Sam is the owner he is the best! Very helpful, kind and patient! Him and his staff were great to…read moreus! Perfect venue for baby showers!!! Thank you Sam!!! Crystal

We had my grandmother's birthday party here last month. Sam was great to work with- very responsive…read moreand accommodating. The facilities are clean and spacious. And they have lots of party supplies available for use.

Cool spot very nice good size space for a small event close to train and bus. Spot is cleanread more

From the owner: Welcome to The Alcove, where every corner is a canvas for your creativity! Our unique venture…read moreoffers spaces designed for capturing special moments and celebrating others in a vibrant and artistic setting. From our graffiti walls and doors to our wall cutouts and frame cutouts, every inch of The Alcove is a perfect backdrop for your photos and events. Come explore our eclectic and inspiring spaces and let your imagination run wild at The Alcove! Find the perfect harmony between sophistication and relaxation in our assortment of venues, ideal for any type of gathering.

The food here is decent solid enough for lunch, especially if you're bringing friends in from out…read moreof town. As for the view: yes, you can see the city. Is it the most impressive view of the skyline? No. But that's not where this place really shines. What truly sells City View Rooftop is the space. It's incredible. You could easily host a full on graduation party, baby shower, or just about any event you can think of THEN add that you can see the Manhattan skyline. The indoor outdoor layout is beautiful and works perfectly for summer, spring, or even a crisp fall day. The sound system is great, and there are seven or eight screens along the wall showing different visuals, which adds to the vibe. Service was excellent throughout our visit. And finally let's talk Shirley Temples. As a self proclaimed Shirley Temple connoisseur, I can confidently say theirs were chef's kiss.

Super cool rooftop at our hotel that we decided to check out for dinner. The menu was limited but…read morethe food and drinks were good nonetheless. The views were beautiful especially for sunset. The sliders were tasty and so were the nachos. The summer cocktails were also fantastic. Def worth a visit

Great Setup!! The place is very beautiful and big. Perfect for huge gatherings! Everything feels…read morethoughtfully prepared, and the service makes the whole experience even better. Definitely a spot worth visiting if you want great flavors and a comfortable, enjoyable dining experience."

Place is very crowded not meant for a large group of people for a sweet 16 or weddingread more

The featured articles on Bulova's website explicitly state that the cafe is open to the public and…read morethat visitors are welcome in general. I like to come in here to get some remote work done. I'm usually one of the only people in here, and there are always anywhere from 150 to 200 open seats. I sit in the very back and purchase a meal, drink, or snack every 60-90 minutes to ensure I don't overstay my welcome. I've only ever had quick and pleasant interactions with the cafe staff and other customers. Yesterday, when I walked past the register to use the bathroom after purchasing my third item of the day, a Blumenfeld Development Group (BDG) employee gave me a dirty look. I thought I was imagining it. But when I sat back down, the BDG employee approached me and began interrogating me on what I was doing here and what suite I work in. I explained that I work remotely and come here to do so. He demanded to see my ID and told me it's a private establishment and I need to leave. I argued that the establishment is advertised as being open to the public and offered to move to the lobby, but he said no and began escorting me out. In the lobby, I noticed around 25 other people working or eating. I honestly got pretty agitated and said it was "f--ing stupid" to kick me out like this, since I wasn't being disruptive and nobody else was asked to provide an ID or proof that they worked there. The BDG employee still refused to provide a reason that I specifically had to leave other than that it was "private" (it's not), I was "staying too long" (in an empty food court where I consistently bought food??) and I was "using the wi-fi" (which is called "Lessing's Cafe GUEST Wifi"). He also claimed he didn't ask for anyone else's ID because he "knows them all", but he could not name any of them when I asked. The BDG employee eventually got the manager, who told me that they just want to make sure her employees get a chance to use the cafe. At the time she said this, there were 2 other people eating in the food court and 200 open seats. I mentioned as much to her, and she kindly allowed me to re-enter. However, I don't feel safe coming here anymore. This experience made me feel singled out and discriminated against. It's a shame--I really enjoyed the peaceful environment, the art, and the atrium.

Pleasant environment a d beautiful artwork. There are marble-top tables and comfortable chairs…read morewhere you can relax and eat lunch, if you wish.

Attended a birthday party last week. Nice space!!! Place was…read morebeautiful for the event. Will recommend.

