Heirloom At The Athenaeum - Chautauqua

Since the hotel/restaurant has impeded itself at the end of the season of departure from college staff, the food quality was sufficient but extremely overpriced. the ambiente is wonderful I assume that the service is better, but tonight I had to track our server at two different locations aktiw to get wein dinner and then our deck before the trip to a show.

Great view of the lake of veranda where we sat. at the time only a buffet service was available. Eating was excellent. the coconut cream pie is highly recommended.

Buffet was mostly empty. Food not hot. Poor service.

Sunday evening buffet dinner of poor quality. Reservation at 7 PM. Trays containing entrees were literally all empty. We served ourselves salad and returned to find the offerings replenished. Eggplant parm with dairy free cheese! Pollock filets with a dairy free cream sauce. We felt like we were on a hospital or nursing home diet. Sausage and peppers and beef chunks in a gravy not bad. Hard to chew carbonized Brussels sprouts and for some reason a large bowl of corn chips with a dish of salsa were on the buffet table by the veggies. Odd on a buffet and not sanitary, Desserts were decimated as well but replenished finally and proved to be the best part of the dinner. Pleasant but slow service.

This is the historic Heirloom restaurant at the classic Athenaeum Hotel (largest wood structure in North America) on the grounds of the famous Chautauqua Instiution. As a restaurant, it is decidely mediocre in all aspects. Few places to go to while at Chautuauqua and shear force of tradition keep these types of places going. Nothing can beat it for nostalgia. On its own merits, it is decidedly unimpressive.