Is The Lobster Club The Worst New Restaurant In New York?

Um, well..

After much anticipation, Rich Torrisi and Mario Carbone (the duo behind such spots as Carbone, Parm, ZZ's Clam Bar, Dirty French and Santina) have finally opened their new Midtown restaurant, The Lobster Club.

While a semi-intriguing name, according to NY Times Critic Pete Wells's review, the interest can stop there. With their projects often "highly distracting in ways that serious chefs tend to shun," (true that, dude), it seems that The Lobster Club's bizarre decorative mis en scene of a modernist Japanese party goes a step too far, even for them. Prints of Richard Prince paintings hang as empty graphic gestures, orange chairs punctuate a splatter tiled floor, and Marvin Gaye serves up the soundtrack.

It's so desperate to be cool, it's totally off.

"The curtain is made of black leather. All the bartenders are dressed like leather daddies." You get what we mean.

And the food? Well, that left much to be desired. Striking Wells as "barely Japanese at all." And for a Japanese restaurant, what an achievement!

What was supposed to be the last star in the Major Food Group crown that has become the Seagram Building - The Lobster Club sits below their other new spots, The Pool and The Grill - appears to be a dud.

One star. Ouch.

[Photo via @_camillaruth_]