The Inn by Fumo — Restaurant in New York

This used to be one of my favorite restaurants so I’m sad to have to write this review. A couple nights ago my partner and I brought two friends who had never been here before for dinner; we ordered and were served drinks, then we ordered food, and our waitress was never seen again. We kept glancing around the dining room looking for her and would sometimes see her in a corner, but nowhere we could grab her, and she never came back to our table. About 40 minutes after we ordered our food, the table next to us (who had been seated about 30 minutes after us) was served their food, and their server looked at us kind of confused and asked if we needed anything. We told him we’d been waiting, and he went to the kitchen to check for us. He came back with a plate of guacamole and tortilla chips and said the kitchen was “really busy” and our food would be out soon. At this point I wanted to just leave, but our friends still wanted to wait. About 10 minutes later our food comes out; two of the four of us are vegetarians and ordered sandwiches with the vegan chicken that came out with real chicken instead. We told the server this and he went back to the kitchen to ask, then came back and said our sandwiches actually are the vegan chicken- we pointed out that the vegan chicken always comes with little “vegan” signs stuck into the sandwiches that our sandwiches were missing, so we couldn’t feel confident that the sandwiches were right. At this point we asked to speak to the manager, who came out and asked us what was wrong. We pointed out that we’d had to wait about an hour for our food, our waitress disappeared, and that our food didn’t seem right and he argued with us that our food was probably right, that the kitchen was “really busy” and kept insisting that we’d only been waiting 20 minutes, not an hour. We pointed out that the table next to us got our food right away so the kitchen couldn’t have been that busy, and he responded that there were a lot of delivery orders. At this point, we got up and left the restaurant. As we were outside deciding where to go next, the manager followed us out to apologize and say he just talked to our waitress and she had lied to him the first time when she told him we’d only been waiting 20 minutes and that she had forgotten to put our order in. I appreciated that he came out and apologized to us, but we still went over to Handpulled Noodle for dinner instead (highly recommend) and I won’t come back to The Chick Inn again.

I’m not a person to make a big deal about mistakes or slow service, but this pushed me to my limit. If a server forgets to put an order in, they should come tell the table that and apologize instead of never coming back to them again. If a table is waiting over half an hour for food, they should get a decent appetizer or part of the meal comped instead of a plate of tortilla chips. If a table has dietary restrictions and the food that comes out doesn’t clearly meet them, the server should take the concern seriously. If a restaurant has so many delivery orders they can’t get dine-in orders out in an acceptable amount of time, they need to limit the number of delivery orders they take. And if a table says they waited an hour for their food to come out, the manager should believe them (or ask the server for details first) before insisting that they didn’t believe it had been that long. None of us would have been upset if the staff had just handled the mistakes courteously— but instead, they ignored and gaslit us and ruined our night. After this experience I won’t return and won’t recommend this...

The place itself is pleasant. The choice of a translucent awning, to their outdoor space, prevents any obstruction of sunlight to the interior dining area, so it's nicely sunlit inside.

This has to be one of the few sit down restaurants in the area that serves breakfast daily. I consider this a big plus because this area is in dire need of a real breakfast serving diner (Bus Stop Diner, on 135th & Bway, is not cutting it).

We were there for a late lunch. My wife was very happy with the salmon dish with pesto rice, and corn, she ordered. She said it was delicious.

I was happy to see chicken & waffles on the main course menu, and even happier to see that the menu stated that it is served with maple syrup.

Sometimes restaurants outright lie about such, so, when I ordered it, for my sake, my wife directly asked the waiter if it was real maple syrup, and he assured us that it was.

The chicken & waffles was also served with a nice amount of fresh fruit (banana slices, sliced strawberries, and blue berries that had a wonderful "snap" to them). However, the waffles were made with too much sugar, the chicken was two overcooked pieces of chicken tenders, that I suspect were fried in oil that was overdue for changing. I was expecting, in the very least, a decently juicy piece of southern fried chicken breast. I would've even been happy with rotisserie chicken (it seems to be their specialty) breast but thin, overcooked, tenders, were a let down.

Don't get me wrong; it was still acceptable, and I ate every bit of it (I was starving). But what really let me down was that it was not served with the maple syrup I was assured I'd get.

It was, most definitely, some corn syrup, perhaps "flavored" with some essence of maple syrup but whatever it was, it did not qualify for being passed off as maple syrup, at all. Why do so many restaurants do this?!?

That notwithstanding, I'll,go back (I'm eager to try the rum punch drink, among other things) I just won't be ordering the chicken & waffles, ever again.

At the table next to us, someone ordered the smash burger with the most amazing looking fries I've seen in a long time. If those fries taste half as good as they looked, I can't imagine being disappointed.

All in all, don't shy away from the Chick Inn, just keep your maple syrup...

Considering the state of the world, you’d think all businesses would be bending over backwards to keep you coming back. Not this one. I was first brought here by a friend, and the last two times, I brought others. Each time, the food and service were amazing. The decor is like a southern grandma’s kitchen. It appears to be a “family restaurant”, but I learned on my third visit that it depends on what kind of family you have. I went there later (5pm) than the previous two times, and I took my nephew. The music was louder than the previous times, but still acceptable. What was not, were the music choices. I will not repeat any of the expletives, but they were the N, B, H, and P words, and references of murder were made. To start, I don’t think most cultures care for the derogatory words used to describe their race, especially by an establishment owned by another race, Steven Gallo (owner). I also don’t think most women enjoy being referred to as “bit.hs and h.es”. I spoke to a server about it, and was told that management would be alerted, but I ended up talking to management myself. The response was, “That’s your opinion.” The server was FAR MORE apologetic and willing to address it. The manager claimed that this selection of music is played at their other restaurant as well, and the customers don’t complain about it. Mind you, this isn’t a five star restaurant, but I don’t cook, and eat out enough to know that this is not the norm. I left perplexed. I don’t expect them to play gospel or classical music, but there are TONS of hip hop, street, rap, R&B songs out there that aren’t about demeaning women, a race or talking about killing someone. Really??!! You put your own taste in music over the comfort and repeat business of your customers??🤷‍♂️ If you must, order only, but there are far better choices in the neighborhood (and nearby) to dine, and more to come. With their attitude, and the clientele they’re catering to, they won’t last long. If you’re into “rachet” and offensive music, which will surely attract a certain element, this is the perfect place for you. Make sure you’re...