Shopsins

Restaurant Information:

120 Essex Street New York, NY 10002
Get Directions

(212) 924-5160

shopsins.com

Map:


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Service 11/15 or 73%, alternatively 8/15 or 53.33%

  • Hostess(N/A)

There was no hostess

  • Promptness(4/5)
Once we were seated, we were immediately given menus and asked if we wanted anything to drink.  This place is all about going fast, fast, fast.  They don’t waste time doing anything.
  • Alertness(3/5)
I think the service was exactly what I expected.  Because of their promptness, they suffer a little in the alertness.  I think with what they have they manage very well.
  • Friendliness(1/5 or 4/5 points)*
I’ve given them two different scores here and let me explain why.  If you’re from New York and you’re used to hearing people say “fuck you” to each other while they work and enjoy a good spat, this place is great.  If you’re the kind of person that would be offended by this, you’ll likely leave horrified.  Also, you should know that they will kick you out of their restaurant and they dictate when the last person gets served.  This is their restaurant and you get to eat there.


Food and Drink 16/20 or 75%

  • Price(4/5 points)
You get a ton of food for a very solid price.  After looking at the menu you might think the prices are high, but when you see the portions you’ll understand that they are more than justified.
  • Quality of Food(5/5)
The food here melts in your mouth.  On top of that, they are highly creative with their food creations.  I had never heard of macaroni and cheese pancake before visiting this place, now I want to order it everywhere. S’mores pancake? Yeah, they have that too.  I just can’t explain how many different short order combinations the owner put on the menu.
  • Quality of Beverage(3/5 points)
I’d say the coffee is the definite weak point of the experience.  I would easily pay more money for them to buy better coffee and I think it would launch them as close to brunch food perfection as they could get.
  • Presentation(4/5 points)
They vary their presentation but everything comes out on adequate plates, or in some cases pans.  It really is hard to enjoy the presentation when all you really want to do is eat everything.

Decor and Space 16/20 or 75%

  • Cleanliness(3/5 points)
The restaurant is as clean as I would expect.  They make sure to wipe down each table before another customer sits, which definitely helps because some of the dishes get messy.
  • Theme(5/5 points)
It’s family owned, short order dining at it’s finest.  You feel like you’re eating in the pantry and the Mets gear lets you know you are definitely in New York.
  • Adequate Seating(2/5 points)
There just needs to be more seating for this place.  There is always a line to sit and they could likely fill a place twice their size.
  • Location(4/5 points)
It’s literally right next to the subway stop.  The only thing that stopped this from getting a perfect score was the fact that it’s inside the Essex Market and if you don’t know it’s at the south side then you’re going to spend some time finding it.  It’s also right by the Williamsburg bridge if you want to take a nice walk back to Brooklyn.


Bonus(3/5 points)

One point for creativity in naming the dishes.

One point for conflict resolution skills between feuding siblings.

One point for sticking to his guns and being the guy he always is.

Total score 43/55, with bonus 46/55 or 83%

Roebling Tea House

Restaurant Information:

143 Roebling St
Brooklyn, NY 11211-3365
(718) 963-0760
Get directions

Map:
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Service  10/20 or 50%

  • Hostess(1/5 points)

I was baffled at how bad this hostess actually was.  She would wait for people to come in and put their name on a list then walk away completely.  She’d then return and tell them their wait time.  Once she thought she had a table for you she would then wander off again to figure out which table to place you.  I really think she had no concept of how to do her job.

  • Promptness(2/5 points)

Once we were seated we were instantly approached by our waitress.  We were left to ponder the menus for mere moments before she was back asking for our order.  My friend scrambled to order something she had no idea what it was.

  • Alertness(4/5 points)

I will say our drinks were refilled with out a heart beat being missed and I wouldn’t have noticed her if it weren’t for the giant bottle of water plopped down on our table.

  • Friendliness(3/5 points)
I want to say they were friendly, but really I think everyone that works in the waitstaff was just trying to act friendly but really trying to appear like they just don’t care.


Food and Drink 8/20 or 40%

  • Price(1/5 points)

This place was so ridiculously overpriced for what you got that I was kind of insulted.  I felt like my meal probably could have cost 3-4$ less than it did as could have my friends.

  • Quality of Food(3/5 points)

My chicken fried steak was delicious but the steak definitely wasn’t cooked all the way through and I could have done with a bit more of the gravy.  My friend’s dish was basically glorified mixed vegetables with scrambled eggs and bland as bland can be.

