Lindy’s

This place is way too overpriced and service was very unprofessional. Me and my parents were staying in a hotel nearby and were delighted to find a restaurant without the overwhelming crowd, but everything went straight downhill from there. Menus were carelessly thrown onto the table by the waiter who sat us down, and I literally had to ask for our utensils after we got our food. Oh the food was just terrible and too expensive, the steak dinner I paid over $ 30 for was overcooked and super dry, and the pierogies tasted like crunchy salty papers. Never once did the waiter come refill our water cups when the restaurant was nearly empty, but when he finally brought our bill over he sure didn’t forget to distractedly compliment my English and ask where I was from. Um this is New York City have you never seen Asians who speak English?! We were nice enough to even leave a tip for him when service was practically nonexistent and somewhat offensive, but I later found out that he still overcharged us! Just contacted my credit card issuer and got my money refunded, but I seriously hope that they actually call the restaurant to take this money out of his paycheck!

I stopped in here just for the «world famous cheesecake» after the game last night. My husband and son had the plain cheesecake and brownie cheesecake, respectively. I didn’t get pictures of theirs because they scarfed theirs down before I was aware they were eating them when we returned to our hotel room. They said they both liked theirs. I had the cookies and cream cheesecake and was NOT impressed. It had a lemony taste to it that did NOT go well with the other flavors! I only took a few bites of it before giving up on it. I gave it 3 stars because my husband and son said theirs were good…

Overpriced, casual restaurant famous for its cheesecakes and its name. Menu is breakfast all day, hot and cold sandwiches, salads, appetizers, a few entrees and cheesecake. None of it is special, except perhaps the cheesecake, and its overpriced even for midtown.
Service was good and great location in the theater district.

Service was terrible, only two waitresses and they couldn’t handle two tables, much less 30. Never acknowledged us and only after tracking down the manager, could we order. This place use to serve great cheesecake, but even that want that good. The cherries were sparse and the rest was red sugar gelatin. Don’t waste your time or money here.

Food is just alright! Very overpriced for the quality & taste of the food. I got the Halle Berry & I got one French toast & eggs & over cooked bacon. try at your most costly risk

Amazing food. Great service!
The staff is very friendly. The prices are slightly high. :(Overall, very good.

Good food. High prices for pancakes. Good atmosphere and outside dinning. Slow service. We’re here for over an hour for pancakes. Good location.

Wow, the reviews of Lindy’s are absolutely scathing. 1.5 stars!
I get it, but have to give it a 3 star for a few reasons.
The French fries and cole slaw are great. And when you’re starving post-​theater, you live on the UES, and you’re with your mother who is a bit worn-​out from her daughter’s highly ambitious social calendar for the first time together in New York in 21 years, this could not be a more perfect choice.
The bad:
1) WILDLY overpriced.
2) Worst tuna in the history of tuna. Like so bad I think I am going to write and print up a note for the manager just to explain that someone who just cooked her first piece of meat at 44 years old (perfectly pink lamb chops on a hot plate!) could at 12 years old make passable tuna. Now chopping celery and onions is a pain and really great tuna requires both of these ingredients.
But as long as you start out with reasonably good fish and don’t use a gallon of mayo for every 6 ounces of tuna, it’s impossible to screw that up.
3) A tuna melt is not a tuna sandwich with melted cheese on top. There have to be books about this sort of thing. A tuna melt is like a patty melt (duh). A melt is grilled cheese (patty=beef and tuna=tuna). What we got there are no words to describe. It was terrible but we were so hungry (and so happy to be with a new friend of mine after seeing the outstanding Fiddler on the Roof), that both Mom and I ate that horrible concoction masquerading as tuna on middling rye bread and barely melted cheddar (or American) cheese.
The good:
1) It’s fast and the booths are comfortable.
2) They pour very generous portions of crappy wine. But you order wine at a place like this, you know it’s going to be crappy and if your goal is merely to ingest alcohol (or anesthetize what is likely a contusion on your chest from a nasty fall), the big pour is a plus.
3) The portions are ridiculously large. So all those 20 – 24 buck sandwiches (not all of which can possibly be as terrible as this wannabe tuna melt) are really meant to be shared.
4) The cole slaw wasn’t just good. It was off the hook great. And healthy. Not drowning in mayo or whatever cream-​based thing goes into cole slaw.
5) Fries were terrific: sort of in between steak fries and skinny fries.
I would not go back. I wasn’t tired and I’d either have cabbed to Joe Allen or just come back to the East Side (PJ Clarke’s, maybe).
At night it’s very quiet/​dead. We arrived 10:45PM and it was deserted. So it’s not a bad place to hang out and chat. 53^rd/​54^th is sort of a weird part of town: it’s above the chaos of Times Square but it’s mostly offices (Allianz is close). I can’t remember when Europa closes but there’s one of those on 57^th and 7^th and that’s always a safe bet.
But you don’t come here for the food. You come here because you’re hungry, you’re tired (or someone you are with is tired), and you just want to chat or process the show you just saw.
Lindy’s is awful – but in a kind of great way.

