Prime39 — Restaurant in Town of Hempstead

I came to Prime 39 for my 35th birthday. From what I can remember, I had a great time. I sent a couple of restaurant ideas to my mom and she decided that she wanted to come here for her 73rd birthday. I initially made the reservation on OpenTable, but it only allowed me to reserve a maximum of 6 people. In the notes I mentioned for the restaurant to give me a call since they didn’t open until 5 PM. The restaurant did give me a call and advise me It would be a $20 deposit per person for 10 people. After mentioning one of the persons would be an infant I only had to pay a deposit for 9. Unfortunately, the machine to take the deposit wasn’t working. I made several attempts to pay even calling multiple times but they decided to just make the reservation without the deposit and basically just taking my word for it. I thought that was nice. The reservation was for 830 and we arrived at 8:15 Friday night. They had a dj and most of the tables had patrons. The atmosphere and ambiance was really nice. I brought my Mother a cake and was told by the hostess it would be $45 to put sparkles and cut it. I admit I was a little agitated by that. I’ve never had to pay fee at any other restaurant. I mentioned it wasn’t told to me or mention on open table or the website. Just like the $20 pp deposit. At that time a woman came up to the hostess stand which later She told me she was a manager. She mentioned to me all of this was mentioned in the email confirmation I received. I go to check my email and the only confirmation I received was from OpenTable. No mention of a deposit or cake fee. I let her know I didn’t get an email confirmation from the restaurant directly. In my mind I’m thinking if the restaurant is aware of a birthday being celebrated, why not mention dessert options or mention the cake charge verbally on the phone when making the reservation? Why wait after a deposit is made and send all the information in an email? At first I was going to pay it but after thinking about it, I told them to forget it. We get seated in the back. It was able to comfortably accommodate my family. As I sat down and looked at the menu I realized it was a prefixed menu. It didn’t seem bad at $65 pp but I wanted to make my own food choices. The same woman (manager) whom is now our server mentioned the email again. Aware that I told her I didn’t get the email, she told us it would be ok for the table to order from the regular menu. I started off with the drink “Peaches” which was very strong and took me awhile to finish -10/10. My mom ordered the calamari - 8/10 because it wasn’t hot. The char broiled oysters i least enjoyed 4/10 but my sister loved them. 3 of us ordered the half rack of lamb chops which was tasty 100/10. I ordered the stuffed shrimp with mash potato’s and broccolini 6/10. The shrimp was ok I didn’t really care for the mashed potatoes and the broccolini had no flavor at all. The creamed spinach was -10/10. I genuinely feel like none of the food was hot but room temp. I also feel like $10 per side at the amount they gave wasn’t worth it. All in all despite the miscommunication we enjoyed dinner. I really appreciate the manager going the extra mile and making things right. She ended up serving the cake with sparkles for no extra charge. She mentioned it wasn’t my fault that the machine wasn’t working to take the deposit and the lady who was helping me with that was concerned about the deposit and forgot to send the email. Will I return idk. But I will say the restaurant should definitely mention the stipulations and options for larger groups. I’m big on transparency and go to restaurants A LOT! I read a couple reviews on google and see that the restaurant responds to all of them. I would hope they take the customers experience into consideration and make the proper changes. Some of the reviews are similar with a lot of time in between to make...

I hate doing this to black businesss, as a black woman myself. But prime 39 has got to be one of the worst establishments I’ve ever been a patron at. I came on Christmas Eve as they were hosting a party and explicitly mentioned drink specials as well as food specials. I thought this would be a great night to catch up with old friends and have a drink and a bite. But I was wrong.

First and foremost, the 3 of us (all women) walk in and immediately we are greeted by a man who demanded to know if we had “reservations” despite the place looking barren. The manager (I believe her name was Mina?) then proceeded to tell us that in order for us to be seated we were going to have to buy a bottle at that point. I was very very upset because nowhere on this flyer for December 24 did they say that a bottle must be purchased in order to be seated nonetheless, my friends and I were very adamant about staying just because we had traveled so far so we agreed to buy the bottle and be seated. It was then that we were told we were going to have to buy not one but two bottles since in additional person was joining our table. This was the first red flag to me not only was the establishment empty and they lied about them being packed out or they’re being a multitude of reservations but the fact that we now had to buy two bottles, it was almost as if they were trying to rob us.