  • Quality of Beverage(2/5 points)

My friend said the coffee was nothing to write home about but they did have an extensive listing of teas.  I stuck to water which was served to us in an used wine or champagne bottle.  I was completely unsurprised that the waitress plopped a bottle down on our table, but it seemed like a pain to her to do it in the first place.  This is exactly why I hate The Water Bottle Problem, it turns the simple task of serving water into something that annoys you.

  • Presentation(2/5 points)

If they put effort into the presentation, it wasn’t on the two dishes we ordered.  Everything just looked kind of slapdash.

Decor and Space 15/20 or 75%

  • Cleanliness(3/5 points)

The plates, glasses, and flatware looked about as clean as I would expect, but nothing remarkable.

  • Theme(5/5 points)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the decor.  This place would be amazing if the waitstaff, price, and food selection didn’t blow.  Personally, I really want to take my camera and do a photo shoot in the restaurant.  The wood tables and patterned wall paper comfort you and the lighting from the large windows make everything feel much warmer.  I didn’t get a chance to sit outside as it was raining, but that option is available if you want it.

  • Adequate Seating(4/5 points)
This I had a hard time grading, I’m not going to lie.  I think this place is actually perfectly designed seating wise, but because of the hostess’ incompetence interjects an unnecessary delay which in turn creates the illusion that there is inadequate seating when really she could split a four top in to two two tops or the other way around and be fine.  I don’t think though she had the capacity to figure that out on her own though and thus the place looked far more packed than it should.
  • Location(3/5 points)

The restaurant is just a short walk from the Bedford L stop or a bit further of a walk from the Lorimer L stop.  The wide open sidewalks make for a pleasant post brunch stroll.  The restaurant is just far enough away from the hipsters that you don’t run into a ton of them, but enough of them gather at the restaurant for it to be annoying and that comes with the Williamsburg location.


Bonus(5 points)

If I could give negative bonus points, I would.

Overall score 33/60 or 55%

Bar Breton

Restaurant Information:

254 5th Ave

New York, NY 10001

(212) 213-4999

chefpiano.com

Map:
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Service 11/20 or 55%

  • Hostess(3/5 points)
The hostess was friendly and promptly sat me at a two person table.  Her service was what I would expect but nothing more.
  • Promptness(3/5 points)
The food didn’t take too long to get to us nor did we wait forever to order.  Everything was about average timing wise.  Alertness was more of an issue, though.
  • Alertness(2/5 points)
The waiter was fairly cognizant of our need for water, which I appreciated, but other than that he was kind of oblivious.  We asked for more milk for our coffee twice and it never got refilled.  Also, we asked for more coffee and each of us got only half a cup.  The next time I asked for coffee I got three fourths of a cup.
  • Friendliness(3/5 points)
The people there seemed to have good intentions just did a poor job of much of anything else.  I don’t really see them as going out of their way for any customer in the near future as our service was barely acceptable when the restaurant wasn’t that busy.


Food and Drink 9/20 or 45%

  • Price(1/5 points)
I was going to give this a two, but then I remembered I was charged six dollars for the bacon that was advertised as being five dollars.  Coffee was three dollars and worth maybe one.  My “french toast” was ridiculously priced at twelve dollars.  I left this place feeling like I was ripped off completely.
  • Quality of Food(2/5 points)
At no time during a brunching experience should I ever think, “I should have just paid five dollars at Dunkin Donuts,” but I did.  My “french toast”—I’m using quotes because no part of it tasted/resembled french toast—really tasted like a icing filled donut.  Also, there was really only one square of it.  My bacon was slim, crumbly, and otherwise unremarkable.  It’s truly sad when the best part of my dish was the fruit that garnished it.  On the other hand, my friend’s Madison galette was a surprising mixture of flavors; I’d order one of their galettes if you find yourself stuck here in the future.  Although I found it odd that a dessert menu was offered, the Nutella crepe was fairly tasty.
  • Quality of Beverage(2/5 points)
The coffee was kind of bad, which I’d normally just write off as having a bad cup.  But then I had another cup and got coffee grounds at the bottom of my cup.  Gross.  It really wasn’t that good.
  • Presentation(4/5 points)
Everything did look quite wonderful when it was presented to us.  However, I think only the Nutella crepe lived up to expectations; the rest was a total wash.  Each piece of our meal was presented on an adequately sized dish, some more decorated than others.