We had a great lunch here. Food was delicious and the service couldn’t have been better. Yes the prices are a little high but you get generous portions and its NY after all! Great cheesecake too!

They have a captive market and charge what economists call «monopoly rents.»
There aren’t a lot of places in this neighborhood for a sit-​down breakfast, so they can charge what they want. Since most of their trade seems tourist related, customers get a one-​and-​done treatment, and service is indifferent.
I eat here every couple of months for casual business meetings because there are few other choices nearby.
Since I’m there for business-​related breakfasts, somebody at the table can usually expense the meal — which is fortunate, because the prices are eye-​watering. Your basic three eggs with a scoop of home fries and toast is $ 13, or about $ 4.50 an egg. A cup of «bottomless» coffee is $ 3.99, which leads to the next problem.
The one or two servers on duty don’t expect to ever see you again, and besides, they are busy with their «other» work — setting out ketchup bottles, napkins, whatever. They aren’t surly, just scarce.
If you try to flag them down to get a second cup of coffee… let alone that «bottomless» deluge… you really have to work at it. And, the coffee is pretty nasty, probably a big dollup of commercial-​grade Robusta mixed in with whatever else. The eggs are real — well, at least the eggshells in my eggs were real — and the toast wasn’t burned. Hard to make a sucky breakfast.
The good news is that you can get four in a booth, talk about business without screaming, and if the tab comes to $ 120 bucks for four omelets with home fries and coffee, somebody can write it off as a business necessity in an overpriced city.
But if you are paying out of your own pocket you might want to think twice, given what you get for the price — unless you need a break from touristing to sit down for a while, and use the bathroom. After all, New York real estate ain’t cheap, whether it is a seat in a red restaurant booth, or on a commode.

One in our group really wanted «NY Cheesecake,» so a NY-​dweller recommended Lindy’s, as we were in the neighborhood. As it was a pleasant spring day, we chose to sit on the sidewalk. Service was perfectly pleasant, speedy, and the cheesecake (NY and Oreo) was good (as was the water, with straws without attitude)! Yes, overpriced, but that’s the NYC-​ness and the touristy area. With more planning, I’d likely find a local joint, but this fit the bill fine!

Had the corn beef and it was out of this world. The bread was very fresh and tasty. It came with a pickle and coleslaw which was okay. The place was clean and the service was friendly. See picture

I won’t comment about the food but the manager informed us that we can’t sit outside because it’s too cold for her waiters. It was almost 80 degrees. Enough said…

Wait staff was efficient and pleasant. Food was just barely okay. Prices were outrageous!
If I’m going to overpay for food in midtown, there are many other places I’d go first.

overpriced, service was very slow. The staff is friendly. It is great for tourists. I won’t knock it all the way. Our waitress took care of us.

