Sartiano's — Restaurant in New York

Don't come here! Discriminatory dress code alert!

Two friends (a couple), my wife and I came here on a whim on Labor Day, as many Manhattan restaurants are closed that day. We were immediately told that there is a strict dress code of long pants and no sports wear. We thus wouldn't be allowed to sit downstairs since we were wearing shorts in the 94 degree weather. We were instead seated upstairs on a completely vacant floor and shortly after, given a small menu. I kid you not, two out of the six food items listed were a bowl of granola and cacio e pepe. It didn't take us long to figure out that this wasn't the full menu. However, since it was one of the hottest days of the year and we were tired from our walk over, we ordered drinks and tried to make do.

A few minutes later, we saw a woman go downstairs to the main dining floor wearing bum shorts. As in, cheeks hanging out, barely covering anything, bum shorts. When we asked why she was allowed to go downstairs and we weren't, the staff "clarified" the dress code only applies to men. This bum shorts customer was therefore allowed to go downstairs, but not our well dressed male friend wearing knee-length shorts. Shortly after, we saw a guy go downstairs wearing...shorts! So we asked about the dress code again, and were then told that male guests of the adjoining hotel are allowed to wear shorts. In any case, they said, maybe that guy went down to use the only toilet available on the first two floors. 20 minutes later, we had our drinks, but the waitress was nowhere to be found. During that time, we witnessed a male customer go (and stay) downstairs while wearing a grease-stained shirt and sports shoes, another male customer wearing shorts, and many more bum shorts.

Finally, one of the staff saw our frustration and called over the maître d', who was supposedly in charge of the dress code enforcement. He was neither helpful nor clarified anything, and became quite combative as we tried to figure out why the dress code was being applied so randomly. He then called over the food and drinks manager. My wife finally asked a question that was on our mind, but one we withheld until then - were we treated differently because all four of us were nonwhite? Everyone we saw go downstairs with a dress code violation was white. Meanwhile, the four of us were well dressed; my wife and I even had a few designer pieces on. Of course, the food and drinks manager said the restaurant does not discriminate and he comped our drinks. Since our waitress had disappeared for nearly 45 minutes, we didn't get to order off of the granola menu and left before eating.

Needless to say, going to Sartiano's was a complete waste of time and quite frustrating. Dress codes can be covertly racist and sexist. "No sportswear" is often applied unfairly to Black people. And what if a nonbinary person walked into the restaurant? Would they have to follow the "male" or "female" rules? Sartiano's had the worst of all dress code scenarios by being super inconsistent, not having anything written down and displayed, and effectively segregating menu availability, thus having us question if we were being discriminated against.

It was even more disappointing considering that Mercer Kitchen, the restaurant that used to be located in this building, was one of my wife's and my favorite restaurants. I had a lot of great memories at Mercer Kitchen, and it's sad to see Sartiano's take over such an...

Sadly there is nothing special here. Just a mediocre restaurant with mediocre food and not a very warm inviting place. IF YOU LOVE SALT THIS PLACE IS FOR YOU. I have never drunk so much water to overcome the saltiness of the food here. It’s obviously they master NaCl !!! The steak was ok. The borderlaise sauce which they charge 5 dollars for was inedible. Luckily I poured some on a plate to taste it. The color was wrong and the taste was more saline than anything else. Ketchup might might have been better! Plus the bordelaise was the only sauce they offered-SAD! I won’t even discuss the Caesar salad but what a disappointment. They would have been better off if they bought a bottled dressing. I had to ask for pepper but it didn’t help this tower of lettuce. Now the one thing that was good was their take on lasagna. You receive a bowl of meat and sauce and then a pan of lasagna noodles with cheese etc. It salvaged the meal but it wasn’t superb. The dessert with pecans was like a reconstructioned bread pudding good but not stellar. Well, that is what I will conclude with is that there is nothing stellar here. If you are into hotel restaurants, there are far better ones in MANHATTAN. Oh I left out the mystery of mysteries here/ the UMAMI martini. If you are into salt which is the main theme here, I still wouldn’t order it. The teaspoon of caviar in its presentation is REDUNDANT. Our waiter from Maine was jovial. The restrooms are poorly planned and needed refreshing. The door in the disabled restroom hit me in the butt while I was washing my hands. We had to stop for bottled water to flush out the salt!

By the way I did my homework. I ASKED in the restroom and even other workers have other guests said anything about the mastery of salt here. Believe me, WE WERENT ALONE IN OUR ASSESSMENT.

One wonders what the comments were when they tested the menu here.

I was puzzled by where they stored China and glassware.

You can observe the kitchen. It speaks volumes.

I wanted this place to be fabulous. I love the MERCER.

Oh caviar on...

What was supposed to be a beautiful day visiting my friend in SOHO and enjoying all the holiday festivities would end in disappointment. It’s a day later and I’m still unsettled with the service we were provided. Im not sure if my Christian cross or something else about my guest and I rubbed our waiter the wrong way, but it was clear we were receiving discriminatory service, especially noting the server pointing us out to the bartender, which triggered a look from her. I wasn’t shocked to read the overwhelming reviews mentioning similar service. I’m actually settled knowing it wasn’t just me. I thought maybe I was crazy and overthinking. I couldn’t understand it because we were very kind to our server. Anyways, three other tables were served drinks before us, all three having complex drinks outside of a wine pour. All three tables had been seated after us, two of the three tables, more than five minutes after. After waiting longer, and finally asking where THE glass of wine was, we receive a snide smile. Making matters worse, the glass of wine was served with cork pieces inside the glass. Mind you, each glass of wine comes with a hefty price. Delicious wine and certainly worth it, but I’ll skip the side of cork and sarcasm and I prefer my wine not to come when my dinner comes. I expect this kind of service in an Applebees, certainly not in this beautiful establishment. When we are ready to pay, the gentlemen does not bring a paper check like he does the other tables, (noted this because we were asked to wait a few times while he pointed out the checks he needed to drop at other tables when we were waiting to order) but brings a machine prompting us to tip in front of him as if we wouldn’t have tipped him. Again, he was unaware of my dismay. Not only have I owners restaurants, but I have lived and breathed the hospitality industry for most of my life. Reluctantly, I would always tip a server even when service is disappointing.

Very disappointed and I feel incredibly discriminated against. There was zero reason for...