Wollensky's Grill — Restaurant in New York

Wow! What a tremendous disappointment from a place I’d really enjoyed before.

Here’s the TLDR: service was haphazard, meal was lacking flavor and just generally poorly executed, and the price (even by NYC steakhouse standards) was simply not justified.

More details for those interested: Made a reservation for dinner at Wollensky’s Grill with a friend this past Saturday. We waited at the front for 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us, were finally told by a server that someone would be right with us, then waited a few minutes longer before a host eventually seated us. (To be fair, the bar was pretty crowded when we walked in, but the wait time was definitely excessive and a sign of the lackluster dinner to come.)

We were seated in the extended dining room that’s been built off the side of the building. It’s fully connected to the bar and well heated, so it’s by no means an outdoor dining enclosure, but the tables are really tight and it’s completely devoid of any atmosphere. It’s a much quieter experience than eating in the main room with the bar - depending on your party this might be desirable for you, but it’d be nice if they offered the choice (either when making the reservation on Open Table, or upon arriving).

Our waiter was perfectly competent and nice, though I had a really excellent waiter last time I came in which probably altered my expectations of the level of service to expect here.

We requested the full menu from the Smith & Wollensky’s dining room next door and ordered the Caesar salad, prime rib, bone in rib steak, hash browns, and creamed spinach, along with a bottle of Cabernet.

The Caesar was spectacularly average. I mean it didn’t taste bad, but I could have made the same thing with any of those generic grocery store boxed Caesar kits and a head of romaine for 1/4 of the price. The two sides were probably the best part of the meal, and even those were a bit forgettable. The hash browns in particular were crisped really well, but didn’t quite have the richness I remember them having last time I was here.

But let’s get to the reason most people are coming here to spend their money: I ordered my ribeye medium rare - it had a decent if inconsistent char/crust, and a nice color inside. Unfortunately, I found the texture to be a bit too chewy throughout, instead of having the little bit of melt-in-your-mouth tenderness at the center of the cut that I find ideal. Far worse though, was the absence of any of the depth of flavor I’d expect from a dry-aged steak, and not nearly enough salt. My friend ordered the prime rib medium rare, and when it came to the table almost completely grey, we were a bit nervous. The inside did turn out to be perfectly cooked, and I found this had a bit more going on than my ribeye did, but I certainly wouldn’t call it mindblowing, especially at $78. (I’ll also add that while I don’t understand the logistics of a kitchen this busy churning out prime rib at different temperatures, we did spot another table with a prime rib that was perfectly pink around the outside, so I’m not sure what happened to cause the one that made it to our table to have such a poor presentation.)

Overall, I walked away from this dinner feeling disappointed and ripped off, with a bill totaling $350 after tax and tip. I last ate here on a Saturday night in 2017, and it was one of my most memorable steakhouse experiences ever. This dinner is sticking in my mind for much different reasons. I originally thought I’d give it 3 stars, but the feeling has only soured since last weekend and I can’t recommend you eat here unless your dining budget is such that you can stomach spending $150-$200pp on a potential letdown. I’ve dined at several other restaurants in the Quality group recently and had good experiences, but on this night Wollensky’s Grill...

My husband and I had the worst experience tonight! Our waitress was not helpful, we felt like we were treated poorly because we were people of color. We expressed to the waitress how awful the food was and she made no offer to rectify the situation.

My husband ordered the rib eye, it is his favorite steak and he orders it at most steak houses we visit. Tonight the ribeye served seemed to have nothing but fat, more than usual. He ordered hash with his steak and it was extremely oily.

I ordered the sirlon, same thing. I ordered it medium and it came out well. It was dry and had no flavor. I also ordered the baked potato and it looked like something that I made at home. And even so, it was actually the best thing I ordered tonight. We ordered the mac and cheese as well and that too was tasteless, heavy and had no flavor, just excess cheese. My husband asked if there was any way to have a lighter version and we were told no. Our waitress could see we did not touch much of our food and no customer satisfaction was offered.

We paid close to $200 for our meal and barely ate a thing. We expressed more than once how disappointing it all was and again no attempt to satisfy our issues were made. We said that we would take home only the steak and potato and they packed it all and gave it to us anyway; which tells me, our waitress either was nit listening or simply did not care. My husband and I decided to just leave the bag and all it’s contents there on the table, paid our bill and left.

No exaggeration, this was THE worst experience we’ve ever had.

We decided not to make a scene or take it any further, as we did not want to give in to what we thought they expected from us as black people. It’s a shame that you can still walk into a restaurant in NYC and be judged or treated differently because you don’t look like anyone else in the room.

I would have given this experience a below one star, if that was an option. I rarely write reviews but this experience was so awful, I felt compelled to...

Ordered filet mignon, lamb chop, steam Lobster, soft shell crab, clam chowder, asparagus. Filet mignon: burnt residue on the skin, tasted so bitter and bad, ruined a beautiful piece of mignon. Lamb chop: okay-so-so for the price and the place, cant comment. Steam lobster: wasn't fresh as the meat is stuck to the shell. Simple test. The one i had in boston was much fresher and tastier. But i got a parking ticket due to expired meter. Clam chowder, i bought one from the ACME grocery store in Philadelphia was much better. They added bacon into the soup and it overwhelmed the true taste of clam chowder. Asparagus: big and thick, okay. The best food was the bread. But we have to request ourself, the servant didn't initiate to give as it was a busy night. The servant was okay, he did what we asked to do so but upon request. It was a busy night yet he accomplished our request and charged 20% gratitude without my concern. Lastly, the pen was out of ink, im not sure the servant saw it or not as i showed the receipt towards his face and he glimpsed it. We expected to pay a higher amount of money for our last night in NYC Because Wollensky has a long and good reputation, but we didnt expect such a low and disgrace food taste. Seriously, the steak my friend cooked was much better. At least there's no burnt residue on my filet mignon. Hope they will improve in the future or discard foods...