Ye's Apothecary 夜莺 — Restaurant in New York

On March 23rd, I brought my party of 9, with an additional reservation for a party of 2, to Ye's Apothecary. It was my 22nd birthday, and I was very excited to bring my friends here, as I saw how good the reviews were and loved the ambiance, food, and drinks they promoted via Instagram. I had planned this celebration weeks in advance and did my best to contact the restaurant via email and DM to inquire about different times I could book my reservation, as I booked for an earlier time than I would have liked and wanted to know if it was possible to push it back. I barely was able to get any response or contact back except for DM, which is apparently not directly connected to the restaurant. Without any assistance on their end, I was constantly checking Resy and saw a desirable time slot open for my party of 9. Despite the hurdles of booking a reservation and trying to get in contact for assistance weeks in advance, I was still very excited and happy to be able to come to this establishment. Unfortunately, my experience was not good, and I am heavily disappointed with the service we were given. Firstly, I feel it is important to express that we were a mixed-race group, Latin, black, white, and Asian; we all feel as though our service was influenced by our appearances and races. Our waitress was not only extremely rude, but she was also blatantly micro-aggressive, specifically toward my black friend. From greeting, her first impression and introduction were unfriendly. Then, when we began ordering, she snapped her fingers at us, insinuating that we should hurry up and order. In terms of her micro-aggressions, my friend did not know how to use chopsticks, so he made the training version. As someone who is Chinese, I saw no issue with him doing so, nor did I find it out of the ordinary for someone to use a napkin to make training chopsticks. I was not offended and did not need him to learn how to use chopsticks right then and there instead of simply enjoying the celebration. She, however, decided it was appropriate to ask him if she could take a picture of him using the training chopsticks. He said yes to be polite, but did not fully feel comfortable with the picture being taken. After laughing while taking her first picture, she left, came back, and took another one with flash and his face in it, pushing the scope of what was "asked", and lacked all means of professionalism. Some time later, she came back, and he asked her if his food was being brought out since he did not see it at the table and he wanted to make sure he had gotten it since she had given the final call for food before. She leaves and comes back with the orders, and in response to my black friend's question, she unacceptably asks, "Are you stoned?" as he was simply trying to clarify his order was there, all with a serious demeanor, and she walks away. At the end, when we were splitting the bill amongst our group, she kept walking away and coming back to watch over us and roll her eyes at us, trying to figure out how we would split the bill. This occurrence happened multiple times before we finally paid. The tip was also mandatory and 20% of a large bill, we as a whole group do not believe in any way our waitresses services deserved any amount of that tip. She fully lacked professionalism, friendliness, attentiveness, and respect in all our interactions with her. In addition, on this reservation, I specified that it was my birthday and was not given any birthday experience whatsoever. Not only in regards to the fact they did not give me a birthday dessert or sing happy birthday, but in the abysmal service I was treated with at a place I had very high hopes for. The food, drinks, and ambiance were, as advertised, amazing. However, the service, which I definitely had a sense of in my contacting issue, was terrible and honestly ruined my...

I’m utterly disgusted with the service and management of this place. We were a party of 6 celebrating an important evening and the staff almost ruined our night. Our reservation was put at two small round cafe tables. The set up was off because one person had to sit in between 2 benches that couldn’t be put together without creating a gap, so basically one guest had a butt cheek on each bench for the duration of the meal. When we asked for an extra chair to be more comfortable they said they didn’t have one.

We chose 11 dishes and I asked the server if she could make sure we didn’t get everything at one time. We already were very tight just with drinks and water and it felt like there wouldn’t be enough space for the amount we ordered. She responded “I can’t really do that. It’s first come, first serve.” That phrase isn’t really applicable in this scenario and also front of house should be able to fire dishes based on the speed that customers are consuming their meal. So, it felt like she was too lazy or not knowledgeable enough to execute this.

Dishes started to arrive but we had no plates or chopsticks to eat with. We all agreed the food was great. Kudos to the chef for the Crab Tofu with Egg Yolk, the Sichuan Dumplings, and Filet O Fish.

I actually had to eat holding my plate in my hand because there was no table space. The runner came out and tried to put more food down but there was no room, so he had to return to the kitchen. After a bit, they brought our last 3 dishes out but the fried calamari was cool so we had to send it back.

After clearing our plates, the waitress tried to give us the bill twice even though we were still ordering drinks. At $20 a cocktail, don’t you want us to keep drinking? Icing on the cake was when we were ready to pay, the staff tried to apply an automatic 22% gratuity charge. Freaking Appalling! This is illegal, by the way. Had service been halfway decent, it honestly wouldn’t have been a problem, but that just wasn’t the case. When we explained that we wanted to leave 20% the server told us that’s not restaurant policy, and that a manager would come over. I would gladly explain to the manager why we did not feel 22% gratuity was appropriate, but they never came. However, a bill was dropped with 20% gratuity applied post-tax. Difference of $8 but at this point, it was more about the principle than the actual monetary amount. The whole thing felt very slimy and unappreciated, and no apology. I emailed the restaurant directly because I know poor reviews can hurt a business, but never got a reply, so whoever is monitoring their emails also doesn’t care about the customer experience. Such a shame because the food is good and the...

March 23rd 10pm: Came here with a party of 9 and added an additional 2 people with no issue for a birthday celebration. We arrived an hour early hoping to possibly get seated but we weren’t able to which was expected for it being a Saturday night, so no issue there. We came back at our reservation time and got seated, we got seated in the back in a nice comfortable area. Our waitress comes with a very sour greeting, so not off to a great start (name is unknown being that on our receipt it says “training N”). We start to order our drinks and proceed to order our food after, we are a large group so naturally we want to try a couple of things and share. While we are ordering the waitress seems very annoyed and impatient, starts to subtely snap her fingers insinuating that she wants us to hurry up... How would you feel being snapped at by your waiter? After we have received our food and drinks which were very good (and only impressional part of the experience aside from the atmosphere). Someone in our group did not know how to use chopstick so they made their own training chopsticks to make their experience a bit easier and the waitress decides to ask to take a picture of them. Minutes later she comes back and takes another one with flash and exposes his face (unknown to where this photo may go), it was funny and cute the first time but the second was pushing all limits... We ordered a couple more entrees and she calls for last minute orders. The service keeps getting worse and worse, after the last orders are brought out someone asks for the menu again and waitress denies since the last call for food was announced and they mention that they are missing something. She leaves and comes back with our orders and names ever single one and in the midst of the discussion she asks “are you stoned?”... again very unprofessional and RUDE. At the end of eating we asked for the dessert menu being that it was a birthday celebration which was communicated at the time of reserving and when we arrived (so no dessert or hoorah for the birthday girl). To top it off she told the card holder to keep the receipt which made everyone think she was insinuating that no one would pay their part which is none of her business and seemed very targeted. Being that this establishment is beautiful, elegant, portrays themselves as this exquisite speakeasy (just down one flight of stairs) and food/drinks were delicious doesn’t compensate for how our party was treated and the display of unprofessionalism. It definitely took away from the experience and left a very sour taste in our mouth. For the amount that was paid it was not worth the nasty...