The Village Lanterne — Restaurant in Town of Babylon

This restaurant IS NOT handicap accessible.

I posted the below review on a local FB page and the owner's son in law, husband of the hostess, responded that I needed to "get a hobby" and "get a life"

The food is good, as is the ambiance is also great and live entertainment.

With that out of the way, the customer service, particularly the hostess, is unaccommodating and lacks empathy. I had a party of 12 on Father's Day. I was the first in my party to arrive. My father had a massive stroke two years ago. He is unable to walk without assistance and mostly uses a wheelchair when not at his home. The hostess brought us to a tall staircase, with type of stairs that have a space under each step - easy to stick your foot through and trip, especially if you're uncoordinated and lack in mobility and cognitivity, as my father does. I explained to the hostess that my dad is handicapped and the stairs would be extremely difficult and dangerous for him. Her almost defensive response was "I know, but we're completely booked." Looking around, there were only a few tables with diners. It was clear in her response that she just didn't care to enough to see what she could do. (FYI, when we made our reservation almost a month ago, we were not told there were stairs or asked if anyone in our party had mobility issues, something that should absolutely be done if they know they will be seating their second floor). I would have left right then and there, but my family was traveling over an hour from Brooklyn and as it was late on Father's Day, we decided to sit and wait for my father to arrive and maybe they would have a change of heart.

When my mom arrived with my father, she spoke with the same hostess and explained my father's condition further. Her response was "we have room in the back, but that table is reserved for a table of 14." We were a table of 12. Upstairs where they placed us, there were 5-6 LARGE empty tables, with plenty of room for even more tables. This room probably gets booked for parties a lot, because you could very easily fit at least 75 people in there with plenty of room to spare. If there was a table downstairs that was empty, and a ton of room upstairs to accommodate parties 6x the size as ours, I do not see an issue. My brothers in law had to slowly & carefully assist my father climb the large flight of stairs. Had they not been there, it would have been impossible to get him upstairs.

As the waitress came to take our drink orders, we asked for a beer menu. We were told they did not have one, and we could go downstairs to view it on a board. How a German restaurant does not have a beer menu, I don't know. A member of our party had to go back downstairs and to take a photo of the menu. As I previously said, this is an expensive restaurant - our meal cost $600 - that's with 3 kids. This isn't McDonald's where you go to the counter to view a menu. I don't want to complain about our waitress, as she seemed very sweet and was definitely overworked (this is more on management then anything else in my opinion, as I think more could be done in terms of the wait staff being able to serve upstairs patrons more efficiently).

The most disappointing part of our evening was when we had to help my father down the stairs. As the dining room was now more crowded than when we came in, several tables stared at my dad as he made his descent down the stairs. It was humiliating for him, I am sure - I am not exaggerating when I say people were STARING, (particularly the patrons at the first table in the middle after the bar). My sister and I were heartbroken as we watched my dad struggle down the stairs over several minutes with all eyes of other diners on him. Had the host been accommodating of a disabled human being, this would not have happened. If you love someone with a disability, and see how they struggle on a daily basis and how others view them and stare, then you know where I am coming from.

The food is fantastic, but it isn't worth the poor treatment. I am extremely disappointed and sadly will...

We have been coming here for years, and unfortunately I have to say that Village Lantern was off their game tonight. It was as if the kids were running the store, and management was nowhere to be found. Food was off but still good, except for the overcooked Spaten, but service was significantly down. First, this was a Saturday night, but you would think it was a Tuesday night with the absence of their traditional music and entertainment. Our server then greets us with the 'Sorry, no sandwiches after 5pm rule (at 6:30pm), which originally we were fine with, but after seeing sandwiches being delivered to other patrons this irritated us. Since we were a large group, our feeling is that our waitress wanted the bill as large as possible, and sandwiches are on the cheaper side. When asked for separate checks, we got attitude, no answer, and no separate checks. Although the place did not seem crowded, it took unacceptably long for us to get our appetizers and our meals. Our waitress disappeared for a long length of time while we all were in need of additional drinks, and she was nowhere to be found. Then we get the bill and discover that our server gave herself a nice 20% tip which was calculated on the final total which includes the 3% charge for using a credit charge. Service did not warrant a 20% tip, not to mention that it should NOT be calculated on top of the final total. When confronted about it, the waitress seemed confused and needed to go consult with others before answering my question. We were then informed that this amount was 'suggested', although there was nothing to indicate that on the bill. My feeling is that they were trying to pull a fast one on us, as they thought most people would not scrutinize a bill that was over $700. Overall not happy, and sadly would not return. Will add my review to Yelp and other places next

