Harlem On Fifth

CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING THE SAME ISSUE:
«I am so disappointed. I signed up for the Groupon for wine tasting last September. My groupon has since expired because they do not have a liquor license now. I was told that they would honor it for food or I could still use it when their license is returned, but when ???
When I call the no. now I am getting no answer… such a disappointment.:

I am so disappointed. I signed up for the Groupon for wine tasting last September. My groupon has since expired because they do not have a liquor license now. I was told that they would honor it for food or I could still use it when their license is returned, but when ???
When I call the no. now I am getting no answer… such a disappointment.

Was this some type of sick joke?
My boyfriend purchased the wine tasting Groupon for $ 50. Thank goodness we made reservations in advance because the restaurant told us they were unable to sell liquor for the next couple of weeks. Instead of waiting until then, we decided to just use the voucher for a meal. Ugh, what a bad experience.
We arrived at 10pm and unexpectedly walked into the middle of a film shoot. Upon our arrival, the waiter/​host seemed so confused. He asked us if we were there for the shoot, and when we said no, so he directed us to our seats without menus. After a couple of minutes we realized he forgot to bring us our menus (the film shoot was a huge distraction), so we waved him over. The waiter was solo, so the service was EXTREMELY SLOW (15 minutes to take our order, 30 – 40 minutes to receive our food, 15 – 20 minutes to pay the tab). Our meals were disgusting. I ordered shrimps, mac and cheese, and collard greens. I basically could’ve caught a heart attack from salty shrimps and collards. My boyfriend order a Burger topped with mac and cheese, collards, etc, it was horrendous. To top it off, both of our meals were nearly cold.
It was the worst dining experience ever. The neighborhood does not benefit from restaurants like this. ZERO stars.

The waiter was friendly from the moment we walked in until the time that we left. The blue crab mac and cheese was FREAKIN’ AMAZING! Although its an appetizer the portion was VERY generous I didn’t finish it all, the collards were pretty good too. I wasn’t too thrilled with the fried chicken, I believe that it was breaded with panko crumbs as this wasn’t your typical down home fried chicken. Needless to say I’d still return.

Everytime I go I’m hoping this place got better but it never does, I’m surprised it is still open because it’s always empty. I’ve gone for brunch and had an ok experience, I can’t remember what I ate but the food took a while to make – so be prepared to wait.
The second time I went for dinner and hookah with a Groupon and the food was just ok.
I went earlier this week for the last time. I ordered hot wings and had the hookah. The wings were actually pretty good and the hookah was good but wayyyyy too strong. FYI they lost their liquor license and there’s no byob, which is disappointing.
Service was awful though. We wanted to sit outside and enjoy the weather but there was a homeless man with his shirt off, laying on the ground and smoking something right near the the entrance. So we opted not to sit outside but we were told by our server that this man is always out there… soo management isn’t going to do anything about that? Icing on the cake though was the server went to go pick up a bottle the man threw on the ground and I had to ask the server to wash his hands… then watch as he proceeded to use hand sanitizer.
Because it’s so close to my apartment I was really hoping for the best with this place but it’s hopeless.

This review is about my Seamless order; I haven’t gone to the physical location:
The food was good but not great. Definitely nowhere near as bad as the poor online reviews claim it to be, but nothing stellar. I ordered the red velvet waffles and fried chicken with a side of mac n cheese.
The food showed up a little after the 45-​minute predicted time, after about an hour and 10 minutes. The delivery guy was very pleasant. The food showed up hot but the waffles and chicken were a little soggy. ²⁄₃ pieces of the chicken were fantastic aside from the slight sogginess. The flavor and the seasoning are ON POINT. If the chicken were more fresh, it would have been the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. HOWEVER the third piece of chicken didn’t even seem to be from the same place. It was bone dry, hard as a rock, and the coating wasn’t nearly as tasty. Bizarre. The waffles were good, though, but not super warm and a little chewy. One star off for the inedible third piece of chicken.
The mac ‘n cheese would have been good had it not tasted like the little side dish contained about three sticks of butter. The flavor itself was good and the topping is great with lots of seasons and a nice breadcrumb crunch. But how does mac ‘n cheese get so darn greasy?! I couldn’t finish it but the topping and seasonings are its saving grace. If the chef put a little time into using a less nauseatingly buttery recipe, this could be some stellar mac ‘n cheese. So that’s another star off for being borderline inedible and buttery.

