Sweet & Savory Caribbean Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in New York

Sweet and Savory: Where Dreams (and Patience) Go to Die

If you’re looking for a brunch spot where you can starve slowly and reflect deeply on all your life choices, Sweet and Savory is your Mecca.

On 4/27/25, my friend and I — two loyal brunch warriors dedicated to supporting local businesses — made a reservation here after she spotted it on a leisurely walk. Hopeful. Innocent. Clueless.

We arrive to a half-empty restaurant (table of 7 here, 3 ladies brunching there) and are greeted by a server who cheerfully tells us, “Sit anywhere, I’ll be right with you!” Spoiler alert: she would, in fact, NOT be right with us. Or even vaguely near us. Or even acknowledge that we existed on the same planet.

We sat. And sat. And sat some more. The ladies next to us sipped cocktails and cackled while we swallowed our own spit, waiting for a single molecule of water. One. Full. Hour. At this point, the neighboring table even took pity on us and promised to flag the server down if they could make eye contact first — like some twisted, Hunger Games-style brunch survival pact.

Finally, after 60 minutes of being treated like furniture, the server sashays by, giggling with her VIPs, and my friend literally has to tell me to “fix my face” because I was livid and my face said it all.

When she finally remembered we were there, her actual words were: "Oh, I forgot about y’all." Like she misplaced a pen.

Now, I get it — she was the only server. But in a restaurant with literally 12 people total (including us), this was less a staffing issue and felt more like a "could not possibly care less" issue.

We ask for water and drinks. 30 minutes later, we receive... water. Only slightly faster than glacial melt. We order food. I naively ask for oxtail and mac, but am warned it’s a “small dish" — as in "you’ll need a magnifying glass to see it" small. Wings? "Small too." Is this a tapas bar? No? Then why are you serving three wings like it’s an exhibit at the Louvre?

Fine, I order a burger because — surely — that’s easy, right? Right?!

Wrong.

Another 30 minutes. No food. The server (who at this point I can only assume had entered a witness protection program) reappears to deliver shots to the VIP table... and once again needs to be reminded we exist.

She breezes by and says, "It'll be another 10–15 minutes. What y'all wanna do?" WHAT WE WANNA DO?! Sis, we wanna eat the brunch we reserved two hours ago without contemplating the meaninglessness of existence.

At this point, an apology or a comped drink would have gone a long way. Instead, she asked us what we wanted. So we ask for another mocktail (because at this point we were being held hostage and needed hydration). She brings the wrong drink. Then fixes it. Bare minimum unlocked.

Our food finally arrives around 6 PM (we sat down at 3:30 PM). It was... edible. Nothing impressive. The kind of meal you eat because you're starving, not because it's good.

As we try to leave, defeated and hangry, we receive the fastest service of the day: THE CHECK. A check that included a 20% service charge slapped on like a final insult.

Now look — I’m a good tipper. A generous tipper, even. But to be forced to pay 20% for a “service” that was more like a slow-motion gaslighting experiment? Nah.

I wanted dessert but realized it would probably take them another 90 minutes to plate three cookies. And honestly, by that point, my hopes were circling the drain.

We got up. The server said nothing. I smiled faintly, waved goodbye to the worst service of my life, and left.

Moral of the story: At Sweet and Savory, you’re not dining — you’re playing Customer Service Roulette. Maybe you’ll get the good experience like the VIP table next to us. Or maybe you’ll sit in the corner like a forgotten houseplant while everyone pretends not to see you.

Either way, that 20% service charge? Automatic, baby. Whether you get served or not.

Would not return. Would not recommend. Would not even send my...

I wanted to give this place 5 stars so bad but I couldn't. I was celebrating my birthday and was super excited because of the reviews and videos I have seen of this place.

The atmosphere and aesthetics of the place is beautiful but the place is on the smaller side. We were seated at a table near the bar and our eyes were burning from the smoke from the barbecue being cooked in the kitchen due to the poor ventilation in the spot. They had to open the doors just to let some of the smoke out which also let all of the flies in buzzing around everyone's food. I believe the reason for this and the reason for not receiving great service was because the restaurant had to cater to a party of about 15 people. That party took up about 1/3 of the place and I think that it just exhausted the kitchen and staff. They also ran out of some dishes that I was dying to try so I was a bit disappointed. I got there at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday for a party of two. Pretty early for them to run out of food but again they were catering a group.

The biggest deal was the wait for the food. We did not receive our appetizers until almost an hour and a half later. We spent most of our time at the restaurant sitting there waiting to be served. What was even more of a letdown was that a group that came in after us actually received their food before we did. We ordered the meatballs (3 come in the order), the dip, and the wings for appetizer and we only ordered one entree the oxtail lasagna, which I no longer wanted because of how long we had to wait for the food and we had somewhere to be at a certain time. I didn't get the oxtail lasagna until about 4:15 p.m. I took two bites and then I had to ask them to wrap it up because we had to leave. Couldn't even get the birthday experience because they had to cater to the large group. It was my birthday. I was getting antsy. I wanted to complain so bad, I wanted to walk out so bad, but I also wanted to support the black business and the servers were very attentive and very nice and welcoming but I felt like we deserved more because of the wait, like a comp on drinks, food, something. . . But we only kept getting an apology for having to wait for so long to eat. We did receive the non-negotiable 20% gratuity though, which was undeserving because of our experience. The food we ordered above, and our drinks (1 frozen sangria and two lemonades) came out to $145 and with the included $27.00 gratuity added, our bill was around $175.00.

Would I returned back to the spot, yes, and the only reason being the food we experienced was phenomenal!! Advice for anyone going to give this spot a try: Call them first and see if they are catering to any big groups dining in. I believe that this information will make or break...

I wanted to start on a positive note because this is a Black-owned business, and I truly wished my positive experience had lasted throughout our visit, but unfortunately, it did not.

We visited Sweet and Savory on February 22nd with a party of 14 to celebrate my cousin’s birthday. The restaurant had a beautiful aesthetic, great music, and good drinks, but the service was absolutely TERRIBLE.

Our reservation was at 8 PM. Since some guests arrived late, we began ordering appetizers and drinks at 9:15. While they took a little time to arrive, it wasn’t too bad. By 9:30, our server started taking our dinner orders. However, as we waited for our food, the restaurant became chaotic. Servers were overwhelmed, multiple parties walked out, and the space became extremely smoky due to a lack of proper ventilation that violates the Department of Health’s Article 81, Code 81.19. Our eyes were watering, the door had to be left open for ventilation, and we were freezing. To make matters worse, we all left the restaurant smelling like smoke.

By 11:30 over two hours after placing our orders the food started coming out one plate at a time. By 11:50, only 11 of our 14 guests had received their meals. At that point, the last three guests decided to take their food to go. We also asked for the check and requested a birthday song for my cousin.

When we received the bill, the restaurant did not deduct the $375 reservation fee we had already paid. They also did not offer any discount or send a manager over to address our concerns or to apologize about the TERRIBLE service. When I asked to speak with a manager, they instead sent out a cook who pretended to be a manager. No real apologies were given, and the only compensation offered was one deducted one meal and three bottles of cheap wine as a bribe for my cousin, the birthday girl.

Later that night, I looked into the restaurant further (Instagram) and discovered that one of the servers was actually the owner. The fact that she never apologized or tried to accommodate us despite our TERRIBLE experience was extremely disappointing.

I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone, especially for a special occasion. I also plan to report them to the Department of Health for their ventilation violations, the Department of Labor for being understaffed and overworking employees, and the Better Business Bureau for their poor service and...