Reef Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in New York

Reef is in my neighborhood, and I've been a few times. This time, I went for my birthday. But on the way, I was passing by the TGIF attached to the target on Austin, and I joked to my wife that TGIF would have been my third choice after another restaurant and Reef. After my experience with Reef tonight, I would sooner go to TGIF than Reef again.

First things first, the hostess was a sweetheart, and didn't impact our experience one way or another. Honestly, this is the first meal I've ever considered sending back and just paying for drinks and leaving, but she was so obviously nervous, and kind, so I didn't want to have her bare the brunt of my dissatisfaction.

Firstly, We were ignored by the waiter for 25 minutes, and or drink order took even longer. I know there was table bread, as we had gotten last time, but none was offered this time. Another table did get table bread, which maybe would've made waiting so long less torturous.

Once the waiter remembered we existed, we immediately gave him the entire order, Baked Clams, Sea Bass, and the Salmon. We ordered the mango mojito and the aperol spritz to drink. The drinks took 15 more minutes, while I'm starving and guzzling water just to take the pangs off.

After 25 more minutes, I counted no less than 3 tables that were sat after us being served their apps and entrees before us. Eventually I gestured to the waiter and the table, showing that it was empty, and he ran downstairs to run us our obviously forgotten on the hot plate baked clams. I've not had restaurant breadcrumbs so dry. It had to be on the heat lamp for upwards of 10 minutes. When he delivered it, he didn't say a single word in apology or even acknowledgement. They were not good. I let it go because it's my birthday and I want a good night, not a bad one.

Then came the entrees. The sea bass was overcooked, mushy, unseasoned. The capers on the fish were bland, like whatever they were packed provided no flavor. The plating was also just not good. Cherry tomatoes, sub-fridge temperature, thrown onto my hot fish. That wasn't intentional, it was just sloppy.

My "grilled" vegetables that I specifically ordered to get some variety from my wife's lemon potatoes, we're similarly awful. They were hacked into giant pieces, barely charred, and barely cooked. Not only that, the eggplant slice, more like a chunk, was pre-cut hours before and had dried out prior to grilling. I could tell because it had that telltale grey discoloration and was tough. Also, my single stalk of broccoli was not cooked, and was still fridge-cold. I couldn't bring myself to finish my meal.

My wife's Salmon was at best, wedding reception quality. It was dry and bland. The only good part of either of our meals are the lemon potatoes. And when the meal's high point is literally the world's most forgiving starch, you know you've lost the plot.

In the hopes of rescuing my night, I followed my merely okay mojito with their fallen angel bourbon and cynar cocktail. It was excellent. Only above average things I had.

I wanted to celebrate my birthday, I wanted to finish the night with shots of sambuca and frangelico with my wife. But after the time they wasted, and the slop they served me, which would've been overpriced had it been good, I couldn't bring myself to spend more time or money in there.

We are on Austin Street, there are 15 excellent eateries within three blocks. I have never had the disappointment with a restaurant I thought was pretty good that I've had with this restaurant. Go to Pierre's, Go to Narita, Go to white radish, go to Agora....

On Wednesday, August 25, 2021, my in laws and I came in to celebrate my Aunt-In-Law's birthday. This was huge because my very reserved aunt was allowing us to celebrate her birthday in a big way this year. She requested seafood so we chose to come to this restaurant. We were seated inside. Upon us being seated, we noticed that there was a dog inside the restaurant accompanying their owner about 2 tables away from us. We waited a long time for our server to come and take our drink orders. Shortly after that, my mother in law noticed a smell. The dog owner and their guest seemed to be leaving. We looked around and noticed that the dog had urinated on the floor. The owner wiped up the urine with the table napkin and returned said napkin to the table top and seemingly left. We were appalled. It took a significant amount of time and a complaint, that was not well received from my mother-in-law, for someone to come and mop up the floor and clear off the table of the urine soaked napkins. My mother in law was so sick due to the smell she had to step outside to get some air. She noticed that the dog, owner and the guest were seated outside. No one addressed that we were all sitting there, smelling urine and attempting to eat our dinner. There was a blatant disregard for our dining experience. I would like to believe that our ethnicity did not contribute but unfortunately, I am concerned that it did. No one apologized to us for this disgusting experience. There was no consequence for the dog owner and her inappropriate behavior. This entire experience was disgusting. We finished our dinner and tried to make the best of the evening for my aunt-in-law but I would not expect to have an experience like the one above at a restaurant on Austin Street. Extremely disappointed. I would not recommend this...

I have been coming to this restaurant for years, since it opened period I come on a daily basis, and sometimes even for brunch on the weekends Today I was treated so horribly by the waitress in the afternoon that I do not want to come back and I do not want my friends to come back either and we are thinking about i I came to eat, and I was with my puppy that everybody knows and loves, and there were other puppies there. I was asking her for half an hour to bring my dog a bowl of water. When she didn’t, I just took a glass of and poured him water because he was thirsty and it was hot.. Once she saw that she took the cup through the water out and called me disgusting and inappropriate. She yelled at me so loudly that everybody outside stopped their food and actually tuned in to the way she was yelling at me. This causes other Customer to yell at me too I said to her OK, so bring me another bowl of water for the dog Says the dog is not a priority and she doesn’t care. Then, instead of serving me my food, she brings me my food and it’s a go bag and tell me to leave. I am never going back to that restaurant if she works there ever!!! She humiliated me, and she embarrassed me in front of everyone everyone. I even asked her for a bread basket and she looked at me and said I am busy can’t you see? She is overwhelmed. How dare she throw out dedicated and loyal customer? As long as she is there I will never come back and neither will the friends that are also dedicated customers. Also, her very loud voice she was telling everybody what was going on? She has no right to do this. Why did I have to go through this harassment and this abuse by...