City Cellar Wine Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

I never write reviews unless I have an outstanding experience, or a very poor experience, and my trip to City Cellar was nothing short of poor. I will start off with saying that the staff, outside the manager, is very respectable and they do a very spectacular job at checking on their customers, so thank you to our waiter that evening who did what he could with the circumstances. Now for the bad parts. To start, my family and I had made a reservation at the restaurant for THANKSGIVING DAY expecting to have a thanksgiving dinner. It was only after receiving our first round of drinks and appetizers, and placing our orders for entrees that we were told there was no turkey left. Again, not the waiter's fault. It is unfortunate that we were told after placing our orders, because had we known prior to ordering, we would have chosen different meals. That was just the beginning. We request that the manager come speak to us, and I will admit out of anger comments were made, BUT not derogatory/hurtful/negative comments, more so comments out of concern such as "how did you not know sooner that you were running low on thanksgiving foods," or "why were we not informed sooner?" etc. After a brief interaction, as a family we decide we will settle for chicken in place of turkey as long as we can still gets the sides (stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc). WELL, turns out there is also NO sides left. Safe to say thanksgiving dinner was now ruined at that point. At that point, we are all annoyed simply because we make this reservation at a restaurant expecting this meal and after being there for an hour is when we are informed that the foods we were expecting to eat are no longer available. What bothered me the most was the manager's attitude. For starters: his way of "compensation" is a round of drinks or desserts. Sorry but I personally do not want free alcohol in place of the missing meal or dessert when I havent even had a meal. Next, claiming that he "offered" to have our "meal" (two appetizers and 1 drink each for 3 people) paid for only came about AFTER my upset mother made the comment that she did not want to pay, which under the circumstances was very fair to say. Next, it is understandable that it was the first Thanksgiving open to the public, BUT to only assume that 20% of the customers would order the thanksgiving meal.. on thanksgiving? poor planning. It is Thanksgiving. A majority of people eating in any restaurant on the holiday will expect turkey and sides. It should have been assumed that 100% of the customers would be enjoying the Thanksgiving meal, that is how overcompensation works, not assuming 20% will order the meal so you only buy enough food for 30-40% of customers, especially if parties are making reservations, then it should be assumed that the reserved parties are coming in on a Holiday, expecting this meal. Bottom line, it is extremely poor management. Lastly, what really got me, was Rob's final interaction. As our table is cleared up and we are finishing our drinks and waiting for our uber, my father steps outside to see if the car has arrived and I wait for my mother to get her belongings. As we leave our table, Rob decides to make a comment, but as myself, and assumes that a poorly written review posted on a different website was by me. Not only is it completely unprofessional for you as a manager to approach an unsatisfied customer because of their fair review, but your attitude on top of it was very distasteful. As an older, grown man, to approach a much younger female in the manner that you did, and it was obvious that you waited for my father to leave the vicinity so that you could make a comment, and to assume on top of that, that it was myself who wrote a review previously, says a lot about your skills as a manager.

At the end of the day, the experience overall was horrible. Will I give the restaurant another chance? If in the future there is someone else in charge, then yes. I will not step foot in a place where my family and I feel that we were...