The problems didn’t stop here though. Our server took almost 30 mins to even come to give us menus and water. We were then told by our server Zouzou, I believe that was her name, that the kitchen was closed which was in fact, I believe the most shocking thing of the night. Not only were they trying to get us obnoxiously drunk but then to not offset the alcohol intake with any type of substance no food, no bread is insanity to me and also horrible business practices.

We then waited an additional 30 minutes before the bottles made it to our table. We had to open our own bottles mind you. It was here that they brought out the sparklers and did the whole show but despite their club like efforts, it did not make us any happier than we were. The night went on, and we were ignored by our server and other staff members when we needed water or additional things for the table. Typically, I do not go to places looking to bash them or put them down in anyway, I honestly go for good vibes, good food and good atmosphere and because they missed, almost all of these marks it was hard for me to leave a positive review on this establishment.

Another thing that I noticed was they had a very strict dress code, which I understand if you want to convey a certain type of image for your establishment, then yes, there should be a dress code. However, upon being seated and taking a look around there were a multitude of skanky clothes, woman, although it explicitly said that any type of skimpy clothing would not be allowed to be seated in sat establishment. It didn’t affect me personally, but it was just funny to see how they will bend the rules for some patrons, but chastise others.

Overall, the entire experience was subpar the bathroom situation was even worse there was pee on the floor. There was toilet paper everywhere and I am just really upset that there was no food and we had to drink not one but two bottles of alcohol on an empty stomach, if you were looking for a good time where you will be attended to in a timely fashion and fed this is not the...

I was treated to my birthday dinner here after my sister attended a dinner here the week before. She raved over it so much that when asked where I wanted to go for dinner o chose here.

I pretty much had an idea of what to expect prior to my dinner. IT’s location isn’t too bad for those coming from other boroughs like Brooklyn and Queens. It was a Tuesday night so parking wasn’t an issue. We had 6:30 pm reservations.

Once we arrived the hostess was tending to a call but apologized once she was free. She got us seated quickly and let us know what specials they had going on as it’s Restaurant Week.

It was still happy hour and we took advantage of it. Our first round was a drink called the Viking Creed and it was a hitter. It contained Bourbon, elderflower liqueur, honey cinnamon syrup and lemon juice. Here’s the kicker, it comes wrapped with fresh cucumber slice (in the glass) and a lit cinnamon stick on top as of its a blunt. I’m not a maharaja smoker but I loved it. Very clever use of a garnishment.

For our starters we had sweet potato deviled eggs, Cesar salad and Thai Chili fried calamari and lastly the Mac and cheese. I’m allergic so the calamari was off limits for me but my brother in law said it was really good. The deviled eggs were OMG amazing. Every ingredient added balance. The Mac and cheese needs nothing but for you to eat it. Lol so good…. The salad so good but I prefer a greener salad. This was iceberg and I’m not a fan. None the less it was good. For dinner I chose the Prime steakhouse burger. It came with fries. The burger was huge and very good a little sloppy from the sauce (next time I’ll ask for the sauce on the side) my sister had the lollipop lamb chops which are jerked and baby them thangs …… I don’t even care for lamp chops but these are really good. My Bro in law had the BBQ king salmon. He was really stoked over the mashed sweet potatoes. Lol

We indulged in a few more rounds of drinks and for the last round we switched it up and got the Flower Bomb which was Bourbon, elderflower liqueur aperol and lemon juice. This baby right here is strong and makes a statement just like the perfume. 😜 of you like cute drinks this ain’t for you. She’s pretty but strong. Loved the flower garnishes on this one as well.

Because it was my birthday the menu said happy birthday to you (no personalization)

They brought out a birthday dessert that I thought I would not be able to eat but it was so good. It was a freshly make waffle with an amazing vanilla ice cream.

Lastly the restaurant wasn’t a big spot. Nice and cozy feel and decor. The music(playlist) was everything. Nothing like good food and drinks while vibing to a great playlist.

I would definitely recommend this spot. Service was excellent, food was good and the libations even better. Next time I’m eating a tomahawk ...