Nubeluz — Restaurant in New York

Beautiful place, but….. [The occasion was a birthday celebration] so as we entered the beautiful hotel, we were greeted by the hostess, they were very nice, we were then guided to the elevators. At the rooftop, there was a line, but moved pretty quickly and we were walked to our table by the hostess. We sat at a beautiful corner table, the views are really impecable. The aesthetics of this place are just plainly beautiful.

Our server was Lisa S. At first, we were 3 our reservation was for 6. We were waiting for our other friends to arrive. She walked us through the drinks menu and told us about the most popular drinks. I think she came about 3 times in a matter of 10 mins to ask if we had decided what we wanted to drink, and I think that was the beginning of our bad service. We wanted to wait for our friends, but felt rushed to get a drink.

We decided to get “Foggy Hills” (pictured) and “Floral Cloud”. In my opinion, Floral Cloud was a better drink. I wasn’t too much of a fan of the Foggy Hills, I like mezcal but I think it was the butter citrusy aftertaste, I wasn’t feeling much. Our friends when they arrived got, “Taken for Granted,” very fruity for my taste, but my friends loved it and the “Salt Air Margarita” very tasty and good. The “Espresso Martini” is a must try!

To get another drink was a hustle, we asked about 3 other servers to get our server, Lisa, and all we kept seeing was her serving other tables and then disappearing and not even checking in. I know we were taking pictures and all, but it doesn’t kill to ask and say if we needed anything, we were there for a birthday. When she would finally come to our table, you can tell from her facial expression, she didn’t like us or something, we were questioning ourselves, why her treatment, she would drop off the drinks and rush off, I tried ordering something for an hour, and when she came back and I finally ordered, she was in a rush to leave, my friend didn’t even get to order her drink and she even took one of my drinks and I wasn’t even done with.

The food was really good and this is why along with the drinks I’m even giving a 3 star review. We had the “lobster roll” and the “tuna roll”, both AMAZING. I tried the “caviar bump,” and it was exquisite and the presentation, so elegant. The “bikini sandwich” was also great and so tasty. Just note that the rolls are not sushi, at first we thought that, but it comes on a bread roll, kind of like a hotdog. The tuna roll was more on the spicy side, too,

To tell you the truth, at some point our server asked us, if we wanted anything else, we said no, but we did not think she would bring us our check. We were going to order more drinks and a desert for our friend to sing Happy Birthday and this is when we had it. We paid, and I will say this, and as a former server myself, I think in Applebees we would had had a better service than with this woman. We did not tip her and she did come back and ask for basically a tip. She came to ask and said tip wasn’t included, and that if there was anything wrong, in which I replied that we weren’t happy and felt rushed and neglected the whole night. She stated that we got everything we wanted and that we were there for over 2 hours and a half. Yes, we eventually got everything we wanted, because we would had anyway, but the way we got the things was not the way.

Hopefully the service gets better. This is one of those places where you can go for drinks and maybe sit at the bar area when you want to spend $30 a drink. We were such in disbelief that she came back. Even another costumer in the elevator complained about the service. It wasn’t even that busy for her to ignore us most of the night. I don’t know if we gave an impression that we were too young and were there for content only, but just like she was on top of her table next to us, smiling and serving, she should of treated us equally. Maybe then, she would of gotten a tip.

I don’t think I’ll be...

Frankly, a pretty disappointing service experience. We booked a table for 3 at 4 pm on a Saturday in mid March. On the day, one of our party was not able to make it, so we duly informed the hostess on check in and took a table for 2. Great views. Another hostess came to see us, and upon us quizzing her on the menu and her recommendations for what to drink, she suggested that she would bring us water and then take our order. This is the last we saw of her - after 20-25 minutes of sitting there, we were happy to enjoy the views, finally we had to call out to another hostess. She did apologize, and said she would take our order, although it should be that she also appeared hurried and somewhat disinterested, just matter of factly, and took our order. It then took another 20 minutes or so for our drinks to arrive (they were lovely!). Not the kind of service we were expecting, but it was a beautiful day and we were having a good time regardless. While we waited for our drinks, the third person in our party called and said they could make it (we had been sending photos of the phenomenal views), we really wanted to share the experience with him as originally planned and so we asked him to come up. We spoke to our hostess to see if we could move to a table with 3 seats or add another to the table we were at - she shook her head and reminded us that there was a 1.5 hour limit on table time. We politely pointed out that it took us more than 40 minutes to be served a drink. We even offered to switch tables with another couple who were leaving shortly and had three seats available - she didn't seem to think that could be done. We requested to speak to the manager, when the situation was explained, was sympathetic but not helpful and simply stated that according to her records, our drink order was taken by 4.24 pm (we came up at 4 pm)...which was accurate, but she did not realize that the drinks were not served until much later. Our friend had arrived at 5 pm, and we would probably have ordered another drink each and left on time or close to 5.30 pm...instead the service staff just made it really hard to have a good experience. We've never really had to deal with a situation like this before - we understand the reasons why the time limit exists (lots of people want to come here and extending table time isn't easy when there are back to back bookings etc.) , but at the same time, the service should be reflective of the location and expected that service staff at a space such as Nubeluz would be dynamic (realizing that perhaps some extra time was ok given that the drink and food order were delayed), polite and customer centric, while still keeping their overall policy in place? Instead, there was a sense that enforcing the table time was the only focus. Our server and others apologized, but said there was nothing they could do. It's worth noting that there were at least 2 or 3 tables free at that time. How difficult would it have been to gracefully allow us to move to the other table noting that table time was precious and courteous to the other people with reservations, serve us another drink after our friend arrived, and if we had overstayed by much over our 1.5 hour limit, politely remind us of that? Staff seem focused on enforcing time limits - customers ?...

I was thoroughly disappointed by my experience here, having had very high hopes. Would NOT recommend. All pomp and no delivery. I was dining as a solo patron, and had made an advance reservation letting them know that it was my birthday (which it genuinely was, and I’ve only just relocated to the city from London, so I booked it expecting a top drawer experience and a birthday treat) and that I’d please like a window reservation, if possible.

Of course, everyone who visits will want that coveted spot, so I did not automatically expect a window seat. However, having made a reservation I did expect A seat of some description. I arrived (on time) to be shepherded to what can only be described as a cattle pen on the periphery of the bar and told to wait until something became available. I was very confused - I’d made an advance reservation, so I thought the whole point was that the host would plan ahead to those people who were arriving. Apparently not.

I arrived shortly before 17:30 and wasn’t seated until 17:57, where I was placed at a non-window table and told that all the window tables were reserved (by quite what method I remain unclear, given I followed the bookings process to the letter). I ordered still water immediately and a cocktail, and the cocktail arrived before the water, which itself took 20 minutes. The cocktail was good, but not standout, and priced at $25, I’d expected a lot more. The service was painfully slow, despite several sequin clad waitresses strutting up and down doing I’m not quite sure what. Being well versed in Michelin starred establishments I expect that places charging these prices are as much about the service as they are the goods. Neither was much to write home about here.

A window table in front of me eventually became available and when I enquired, whilst ordering a second cocktail and assuring the waiter I’d be done within 15 minutes, freeing up the table for other guests, I was told again that it was “already reserved”. I immediately regretted ordering a second drink and giving them more of my money. I finished up and left swiftly.

In summary, unjustifiably up itself, unforgivably slow service, average drinks and an overall atmosphere that makes you feel like you are doing them a favour for spending your money there. Other high end bars in the city (Katherine springs to mind) may not have the view, but far and away better understand the concept of excellent service and curating ambience. Shall not return, nor recommend. I can get the same view from the Empire...