I purchased the wine tasting deal and was very pleased with the whole experience. It’s a cozy restaurant with relaxed atmosphere and friendly service. The wines were good, but the food was impeccable. Fried chicken was seasoned and cooked to perfection, mac and cheese and string beans — excellent.
My husband had angus beef burger and he said it was sensational.
So, to sum up… great food and wine, generous portions — well worth the money, quiant atmosphere, friendly service. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Mediocre food, horrible service, especially bad Groupon.
My wife and I went for a Groupon «wine tasting «deal. The place is cute, nice décor, but they are totally out of their depth trying to be «fancy».
As soon as we sat, they checked off our Groupon, I should have know that was a bad thing, most places do it at the end of the meal. Ok, whatever, the next thing they did was give us a typewritten note saying that we had to pay tax and mandatory 15% gratuity at the end of the meal… Fine.
The deal was for 6 wine tastes, a cheese plate, two entrees and a bottle of wine to take home for $ 49. Sounded good.
First, the «cheese plate», it was two slices of deli white American cheese cut in half, 5 – 6 cubes of mild cheddar and pepper jack from a bag, 4 grapes and 3 olives. Hardly a gourmet experience. Probably worth $ 4.
For entrees we both ordered broiled fish, I ordered catfish, my wife ordered whitefish. We got our first wine taste, a tiny pour (maybe two sips) of fairly bland white.
The restaurant was empty when we arrived, at its peak, it was 75% full. Our entrees took 45 minutes to arrive. The waiter said that even though they weren’t full, they were also cooking for takeout and GrubHub. Which I guess is valid, but not really my problem.
When the food showed up, my wife’s fish was beautifully broiled, mine was oddly breaded. It wasn’t browned, it was clearly pan fried. It was mushy and unseasoned, but I was going to let it go.
Then I nearly choked on several large bones. The whole second half of the filet was filled with them.
I brought that to the waiters attention and he said «fish have bones.» My wife and I used to cook professionally, a proper catfish filet should be boneless if prepared correctly. I sent it back and asked for fried catfish strips. Hopefully boneless.
The second entrée took another 45 minutes, just to fry 3 catfish strips, no sides.
During that time, the waiter almost never came by. We got 3 more tastes, so 4 tastes over almost 2 hours. None of them were really good, and only once, after I sent back the food, did we get a generous pour.
After the replacement food arrived, we decided to go, as the waiter told us we had our last taste. We got the bill. $ 29 in tax and tip. Wayyyy high for the value we received. Our entrees were listed on the menu for $ 14 each, the «cheese plate» wasn’t worth 5 bucks, and the wines were clearly $ 5 – 7 bottles.
Total rip off. Especially since we never got our last two tastes.
After we paid the bill, the waiter said good night and left. I called him back and asked if we got a bottle to take home? He said yes, and told us we could only choose from the first two whites (both underwhelming) and we chose, grabbed our bottle and left.
This was the worst meal I’ve had since moving back to NYC 6 years ago. This restaurant seems to have no real ability to keep up standards required to be anything more than a mom and pop soul food shack. If you’re cool with that go there, otherwise avoid.
P. S. — Groupon did refund us our money.

I was scared of this place because of the reviews, but my fiancé and I had an absolutely wonderful experience on a Friday night (we made a reservation for the groupon wine tasting&dinner) !
Yes, the place is a bit tight but the atmosphere is cozy and laid back. Our server, Brian was attentive and had a good sense of humor.
My fiancé ordered the teriyaki salmon with collard greens and yams and I got the whiting filets with Mac and cheese (amazing) and sautéed spinach. EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT! The Mac is out of this world and the spinach was seasoned and cooked perfectly. The whiting had this amazing sauce on it and was cooked to perfection. I even loved the salmon, and I don’t eat salmon.
Everything was delicious and we both got a pretty good portion, definitely nothing to complain about.
The only thing that would stop me from going back is how expensive the drinks are. A glass of wine is 10 $; there are plenty of other very reachable places with lower prices/​better happy hours.

