The Terrace Hotel Lakeland, Tapestry Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Lakeland

They lost our reservation on Thanksgiving, blamed us for their oversight, and the food was subpar at best. My full review on The Terrace Grille (Thanksgiving buffet):

I called the Terrace Grille on 11/21/2024 at around 4:30pm to make a reservation for my family for the Thanksgiving buffet and was asked to call after 5pm to speak with someone who could help me as I was experiencing an issue with their online booking platform OpenTable. At 5:03pm on 11/21/2024 Garret took and confirmed my reservation for a party of seven at 1pm for the Thanksgiving buffet.

When my family and I arrived on Thanksgiving I was told by the host Salvador that there was not a reservation for us. After a short wait Salvador returned with Sean, who appeared to be the manager, and offered accommodation but with the caveat we “wouldn’t be seated until 1:30pm and would need to be finished by 3pm so the next party could be seated”.

Upon my hesitance (since we had planned to enjoy our time and pace ourselves with multiple bottles of champagne to accompany the offerings at the raw bar before our dinner) as well as the dissatisfaction with the unorganized reservation and hosting (thanks for the anxiety attack for losing our reservation on a holiday!) Sean then got involved and upon me questioning how this could have happened he told me, “You didn’t confirm your reservation, all of our guests booked through OpenTable” in a tone that alluded the blame for their oversight was on me for not booking through OpenTable (a platform I’ve used multiple times at many other establishments, but which was continually glitching several times when trying to setup a reservation for the Thanksgiving buffet at The Terrace Grille prompting the need for me to make a call for the reservation).

I further inquired if reservations were not supposed to have been taken over the phone so I could better understand the situation, and was told by Sean “I really couldn’t say either way, but we’re offering you a table and you’ll have plenty of time to enjoy your meal”. I then told him “I guess it will have to be enough time, we don’t really have a choice”. He then told me “You do have a choice, but I’m offering to accommodate you, would you like to be seated or not?”.

I was not only surprised I would be talked to like this but even more so that I was not once given any apology for their oversight of having lost our reservation but instead have it be insinuated that the host seemingly not having noted our reservation when I called on 11/21/2024 was somehow my fault. That being said, let’s talk about the food:

The (gulf coast) oysters were almost inedible due to the amount of sand left in them and the snow crab was so over-cooked and of low quality the shells were soft and rubbery. The shrimp was the only adequate item offered on the raw bar although being stringy and overcooked. The Brussels sprouts were burnt to a crisp as pictured and the Dijon carrots were so salty they were inedible.

To be told I not only didn’t have a reservation but also have the blame shifted to me for not booking on open table (which was not working properly and why I called to book in the first place) was in poor form, bordering on outright rudeness, and this combined with subpar offerings turned what should have been a proper holiday dining experience into an experience I’d like to forget. I left feeling we wasted our Thanksgiving holiday on a lousy choice of establishment.

We thankfully ordered champagne, which even at a 400% mark up was the only redeeming fare offered and entirely worth the price to blunt the disappointment and embarrassment I felt as the organizer who chose The Terrace Grille for my family’s thanksgiving celebration. Patronizing this establishment on a holiday (or frankly, at this point, any other day as well) will be a mistake I will never make again as a previously frequent patron of The...

