Cultivated F+b – The Lancaster

First of all, I emailed the food manager Mr. Shim twice before posting this. I never heard from him.We purposely look for hotels with restaurants, to make things easier for ourselves, so shortly after we checked into the hotel, we came back downstairs to get some early dinner. It was around 3:00pm. There were probably seven people in the restaurant at the time, with only three or four tables occupied.When we approached the bar, a female came up and asked if she could help us. My husband said, “We would like to get a table, please.” She very quickly responded, “Uh, do you have a reservation?” I looked at my husband puzzled, as the restaurant was essentially empty, and he replied, “No, we do not.” As she was walking over to her computer, telling us “how busy they expect to be,” a waiter grabbed a couple menus and walked us to a table, then proceeded to serve us. I actually thought, for a moment, we were going to be turned away by an empty restaurant!We sat there for over two hours, and during that time, there were only three tables occupied, the entire time. The restaurant did not get close to “full” like we were informed it was going to, at least not while we were there.The food was excellent. The meal, itself was wonderful. It was topped off by a delicious strawberry whipped mousse, on the house, as someone told the server it was our anniversary. That was a delightful surprise, to which we told our waiter, “Thank you, that makes up for the unwelcome feeling we had when we arrived. It felt like no one wanted us here!” It was the first time our waiter smiled all service.Despite the unwelcome feeling we had the first day, we wanted to try more of the wonderful food. This time, upon returning from our show, we asked Allan, the food director, if we needed a reservation. Again, it was around 3pm, maybe two tables occupied, and we were told they were expecting a lot of reservations and we should make one. Because we wanted to go up to our room first, we said we would come back around 3:30pm. Allan made our much needed reservation, and so we returned at 3:30.This time, we stood at the bar area for a moment, before Allan saw us. He was in the corner, behind the bar, by the kitchen. Instead of walking over to greet us to walk us to our table, he basically motioned us with his finger to “come over here.” My husband instantly looked at me, shocked, “Did he just finger us across the restaurant, like a dog being called?” I was just waiting for the whistle.Allan sat us in the furthest, most inaccessible table from the door, in a corner, up against a wall, as we walked by open table after open table, awkwardly maneuvering my wheelchair past chairs and disturbing other patrons.As we took our seats, Allan said, “It’s quiet over here in this corner, and we have a lot of reservations.” As if to justify why he was seating us in the corner, at a small table, when there were more accessible open tables available.Ironically, instead of it being quiet, Allan proceeded to have an audible conversation with our waiter Fred right behind us. It was a conversation that perhaps needed to happen in a private location, after Fred’s shift, but definitely not right there.It was after this, Allan pulled Fred aside and had a very unprofessional encounter with him, directly behind us, chastising him over meat temperature and not being attentive. At one point, Fred looked at the bartender and asked, “What are you laughing at?” To which the bartender bluntly responded, “I’m making a fucking drink, homeboy!”I almost got up and walked out, as a former manager myself, I was appalled by the behavior. The food is good here, but the service is terrible.

Food and service were fabulous. Ambience perfect. Excellent for any occasion.

Perfect pre-theatre dinner! Food has been consistently good since our last visit, which was a few years back. Though, the crab cake (my fave was smaller than its predecessor ; Hubby loved short ribs and risotto. Mark and Wongel were very friendly, attentive and professional. They made sure guests made it to the show on time — just let them know.

Allan Levine the Manager -chef- BMOC makes sure things run well as most eating are then going to a play etc. Food is top notch along with service. It's small so always make a reservation. It's downtown so it's more than usual but that is expected.

The service was super slow for a restaurant that was pretty much empty. Also my group paid around $30 each for a mediocre brunch plate I could have been served faster in a Dennis or iHop. Side of beacon $8… don’t waste your money or time here. Yes $22 for eggs, beacon, and half made hash brown.Food: 2/5