This only gets 1 stars because the mac and cheese is so good. Otherwise, it deserves something between 0 and 1 (were that actually possible).
Had a reservation for 9 PM, was seated at 9:45 PM. While waiting a Friday night stand up troupe was doing their gig in the restaurant. The guy was clearly drunk on stage and yelled at folks in restaurant to «shut the _​_​_​_​up» when no one was listening to him. Proceeded to say some incredibly racist «lines» and then tried to win back the audience by saying he wasn’t «just» Jewish but also a little Puerto Rican. What?!
Tried to order drinks at the bar while we were waiting. No bottled beer was available. They made us order well drinks, which were priced higher than listed. I paid but did not have enough for tip. I handed a $ 20 to the manager who was sitting behind the bar counting money and asked him for change so I could pay the bartender. He gave me two $ 10’s and said, «You asked for change so there is change.» I was shocked and didn’t have a good comeback. He eventually gave me some $ 1’s after some further incredibly rude commentary.
You are probably wondering why I didn’t leave at this point. There was a waitress there that kept telling us our table is about to open. Every time we turned to leave, she sort of bullied us into staying. I think we somehow managed to wait the 45 minutes to not hurt her feelings. The craziest part is when we were seated at 9:45 PM, she asked us to thank her for getting us seats. Again, disbelief. We should have had seats at 9:00 PM. Why do we need to ever thank a restaurant for seating us, let alone seat us a full 45 minutes after we were supposed to and during which time the management and unwanted entertainment harassed everyone.
I am nothing but confused.

I only went because of a living social wine tasting deal. Décor and the light sounds of jazz is why Im giving 2 stars. My waiter Brian was good and very attentive.
The down side, the food was bland and both me and my bf got sick the same night. The amount of wine and what they offered was cheap. When I saw what the actual cost would’ve been if not for using my voucher, it was a rip off. Sooooo not worth return here, my stomach can’t afford it.

I went to this venue based on a Living Social deal for a wine tasting for two plus two entrees. Overall I was pleased by the service, the deal and the food. The waiter, Brian, did his best to manage the tables in the venue alone. The food was delicious. I had the lemon salmon with mac & cheese and string beans. Very good.
To set expectations, the wine tasting is not like when you are at the vineyards in which get receive a full explanation of the wine and what it is comprised of. To be fair that did not bother me though as I had my phone and easily looked it up.
Overall I look forward to going back for brunch for that experience.

This is the worst restaurant I have ever been to in New York. I have never had a worse experience than at this place. We came here for brunch and the waitress was clearly new– I understand that the first few times at a new job are stressful, but she was straight up rude, texting in our faces, and made no apologies for her behavior.
We both did the pre fixe brunch that came with a complimentary mimosa. The food took AN HOUR AND A HALF to get there. I should have walked out after 45mins, but everyone around us was getting their food so I assumed it would be there shortly. When we asked our «waitress» what the deal was she had little to say and didn’t apologize for the lateness at all.
The cherry on the cake was this: since we waited so long we had already finished our free mimosas. The manager was at the bar so I told him about our long wait (food still wasn’t there) and would it be possible for us to get another drink. He stared at me for about 5 seconds then slowly said,“I guess we can do that.” !!! OMG! No apology or anything– that’s how you treat your customers who you’re hoping will come back to your establishment ???
Anyway the food came and it was COLD. Aside from being cold, it wasn’t horrible, but it was nothing to write home about. The straw that broke the camels back for me was when the waitress cleaned our table she said to us,” Was it worth the wait?” … No words.
This place is an embarrassment to all of the amazing spots in Harlem– avoid at all costs.