Its a standard diner, and the food is not bad. It is just horrendously overpriced for what you get. I have to believe that everything they have on their menu is the cheapest product that their food service vendor can give them. For example, the sausage links are very similar to the frozen Jimmy Dean ones that were made just to be popped into a microwave. If you get a bagel, you get a little plastic tub of super processed cream cheese on the side, and not the classic NYC smear of good quality fresh cream cheese. Same thing for butter, except the little tub will be almost frozen when you get it, which makes putting on your toast a losing proposition.
We paid $ 55 including tip for this: One order of french toast, two eggs, two sausage links, two pieces of dry toast, one small scoop of potatoes, two coffees and one orange juice.
With so many decent places nearby, there is absolutely no good reason to stop here ever again. We really regretted our decision to give Lindy’s a shot, and the hole it left in my wallet still stings.

I have no idea what all the bad reviews are about here! The food is great, the staff are super friendly. I thought service was pretty fast, considering it is sometimes pretty busy.
My partner and I stayed at Times Square for 9 days, and we ate here nearly everyday for breakfast. One day in the middle of our stay we decided to try something different, only to be disappointed! So we went back to Lindy’s the next day. I don’t know what their lunch or dinner is like, but breakfast is great!

We just couldn’t be without contention. What to eat? Where to eat? We we’re annoyed of walking with no purpose. Thus we play a game where I choose a number. We count up until the number is reached. Midway through strolling the Theater District, I could clearly see the sign coming on my right. Lucky number 13!
I had the Yankee Pot Roast Dinner. All tasted good with the accustom display of meat, veggies and mashed potatoes. It’s just alright yet comforting in knowing we we’re not the only disappointed tourists. The fare is absolutely way too pricey.

Knew we were going to NYC for a Girls weekend and one of the girls RAVED about this place & said it was the best Chicken Noodle Soup she ever had.
So we got to the city, checked into the hotel & then Headed to Lindys…
Sat down — got the soup, was there in minutes… It was decent soup, but by no means the BEST SOUP EVER! I Think she built it up in her head over time…
As we were sitting there the table next to us was seated 3 seperate times & the parties kept leaving, I think it might have been after they looked at the menu and noticed that soup was $ 12 and most breakfast plates were $ 25 and above…
So again, would stop in as it was dead & we were able to sit down and were served within 10 minutes.
But the best food ever, Prob Not. Just your typical diner!

Sunday morning at 10am, and it’s already bump and push down the avenues in NYC midtown. We were looking for breakfast and saw the self proclaimed ‘World Famous’ Lindy’s right around the corner from our hotel. Service was fast in the already busy deli. Had the corned beef hash and 2 eggs. My daughter had a bagel with bacon and tomato. Coffee was hot, full bodied, lots of cream and sugar on the table. The only thing the waiter forgot was our water, and he brought it immediately when reminded.
Small portions? If you want enough to fill your go-​box, go to Cheesecake Factory. Overpriced? Maybe a little, but this in NYC. If you want cheaper, stop at a street meat vendor (which I consider very good food and great values). Rude waiters? I think some, if not most, of the customers were far more rude, expecting entitled treatment, expecting others to treat them better than they treat others themselves (like slovenly begrudgingly letting us by behind their staked out territory with their chairs), expecting respect while giving none of their own. Again, this is NYC, we’re guests here as visitors in their neighborhood, and these people are just trying to make a living. Give and not expect aloha, and you might get some. Just maybe you might get some, and it would be a gift.
3-​stars because I’ve definitely had worse, and yes, I’ve had better.

DO NOT GO HERE! We stepped in to get out of the cold for some ‘famous’ cheesecake, we were seated immediately (only 2 couples in restaurant) and took 15 minutes to get any kind of service after that. We only wanted a slice of cheesecake and some water which we were shamed for from the get-​go after seeing it was $ 24 for a sandwich with NO SIDES! When we went to ask for the check it took our server 15 minutes to bring us the bill, at which point I paid with my bank card and she told me it «doesnt work.”(card is fine we spent $ 2 on a soda right after leaving go figure). The entire experience to get a slice of cheescake and pay took us 45 minutes. Will never go back here in my life. Spend your money elsewhere in Times Square.
Oh, almost forgot the straws were thrown at us, LITERALLY when we asked some for the water. I contemplated walking out without paying at that point.
You’ve been warned.