Complaint Review: Peter Luger SteakHouse

In hindsight, I should have slipped them a 20 or 50. Regardless, I was neither rude nor loud. The maitre de and his co-worker were the rude and loud ones. Secondly, while "thew Peter Lugor" food was good, it was overrated and not worth it. Lastly, please dont pretend to be a millionaire and try to impress us with nonsensical children analogies, because Im sure that most everyone would agree that not seating us because only 6 of 7 of us were present is absolutely ridiculous.

Or so I hear...

In Great neck Long Island. I lived there until I went to college.

My father loved that place. He would always ask my sister and I where we would like to go eat when we were children. Of course we wanted McDonalds and crap like that. But he convinced us to try Lugers..at about $100.00 a steak.

I do not remember any rudeness...well they probably kissed my father a*s...we was a notoriously huge tipper.

I do remember they would let you choose the steak before they even cooked it, and the place had a rustic, homey feel...did not seem like a high end steakhouse. I also remember the steaks were one of the best.

Just thought I would put in my 2 cents since it brought back childhood memories..I can not defend any rude behavior or mistreatment of any customer that is willing to pay grade A money..and not getting grade A service. I guess anyone can have a bad day...or just be in a lousy mood and take it out on a customer. Typically money talks. Might not have been a bad idea to slip the maitre de a $20 or $50 ..that usually seems to change their attitude towards you very quickly. Not saying that is "expected"..but it most likely would have cleared up the incident on the spot, quite customary with these top notch NY restaurants if you even expect to be seated.

Otherwise..there is always McDonalds.

What nonsense is this?  People work hard for their money and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity when spending it. 

I personally would not spend one second in an establishment that treats the customer rude, curt, or with anything else other than complete respect.  I guess all that city life has turned you bitter.  As for the 'allure', keep it, don't bring that attitude to my neck of the woods, you would not be served.

By the way, the steaks are crap.  If you want a good steak, go down to Texas, but leave the attitude at home.

First of all, I lived in the upper east side of Manhattan for the last 5 years and have been to a number of "high end" restaurants (like Peter Luger Steakhouse) in this city, so I don't appreciate the assumption that I am from "out of town". I have a multi million dollar business in NYC and wanted to show my Australian business partners and other colleagues a top rated steak house in the city. I have not been to Peter Luger Steakhouse, but I heard a lot of good things about their steaks. Unfortunately, Peter Luger turned me down. Tom, the maitre de, was absolutely rude. He refused to let down and even try to understand the situation. We wanted to be seated despite the fact that only 6 out of 7 of us were there. He yelled at us in the typically uneducated fashion and 2 members of our party just left in disgust. That is why my wife cried. Never have I been to a "high end" restaurant and treated this way so please don't tell me that "high end' restaurants can be alluring for their rudeness.

Peter Luger is extremely popular and with good reason- their steaks are cured on site and they are excellent. They are not known for fancy side dishes or friendly service, they are known for an old school feel and excellent steaks.

It is standard practice in ANY high end restaurant in New York to require guests to have all members of their party present before seating, regardless of whether you have a reservation. You may have noticed that the place was packed during your visit. It normally is, and that is why you were wise to make a reservation. You were not wise to arrive without everyone present.

Peter Luger is not known for their friendliness, in fact to many people the directness of the wait staff just adds to the allure. But, you do not mention any specific details as to how they were rude. You said it was a "horrible dinner" but you do not specify why. You said Tom "made your wife cry". How? There is not any snippet of dialog to go by, so we must rely on your extreme adjectives and adverbs with no supporting data.

You say every other restaurant you have been to does not care if the whole party is present. What restaurants? TGIF? Hooters? Certainly not any top notch restaurant in NYC. I am assuming you are an out of towner and not a New Yorker, because you simply could not maintain your fantasy that all high end restaurants in NYC seat everyone regardless of whether or not they failed to arrive with the number of people they said they would arrive with.

I have been to Peter Luger about 10 times. I have also been to many other high end New York restaurants. I lived in NYC for 16 years. I never found Peter Luger's staff unreasonably rude and certainly no ruder than most high end NYC restaurants. I did, however, find their staff professional. They are career waiters, not wanna be actors disgruntled that they have to wait tables to support themselves. They are professional and get the job done, with a directness that some people from out of town find off-putting at first. This cannot be said about many other restaurants in NY, which are staffed by actors, artists and others who really want to do something else with their lives, and on top of being rude are inefficient, forgetful, sloppy and uncaring.

I sincerely hope you have a chance to go to a few other high end restaurants in NYC and do some comparison shopping.