The only reason I am giving this 2 stars rather than 1 is because the food wasn’t that bad, despite the less than desirable customer service.
My group of 6 people (we had a Groupon deal) came in for our wine tasting and entrees. Our waiter was very unfriendly upon entering, and seemed to be inconvenienced by our large group and coupon. He basically had resting bitch face the entire time he was serving us, I don’t think he even smiled once actually. We started our wine tasting and cheese, and its all okay, nothing special. We order our entrees and after about an hour of waiting we call the waiter over (he didn’t even come up to us to apologize or explain the long delay) and asked him what the hell was going on. He told us that the restaurant had an unexpected inspection, so the food was delayed. We ended up finally getting our food after waiting over an hour and a half.
Our entrée portions were also much smaller than those we saw at other tables, so I’m not sure if that was part of the Groupon deal (I never saw anything in the coupon saying it would be less food than what’s normally served) but whatever, by the time we got it we were just thankful to be eating.
Look, I worked in the restaurant business before and I know that it can be very difficult and overwhelming at times, and inspections do happen. But our waiter could have just simply informed us of what was going on, or apologized for the delay without us having to track him down. That is what customer service is about, and it makes a world of difference! Like I said, the food was okay but I would not come back to this place.

Starting with the positives — I’ve ordered from here a bunch of times. The food is pretty good, portion sizes are good, however certain entrée items are way overpriced. My favorites are the catfish strips and the teriyaki salmon.
The reason I’m writing — BEWARE OF THE LIVING SOCIAL OR GROUPON WINE TASTING OFFER. We paid $ 49 for a wine tasting including 6 wines, a cheese app plate, a bottle of wine to take home and 2 entrees and ended up with a 30 dollar bill on top of that for taxes and gratuities. Ridiculous. Rip off.
The cheese plate was poorly presented, with grapes that looked unwashed. The wines were fine and our server was pleasant however the waiter continued to pour new wines into the same glass. I was enjoying my date and the ambiance was nice so it was easy to ignore these small annoyances.
All bets were off when the entrees came out. We both ordered salmon and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the portion size of the salmon was less than 2 oz! My boyfriend was pretty patient but I was beyond surprised. I didn’t complain, at his request, and just chalked it up to the $ 49 living social deal.
To my utter disbelief the check came stating that we owed 30. We were charged tax and gratuity on $ 169 bucks which the restaurant claims was the actual amount of the wine tasting. Well if that’s the case, we should have by all means received a full portion of salmon. There is no way that small offering of six 2014 basic wines, a couple pieces of cheese, a bottle of one of those same wines, and two entrees totaled 169. Highly disappointed. I don’t like to be ripped off and that’s exactly what happened. The owner should be ashamed.

To be fair, I actually had a pleasant evening (using the living social deal) when I came here. My personal highlight was the stellar waitstaff. The food and wine didn’t stand out, but for the price it’s a more than reasonable way to spend your money. I was actually perusing old reviews on this page to remember more information from which to form my review and came across a comment made by Andrew S. Of Harlem on 5^th. He was responding to a negative review, and in summation his points were all valid but he unnecessarily threw in «from now on I won’t book any living social customers for our comedy shows» *summarized.
How appalling, that someone who I presume is the manager, would be so petty. How dare you judge others by the actions of one customer? You mention over 250+ people using the living social deal and this being the first instance of a dispute like this, and your solution is to deny paying customers the same experience as others. At least include that in your deal «*disclaimer: while the living social deal includes dinner, entertainment is only for those who pay full price.»
I was planning on returning and even recommending friends because it’s a great deal, but any establishment that engages in exclutionary and prejudicial practices such as this doesn’t deserve any business at all.

