When you require customers to pay 20% tip no matter what - that usually means your service and food are damn near impeccable. At least that's what I find in NYC where I live and dine frequently.Not true in my one and only experience at this restaurant. I will not be back. The only reason this rating is 2 stars instead of one is due to the dessert. Really. And I don't think the restaurant makes it.

Let's start with having a 7:30pm reservation, being seated on time - and not seeing ANY food at our table until 8:40pm, not even bread. We knew something was up when people around us who were seated later than us, had their entrée before we had bread. When we questioned the waitress, she cited that the kitchen was backed up and that the size of our party (5) might have something to do with it. Umm - there was a party of 5 nearby us, seated after us noshing on their steaks. No pass!

Food: My rib eye steak tasted bland (no seasonings). I requested Medium (warm) and it came partially medium rare and partially well done. How do you do that? I asked the waitress for steak sauce, but by the time she got back with it, I was done trying to deal with the bland beast.

My mother's Chilean sea bass was such a disappointment she didn't finish it - citing it smelled fishy and was probably spoiled (FYI fresh Chileans sea bass does NOT smell fishy. If fresh and cooked properly, it tastes like a cross between buttery lobster and fish.) Mom said the rice it came with was a minute rice (my mother is from the South - she knows good rice) and the topping was too sweet. She had been at this restaurant 3 times before a year ago and found this dish to be her favorite. So to come back to find the quality went totally downhill was a disappointment.

She sent it back, telling the waitress why, A few minutes later, the waitress came back with an explanation from the kitchen - citing the source for their Chilean sea bass had changed since my mother last came to the restaurant. They would be returning to their previous source in a few months and encouraged Mom to come back. (Which she will not be)

I will say my 93 year old grandmother put a world of hurt on her swordfish plate - so I guess that dish was ok. My dad silently finished his filet mignon, but he was hungry after waiting so long (our entrees didn't come until almost 9pm) My aunt wrestled with her sous vide 1/2 chicken served with bacon-shallot roasted potatoes and vegetable. She doggy bagged most of it because "there was no bacon in that!" ...but seriously, she didn't like her food.

It got better in the end. We ordered the Lady Finger cheesecake - SO so good. The cheesecake is like a mousse - light and creamy. The waitress, surprised my dad with a slice of free cheesecake for his birthday after she overheard us talking about it. Which he appreciated and promptly ate...leaving only a sliver of graham cracker crust as its memorial

The rest of use split the Kentucky Bourbon butter cake. It sounded better than it tasted - but it was ok.

The waitress also did her best to rectify our situation by not charging us for the Chilean sea bass or the cocktail my aunt ordered and disliked. But really - when you REQUIRE patrons to pay 20% tip, the food and service need to be on-point. Not perfect, but on-point. The waitress did apologize profusely, including "ma'am-ing" us to death. Not sure whether she was new, just having an off-night or no one has ever taken her to task for service.

And please note: I have been a waitress before, so I am all about tipping properly - in exchange for good service. I am fine paying premium prices - if the food is off-the-chain, which this was not. And I also really get that no one and nothing is perfect. But if you are going to REQUIRE people to pay 20%, you better be damn near it, most of the time - on fleek!