The Terrace Room Events — Attraction in Oakland

I have been going over to The Terrace Room for years now, but quite recently feel slight different in the services being provided by the management. Granted the location is great and restaurant is beautiful but restaurant service has been extensively compromised.

Last night was halloween night; and according to The Terrace Room, a local band was schedule to play from 7PM to 10PM.

It took us half of day running around while looking for costume attributes, and 2 hours to get ready. We left work early and pushed away other plans to be at the Terrace Room and to enjoy the food, drinks, music and dancing.

We reserved the table for 7:30PM and arrived on time. Upon arrival, we did notice the restaurant was not too busy but the band was amazing. We enjoyed our dinner and danced a little. In the meantime, the restaurant decided to close the restaurant early and asked band to finish at 9:10PM instead of its scheduled end time of 10PM. I am eye witness of the said incident, and band did confirm that the manage has asked them to end early.

Here is how we feel with this whole adhoc based change of plan. A transaction is a mutual agreement between a customer and the business. The business asks for certain payment for the services that they are going to provide and customer pays to receive the services that the business has promised to render.

We paid per the listed price on your menu, we also ordered drinks from your menu; We did not bargain down your asked prices, and we also expect you not to serve any less than what you have promised.

How is it any of customer's fault if your restaurant turn around was not as anticipated.

Upon my request, Manager refused to come outside and listen to my complain. However, we were offered a voucher for a free drink for next visit. Now I will be honest with you; I felt disrespected, where manager did not want to listen to my complain and zip my lips with $10 drink. This was cheap and insulting remedy.

At this point, I told the assistant manager that I have a right to raise a complain and voice my opinion, and that I can certainly afford to pay my own drink and I did not come to the Terrace Room to obtain a free drink voucher for my next thrilling experience. We were there to enjoy music till 10PM per what you have promised.

Perhaps you should not advertise that the band will play till 10PM. Perhaps you should advertise that band will play till 9:10PM with a possibility to play till 10 depending upon the business need.

We feel that the Terrace Room tricked us into coming and failed to keep their end of the bargain. That the Terrace Room failed to listen to our complain, acknowledge their mistake and simply say something like "we will try to make it better next time", but instead a quick, cheap and insulting fix of $10 drink was offered.

We also belong to a vast groups of Tango and Swing dance community and have hosted tens of events and brought hundreds of dancers to the Terrace room over the course of past few years. I for one will no longer be going to the Terrace Room events any more and will host our events else where, I will also be discouraging other dancers from hoping a pleasant experience from the Terrace Room.

And as for your business strategy, perhaps you should know by now why your restaurant is no...

No effort to go above or beyond.

Amazing disappointment. One would think a place that has been in Oakland for almost 100 years would be a little more hospitable to the paying Guest. I stand at 6’-2” and over 350lbs. You can’t miss me if you tried, because one of us is going to have to move so you can get by.

All the images of the place are accurate to a tee. There is no misrepresentation of the brick and mortar of the place. It’s the people.

My youngest goddaughter was getting married at this venue. The happiest day of her life, yet the staff moved in such silence we did not know they were there. When the mother of the bride-to-be arrived with a leg injury, we had to carry all the carts of food, decorations, and clothing up the 22 stairs by hand, because no working soul offered to show anyone where the disabled access entry point was in the hotel. We had to double park because no one was managing the parking loading zone, which was full for an hour, and is supposed to be regulated at 20 minutes.

The couple with the extended cab pickup parked in front of the van, which had sunshades, had to be asked by me to move out of the immediate doorway so we could unload for 40 minutes.

The security guard was the only staff member who spoke to me during the first 95 minutes I was there.

The manager, the setup staff, people coming in and out of the kitchen, and the bartender never spoke to me. A female bartender did smile, but this is a hotel that has been in the hospitality business for 98 years.

Two hours in, I think a manager (a woman) came to the front of the Hotel to inform part of the wedding party, “Can you move across the street, because Oakland has a no-smoking policy within 25 feet of the door.” This was most disturbing because Walmart, Macy's, and Home Depot have the same policy. If you are within 12 feet of a person, greet them with a hello or 'Hi,' or 'Welcome to our store.' In’ n Out, AM/PM, and Chevron gas stations give a greeting when you come in, just like Panda Express. Yet when I brought this up to the manager, “Maybe the staff were in deep thought?” From Motel 6, Super 8, Executive Inn, Marriott, Hilton, Loft, everyone greets you, from the landscapers to the repair people, and all in between. You can’t get by the staff without a verbal acknowledgment, but you can at The Terrace Room.

As the photographer, I wanted to stream the ceremony for those who couldn't attend. I asked the manager for the password. She gave it freely, no additional charge.

Yet I could not get online. What she failed to mention was that they have four signals to pick from, and she gave me one. Since it was not my place, none of the first three I tried worked, so I showed her that it was not working. Then, she scrolled down to the one that matched the password.

Once the wait staff served the food, we discovered that the level of service matched the reviews; the food was delicious, and it felt like we were in a different place.

When it came to dancing, the air flow, with the windows open and the fans on, didn’t cool the room; the hot air just smothered...

This is about Thanksgiving buffet at The Terrace Room. First, I appreciated all of the servers who were pleasant and helpful, even festive, during my entire meal. It must be a bummer to work on Thanksgiving, so their demeanor did not go unnoticed. The food was also quite good...at least while it lasted, which brings me to the reason I am writing this less-than-positive review.

When we made reservations for 4:30 no mention was made about the service ending at 5PM. It wasn’t mentioned when we arrived at the restaurant either. Given that the meal was for Thanksgiving and a buffet, we were prepared for several helpings of food and loaded up our first plates accordingly to start with salads and initial samplings of turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing. However, upon returning for our second plates, we discovered a closed carving station, 2-3 remaining slices of turkey, empty stuffing and mashed potato serving pans, and no more pumpkin pie for dessert that we hadn’t anticipated eating for at least another 1/2 hour or so. This was the first that we learned of the restaurant’s plan to close down service at 5PM. Folding tables were being carried away, and empty tables were being set up for the following day’s diners. THANKFULLY, a very helpful gentleman server found one more pan of sliced turkey and some slices of pumpkin pie in the kitchen to bring out for the remaining hungry patrons. So that was Thanksgiving buffet at The Terrace Room, and we were there for less than 1 hour.

Considering the cost per person is much higher for their Thanksgiving buffet than for other meals, which presumably accounts for the typical reasonable expectation that patrons come for an extended, festive, relaxed meal, the lack of disclosure about when the food service would end felt like a rip-off. Squeezing parties in during the last 1/2 hour of the holiday meal, charging the inflated amount, and then folding up and hauling away empty tables while diners hurry to consume whatever buffet scraps remained for the taking, seems like a pretty low brow set of practices for an establishment that appears to promise a more refined, special dining experience.

I would hope that the restaurant’s management will rethink the way they do business on the day of thanks because I don’t think it’s worth it for them to lose customers’ positive shared word of mouth and future business—as they have mine—just to eke out a couple of parties’ worth of revenue on that one night...