The Willard Rooftop Lounge — Attraction in Raleigh

Extremely disappointed that my first online review ever will be a negative one. I booked a table earlier this week and specified that we would be celebrating a birthday (my dad’s 50th).

When we got to the restaurant this evening, we were greeted by a polite host and then taken to our seats. Little did we know that the table that I booked for 5 would be 2 couches, a couple stools, and 2 tiny circular “tables” pushed together at knee height. We were absolutely shocked that this is what was acceptable for a full course dinner. I understand that The Willard is a rooftop bar and lounge, but I think we were all expecting more traditional seating for what was advertised online. I think for drinks and small plates this is an acceptable seating situation, but not for a special occasion dinner celebration. The manager/our server also explained to us that the reason why we were not able to be seated at their more “traditional” seating options was because of a corporate party that was booked months in advance. If that were the case and no tables were open, The Willard should not have allowed for the “table” that I booked to be available in the first place. It made the establishment look like the “table” was just open for the restaurant to make a quick buck off of some suckers.

My family was not the only party who was shocked by this as well, there was a 3 top that walked in for their reservation and I noticed that they did not even stay for their meal and I would bet the reasoning was because of the “table” that they reserved. I actually would not even bet on it, since I clearly saw staff gossiping loudly about the situation at the host stand, which I could see from the stoop I was hunched over on. The seating situation and expectation must be clear to patrons who go out of their way to make reservations to dine at The Willard, especially if the seating provided is non-traditional. As for the staff, they did what they could, and I appreciate them for accommodating us to the best of their abilities. I do think that our server became increasingly more impatient with my family due to the complaints that we had, but I can understand to some extent, considering that restaurant week is a stressful week for service workers.

But all of that cannot excuse the quality of the food that was presented to us. The cuts were small and thin, and barely even looked like they were 4 oz. When we asked our server how big these steaks were, we were informed that they are 8oz BEFORE they are cooked, so I must think that 75% of our steaks were made up of air or just baked away under the heat lamps. In addition to the sizes of the steaks, the temps on our steaks were all wrong, which is shocking considering we all ordered our steaks medium rare with 1 medium in the mix. How could this have happened? We sent 2 steaks back and when they returned to us, these steaks looked very different than the cuts of steak that we received earlier. They looked closer to 8 oz. and the butter that sat atop of both of them were 6x larger than the amount the rest of us had received.

Are you surprised there’s more? Unfortunately so. As we were having dessert , my grandma pulled a short red hair out of her mouth. This was icing on the cake for us. We asked for the check and after paying all we got was a mutter of a “have a nice day” under our server’s breath. I do not think that the requests that we had made today warranted a farewell like that, and we also did not even get any acknowledgement of the birthday that we had mentioned. It was just very disappointing to say the least.

I am honestly at a loss for words, and I am very saddened that my first experience here was the way that is was. I hope that this is something that The Willard can learn from, and that they can better accommodate their patrons in the future. I think that the seating situation could have been resolved with a phone call earlier to give some sort of heads up, just for some common courtesy. I truly do hope that the owner takes this review seriously, and can prove my thoughts...