My wife and I were looking around for a venue to throw our baby shower and we ended up choosing…read moreRidgewood Hall. The venue itself was slightly worn looking but it was just the place that we were looking for. It had everything we needed. Carlos the manager was easy to work with and we settled on a package that we were happy with. This location has plenty of bathrooms and the lighting and sound system is top notch. Our baby shower had 50-60 people and the venue felt spacious and perfect. We were also allowed to set up the night before (if there are no events happening in which case we lucked out) and that helped tremendously and are very grateful they let us do that. Several of our friends were very impressed with this venue and thinking about booking them also for their own future events. Highly Recommend! Thank you Ridgewood Hall!

The Aurora Gallery is an event coordination company, NOT a specific venue; they work with multiple…read morevenues. This review is of how this event coordinator organized our wedding ceremony and reception this September, at a venue called T Studio in Astoria (you can see amy review of that venue separately). Things they organized well: * For the most part the package is reasonably priced and a lot of the things are included (e.g. DJ, photographer, staff, décor) etc. However, as we've learned later (see below), this organizer takes on more than they can logistically handle and it would have been much better if we actually organized some of these elements ourselves. * The food -the restaurant this coordinator ordered catering from was very good. * The décor was in line with what I wanted, BUT...see the list of "buts" below... Things they organized.... NOT so well: * There were multiple warning signs early on that this wedding coordinator is not very detail-oriented. Communicating with her was hard--she took a long time to reply to emails and things were disappearing in the thread. For example, she sent us our wedding contract three times, each time with errors in it. * They set up very late so there's no chance to check everything--and that's too bad. For one: THEY MESSED UP THE TABLE SEATING. I provided a correct seating chart way in advance and we only had 8 tables (!). And somehow they couldn't get that right and put the same guests at two tables, which completely messed up the whole arrangement and resulted in two of our guests actually eating dinner in a back room next to garbage cans (!) because they wanted to sit together. To make it worse, the coordinator was trying to deny it in a conversation with me later. * Multiple things that were part of our package were missing during the event, including a coffee station and a water station. I myself (as bride) had to run to the bar every time I wanted a glass of water, and towards the end of the event the guests informed me that there is no coffee! Which was in our package! They refunded us for the cost of the missing items ($125! Out of ~$14K), but well, we only had one wedding. * The bar RAN OUT OF WINE before the event ended. Already the bar under this company closes 30mins before the end of the event, and all we had on offer for wine was house red and house white. * The ceremony took place on the terrace: there was a loud air conditioning unit that practically drowned out our vows. * I wanted to add a champagne reception to our package, and at the beginning I wanted to manage it myself, but our wedding coordinator offered to take care of it for an extra charge. BIG MISTAKE. They did not get enough champagne and were serving glasses with embarrassingly tiny amounts of champagne at some point. I would have bought the bottles myself had I known in advance! * In general, the staff assistance was non-existent. My parents and multiple guests reported that the staff offered no guidance, the guests were confused as to where they were supposed to go or what to do. * We paid for "passed hors d'oevres " as part of our package, which were supposed to be distributed before the ceremony. My parents reported that a waiter showed up 2-3 times out on the terrace with a small plate of hors d'oevres which lasted for just a few people. * The décor was also included in our package including tables and altar décor. The wedding coordinator did provide a vision board and we discussed getting specific things, like fairy lights and lighting up the aisle with candles/lampions. There were neither. The coordinator said she made a budget decision to not include those -and did not inform me about it! But based on all the other fails my guess is that she simply forgot. The part that particularly irked me was: I found a Love-shaped balloon on Amazon and offered to buy it and bring it for decoration, but the wedding coordinator said she'll take care of it. You've guessed it...there was no balloon. I could have easily done that myself. * My general impression is: when you're planning a wedding, you can't possibly think of every single thing as the bride. That is why you hire a wedding organizer to take off some of the load (and pay them money for it!). Foresight and support was completely lacking from this vendor. I had to think of everything myself and spell everything out, and on occasion even the instructions I gave them were not executed correctly. From things I didn't spell out but I had hope that they will interpret them, here's one example: we provided little bottles of bubbles for guests to use during the ceremony. The event coordinator distributed the bottles on chairs for the ceremony, but provided no instructions to the guests to use them. Result: there were no bubbles during the ceremony or at any point. You just expect that an experienced wedding coordinator would know to "manage" the crowd and give out instructions. Needless to say, I cannot recommend this vendor.

