15 East Restaurant NYC

Decided to visit 15 East restaurant because it came highly recommended as one of the top 100 restaurants in NYC. 

Got the lunch tasting for $95 which was amazing. It included the sushi and sashimi with American dishes such as char and also mackerel. It also included miso cod with mushroom and uni butter sauce. The desserts were great too, green tea creme brûlée and blood orange ice-cream. 

Service was prompt. However, my main gripe would be with the manager. After passing him my card, the manager returned the bill with a huge circle around the gratuity section, and also positioned it so that only the gratuity portion was visible. I had to unfold the bill to actually sign the bill. 

Although I do concede that I look relatively young, I normally give 18-25% for service charge. As a one-Michelin star Japanese restaurant (and I would like to think it would consider itself a fine-dining restaurant), I did not appreciate the manager's indiscretion. I'm pretty confident that he would not circle or underline the gratuity for older patrons, and I feel that this really ruined my otherwise amazing lunch experience. 

15 East Restaurant

NYC

68% (brought down because of service)