The Golden Swan — Restaurant in New York

I was pretty unhappy after this visit. We had a 7:30pm reservation in the dining room. When we arrived, we were brought to a table in the bar without an explanation - I guess the hope was that it wouldn't matter to us. When we told the hostess we had a dining room reservation and preferred to eat there, she said they are running behind so it may be a bit before we could get seated there, and that she would check on how long it would take for a table to open. She then proceeded to never come back. We walked up to the front to check in again 15 minutes later, and she had forgotten to check and said she would look now and let us know. 10 minutes later and no word from her, we go back up again and are told 5 more minutes. After another 10 minutes we go up again (our third visit now to check in on the hostess, we have 0 faith she is taking care of us), and she says 30 seconds and comes and collects us a bit later. We end up sitting at 8:15pm for dinner. The kicker? We are told they just ran out of the burger and have to order something else.

Look, I understand things happen - restaurants fall behind on service all the time. When this happens it is important to be up front with your guests. Had the hostess initially said “We are behind, I can seat you in the bar now or you will have to wait 45 minutes for a spot in the dining room”, we would have understood. The lack of transparency, mixed with the lack of care (having to check in repeatedly with the hostess because she never came back to update us), was unacceptable. Really disappointed because we do love your food, but if we are paying over $300 for a dinner for two, you need to be...

Came in with high hopes but largely left unimpressed.

Service was attentive and the shining highlight; the food and atmosphere left much to be desired.

Arrival was the first hiccup - took nearly 15 minutes to check in and required waiting outside given the small foyer. No reason or rationale was provided - perhaps because we were at opening?

We were seated in the lower level, which was odd and empty. The bar was pumping music - perhaps appropriate for when fully occupied, but in a sparsely populated setting, it was overbearing and intrusive. No hand soap to be had in the bathroom - not a disaster but another fly in the increasingly distressed ointment.

The food was hit or miss. The farafelle was delightful (albeit a tad too al dente for my liking) and the leek soup was a strong performer. The omelet (supposedly a star feature) was a complete and utter sad event. The Lobster was clearly not fresh, and the seasoning left you reaching for one’s water to allay the sodium content.

The pancake was terrific although contrarily the crab benedict left much to be desired. The crème brûlée tart offered for desert is best skipped.

You won’t be missing anything if you can’t attain a reservation here, and given the void that was downstairs, you should be able to walk in comfortably… at least for a...

Wanted to love it. Food very good. Ordered the burger, was never asked how I wanted it cooked. Service was extremely slow and off. We waited and waited incredibly long for our food. Burger came out super rare, middle cold. Waited too long for anything to hit the table to send it back. There were exactly EIGHT French fries on the plate alongside the burger. My friend ordered the omelette, her potato's even more scant!! I asked for a Prosecco or sparkling rose and was offered a "champagne" yet was never told it was $36 for the glass!!! Plus $36 for the raw burger! Felt taken! Asked for more syrup to go with the pancake, which was getting cold as we waited and waited. It arrived on the last bite. Had to get up and get salt and pepper, no one was around between the time the order was taken and when the check arrived. Spent $100 on a half a burger, a few bites of a shared pancake and a glass of champagne. When the prices are this high, the expectation of good, professional service is elevated, and unfortunately, this was a miss for me. Other than the caviar omelette, you can get everything else on this menu just as good at the OG's, Balthazar, Cafe Chelsea, Raouls and Frenchette, with...