TESSA — Restaurant in New York

This is my first negative restaurant review, so I’m not one of those kinds of people that take the time to write things unless I think it’s important. First, I must say that when calling the restaurant the hostess and the contact person was very friendly and helpful in making my reservation for a date. I was excited to check out the restaurant, Once we arrived we realized that it was very loud and very crowded, which makes sense at a busy good New York City restaurant. But after a long day, we needed something a bit more quiet without so many people, so I kindly said to the host that took us to our table. Thank you so much but we’re going to go to another place because it’s a bit loud and too crowded for us so sorry. Then the man who was seating us suddenly had a big attitude towards me, and seem to take it really personal that we were leaving he was very rude and gave me a lot of attitude. He basically said “oh you want to go somewhere else that’s fine with me and at that point, we started to walk out and I went up to the hostess stand to let them know. Thank you so much for making me a reservation. Sorry that it didn’t work out but we’re going to go somewhere a bit more quiet. Once we left. I look back inside the window and the man who had taken us to the table before was looking out, and I was looking back at at him. He came out of the restaurant like we were going to have a fight which is crazy because I’m normally a very peaceful person and I just let him know that he didn’t have to be so rude about it and condescending. He completely denied that he was rude in anyway, and did apologize, but continued to give me attitude and said that he does not want me to fight with his hostesses which is even more crazy since I was very kind and told them thank you so much but we’re gonna move on down the road It was like he took the whole thing so personal and I’ve been in New York for almost 30 years and I’ve never had that kind of experience with anybody at a restaurant. It was really uncomfortable to experience on a second date with the new guy. The place looked beautiful and the food smelled amazing. I would love to have tried it out one day. But because of the young man at the hostess stand, I am sure I will never return. I’m also sure that once he sees this, he will deny that he did anything wrong, and that he did not give me attitude, but I assure you from the bottom of my heart he’s one of the rudest people I’ve ever met at a restaurant, and that is the truth I hope he’s kinder in the future to people who feel that it’s a bit too loud and crowded for them and then he never treats customers this way again. I hope that management reads...

Utter disregard for customer satisfaction or their promises. I will NEVER return.

When making my reservation I requested a round table and preferably in a more quiet spot as I'd be dining with a few elderly folks who are hard of hearing--celebrating 4 birthdays in 5 days. It was meant to be a special brunch. I was told that the round table was in a slightly noisier spot, but i said, that's Ok, the round table was more important than the noise.

They said i had to give them a credit card for the reservation. So you can imagine my surprise when we were seated at a rectangular table NEXT to the round one.. and i was told "they left a deposit" so they got the table. What does that even mean??? I was asked for my credit card.. but she says "i didn't charge the deposit" So i said WHY NOT. If that was what was required to hold the table that you promised me why didnt you charge me? and she then changed her tune and said "well they had booked it already" So... which is it, was it booked already, and if so, why did you promise it to me b4 checking if it was booked, or was it really that you just gave my table away to somebody else, perhaps a more frequent customer.

Well, actions speak louder than words, clearly our business is not important to you. There are a million other restaurants in NY that deserve our money. And, the noise was UNREAL.... at any table, the acoustics terrible, we couldn't hear the conversation across the table. It was completely unenjoyable meal.

To add insult to injury when the round table became available again.. (BEFORE WE EVEN ORDERED).. I asked to be moved there, and she said "no there's another reservation coming in" SO, please explain to me, why it was OK for them NOT to honor my reservation, but they were adhering to the others, at the expense of upsetting our group? Something smells rotten there.

On the other hand, the service was excellent and the presentation of food lovely. Food was mediocre, nothing special. I've had much better elsewhere. Don't waste your time or money on a place that clearly doesn't care about it's customers or it's word.

NOTE TO TESSA--- if you can't follow thru with a promise don't make that promise. Take your business seriously, and learn how to make reservations and keep track of what you've promised...RESTAURANT 101. Treat people...

I am rating this to help other people, given that many old places strangely don’t have many reviews on Google anymore and many new restaurants have stellar reviews but end up being horrible.

So when tasked with finding a place for a night out, I really had to scratch my head, and I meticulously went through both positive and negative reviews and looked at the pictures from restaurants.

My experience at Tessa was consistent with the overall rating, and I am giving this place solid four stars. I would upgrade it to a 4.5 stars spot if it was an option.

Here is what I liked:

VIBE. The place looks really nice inside and appeared busy over the weekend but not too overcrowded, and you still could hear the person you were talking to.

FOOD. They serve interestingly cooked mussels, which I really enjoyed. It is an item from the appetizer section but it’s actually a pretty big, sharable plate. Strongly recommend this one!

WAITER. He was nice, positive and polite and relatively fast. When I absolutely didn’t like the wine called ORANGE (it’s actually orange and tastes a bit like kombucha but I wanted it to taste like wine), he changed it and let me try two other wines to ensure I am happy with my choice on the second try.

I wouldn’t say that there was anything I strongly disliked. The thing with the orange wine was a bit disappointing but, again, because of how the waiter handled it, it didn’t ruin the whole experience. I also had a shrimp pasta, and it was an ok one, but there was nothing really exciting about it. I oftentimes cook the same at home, and when you go out, you (sorta) want the food to be a bit more impressive compared to what you can make yourself.

I’d say this place is a pretty safe choice for a dinner with a close...