We went to Pera Soho for Drinks before dinner arou...

We went to Pera Soho for Drinks before dinner around happy hour on a Friday. Given the current law in NY, we ordered appetizers as we were required to have food.

Our waitress was extremely pushy and after ~40 minutes, very uncomfortably told us if we did not order a full dinner they would need to take our table. The restaurant was 70% empty at this point (~7pm), which made this all the more confusing. We asked our waitress what the issue was and she mentioned it was a direct order from her manager, who we requested to speak with. Despite the rude treatment, we offered to continue buying drinks as well as to hit any minimum they required. The manager was set on requiring the full dinner and told us he did not care about us hitting a minimum, (which seemed nonsensical to us, given that we had already ordered food). This was particularly troubling for us, as my friend has struggled with eating disorders her entire life, and we were about to head to dinner. As one can imagine, being forced to order a full meal before dinner is an extremely stressful situation for her.

I will never return to this restaurant again, and would not recommend the experience to anyone. My hope is that management changes hands, as the outdoor patio happens to be lovely and the service team deserves better from their employer than to be forced into this type of uncomfortable conversation.