I’ve never been more disappointed about spending $200 in my life. Please do not consider going to this place. City Cellar’s abysmal customer service is disguised by the facade of prime real estate and a nice bar. My girlfriend and I had a an 8:45 reservation on a Friday night. We arrived on time and waited about 10 minutes for a table, which is fine. We were led to a table in the more illuminated, but less desirable back room. We ordered water and martinis, and upon asking for the martinis we were asked for identification. My girlfriend and I are 26 and 24 and have been to upscale restaurants around the U.S. and around the world in the last few years and have not been asked for identification since we were in college. My girlfriend had left her wallet in my car and had to go back outside in 10 degree weather to get it. Upon her return, we were then notified by the waitress that all customers had to be out of the restaurant at 10PM despite their hours online saying they were open until 11PM. Why would a restaurant that needed to close by 10PM offer 8:45 reservations? It took another 10 minutes for our drinks to come and at that point it was already 9:15. This is when we decided to bring up the fact that no one had notified us about this up until now. The waitress provided robotic and what seemed like rehearsed answers (seemed like we were not even interacting with a human) and offered to send a manager over. A “manager” who appeared younger than us came over to the table, and reiterated most of the same robotic, non-human answers while showing zero compassion or understanding for our point of view. Note, we both work all week and look forward to a nice dinner on the weekend and City Cellar completely destroyed the possibility of that. To top it off, we ordered shrimp tacos as an appetizer and the waitress had the audacity to ask us if we wanted 4 tacos instead of 3 for an extra $5 (after all of our prior complaints). Shortly after that, she then asked if we wanted bread for the table (this was after we had been seated for 30 minutes - isn’t bread standard when eating out at a nice restaurant?). At this point, we knew this place was a lost cause. We ordered our entrees and just tried to enjoy our martinis for the remaining 25 minutes we had. I ordered a second martini and it came in a regular glass with no explanation aside from “sorry.” Our waitress was either really tired or just not all there. Our food came out at 9:50, at which point they turned the music off and turned all the lights up. The food wasn’t bad, but we knew this place was complete joke. When the bill came and it was $180 pre-tip (and not one item was comped for our terrible experience), I almost wanted to attempt to dispute the charge with my credit card company as I have never felt that way in my life after eating at a restaurant. This experience was worth $100 or less. TLDR - City Cellar is an illusion of a restaurant people go to when they want to eat somewhere “nice” because of the curb appeal and appearance of the place, but in all honesty you will have a way better experience at an Applebee’s, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s etc. for less than half the price. DO NOT GO HERE or you will waste your hard earned money. I spent more time writing this review than the amount of time we were allowed inside...

I have been there on several occasions over the years and was pleased with our experiences. There was no wow factor but it was a good restaurant with good food, great wines and they provided ok service. It was a go to option for us for dinner, drinks and brunch. Up until yesterday, I would have never thought I would be passing on such a terrible review. It all comes down to service and I hope this is a training opportunity for the ownership and management team. It's easy to get customers in the door but keeping them as loyal customers that will return requires a team dedicated to customer service and regrettably, City Cellar lacks this. I called to book a large brunch party. Maria the hostess answered and seemed to be annoyed by my questions. There was no enthusiasm whatsoever and rather she made it very clear that my questions were an annoyance . She was curt and very short with me and it was like pulling teeth. It was also very obvious that this was a young lady that has had no customer service training and did not know how to handle a potential customer on the phone. After a few minutes of what felt like pulling teeth, I asked to speak to a manager and after trying to aggressively divert my request, she abruptly put me on hold and the phone began to ring. She never asked to put me on hold or told me she was putting me on hold , I simply was cut off and transferred. The other line rang only to go to a voicemail. I left a voicemail but then called back. Maria answered again, sighed and said let me find the manager for you. I was then hung up on. I called back told Maria she had hung up on me and she just told me to hold. No acknowledgement or apology. Finally Diane gets on the phone. She does notnodentify herself and I ask if she is the manager and she says yes. I breathe a quasi sigh of relief thinking things would elevate a level in service. I explained to her the frustrating odyssey I experienced at Maria's hands and Diane's response was... how can I help you? No acknowledgement or apology. I quickly realized that this was now a trend that theres no acknowledgement or apologies for service failures at City Cellar. Since Diane is a manager and she couldnt be bothered why should her employees care? I asked her if she could help with a brunch and she conveyed a take it or leave it attitude...we are busy and it is what it is type of apathy. She was snippy, abrasive and very curt. I will likely never return to City Cellar and will be sure to pass on my experience so as to have others avoid being treated so poorly. Training is everything. SERVICE IS EVERYTHING! Your leaders should lead by example and your front line employees must be given tools to do their job. Customer service 101! It's a gorgeous restaurant but it just goes to show you that it's the people inside taking care of your customers that are what make...