Let me begin by saying this was for a graduation celebration And I had reserved it over two months ago, and it had to be held with a credit card. Let me also mention the restaurant was not busy. We were the only ones there for the first 20 minutes, and then other tables slowly dwindled in. Let me also be fair and saying the only good aspect of the whole lunch was the view. And it was very nice. After that, everything goes downhill. It was in the hotel where we were staying. So we also had drinks the night before. The Mojitos were flat and did not have much flavor. Maybe two Mojito leaves that had not been muddled were in there. And about four pieces of ice. My recommendation would be to have beer or wine there and enjoy the view. That would probably be a nice evening. For two, not more- due to poor service. Do not get any food. It will be mediocre and the service with it will be terrible So for lunch the next day, we literally all ordered hamburgers. What could be easier! Let’s begin with they came out in stages. Two came out, and we thought the other six were right behind them. So after about 10 minutes, we begged those people to go ahead and eat theirs before they got cold. And then we still waited another 10 minutes for the rest of them to come out. Please see the pictures for the so-called toppings that you paid an extra two dollars for each. So my Two daughters had pretty much finished their burgers by then. It had been awkward for everyone as they ate and we “watched”. And then it was awkward for the two of them again as six of us ate and they sat there. We were never asked how our food was or did we need a refill on drinks? Literally not one time. And mind you, they were not busy. And we observed bar wait staff inside, chatting it up, cutting up limes. If the wait staff had indeed been busy, which they were not, could the bar staff have not helped out At least refills and getting condiments requested? And the other Things we did ourselves happened twice. We literally cleared our own table. We had ordered appetizers and they never retrieved those dishes. Where were our lunch dishes going? So we stacked them all in the center thinking the staff would see them and come and get them. No. We had to shove those over to the side when the first two plates came. You would think they would get them then. No. They sat there. Until the other six burgers came. And then it was awkward for the staff to try to be putting plates on the table and taking plates off the table at the same time. After lunch, it didn’t get much better. We stacked the plates again thinking they might come and get them. No. So finally, we ourselves put them on a table close by. We had cake that we wanted to serve to celebrate and we had nowhere to put it , because there was no table space until we cleared it ourselves Conclusion. If it’s just you and your date, go for beer or wine, not a cocktail as you will be disappointed, and enjoy the view. Don’t count on a cocktail being good. But the view is. But you do have to stand up to really see it. The walls are pretty tall around the sides. And whatever you do do not leave a credit card to hold a reservation. There was nothing good about this lunch. Except for being with family and enjoying the view. But the view is not worth...

I break my review down by sections. I'll get the complaint out then I'll review the restaurant's food.

Parking: The restaurant is part of a hotel. There is no parking unless you are stay at the hotel. There is street parking and a parking garage about a block from the Willard. No issue there.

Complaint: When we entered it was clean and the hostess was very friendly. We had reservations and ask if we could be seated in the section with the heaters or hopefully near the fire. The hostess said they were booked for the rest of the evening. She seated us and offered us a blanket. She left and never brought the blanket back. A group of 4 came in and told her they wanted to sit in the heated section after they were seated in the no-heat section. She said we are going on a shift change we can get you in a table on the side balcony. Off to the heat they went.

We watch another couple come in and she took them to their table. They didn't like it. She took them to a high-top, they asked if they could sit in the warmed section. She said they were booked for the night. She then sat them at another table with no heater like us. She gave them multiple blanket. As soon as the table next to the fire cleared, the man went to the hostess and asked again. The hostess cleaned the table off and different couple asked for the table. She repeated that it was booked. She then moved the other couple to the table by the fire. They had not reserved this table because we talked to them. I don't understand why they were able to get a warm seat but we were not.

Dinner: Service - 4 stars Drinks - 4 stars Our water was very nice. He brought us waters and offered a blanket. He brought it back with our drinks. The Willard Margarita was wonderful. It was very well balance. My husband had the Doctor's Order. He enjoyed it. He ordered two. The first came with dried pineapple but the second one did not. Both of my drinks were identical. Service -

Appetizers: 3 stars We ordered crispy duck arepas. They were out. We ordered the garlic ginger chicken bites. It was good. There was a hint of ginger and there was no taste of garlic. It tasted like chicken with barbecue sauce. We also ordered fried mozzarella. The breading could use more seasoning or some finishing salt. The pesto cream dipping sauce was slightly bland. Either the mozzArellano or the pesto sauce was seasoned more, it would have been great.

Entrees: 4 stars For our entrees we both had the bacon burger. My burger was not cooked to the requested temperatur however, the burger was absolutely wonderful! It was the perfect mix of sweet, salty, and spicy. This would be 5 stars if cooked to the...