Reception Bar — Restaurant in New York

When you think of the word reception, do you think of a warm welcome at someone’s home, where the hostess takes your coat, inquires how you’ve been and—oh, while she’s in the kitchen—asks whether you need anything to drink? Or do you think of a fabulous party, where all the gussied-up guests are indulging in equally gussied-up gastronomic treats? At the cocktail bar named Reception, you’ll find neither.

Instead, you’ll enter a candy-coated, retro-futuristic space with nary a greeting. On a recent Wednesday night, all four tables were filled with groups of friends in beanies and thick glasses. Even parked on a barstool, I had trouble flagging down one of the two bartenders who seemed to be constantly preoccupied and slightly ticked that I was interrupting them. The downtown bar serves cocktails but touts its Korean-inspired “elixirs”—a nebulous buzzword for non-alcoholic drinks that harbor Gwyneth Paltrow–approved health benefits. We went to see if these stone-cold-sober options could cure our winter blues.

They couldn’t.

Out of the five elixirs, four are indistinguishable from chilled, off-brand seltzers. The exception is Aphrodite’s Milk: As a libation intended to “increase libido,” it’s appropriately thick and nutty, mixed with egg white and black sesame. However, the Skinny Shroom (“aids in the breakdown of fat”) with sparkling buckwheat, shimeji mushroom shrub and quince honey is thin on flavor, and Queen Min’s Botanics (“balances hormones”) with white lotus, ginseng honey, sparkling jasmine and egg white, is insipid by any other name.

It’s the type of bland reception that makes you want to go back on the bottle.

BY: ALYSON PENN POSTED: WEDNESDAY...

This place was on my list of bars to go to. Was able to visit here with a group of friends last night. This one star is heavily due to the terrible service we received. While the bar closed at 10, we arrived at 9:10 which included of plenty of time still to stay. The lady was nice at first in greeting us and told us we were allowed 2 rounds given the time and that she’ll come back later . Then she left and never came back. By 9:35, we went in to let her know we’ve been ready to order. She then proceeds us to rush us to order and became snarky and rude. Menu stated that a 20% gratuity fee would be automatically added for groups over a certain number, which was applicable to us. She told us it does not include tip which also makes this confusing. Once we were done drinking, it was around 10 and she rushed our table to leave by throwing us the check before we were ready even though there were plenty of tables around us still enjoying their time and have been there earlier than us. The nice atmosphere and interesting drinks are not worth encountering this rude...

I’ve always liked Reception bc (1)Asian-owned (2)nice drinks (3)good location, easy to get to, but my recent experience completely killed my vibe.. It happened like this..

Saturday night, me and 2 homies went into Reception wanting to grab a drink bc we all like this spot, only to find out it was packed inside, the host told us wait time was around 30-ish minutes (I can’t remember the exact time) which was disappointing but unsurprising. As we were about to exit, the host said to us, in a thick British accent, “Yeah try another area if you want a seat. Dime’s Square is not the place to be on a Saturday night!”

Such a vibe-killlll! Might still be returning but kind of hate that host. Please don’t be condescending and please don’t use the term “Dime’s Square” if you’re not being sarcastic lol it’s simply so cringe. And we did manage to find a table in another wine bar in the area in 10 minutes.. this is really just me hating on the host and doesn’t have much to do with the actual bar! Maybe it’s a part of the experience of being in...