The Legend Cafe House — Restaurant in New York

My family and friends came for a birthday dinner on Friday night. My husband and my friend ordered the prix fixe T bone steak and asked for it rare, with the Borscht soup, lemon tea. When the borscht soup came, my husband and I noticed right away a hair on the edge of the soup line. We brought it to the waitresse's attention and she took it back. He chose not to get another soup. It was a big turnoff ( We didn't take a picture of that but when it happened a second time on the corn soup, I decided to take a picture.) While we were waiting for the main courses, our appetizers and side dishes came. The chicken wings and calamari portions were small, granted they were appetizers. However, the quality of the food did not match its price point and its small portion. About 5-10 minutes into our waiting, a different waitress comes to the table to ask us if we're sure we want the steaks rare. We thought it was odd, but of course the answer was yes.

My son got the oxtail, it was mostly bones ( picture included). The curry sauce was lukewarm. I got the lamb with bean curd, no flavor and microwaved not long enough. It was hot outside and cold inside.

Then finally comes the steaks. They were cooked medium well. We immediately brought it to the attention of another waitress who went to the back and never came back. 5 minutes later, we raised our hands to signal another waitress and mentioned to her that the steak wasn't cooked rare. She then went to the back and then 5 minutes later, a manager came to the table. He's a bit standoffish and starts to get flustered about the steak's doneness. He said the kitchen has been busy and the steak was probably cooked rare but during the process of getting it to our table because they are so busy, the steak became medium done because it sat on the warming plate too long. So, we are wondering how is this our problem? Especially, when the waitress made an effort to come out and made sure we had requested something rare ?. The male manager became so frustrated he said, " comp his dish, oh forget it, comp the whole dinner. ) and walked away.

10 minutes later, the male manager comes back. He apologized and said it's slow down now, I can talk to you. He offered another steak but at that time, we were all about to be finished with our food.

The waitress who asked about the rare steak came out also and apologized profusely. Once again, their excuse is that they were busy. When we finally got our check, she made it a point to point out that the drinks were on them, all 3 drinks. By the way, most of our drinks were included in the pre fix dinner. In addition, we left 20% tip even though the service was mediocre. Needless to say, my dining experience is now ruined. We are definitely not going back and we don't recommend this...

Visited this self proclaimed "Hong Kong style cafe" a couple of times ordering a few HK classic dishes and here is my review. First and foremost at any HK cafe for us is tasting their HK teas. Here we ordered their HK milk tea hot as well as cold plus their cold HK lemon tea. We have had better HK teas in the NYC area but it is not as bland or merely Lipton/Tently tea as some bakeries/restaurants use. The flavor profile is mediocre and not as rich as some of our favorite HK tea spots in NYC. The lemon tea was a bit watered down even upon arrival at our table as well as being loaded with ice. As for food we had ordered their French toast with condensed milk and peanut butter - this was decent, not overly sweet, not overly fried, but a bit less peanut butter than most and using average Chinese bakery white bread. Baked curry beef brisket over rice - done correctly like HK with a fried egg rice base, filled to the top amount of beef and curry that is decently tasty but not exactly authentic HK if this is what you are looking for. Sizzling combo of sirloin steak, borsch soup, fries, spaghetti, and drink - all this for $32. The steak was a large cut abeit not the best cut but considering the price point I cannot complain too much. As well as it being cooked exactly medium plus salted and peppered correctly. The HK borsch soup was average, spaghetti is eh, and fries nice n crispy. Their Supreme soy sauce fried noodles - not how the usual HK soy sauce fried noodle is made and too soggy. I also prefer it with the proper wok hay which this is lacking yet it has some burnt pieces (which I noticed also in the dish the table next to us ordered). However it is filled with all sorts of veggies for those value seekers. So overall speaking of value The Legend Cafe House does offer value and large dishes - we can see this in how busy the place is with families, kids, and the like during peak hours. Impressive is the quality of the waitresses and service they offer - prompt, polite, and they care what they do. In terms of food taste, dish prep, and likeness to Hong Kong we would say it is average for the NYC area. Would I go back - yes for the value...

The Legend Cafe House might seem familiar to people that have been frequently eating around 86th Street in the Bensonhurst area a few years ago. It used to be around that area but the location changed to a Asian Steak house over time. Now, years later, it reopened at this new spot slightly off the beaten path of the hustle and bustle of the busier 86th street area and is instead located just across from Jmart.

The new place as before specializes in Hong Kong cafe style food and have a decent variety of selection to choose from on their menu. The baked dishes like Baked Chicken over white sauce which is a rice dish with a melted cheesy topping have always been one of my go to.

They also have sizzling steaks on a hot plate here but I didn't try that out yet.

During this review, it was their second or third day of business and thus as with a lot of places with grand openings, there would be growing pains. When I went, an order to go took almost 40 to 50 minutes despite it being moderately busy. Partly it is because the baked dishes usually takes about 15 to 20 minutes to make but that still doesn't explain the other 20 to 30 minutes. I expect this to improve over time when the business gets into its groove and work out the kinks so I'm not holding that against them for now.

There is a decent amount of tables inside as of now and because of covid, they currently also have...