Westville Dumbo — Restaurant in New York

I live in the area and was very excited to see Westville opening up near me as it is one of the few restaurant options that we have. I've heard a lot of good things about Westville from friends who have been to their other locations. Maybe my friends and I have a bigger difference in taste than I thought. I tried out the DUMBO location 3 different times and was disappointed in all of my visits. One of the things the reviews of the other locations rave about is their "market fresh vegetable plate". Let me tell you - unless you order the vegetables steamed, there is nothing 'fresh' about their market vegetables. All of the vegetables are doused in butter, oil, and syrupy sauces - they are more geared towards people who want to think they are eating healthy without actually doing so. Their salads are actually pretty decent except they always come with a heavy coating of dressing so I would ask for the dressing on the side if I were you. I'm not a meat eater but I would be cautious of the quality of meat they serve at this restaurant. On their menu you can have tofu added to your salad for $6 or a chicken breast for $5........ There is absolutely no way that tofu should cost more than a chicken breast - unless they are serving really cheap processed chicken.

Food aside the service from the wait staff and bartenders was amazing - which is the only reason this review has 2 stars instead of 1. I always found myself sitting at the bar and chatting with the bartenders who are all extremely pleasant. On my second visit to Westville, however, I became very uncomfortable sitting at the bar. The space the bartenders have behind the bar is very narrow and not for more than 2 people. During my visit one of the managers was cramming himself into the little space the bartenders had left and heavily micromanaging them to the point where I could see that the bartenders were unsettled themselves. It made me uncomfortable as a guest to watch this hostile relationship between the management and bartenders. The bartenders were doing nothing wrong from what I could see - the only problem was the manager taking up what little extra space they had and making it hard for them to maneuver around. I could audibly hear the manager ask one of the bartenders - "what are you doing? Why are you doing that? Stop looking nervous. Why are you nervous?". The bartender is not nervous - he is uncomfortable because you are shoving your body up against his and breathing down his neck while he is trying to work. As someone who used to work in the restaurant business it is hard to watch such an uncomfortable relationship between the mangers and staff.

On my third and final visit to Westville I witnessed similar interactions between a different manger and different bartender. It was at that moment that I realized the managers were trying way to hard to make Westville something it is not- Westville is not a 5 star restaurant - it is a souped up diner with a pretty hefty price tag.

In short -

Service - 5 stars Food - 2.5...

The vibes of the restaurant were promising: the man who greeted us at the front was very courteous and helpful, and the menu had exciting choices. However? The food was okay, but nothing ground breaking. I ordered the market plate with the roasted corn, tofu and broccoli, cauliflower, and mixed mushrooms. The wait for pur food made me think that the portion sizes would be appetizing, but what I got was a plateful of mediocre grilled veggies (that all tasted similar) that would be better made at home. $18 questionably spent.

My companions ordered the teriyaki salmon and grilled chicken each with two market sides, but the portions were again disappointing.

I would be okay with the experience if it ended there (be safisfied that I tried it, even if I don't come again) but an additional 30 minutes were spent just getting the right receipt. My order was messed up with one market side being mistaken for broccoli and not the tofu with broccoli, so I simply alerted my server who apologized and offered to give me a side of tofu. I was pleased with the service, and accepted! Later when I got the receipt, I found out we had been charged an extra $7 for the tofu (which came out after we had finished our food and was just sligntly grilled tofu smothered in plain teriyaki sauce). I alerted the kind man in front again of the second mistake of the night and he said he would get it fixed right away. The next receipt we got had not readjusted the tip, so we were still paying more than we intended. We were okay with the additional tip (despite the constant mistakes) but ended up spending more time trying to explain our confusion to the manager on why there was no tip logged on the receipt and yet the price was still higher than expected.

Ended up with the right receipt, but after a lot of trips to the register and a total of 2 hours in the restaurant. Maybe we came at a bad luck night, but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle....might give...

Randomly chose to come here for lunch and we were not disappointed! Conveniently right on the iconic Dumbo street.

Space: Very spacious; there were seats inside, at a covered patio, and outside! Came in a group of 5 because the weather was amazing we decided to sit outside.

Service: Normal, we had a friendly server and we were seated right away

Food: Great! For the appetizers/sharable, we got the Smokey Mac & Cheese($13), Sweet Potato Fries($8), and Truffle Parm Fries($9) all were actually 10/10! As for the entrees, 3/5 of us got the Grilled Marinated Sirloin Steak($29 ea), cooked perfectly to each of our liking as well as the Grilled Salmon($21), wasn’t dry! Both steak and salmon is part of the “plates” so it came with 2 market vegetables. Market vegetable; Asparagus with parmesan (10/10 this was the best side), Kale with spinach, shallots, and pumpkin seeds (6/10), Green peas with bacon and caramelized onions (8/10 my friend throughly enjoyed it), Roasted sweet potato with sour cream and scallion (8/10), Roasted mushroom with leek and fresh herbs (5/10 I LOVE mushroom so i was really looking forward to some mushroom but my friend and I couldn’t get passed this taste that we couldn’t tell from guessing the leek so not for us) and lastly Roasted rainbow carrots with fresh herbs (7/10 just carrots). We also got the CBLT with side salad($16) and it was okay nothing grand.

Drinks: Lemonade ($6) very refreshing!

20% gratuity is auto added for groups of 6 or more and it was added for us even though we were 5 which we were going to anyways so that’s not really an issue for us, just a heads...