Sequoia, New York

Coming from Long Island into Manhattan, and spending bundles of money on New Years Eve is normally never worth it. We usually leave asking ourselves why we went. This year was so different. We booked Sequoia on a hunch, only two of us, out of eight had been to dinner there before. Its New Years Day and we're all saying what a good New Years we had. This place is beautiful to look at, even though its in a strange place next to clothing stores. The water views are amazing. The bartenders all night were fast and very personable. We didn't feel like we were handed the normal NYE watered down drinks. We all left pretty drunk, that never happens with open bar, or pre paid tickets. All in all we were very happy. The food wasn't very good, but most of us filled up on the finger foods and didn't care so much. The baby burgers and hot dog rolls were fine to fill us up, none of us left hungry. The music was great. I think it was a girl playing most of the night. She kept us dancing all night, from start to finish it was so good. The whole train ride back to Long Island we talked about the music. It really made our night. I am now looking forward to 2009 because our New Years Eve was such a memorable great experience. People normally love writing negative reviews so for a change, here's a positive one.

Me and my friends were looking for a nice DIFFERENT venue to attend on New Years Eve. When we came upon SEQUOIA it seems like a dream come true, on the water, perfect price, cool atmosphere........Well...First of all when we FINALLY arrived after being told it was on 89 Fulton Street which does not exist It is just basically on the South Street Seaport Strip we were told the entrance was inside the South Street Seaport Mall. On the Sequoia New Years Eve package detail list it said we were entitled to a Prestigous Coat Check which in ACTUALITY was some random people putting all our coats out in the open in the mall. With that we proceeded on through out the night giving the place the benfit of the doubt. There was 1 bathroom for men and 1 for women. Which contained 2 stahls. Now picture a few hundred people crammed in a restaurant that typically could have held about 200 people...Could you imagine what the lines for the bathroom were like? I can because half of me and my friends night were spent on that 45 minute line. The food was a selection of low end appetizers which were clearly purchased from the clearence freezer at Costco. It came out around 10:45 pm and due to the lateness it was served it was a survival of the fittest kind of deal. Grown adults were fighting and scrounging for the food. It was a sight I will clearly never forget. There was not ONE TV on to show Times Square or the ball even dropping. I actually asked a bartender if he could put the TV on to see the ball drop to which he replied "We dont know where the remote is" We were told by the DJ Happy New Year. There was no countdown or even a champagne Toast! The crowd was nothing that any normal New Yorker would have wanted to tolerate on there New years celebration, and me and my friends kept wondering who let these people in? For a somewhat classy place, the venue was filled with the what seemed to be the most classless people in New York. There was about a million stairs which made for a VERY interesting walk to the bathrooms. The stairs were covered in a mixture of vomit and spilled drinks. Oh yea I forgot to add the drinks were made of the cheapest liquor imaginable. I am almost certain that our drinks were made with Gordon's vodka. There was absolutely no top shelf liquor in sight.For 2009 I recommend to STAY away from this place. It was NOT worth the money or hassle to get to. Save your money and stay away from Sequoia!