Peter Luger steakhouse's owners, staff respond to abysmal New York Times review
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Peter Luger’s owners and staff are not taking a brutal New York Times zero-star review lying down — telling The New York Post they won’t be beholden to food trends and the whims of The Gray Lady.
“We know who we are and have always been - the best steak you can eat. Not the latest kale salad,” Peter Luger co-owner Jody Storch said on Tuesday in the wake of the blistering critique by Times restaurant reviewer Pete Wells.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The searing review began trending nationwide on Twitter on Tuesday after Wells gave the fabled institution an abysmal zero-star review — describing the South Williamsburg eatery’s porterhouse as “far from the best New York has to offer.”
“And after I’ve paid, there is the unshakable sense that I’ve been scammed,” Wells wrote on Tuesday under the headline “Peter Luger used to sizzle. Now it sputters.”
The New York Times' restaurant review of Peter Luger started trending on Tuesday, after restaurant critic Pete Wells gave the fabled institution an abysmal zero-star review (Pat Carroll/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
But Storch said the Times had reviewed the restaurant many times in the past — sometimes giving them four stars, sometimes less.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“While the reviewers and their whims have changed, Lugers has always focused on doing one thing exceptionally well — serving the highest quality of steak — with a member of our family buying every piece of USDA Prime beef individually, just as we have done for decades,” Storch said.
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Another waiter who has worked at the restaurant for three decades told The Post he thought the Times had nothing nice to say about Peter Luger for 50 years.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Nothing is good enough,” said the man, who declined to be named. “When [Wells] was here taking pictures, we had bets in the back on how much garbage he was going to write.”
The man said the food was “better than ever” and called the owners “meticulous” about the quality of the meat.
“The meat has always been our prime objective. We only have steak. If you go to a steakhouse to eat fish, then what are you doing?” he asked, referencing Wells’ review of the “dry and almost powdery” sole.
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The review sparked a chorus of consensus online from other unsatisfied diners, who agree the lauded steak icon, which opened in 1887, is no longer worth the long waits and seismic bills.
“I feel like that Peter Luger review has been coming for a while now,” wrote Phil Hughes on Twitter, calling the restaurant “wildly forgettable in every way.”
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