STATE Grill and Bar — Restaurant in New York

I was given tickets to this place and kept putting off going. But finally decided to give it a try before the expiration date on the tickets.

My co-worker and I got there about 45 minutes before our reservation after work on Tuesday evening. They seated us right away and had no issue with us arriving before schedule.

The prefixe menu was slightly different from the regular menu, but that's to be expected. I had read previous reviews and some said the place was great while others said the place was horrible. I read that someone else had gotten the prefixe and ordered the steak so I was really looking forward to a steak. However, that was not a choice on the menu. So I settled for the one of the other two beef choices which was short ribs. I also ordered the seafood chowder. My friend ordered chicken milanese and her soup choice was a garden vegetable soup. For dessert she chose the 7 layer blackout and I chose the ice cream trio. We were offered the choice of still,sparkling or tap water. We chose still.

Food- Short ribs- although boneless & tender, very small, one piece with a lot of fat served over a small portion of mashed potato, two carrots and chipolini onions that were undercooked. The whole dish was very bland and lacked salt. Did the chef forget that salt brings out the flavor of dishes?

Seafood chowder- it had pieces of salmon, cubed potaoes, pieces of shrimp and bacon in a creamy broth. Do they call that seafood? And who puts salmon in soup? I guess since two of their dishes on the menu are salmon they use it more ways. The shrimp were a tad under for my taste.

Chicken milanese- Although it was a huge portion it had no flavor at all. Again lacking salt and this type of dish if there was salt available on the table wouldn't do it any justice after being fried. Salad was nice. But to me not a complete meal.

Bread- no bread basket placed on table. Instead they come around and offer you one piece from a choice of salted baguette, cranberry roll, or sourdough. All of which are hard slightly warmed and hard to cut into.

Seven layer cake- just ok nothing spectacular same goes for the ice cream. The three flavors were chocolate, vanilla and malted. I didn't care for the malted.

With this meal you had a choice of coffee, tea or soda. Since we chose water my friend had coffee we weren't expecting a check for the water. I've never been charged for still water. It was $6.53

Service was ok, the server did come check on us once. I did notice he was a bit more friendlier to a group who was ordering from the regular menu. We looked at the regular menu and noticed there were a few things on there that seemed good. I wouldn't go back. Their food is bland and there are many other places to eat in the city.

I won't tell the person who gifted me the tickets. He paid $55 per person and I kind of feel bad that it...

Went here because we saw an advertisement from the Empire State building that said prefix for $60. When we got there we had to ask for a pre fix menu. There was NoNe so host had to explain what's included and what's not along with all the extra pricing. When we asked her price she said $69. Then when we said we thought it was $60 she asked her manager and confirmed it was $69. Anyway we ordered the Penne pasta for my child along with chicken fingers and fries. When her food came out they set it down thinking she will eat it. I then looked at her kids menu and said i thought we ordered Penne this is not Penne it's elbow pasta. Server said they didn't have it so they give her that. I'm sure this would have been okay with other kids but for my child she is very picky and particular with the texture of food. Also when we asked for BBQ sauce or honey mustard for chicken tenders there was NoNE in existence. It was completely foreign. It was like they never heard of condiments. Also when my husbands filet arrived it was cold and burnt! How can they serve burnt steak cold... are we talking about the empire state building serving cold burnt steak. Anyways they took it away. Waited another 20 to 25 minutes for steak to come out. A lady brought it out and apologized for long wait. This time steak had way too much BLACK Pepper that overpowered the steak. My husband just ate it because NO ONE including the server or manger came out to check on us to see if it was better. Then after we were done. The lady brings desert. I reached out to her and asked if she was the manager. Come to find out yes she is. I told her the issues and she apologize and said she's is happy to know of these issues. She also comps the Penne pasta kids meal which is Not suppose to be elbow pasta. I asked her about the promo upstairs she said she did not know and was a bit confused but after I told her we were going to empire state building and I will take a picture and come show her she said she will charge honor the price. When the bill came out I was in the restroom and the bill came out for some other amount it wasn't suppose to so she asked her if she could bull A LA Carte for the Ceasar & cheesecake. All in all it wasn't an A plus fine dining experience especially being at a place like the Empire State Building and a STEAKHOUSE. There should have been a manager at a table the first instance something goes wrong. One should not ask are you the manager. Honestly one of the worst experiences I have had a a fine dining establishment. It was a let down for a...

Wow... mind blowing dinner. The atmosphere in the restaurant is classic sophisticated. I could imagine Sinatra eating there back in his day. Lighting was dim, but absolutely wonderful. There was wven little lamps on each table that gave off light that had the same brightness as a candlelight dinner. We ordered the calamari and the texture of it was perfect (not extra chewy like I am used to). The coating on it is even better. Seriously, I would order just a bowl of that and be happy. The peppers were also cooked in the same coating and they gave just a tad bit of heat. So, be careful, you might expect to bite into a peice of calamari, but actually bite a pepper. For dinner I ordered swordfish with the risotto. The risotto was al dente, maybe even a little less than that. I still enjoyed it. The swordfish was incredible, and definitely fresh. The aroma was fresh off the grill. My dinner companion ordered the salmon which was also clearly fresh. Like... "eating next to a river in Alaska" fresh. For desert, we shared the limoncello and blueberry tart. The tart portion was creamier than any tart I ever had and the blueberry sauce was fermented for a week (I know, sounds like it would be rough... it was not). The blueberries themselves tasted fresh from the farm. For drinks, we ordered Manhattans because... we were in Manhattan. I know, "touristy". You'd be correct. Whatever. It was amazing. Then we had old fashioneds. Super. Nuff said. The service was extraordinary. When something we ordered was brought to te table, we were given a rundown of what went into each dish. The staff gave a sense of genuine pride in the restaurant and it thriving as a business. Hard not to be extremely impressed by...