damnlines.comdamnlines.comSingle-menu French steak-frites spot that takes no reservations; you queue on 54th Street for the secret green sauce.
Le Relais de Venise takes no reservations and, per a LOT Times review, "doesn't take phone numbers at the door" — you stand and wait on 54th Street with no option to leave and come back. There is one fixed menu: a walnut salad, then sliced steak with the house green sauce and fries, so the only decision is how you want the steak cooked. Because nearly everyone orders the same thing, the room turns in seatings rather than table by table, which is why a line that looks long can clear in a batch.
Reported waits swing hard by daypart. The Infatuation frames lunch as the move, suggesting you "hit Le Relais for lunch and hope for a minimal line." Dinner is another story: the LOT Times writer arrived at 7:41pm and wasn't seated until about 9:50pm, and described a line stretching "so far down 54th street that there appears to be more people outside the restaurant than inside." Tripadvisor reviewers report a wide spread — one at ~40th in line before opening, others citing an hour or a 90-minute queue on November 2023 visits.
The regular workaround is timing. One Tripadvisor diner got in line around 4:55pm and was roughly 40th, ahead of the 5:30pm dinner opening; another wrote that lines were long "most of November and December" but "much shorter MLK holiday weekend" with fewer workers and tourists in town. damnlines does not have a camera on this block, so treat all of this as reported patterns, not a live measurement — check the nearby Midtown cameras for a real-time read on the street.
No camera here yet — but these lines are on camera right now:
The Halal Guys · 11 min walkclosedCaffè Panna · 36 min walkclosedBánh Anh Em · 42 min walkclosedNo. A LOT Times review reports it "doesn't accept reservations in New York" and "doesn't take phone numbers at the door." It's walk-in only, and you wait on-site until a seating opens.
It varies a lot by time. The Infatuation suggests lunch for a "minimal line," while a LOT Times writer waited from 7:41pm to about 9:50pm on a November dinner. Tripadvisor reports range from roughly 30 to 90 minutes. damnlines has no camera here, so there's no live count.
Weekday lunch draws the lightest crowd, per The Infatuation. For dinner, arriving before the 5:30pm opening helps — one Tripadvisor diner was about 40th in line at 4:55pm. Reviewers also say holiday weekends like MLK run much shorter than November–December.
One fixed menu: a walnut salad, then sliced steak with the house green sauce and fries. The entrecôte runs about $38 on the restaurant's own site. The only choice is how you want your steak cooked.
It's at 155 East 54th Street between Lexington and Third, in Midtown East. It relocated there from 590 Lexington Avenue in 2022, so older listings and the Infatuation review still cite the old address.