This review is so overdue!…read more We had our reception here last October. The space is huge and you are really able to transform it however you'd like although the managers do help you with some standard seating layouts. We had 120 guests and the size was just right. We had plenty of room for seating buffet tables and dance floor. They even provide a bartender for you to use that night. I'll post some pictures which tell more than I can in the writeup but it's definitely worth 5 stars, and the main reason was John. When crap went wrong he calmed us down. Took us drinks and food in the back and to our table. Reminded us to relax and enjoy. Our DJ which we brought on our own was late and I started to get worked up but John cooled me down. He also helped us plan and figure out a lot of things as we had not a clue in the world what we were doing. He made it worth every penny. They also have many vendors to recommend should you need them. We used theirs for the tables and chairs and also the waitstaff. The prices were reasonable compared to other vendors and trust me, we checked. If you're looking to do a wedding on a budget and paying for yourself, you should use the Aurora Gallery.

We got NO NOTICE of this place closing. It seems like we lost our money but we will fight to get…read moresome answers. We have almost the entire event paid out and it is disgraceful what you have done to us. We need answers and we NEED you to contact us ASAP. We have contacted the business number, apparently there is no Elite Palace yet this other business still has their phone line. Your website is shutdown. The owner, Avi, refuses to respond to our phone calls or messages. This is unbelievable what you have done to us and to many other people.

The space is quite luxurious and beautiful. The staff, as other reviewers have mentioned, are…read morefairly curt and disinterested in what they are doing there sadly. I was part of a bridal party and they had promised the bride & groom to have food ready for us once we've arrived from a day of photoshoots. Something got lost in translation and we were served a big platter of hodge podge unrecognizable salty meats. Thankfully the food at the cocktail reception was sooo much better. The spread was insane from a caviar station, a cold salad and cold fish buffet station, and an entire hot food area complete with chicken fingers and beer battered french fries to stewed oxtails and braised beef cows feet! The chuppah area they have is not that big and quite plain in comparison to the rest of the hall. The food presentation during the dinner reception again was impressive but they had poor timing between courses. As we were just sitting down to the first course, they started clearing for the next course. With some protest, they brought back the sushi and salads on smaller platters. The cooked fish course was cooked nicely and delicious, the multiple courses were insane and again delicious. To top it all off the Viennese dessert hour was beautifully showcased and I'm usually not a kosher dessert fan, however, these were scrumptious.

The place itself is nice and clean, and the staff were extremely kind, welcoming, and very…read moreattentive, which I really appreciated. Service wise, they did a great job. The chicken barbecue sticks were flavorful and enjoyable. Unfortunately, the lumpia Shanghai didn't quite hit the mark for me :( it tasted like it was fried in older oil, and the filling was very minimal, so it felt like mostly wrapper. I was most excited to try the pork sinigang. While the broth had good flavor, the pork didn't taste freshly cooked and came across as if it may have been made a day or two prior. Overall, I really liked the vibe of this place and the friendly service, which makes me hopeful that my next visit will be better. I'd definitely be open to giving it another try.

I've never really had a full Filipino meal before besides small finger foods from events here and…read morethere. My Filipino friends recommended this place so we all came on a Friday night for dinner. The restaurant is located right on Roosevelt Ave under the 7th train so it is very hard to find parking. We saw double parkers everywhere. Our reservation was for 7 pm and when we got seated there were only 2 other small groups inside. The restaurant has a Kamayan special for $275 that comes with soda, unlimited rice, vermicelli noodles, vegetables, mussels, shrimp, giant fried Calamari, pork fist, bbq pork, chicken, fried fish. They prep the whole course on banana leaves on a wooden board near the kitchen before carrying it out and placing it onto our tables. The special is meant for 6-8 people which I think it's more for 5-7 depending on the group - if they're light or heavy eaters. The Kamayan spread was not just pleasant to the eyes, but delicious! Everything was so good and flavorful and perfectly crispy. My favorites are the crispy calamari, bbq pork, and mussels. My friends and I also ordered drinks that are not included in the special: the Weng Weng, the Red Horse, Avocado Smoothie, Mango Smoothie, and Ube Smoothie. The Weng Weng is their signature cocktail which reminds me of a better Malibu Bay Breeze. The Red Horse is the main beer in the Philippines which is pretty light and I don't really taste the after beer taste. The smoothies are all so creamy and good. My favorite would have to be the mango which reminds me of a mango lasi. I liked the ube better than I expected, but the avocado had a weird taste to it. We were so full from the spread and smoothies that we had no room for dessert. By the time we finished, the place was packed because at 9 pm there's open karaoke as well as live performances. I also caught a whif of the sisig on my way out and it smelled sooooo good. Would definitely be back for the mango smoothie, giant calamari, to try the sisig and halo halo. Service was great too! They always came to check on us from time to time and gloves were provided for the Kamayan spread if you didn't want to use your bare hands.