The Ainsworth Midtown — Restaurant in New York

If I could give this place 0 stars, I would. I made a reservation for 13 people in advance for this past Saturday and as soon as we approached the place we were treated with the worst customer service.

I was speaking with Genevieve via email for about a week. Prior to this day, I asked the manager Genevieve if I’d have a problem getting in because my permit expired three days prior. Despite showing her the NY state extension on Ids because of COVID, She didn’t respond back to me until the day of and said I wouldn’t be able to drink. However, this would only apply to me.

As soon as we arrived, the manager Genevieve asked for two forms of ID for each person in my party. She said repeatedly “it’s not me it’s the state” and “I understand that you don’t understand” to each of our inquiries and wouldn’t budge. I inquired about where in the cancellation form I signed, website, or email that each person in my party needed two forms of ID and she repeated the former two phrases. I also informed her that NY state extension I showed her means my ID isn’t valid. She wouldn’t budge. Even so, this problem should not have been extended to the rest of my party. Once we accepted her terms (in fear of being charged a cancellation fee) She asked one guest in my party for three forms of ID (even though she had a valid id and credit card) by asking her for her Instagram and Facebook account. Each of my guests including myself was rudely interrogated and made to feel unwanted. Once we got upstairs, we were watched by the entire customer service staff for our meal. The wait staff took forever to come back to our table for orders or refills even though each one was staring at us. For instance, my guest asked for a Togo lid for her drink (as we noticed a group of girls left the place with a bunch of Togo drinks) and she declined her offer. In addition, She asked if she took off her below 21 bracelet which she never had because she had valid ID.

In summary, I’ve never been treated so rudely in my life by the manager Genevieve. The waitstaff wasn’t as terrible but she represented them poorly. I’ve been permitted to fly a domestic flight without an ID and that testy experience faired better than the experience at this establishment. Not to mention, my entire group was women of color and we were treated as if we were unwanted at this establishment. Genevieve was not within her rights to immediately ask for two forms of ID upon entry and to go above state regulation of mandatory extension of state IDs. I will never be coming back here again, you...

The overall environment was just chaotic. The music was so loud during brunch that we could barely have a conversation without yelling across the table. It felt more like a club than a restaurant, which might be fun for some, but definitely not ideal for enjoying a meal or celebrating a birthday. Unfortunately the experience was completely soured due to the terrible service we received from our server, Faith.

From the start, things went downhill. It took quite a while just to get water. After placing our drink order, we waited even longer for the drinks to arrive. When she finally came back, Faith told us to “give her a second” because the table behind us had purchased bottle service and ordered Don Julio—as if to say they were more important than us. Strike two.

We waited over 10 minutes just for her to take our food order, and only after flagging her down. Once the order was in, Faith was nowhere to be found. At one point, we saw her behind the bar vaping and taking selfies instead of checking on us tables.

20 minutes went by, our champagne bucket was empty, and we couldn’t find her. I had to personally walk over to the bartender and ask for another bottle—thankfully, the bartender was helpful. Meanwhile, Faith remained fully focused on the table behind us, where she took shots with them, brought their food, and gave them full attention.

Another server brought our food, and one of the orders was wrong. It took 25 minutes to get Faith’s attention again just to ask for syrup and let her know about the mistake. The only time she voluntarily returned to our table was during “shots o’clock.”

An hour passed with no sign of her again. We wanted to check out and honestly could have walked out without her ever noticing. When we finally received the bill, it was more than expected—only for Faith to proudly inform us that the gratuity was already included. That explained a lot.

To top it off, she pressed “no tip” for us on the payment kiosk and canceled the survey before we could fill it out. When someone mentioned how poor the service was, she deflected with excuses, saying we probably “called the wrong person name” and that’s why she ignored our table. Absolutely unprofessional.

This entire experience felt like we were treated as second-class guests because we didn’t spend as much as another table. It was disappointing, disrespectful, and honestly ruined what was supposed to be a fun birthday celebration. Management needs to seriously reconsider how staff like Faith represent their...

This place is nothing like they try to push on Instagram. We were u set the impression that we were booking the $45 Bad and Boozy brunch which also means included “shot o’clock”. The food wasn’t too bad but the brownie I had tasted like store brought and was not too enjoyable, the pancake tacos I will say were very good. When we got to Ainsworth we did receive 1 shot around 3:20pm, the waitress was very nice and did check in with us often to see if we were good. After 3:20 there was no other shots which on their instagram page they mention shots every hour but never stated there was a cut off time or that it was only for a certain time. The bathroom is shared with the hotel and the women’s bathroom was horrible, one of the stall doors would not lock, there was no paper towel to dry your hands and barely any soap left in the soap dispensers. The bathroom was not up-kept or cleaned at all. The dishes had smudge stains on it from the dish washer not cleaning well and the tables as well as walls were stained and had food splatters in them. Not once on the website did it mention that they were a big Alabama watcher and that the music would be cut off every time the game is on. Nor did they mention ahead of time that when there were Alabama games playing they don’t do “shot o’clocks”. We had planned this for someone’s birthday and did not get a good experience or the experience they showed on instagram. We came for a party brunch and got an Alabama game day instead. The back of the restaurant looks nice but the front is more business and sportsy. If they were honest about there service and how things fun this might have been a good place to watch sports and grab a few drinks but if you are expecting a party brunch do not believe the hype or their Instagram page. Some of those influencers must have been paid. I refused to go back to the bathroom or even visit this...