Decor and Space 11/20 or 55%

  • Cleanliness(3/5 points)
All the tables, flatware, dishware, and glassware look as clean as I would expect, nothing out of the ordinary in either direction.
  • Theme(3/5 points)
I can’t really say this place had a theme.  Maybe it was a wine bar, maybe it was a restaurant; I couldn’t tell.  I liked the use of color but not the bench seating.  It really felt like they had two totally different interior designers come in to work on the place: one for the walls and ceilings, etc. and the other for the tables and chairs.
  • Adequate Seating(2/5 points)
I’m 6’5” and my friend is 5’8” yet our knees kept bumping into one another at the incredibly uncomfortable booth we were seated in for our meal.  I think they probably could have lost a table or two and easily made the seating far more enjoyable.  By the end of the meal both of us had just swung our legs out to the aisle and leaned back against the wall as we talked.
  • Location(3/5 points)
It’s a very short walk from the subway in a very odd part of Manhattan.  The neighborhood makes me feel like Chinatown tried to open a second section of town on 28th street, but made it even shadier.


Bonus(5 points)

No bonus points could be awarded.

Total score 31/60 or 51.67%

Gottino

Restaurant Information:

52 Greenwich Ave # B

New York, NY 10011-8309

(212) 633-2590

ilovegottino.com

Map:
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Service (10/20) or 50%

  • Hostess(2/5 points)
I’m not really sure if the woman that I spoke with was the hostess, a woman that was some how involved with the restaurant, or just a customer.  Also, the time estimates were vastly inaccurate.  When I first got there I asked how long it would be to get a table outside and I was told 30 minutes; fair, but what bothered me was I heard the same estimate given out repeatedly even though no one left in the time I was there.
  • Promptness(1/5 points)
I shouldn’t ever have to ask for my coffee twice.  Also, it took near half a hour for our food to be presented.  Our coffees actually got served at the same time our food did which spells major issue in streamlining to me.  The waitstaff clearly had food assignments as well as their regular duties and I think in trying to balance out the two they ended up being sub-par in both which was disappointing.
  • Alertness(3/5 points)
I’d say the wait staff was about as alert as I’d expect, but then again they were right in front of me at the bar so there wasn’t much of a chance for them to miss anything.
  • Friendliness(4/5 points)
Every one I encountered there was quite friendly, almost surprisingly so, considering how mismanaged everything else was service-wise.


Food and Drink (14/20) or 70%

  • Price(2/5 points)
This almost got a one on price, but I decided that the coffee was worth far more than the three dollars I paid for it.  I probably would have paid four dollars for it.  But, the food was way overpriced.  Expect to get about half the portion size of other places.  I’m pretty sure that the dishes were served on saucers or at least small plates, so you get an idea of what I’m talking about here.
  • Quality of Food(5/5 points)
Amazing.  The food was so flavorful.  Clearly the focus of this establishment was the quality of their food and they nailed it.  I had the over easy eggs with bacon, which might be the best bacon I’ve ever had.  It was served with two small slices of bread that proved a bit tricky with the flatware I was using.  Also, the food was incredibly rich.  I wasn’t full when I was done eating, but it sat heavy in my stomach.
  • Quality of Beverage(4/5 points)
This would have gotten a five, but the water was served in essentially shot glasses.  Also, the water bottle problem reared its ugly head here, but in the form of a giant bottle of water that was shared amongst several people at the bar.  The coffee was probably the best cup I’ve had yet.  It was rich, flavorful, with a hint of sweetness and bitterness, i.e. the way coffee should taste.
  • Presentation(3/5 points)
The waiter did an excellent job of presenting our food and drinks, but when I saw the small sized plates I instantly thought, “that’s it?”  The small plates were overflowing and I think that contributed to make it look kind of a mess.

Decor and Space (10/20) or 50%

  • Cleanliness(3/5 points)
The place was as clean as I would expect.  I didn’t notice anything especially clean or dirty.
  • Theme(4/5 points)
It’s a wine bar with a focus on fine food.  Marble bar with wine stacked along one wall make it glaringly obvious what they’re after in their clientele.
  • Adequate Seating(1/5 points)
I’m pretty sure the bar takes up the vast majority of their seating area.  Their indoor seating and outdoor seating looked cramped.  I’m not exactly a fan of them asking us to sit at the bar after misquoting wait times to me.  If you’re going to have that many people sitting at the bar at least give us stools that are comfortable to sit in while we’re there; I felt like I was sitting on a converted school desk.  Also, they could have taken advantage of their large sidewalk space like their neighbors did and fit a few tables there, but they didn’t.
  • Location(2/5 points)
I was going to give this three, as it is about a medium walk from the subway, but it’s located on Greenwich which means 10th Street intersects 4th Street and things get wacky if you’re not careful.  Also, it sits next to a restaurant that looked like it did a better job at seating and pricing items reasonably.

Bonus(5 points)

One point for playing Beethoven the entire time I was there.

Total score 34/60, with bonus 35/60 or 58.33%

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