Thank you for your response, Village Lantern, but your response did not accept any responsibility and provided a lot of excuses. There was no miscommunication with the 'no sandwich rule'. We were told 'No sandwiches period'. We were NOT informed that only certain sandwiches were not available. I also find it hard to believe that sandwiches take more time than any of your more expensive meals. Glad to hear a manager was present, however, I guess she failed to notice that our primary server had not checked in on us in an hour, and we all had empty glasses. I was about to go to the bar for a beer Regarding the 'suggested tip', you failed to comment on the fact that the 'suggested amount' was applied to the grand total which included tax and 3% charge for using a credit card. In my experience mandatory group gratuity is never 20%. It is lower, and up to the groups discretion to provide more. It is ALWAYS calculated upon the sub-total, but I made sure I corrected that. There is no motivation for providing good service if a 20% tip is mandatory. That sums up the night perfectly. I am sure you were busy, but there were many tables around us that were empty Understood about your policy on splitting checks. However, we did not even get the courtesy of a response. I am sorry if splitting checks is too complicated for you, as many other restaurants are able to provide this courtesy to their patrons I have been to your restaurant many times, and I can assure you that delivery of our food this Saturday night was much longer than any other time that we visited your restaurant. I see you disagree with our assessment of what timely service is. Thank you for the clear answer as to why you do not have music on Memorial day weekend. It makes sense to have music on Tuesday and none on a busy holiday weekend. I think you know I was referring to the Spaeztle being overcooked, but from your sarcastic response I can see...

I heard a lot of good things about this place and my expectations were set a little high, so that could add to why my experience was average. I don't eat beef or pork and this place is known for their sausages (my girlfriend did eat the sausages and said they were pretty good), so I definitely considered that in my overall score.

Service:

The service was pretty slow. When we got there the restaurant was almost empty and they sat us in this corner hidden from the entire restaurant. There were tons of booths and other tables open and I felt like a kid being punished in the corner. After we sat the waitress (who wasn't our actual waitress) took our drink order. It took about ten minutes to get all of our drinks.

When the waitress did finally come she took our order and did answer all of our questions and was helpful. The table that came in 20 minutes after us got their bread before we did.

Food:

As an appetizer we ordered their cheese dip platter and their potato pancakes. The cheese dip was actually pretty good and their bread and pretzels were spot on. I thought the cauliflower was boring and they should've done more with it. They just plopped some steamed cauliflower on the plate and called it a day.

The potato pancaked were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside how I like them.

My girlfriend got the "Best of the Wurst" platter. She said it was pretty good and enjoyed it. They didn't have the sausage options on the menu which I thought was odd. Takes time away from the waitress to have to explain what they all are.

I ordered the Chicken Stroganoff. I asked the waitress if the gravy was made with meat. She told me they sprinkled bacon on top. There's no mention of bacon in the menu and there should be. I got it without the bacon. The gravy had a good gravy texture, but we pretty bland. The chicken was also overcooked and really bland. I had to add a bunch of salt and pepper. The veggies on the side were cooked nicely though.

Overall, I'm definitely not dying to go back. Other than the bread and the potato pancakes the food was really bland. I know everything is more expensive, but the food is really overpriced for the experience. Service was really slow. Didn't meet...