Impressive space.
Food is made with top quality ingredients, cooked perfectly and very well presented.
Service, while well intended, is very far off the mark for a restaurant of this intended caliber. Couldn’t find my bottles of Champagne that I had byob’d for a good 20 minutes, I refilled my own sparkling water glass at least as often as not, I had to ask for my glass of Champagne to be refilled a number of times (the bottle was kept in a near corner of the room), after telling the server I wanted white wine stems instead of flutes I was still brought over flutes not once, but twice, the wait staff is not as well-versed on the menu as they should, etc etc. This all with the restaurant being not even close to capacity.
Hopefully they can either properly train the current staff or bring in some better qualified people. But, imo they need to do it sooner rather than later no matter how good the food.
IMO, this is unfortunately all to common, and why I tend to stick to a select few restaurants in my areas and other areas I frequent. Hopefully this place will improve however.
while this is generally good advice, some context is appropriate here. this is the new $20M restaurant that recently opened at Lincoln Center helmed by Jonathan Benno, who spend the last 6 years running the kitchen at a cute little French place called Per Se. So, they should really have their shite together.
I absolutely understand that Yaacov. And while I agree with you I still it think it is very common.
Food is made with top quality ingredients, cooked perfectly and very well presented.
thanks for the thoughts ray. i’ll suffer thru the service (for now) for perfect food and figure they’ll get it right quickly.
Mark,
I sort of feel the same way since the service isn’t rude but when the bill comes to $400+ for two w/o buying off the list, service should be top notch.
you’ll get no argument from me on that point ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers")
i’ll give them major koods for putting their corkage policy on their website – a reasonable $20 – without qualification. this is quite rare in NYC and it’s appreciated.
Well, as of two days ago it was $40/btl with a 3 btl max
Gotta love it when they cant find your wines…
Sorry to hear about the service issues…and for 20mil, there should be some better training there or management to guide the staff.
Good to hear about the food…but as stated before, food means nothing if the service isn’t there.
holy shit i’m a firgin moron!!
wrong lincoln. but there’s a nice restaurant in portland, oregon by the same name with a nice menu and $20 corkage!!!
wow.
i mean, wow!!!
For whatever it’s worth, I was there for dinner recently and found this to be generally – but not uniformly – true. The fish course we had featured grainy, ill-prepared fish (I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt that it was an error of execution on the line rather than a procurement problem) and woefully undercooked beans. It was a real shame, because the broth in which the dish was served was excellent. The rest of the food, while well-executed, did not strike me as rising to the level of what Benno was pushing out at Per Se. Frankly, I don’t think Lincoln is trying to be a Per Se-level restaurant (nor am I sure it could be done in a venue of that size), but those expecting something along that line will be a bit disappointed.
We drank off the list, which I thought was quite good. The sommelier was a very nice fellow, and he very professionally and courteously dealt with a situation involving a bottle of Emidio Pepe Montepulciano that he thought was fine, but we thought was marred by excessive VA.
It appears NY Magazine doesn’t think too much of this place so far either:
Adam Platt on Lincoln Ristorante -- New York Magazine Restaurant Review - Nymag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
but is it accurate? didn’t seem mean-spirited to me.
The only dish I had that he commented on was the scallop, and yes it was just one scallop. My dishes were definitely better than what is reviewed.
I was waiting for his comments on the service but unfortunately he makes no mention of it at all.
When I ate there one of the waitstaff told me Sam Sifton had already been in a number of times so his review will surely be forthcoming shortly.
I’m with NY Mag (Adam Platt??) and the estimable Mr Cuozzo of the Post.
I had dinner there nearly three weeks ago and left seriously unimpressed.
The room is striking, and I like the boldness of its design but its a bit too choppy.
Our food was somewhat bland and wildly overpriced. I had the cavatelli and razor clams and was underwhelmed.
We shared the rib-eye and a great production was made of presenting it to us after it was cooked. Which is all well and good, but by the time they’d taken it back to the kitchen, carved and plated it, it was barely acceptably warm. Style vs substance, I am afraid.
Plenty of eager beaver young staff (at one point I noticed four people at the host station welcoming new arrivals) but many in headless chicken mode and its obvious they’ve not been trained to the standards this restaurant (or its prices) demand. My chair was jostled at least three times by the same chap who was quite literally cutting corners too much. I realize this sounds pompous and actressy but when you’re charging the kind of coin these guys are, you expect to at least be left to enjoy your food in peace.
I will say that Aaron von Rock is a real asset as sommelier. Absolutely top guy, with a good deep list. Telepan will miss him. A bottle of Il Poggione 04 Brunello hit the spot.
I really wanted to like this place, but it was sorely lacking. Two great dinners at Ouest over the subsequent two weeks put it into perspective. I hope they figure things out.
Sifton is out of his mind. No way this is two stars. A pal of mine, who dined there shortly before we did, expressed the same sentiments to me today.
Cheers
Peter
And now there is this:
GQ Eats: The 10 Best New Restaurants in America | GQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
He’s a bit wrong there on the location of commis in Oakland. Piedmont Avenue is one of the better streets for eating and shopping in Oakland (rivalled only by College Avenue) with plenty of tasty places to have a meal.