inform us there was a per-person minimum. It was so coarse, abrupt and presumptuous - quite the opposite of what exemplary hospitality looks and feels like. It stopped me in my tracks - I simply and calmly responded, “Perhaps you should ask my daughter what she plans to order.” When my daughter placed her order, the waiter told her she probably wouldn’t like the dish and suggested she order something else instead. My daughter is a native New Yorker, well-versed in dining out across a range of restaurants, and she knows what she likes. But the waiter was so insistent, and the tone he set was already so off, that she changed her order and followed his suggestion just to keep things moving. This interaction felt abrupt and condescending, and the tone set by the waiter was unwelcoming for the rest of the meal. The waiter definitely sized us up wrong. He made an inaccurate judgment about us and made us feel that we didn't belong in the restaurant, or didn’t deserve respectful service. Service never improved, and the food itself was (as I expected) entirely mediocre. The dish my daughter ordered was over-sauced and quite heavy in comparison to the dish she originally wanted to order. I came in with modest expectations for the food, hoping the experience would be posh, indulgent, retro-disco and would make up for it. Clearly, it did not. Despite how poorly we were treated, I still left a full tip out of principle. But the reality is this: for a restaurant that trades on glamour and reputation, the lack of graciousness, warmth, and basic hospitality is inexcusable. Obvi, I won’t be returning to Mr. Chow, and I would not recommend it. If I could give zero stars, I would. There are far better places in the neighborhood to spend your dining dollars—places where the food is memorable, the service is gracious, and the experience feels genuinely worthwhile. Alternatives in easy walking distance like Tamarind, L’Abeille, Fouquet’s, or Scalini Fedeli all offer excellent food and truly professional service. Honestly, even a visit to Shake Shack in Battery Park City feels warmer and more welcoming—at least there, the staff...

Where to start here…. Mr Chow was recommended to me by a dear chinese chef friend claiming the food was tasty. Little I knew I was stepping in a fake high end restaurant (I am French and know what true high end restaurants are). To start, they will served us water from a plastic bottle Fiji water for 10usd. We were a party of 3. We ordered to share, after a very confusing intro by the waiter, a very disappointed satay chicken that came with a cream sauce? Did not taste like peanut but only heavy cream on sauteed chicken. Horrible but arrived very fast. Then the wall nut shrimps which are just shrimps in condensed milk + candied wall nuts were obviously way too sweet. Shumais were ok but not memorable. The best part are the side dishes. Advertised as 11 usd (but per person!) so if you get one portion and there is 3 people, you get one tiny portion for 3 at 33 USD of mix veggies straight from the Trader Joe’s frozen section! Disgusting watery flavor. Same for the rice and so on. When you cannot make good veggies, you failed as a restaurant. But when you are over charging your customer for something that bad and blank…. You are a scam. The overall ambiance was random, with music issues apparently, sound was cutting off all the time. The best part was the green tea ice cream. It was very good and justifies my 2 stars review. But even that was ruined by the waiter who took the plate away from us before we even finished it and without asking! In a city full of amazing Chinese restaurants and / or great small chef pop ups, don’t waste your money there. You deserve better. We will of course...

Ate here last night, the experience was far from our first experience, so the place must be struggling to provide an outstanding experience for their diners. The server began with telling us we did not order "enough" food and must order another main course. When I questioned that strange comment, he pointed out to me in his pretentious voice that there is a $60/person minimum! I said, we are well over that with our drinks. He insisted we must order more. 10 minutes later, he comes back, interrupts our conversations and said.."You did hit the minimum, you don't need to order that last item". I am like...really, you are still pestering me about how much to order? Well, the food arrives, and only two items were worth the ~$55 per entree...the fillet and the chicken satay. The Mr Chow Noodles had like one teaspoon of sauce on noodles, the scallion pancakes were just weird..small mushy globs (all stuck together), strange tasting things, again with no dipping sauces. The Beijing Chicken, were dry little nuggets with no sauce (could have had better at McDonalds). There were four people, we got out of there for $573 ($143 per person). I guess the waiter guy was happy he pushed all that food on us. BTW, did we eat all the food? No, it was not good and it was too much for us. There are so many good restaurants in NYC..I would recommend anywhere else..but not here. Very over rated, very pretentious and not good food...