I was sent this event suggestion for the Wine Tasting Event by Unilocal for March Madness. I thought it would be a great idea to take my friend out for her bday and do a review.
First off the way Unilocal sent the event there were no links to Living Social and or Groupon. All you had to do based on the flier (I will post so others can see) is call and make a reservation, which I did on ³⁄₁₆. I confirmed on ³⁄₁₈. I was excited.
Street parking was quick on the side streets. I went in identified myself and mentioned my reservation. No one could find it and they all just busied themselves instead of tending to me. Five mins later a staff member by the name of Brian confirmed they would take care of me. 10 mins later I’m still waiting to be seated, even though tables are empty. They asked me for a voucher # which I didn’t have but he assured that they had a house deal they could use. We passed on the spicy croutons om the table, had some tea and then got into the wine tasting. Brian our waiter was an absolute sweetheart. He was stretched thin as only he and another guy Tony were working about 10 tables at the time we got there. He was very attentive and doting. He did his best to make us gave a good experience despite a couple snafus out of his control.
The ambiance is very unpretentious and homey. You’re elbow to elbow with the other tables but clients quickly warm up to each other and break the ice. That’s priceless in NY. The place was filled to max capacity with about 50 patrons of mixed range between their early 20’s and late 60’s and all races practically. Eveyone seemed relaxed.
I ordered the lemon salmon. I had mac n cheese with mine, my friend got string beans and yams. We were both underwhelmed by the ¼ cut of salmon they brought out. The potatoes were bland and the yams appeared uncooked and less than savory. The entrée was weak.
For the Wine tasting we were presented a paper plate of two pieces of swiss and two stale pieces of cheddar, about 4 olives and 4 grapes. Blah!
We were each given 3 glasses of whites, and reds. Tartana Lane between 2013 and 2014. None I was crazy about and I am a wine lover. I could’ve passed.
The big surprise of the evening that made the night memorable came not from the location, food or wine but from the comedy night. Host Dr. Roco is hella fun and equally offensive. He had about 6 or 7 comics pass through. The big winners was 17 yr old Asian kid from Queens and «black» aka Oral Henry from the DMV area. The laughs were plenty.

NO STARS! DO NOT GO HERE! BESIDES THE ROACH CRAWLING ON THE TABLE, THE SERVICE IS HORRIBLE! We bought a living social deal for wine tasting. We walked in at 6 and left at 9:30pm only after threatening walking out. The food was nothing to brag about. The comedy night was horrible. Not funny! We were actually forced to sit through comedy night because we were there so long! If you read more of my post, you will see I’m very liberal when it comes to critiquing different restaurants. This was by far the worst I’ve ever seen in New York City.
If you’re looking for wine tasting, this is not a wine bar! To top it off, they placed a gratuity off of $ 170 on the bill and then had the nerve to add tax to it. Wow!
Someone needs to call «Bar Rescue» on them. Save your cash for the hot dog truck down the street!

****THIS REVIEW IS BASED SOLELY FROM ABOUT 5 DELIVERY ORDERS****
This place is amazing. I found out about them through Grub Hub and then checked their reviews here on Unilocal.All the reviews were fairly decent. I decided to give it go. I ordered the Shrimp pasta via GrubHub and the food was delivered in a hour. NOT A MINUTE LESS!!! Once I received my delivery I noticed my food was pipping hot. Now I have ordered delivery from alot of other Harlem restaurants and the food is luke warm or sandwiches soggy. NOT HARLEM ON FIFTH!!! The presentation on the food was also great. I pay attention to details alot!!! It came with this bread that warm and sliced. I felt like all I need was a candle and match and it could of been a candle lit dinner. Everything was very appealing to the eye. If a restaurants cares just as much about their delivery customers as their dine in customers THAT SPEAKS VOLUMES FOR ME!!!
The food was awesome and had lots of flavor and not to salty. Everything was seasoned well. I have order their Chicken BLT twice because it is that amazing, plain mac n cheese, shrimp mac in cheese, crab mac n cheese, herb shrimp, friend chicken, and their greens.
Their mac n cheese is beyond amazing! It has quickly become a fav for my husband and I. The herb shrimp was great as well. Only thing I was not crazy about was the greens. Pretty bland.
Eventually I plan to make a trip to Harlem on Fifth to dine in ;)

Officially my new brunch spot in Harlem! Definitely competition for the popular brunch spots near 125^th street (red rooster & corner social).
This soul food restaurant has a great atmosphere with a cool jazz vibe. And our waiter Bryan was awesome. The wait for our food was well worth it. We had the vanilla cornbread french toast (star of our meals) with scrambled eggs & home fries (well seasoned) and the cinnamon red velvet waffles with fried chicken (4 tasty pieces). The portions are huge but they do not skimp on the taste. I’m surprised the place isn’t packed because they have great food and service.
Hoping to go back again later this week for dinner and their comedy/​open mic night (wed/​thurs). If you are in the area, make a beeline to this restaurant and enjoy.