The Corner Store — Restaurant in New York

I wasn't sure what to expect coming to The Corner Store. I've heard it talked about a lot on social media.

My friend has connections with the staff, so she was able to get us a reservation with no issue. I can see on Resy that reservations are hard to come by otherwise.

The restaurant is impeccably decorated and the "vibe" is cool and a little nostalgic.

There is certainly an air of pretentiousness when you step in, from the hosts to the other guests milling about. I wish I had a dollar for every ounce of lip filler I saw here.

There's a few bar seats (but I assume you can't just "pop" in here, ever) and a large dining room in the back.

We were sitting in a corner booth which was cozy.

For a restaurant of this reputation and caliber, I expected much much more service wise.

No one came to our table for at least 20 minutes. Not even to pour water. We had to flag a passing server to get noticed. I expect this kind of behavior at an Applebees, but not here. So immediately, I had a sour taste in my mouth about this place.

The person we flagged down had such an arrogance about them that we felt like we were bothering them to, you know, spend our money here. Her 1990s era brown lipstick also added to her arrogant demeanor.

She begrudgingly took our water preference and drink orders and then vanished.

Another server popped over a few minutes later. This one was actually very nice and pleasant, I just wish she had shown up 20 minutes earlier. She took our food orders.

Our drinks arrived via the arrogant server. I had the infamous sour cream and onion martini and my friend thought she had the matzoh ball soup martini. However, 10 minutes later, brown lipstick server comes over and says that my friends drink is actually the wrong one. And comes back with the correct matzoh ball soup martini.

The sour cream and onion martini was surprisingly not gross. It really tasted like those potato chips but not in a nasty way. It is very rich and I think once you've had one, you don't need another. My friend's matzoh ball soup martini also tasted just like the soup.

We ordered fries with all 3 of their sauces, ravioli, heirloom carrots and the lobster caviar roll.

The fry sauces were very good, especially the horseradish one.

Heirloom carrots and ravioli were good but nothing outstanding.

My friend enjoyed the lobster caviar roll. As I am a vegetarian, I did not partake in that.

The vegetarian selections here are not too robust.

For dessert, we opted for the apple hand pies with ice cream. Truly a highlight of the night. The pies were fresh and warm.

Our bill came to $200 before tip, so expect to spend at minimum $100 per person here.

What amused me the most was the bathroom situation. In this fancy, pretentious restaurant, you have to descend a narrow flight of stairs and walk past the open kitchen doors to find the bathrooms. I cannot picture regular customer Taylor Swift doing this hike to the bathroom (do her bodyguards come downstairs and stand outside the door?)

There are two individual bathrooms. As expected, the decor in there is also impeccable. The emerald green tiles - I die!

Overall, I am glad we got to experience The Corner Store. It is certainly a scene. Is the food worth it? I don't know. Are the drinks worth it? Maybe.

I'd come back if given the chance, but wouldn't go out of my way to try to get a reservation on Resy notify. That seems like a lost cause until the hype eventually (?) dies down.

If you have the opportunity, I think you should go and see this place...

food/atmosphere wise this place is a 10/10. i did not have a single bad bite and honestly everything exceeded my expectations (except for the french fries). the atmosphere is also gorgeous i love the color scheme and we were seated in the cutest booth which felt nice and private. the service is what knocks this down a peg. i’ve read mixed reviews and thankfully we didn’t have to wait to be seated/have our orders taken. the issue i have with service isn’t even really with our server it is more with the expectation of a 90 minute meal. i don’t mind having a time limit on a reservation but i do think that as a restaurant if you want people out in 90 minutes food needs to come out quicker. it took about a half hour after ordering the lobster caviar roll to actually receive it. after that it took another 25 minutes for entrees to arrive. that doesn’t bother me but what bothers me is that when food arrives it feels like the severs are waiting to take it away from you. my mom wasn’t finished with her entree when the severs came over to take her plate. she had to physically put her hand on the plate so that he wouldn’t take it. i know they’re popular so i respect a turn around time but you cannot expect us to finish eating the food in 10 minutes. anyways, we ordered the lobster caviar roll, lobster frites, wagyu french dip and samoa sundae. the lobster caviar roll was the best bite of the night. honestly the caviar isn’t doing much, the lobster roll on its own is amazing. the roll is so buttery and there is plenty of meat packed in. for entrees, the lobster frites is huge (as it should be for the price)! we felt that we could have shared that. the lobster is buttery and flavorful. the fries are good but i feel like they hype their fries up too much, i’ve had better. the french dip is exactly what i wanted it to be. the meat is so juicy that you don’t need the au jus, however, the au jus is delicious. the bread looked like it was going to be hard but it was not at all. my only complaint is that i wish the sandwich was a little bigger. for dessert we had to get the samoa sundae and we absolutely destroyed it. i’ve heard that they haven’t seen anyone finish the sundae (not sure if that was true as of last night) but we cleaned that bowl. i wish the construction of the sundae was different because you couldn’t really get the chocolate sauce but the toasted coconut was chefs kiss. if i had to skip something it would be the sundae but i would budget it in (especially for your first visit). for the food this place lives up to the hype in my opinion. none of what we ordered are my go-to foods or favorite foods but i would gladly have this meal again over many of my favorite foods (i hope that made sense). truly an experience and worth a visit! also i want to note that i was able to make my res on resy, its hard but not impossible so for those who love to leave a bad review saying the make it “impossible”, its not impossible its...

The fact that this restaurant has one of the most coveted reservations in New York City Is unimaginable after experiencing it for myself. My friend and I were the first people in line for a walk in seat at a table or the bar. They do allow walk-ins as per their website. Unfortunately, there was no table available because they were fully committed for the evening. However , we were able to grab two seats at the bar. The bartender was one of the rudest people I have interacted with in a long time. My friend and I have been in the restaurant business for over 15 years and both agreed we would have been fired if we treated guest the way this man treated us. You shouldn’t have to be Taylor Swift or Tom Holland to be treated with respect. I waited for the bartender to prepare cocktails for other guests which was no problem. When I had the opportunity to order I was very clear on how I wanted the food to be coursed out. ALL of the food was sent out at once, when we said something about it he said “you should have said something when I read back you order to you”. I wasn’t going to allow him to completely gaslight us into believing he read back our order when he didn’t. He then continued with “ what would you like me to do?” He was not apologetic in anyway and he was extremely condescending and passive aggressive the entire time. The service bartender was very nice and offered to clear plates to give us room and gave us fresh flatware and plates. The food was decent but completely overpowered by the bitter taste left in my mouth by the service. Not that I ll ever have the chance of getting a reservation here, but we will never be back. I wouldn’t...