Dining on the Epic - Part One Complimentary Options

One of the things my husband was most excited for was new dining experiences. We booked two specialty dining restaurants, Teppanyaki and Moderno. We planned to spend the rest of the meals in the complimentary dining venues. Neither of us are "foodies" but we love food. We're happy at a buffet, so we are usually pretty easy to please.

Our first night we went to The Manhattan Room, we had no wait, but it was pretty early, around 5:30pm. We were seated right away, near the musician in the center. We were too early to see any dancing, or a full band, but the music was nice. The floor to ceiling windows were also a nice touch. Our server seemed rushed right away. He did not tell us the specials, he did not offer us a drink other than water, he took our order and walked away. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about, the presentation was just alright and the food was just alright as well. We ate almost the entire bread basket because it took forever for the food to come. To paint a picture, the people next to us sat down right after we ordered our food. They were eating their meal (appetizers done) when we got our salads. They had a different server. The meal was not bad by any means, but it was not great either.

Most mornings and afternoons we visited the buffet for our meals. As I said, we're simple and easy to please and I found the buffet food perfectly fine. Sometimes it was hard to find a place to sit, but we always did. I did miss the opportunity to have a soda with lunch but the waters, teas and juices were very nice. The only issue we had with the buffet is that it never really changed. I noticed some days they had something special on the buffet but everything else was pretty much the same each day.

Chandelier over Taste

We visited Taste twice, once for lunch (very good service, good food) and once for dinner. This dinner was our next disappointment. First we noticed that the menu was the same as Manhattan a few days before. One side of the menu had Chef's specials but the waiter never stayed long enough to ask about them. When we were seated, they asked if we wanted to see the wine menu. When we said no, it was like they were done with us. They barely stayed long enough to take our order, again not asking if we wanted anything but water and not telling us about the specials. A table was seated behind us, they ordered wine and our server was all over them, explaining the specials while he opened and poured their wine, carrying on a conversation with them. We felt that since the server would not be getting an additional tip from us since we did not order alcoholic beverages they wrote us off and only gave us the most minimal of service. We thought maybe this could be our imagination, or maybe the service was just poor in the "free" restaurants until it happened again, at a specialty restaurant.

I know I sound hypercritical of the dining options but by no means were they bad. They were just alright. I do expect better service and I would like more options in the main dining restaurants but overall it was sufficient.