Willie R.
Yelp
I'll summarize by saying that our experience at the Centurion Lounge was a rollercoaster.
I was greeted by name at the Centurion check-in desk on the first floor--a nice touch. The two wonderful women at the front desk also wished my friend a happy birthday, as we had included a note about that in our reservation notes. This was a great intro experience to the lounge!
The Centurion Lounge's design is immaculate. It is very spacious, with multiple dining room areas and panoramic views, including fantastic vistas of the Chrysler Building. Everything from the furniture to the type and volume of music created a relaxing environment. Five stars for that.
But once we got past the ambience, things started to fall apart. When booking through my Amex Concierge, I had a detailed call about our dietary restrictions and about how were celebrating the birthday of my friend (who is vegan and gluten-free). They seemed to take down all these notes. But when we were given menus, the server did not verify or even ask about our dietary restrictions, and we had to proactively ask him about them and found that they had only noted mine and not my friend's. We had to ask the server to let my friend know which dishes would work with her dietary restrictions, and which ones were free of seafood cross-contamination for me--it was clunky.
We both went with the three-course prix fixe. We ordered the Chilled Ancient Tofu, and I had the New Jersey Guinea Hen and Poached Peach; Kristina had the Fried Maitake. They had a gluten-free toast with olive oil option, which looked very much like plain toast.
We were not fans of the Chilled Ancient Tofu, whether from a flavor or texture perspective. It was accompanied by an onion broth, which didn't add much to the dish. My guinea hen dish was solid but not super remarkable (but I enjoyed the vadouvan spices in it.) Kristina's fried maitake was a 3.5-4/5 with an interesting mix of flavors. The poached peach dessert tasted mostly like...air. That may sound dramatic, but it was genuinely lacking in almost any sort of flavor. The little vanilla crunch pieces added some textural interest, at least. But it was strange because I asked the server to describe the peach dish so I could decide between that one and the corn bread, and he as at a loss for words: "Um, you know, it's sort of like...what do you call those crunchy things?" I was trying to get the gist of what he meant and just ended up ordering the dessert, despite having had no additional information about the dish.
However, there was such a long time between the appetizers and entree that we were left looking around several times. We were anticipating a birthday dessert or some sort of surprise given the discussion with the concierge, but they had forgotten about that and when asked, said there was no vegan or gluten-free dessert (the manager later said that such options were available). I have been at much lower-tier establishments where these sorts of details are at least remembered.
We did enjoy our cocktails, including the French 55 (gin), Manhattanhenge (tequila & pineapple), Last of the Oaxacans (mezcal), and Haneda (with yuzu). They were well-crafted and flavorful. I particularly enjoyed the Manhattanhenge.
We spoke with the manager, Alex, about the lack of attention to detail about our dietary restrictions and other concerns. He apologized and mentioned that other guests had also been having service issues last night, which was not reassuring. He made an effort to remedy the situation by offering us a complimentary beverage at the side bar. However, the bartender, Ronny, while initially pleasant, ended up making several rude, unprofessional remarks and gesturing multiple times for us to leave, even though the manager said we could stay until 2 AM or beyond. At one point, when Kristina asked Ronny a question, he snappily remarked, "Do you expect a conversation at 1 AM?" while tapping on his watch.
Overall, ambience at the Amex Lounge is wonderful, with tastefully chosen art and music plus beautiful views. That said, service was a hit or miss, with an entire miss at the bar with impolite behavior from our bartender. The dishes were fine overall, although not an incredibly memorable experience for the food alone. I do hope that Amex takes a hard look at the staff they are bringing to the establishment because snarky remarks and constant tapping-on-watches from staff--particularly after an already far from lackluster experience--left a bad taste in our mouths.
