The Library at the Public — Restaurant in New York

If I could leave 0 stars, I would.

I had a 5.30pm reservation for a 7pm show. My friend and I ordered two cocktails and two burgers, one medium rare and one medium. After we put in our orders around 6, waited 45 entire minutes for our food to finally come out. We were told that it would "be out shortly" about 10 minutes before it actually arrived, probably because the waitstaff heard us complain. We saw multiple tables who were seated after us get their food before us.

When the burgers finally came out, we were appalled. My medium rare was fully rare and my friend's medium was on the medium rare side. The entire middle of my burger was inedible. My friend also felt uncomfortable eating hers. We didn't have time to send the food back, as our show was in 15 minutes. When our waiter came to take our plates, he asked how everything was. We explained to him that our burgers were incredibly underdone but that we didn't have time to send it back. We were SO nice to him, saying this in truly the nicest way possible. As we spoke, his reply was "word" over and over again. Then he said, "This is my first job in New York and I've noticed they do tend to cook things more 'pink' here. I would NEVER order hamburger meat medium rare. I always order mine well done." First of all, if he knows the kitchen cooks things on the rare side, he should have let us know when ordering. Second of all, why should he be telling me how to order my burger? I've very rarely had an issue with medium rare and it's usually how I eat my burgers. However this one was truly raw inside. I'm sure the kitchen just slapped some burgers on the grill at the last minute because they realized we hadn't gotten our food.

The worst part was he was INCREDIBLY rude after this. He was continuing to be friendly to the table next to us (who are members of the Public) and gave my friend and I the silent treatment when dropping off/picking up the check and was very curt with us after our complaint. I have to emphasize again that we were VERY nice to him in our complaints and even tipped 20% on the food.

The 45 minute wait for a burger was egregious enough (especially without a comped drink or dessert) but to be talked down to on top of that? Absolutely unacceptable, especially for that price point. Any other diner would have made a big deal about this at the restaurant, but my friend and I continued to be nice to our server. To then be treated so rudely afterward was shocking.

I have never in my life called a restaurant to complain, but I did call the Public after this experience. We dined with them on a Tuesday. I called multiple times on Wednesday and left multiple voicemails. No one got back to me. I finally got ahold of the manager on Thursday. I explained the situation and she said I was not the first to complain about this waiter. She took down my email and said she would reach out about "two free drinks" at the restaurant. First of all, I never heard from her again and it's now Sunday. Second of all, I do not want free drinks. The appropriate response would be to comp this meal since I waited 45 minutes for a completely raw burger and then was belittled by staff. No matter, though, since I haven't heard a peep from the manager and don't have the time to make a million calls to try and speak with her again.

I would have loved to discuss this in person on Tuesday, but after waiting 45 minutes for a hamburger, we had no time before our show.

This is truly the last time I dine at the Public and I will highly discourage anyone from dining here. Horrible service, horrible management,...

I’m surprised Andrew Carmellini would attach his name to such a restaurant. Perhaps he needs to try his own menu. The first time we came here was for a private event and the lights were dimmed so the ambience did look nice. However, the food was not good. Since it was a private event I wasn’t expecting much. We came back recently, not realizing it was the same venue. The lights were very bright, so you could see that the furniture was not very tasteful, and didn’t look anything like the photos online. The service was very friendly and kind, however, for some reason our server would never pour wine for us, but he was very generous with pouring water. That’s fine, my big issue was the meal and the fact that the staff was setting up tables moving furniture around directly in front of us, disrupting our meal as they were very loudly prepping for an event the following night. Someone came over to apologize and I appreciated that, however, it didn’t take away from the horrible experience we had. The server never asked about dietary restrictions or allergies. I had no idea the center of the hummus was spicy so I couldn’t eat that, the cheese platter tasted like stinky feet. It was disgusting. The burger was OK, fries were good. I had only one bite of each dish and realized I couldn't eat it. It’s not worth forcing yourself to eat something that you cannot enjoy or that would make you sick. Thankfully, the blue cheese was fresh and tasty. This was one of the most disappointing meals we’ve had in a long time. Very shocked because the night before we were at Cafe Carmellini and it was a completely different experience. Obviously it’s a different type of restaurant caliber, but for this restaurant, I am surprised that they are OK with serving such mediocre food and lack proper...

Stopped by before meeting a friend and the entrance is giving Center Stage. The bar has 360 seating with roughly 20 brown tall leather stools. The artwork is nice to get lost into; there were a few beer recipes, prohibition pieces and other NYC landmarks.

I had the Baby Wedge Salad; bacon, blue cheese, vine tomatoes, price 16 It was a great presentation and they dressed it HEALTHILY which I love. The bacon was crisp and the blue cheese was complex. Highly recommend this dish even if you don't care for salads. Lastly, I had the salmon entree and although I like salmon more on the medium well side, it was medium and nicely seasoned. The season vegetables on the side were prepared so well.

Drinks: Been loving Mezcal lately and ordered the Mezcal Spritz. It had: Cenizo Mezcal, Cappelletti, grapefruit, Prosecco - price was 19. It was a nice drink but would stick to your favorites. The Espresso Martini was beautifully made and balanced.

These mixologists are working hard and they churn out great cocktails. Service is super fast; stepped away for a moment and my...