To even say 2 stars is being alittle nice.... I’m never one to complain or write bad reviews but this is my time. My best friend just had her wedding here yesterday, the day was really good but it wasn’t because of the hotel but because of the vendors and the people and family we had there. Ever since we started planning this wedding with them long long ago they gave us so much trouble and each time we called to plan more a new person would be working in the old one would be fired. They went through management change a few times in this less than a year span. They gave us trouble on so many things like our block of rooms been gone. They said we were supposed to sign off by November 5 for the rooms but we went in person before that and confirmed. That is when we saw the room again and looked at the suite we would be staying in and getting ready in. A couple months before the wedding we literally had to call a whole other hotel and get a block of rooms for the guest that hadn’t been able to even get a room yet. All we had was our suite in the room for our groom to stay in. It was a big inconvenience since we sent out our invitations letting our guests know to book a room at the terrace hotel under the Basile/Torres wedding. Then having to reach out to every single guess letting them know the new hotel. Communication from the hotel to the bride was terrible and never good. Our bride was always stressed because of the miscommunication the hotel was presenting. There’s many more little details that I won’t get into or bore you with. The day of the wedding we had stayed the night in the room the night before and had a late check out the next day, the wedding was at four so we imagined that we would be able to stay in the room until then since there will be nowhere for the bride to stay since the wedding was at four. The hotel proceeded to call us and tell us at 1:30 at the checkout time was 130 and we couldn’t stay in the room and less we paid half of a day when they never told us the time and they told us it was a late check out. This was with them knowing we have the wedding at 4o’clock. We arrived at the hotel the night before we had gotten a suite with two king size bed and a double pull out couch. Tired and stressed from all the pre-planning for the day before the wedding we got to the hotel late at night, for the couch bed to literally be broken and not be able to come out from the couch. We called the front desk and all the man had to say was that oh yes it’s broken and if you take it out it will get stuck. He seemed very unbothered by it didn’t didn’t even care to offer a discount for the room that we have paid for an extra bed for, and was sold as a room that could sleeps six. This was very inconvenient and lead some people to have to sleep on the floor which is very upsetting. I don’t blame the workers because they don’t have much say in what goes, and a lot of the workers and maintenance people were very very nice and helped us as much as they could. The place is beautiful and we did have a wonderful wedding but it wasn’t because of the hotel. The servers for the wedding were great and worked really hard for both the wedding and the breakfast the next day. We truly wouldn’t recommend anyone holding an event here until they have their stuff together and figure out what they’re doing. Maybe even wait for renovations to be done. Their management is very messy and unstable and we really wouldn’t recommend you to do your wedding here. The stress the bride went through was not worth it. That said we did have a wonderful wedding and we would like to think the maintenance man that came in and tried to help us with the couch. He was very nice and very personable when he didn’t need to be. Again I hate being negative and running reviews like this but I wouldn’t want anybody else to have to go through...

Wow. I don't even know where to begin. I frequented this hotel many a time in the early part of the 2000s. It was a pleasant stay then; property was recently renovated, service staff was courteous and pleasant, food was good, and the price was reflective of those qualities. All these qualities are gone, I'm sure the GM from that period has moved on to better things, currently this place resembles an upgraded version of motel 6, albeit the motels continental breakfast is far superior. The property has worn out significantly. When I stayed there a decade ago the decor within the rooms reminded me of grandmas cottage, it was clean but the furniture and color schemes were poorly selected. I was flabergasted to find the same decor. Absolutely disgusting. e.g.. box TV set. no microwave, nor refrigerator. Ceiling tile. Need I say it again? Ceiling tile. Curtains were ripped. Shower door was difficult to keep on the tracks, as though I should even have to try. Everywhere I turned the walls were nicked and carpet worn out. The only place that retained its charm and still looked pleasant was the restaurant... at night. Breakfast was excellent, the menu selections are exactly how they should be. One morning I had to stop by the continental breakfast as I was running late. Its a joke. They shouldn't even bother. I had lunch once during my stay and was recommended the chicken entree, which I was reluctant because, well... its chicken. Excellent. My client had a chopped salad which looked superb as well. I asked to keep a menu as I plan on retiring soon and doing lots of cooking, and wine country tours. Dinner was another story. I ate twice and each was terrible. I ordered a medium well filet the first evening. It was delivered to me rare, as in cool red inside with pinkish blood on the plate surrounding it . My server was pleasant and apologetic. She immediately returned it to the kitchen to correct their blunder. I observed the young woman who was cooking it, only to witness her hand it to the server no less than 2 minutes later. This time it wasn't bloody but still clearly red throughout. Did she skip the cooking classes in culinary school? What imbecile thinks it would take 2 minutes to fix that temperature? And what imbecile would hire that imbecile? The final temp was practically well done, but I was hungry and didn't want to put the server through any more trouble. My client and I had arranged dinner later that week, the salmon I ordered was good minus the skin? Are you kidding me? skin? The sides tasted like they were out of a box... and left in the refrigerator for a week. I could have held my plate upside down and all the sides would have stuck to the plate. I was entertaining clients though and could not complain in front of them. I couldn't help notice that one of them ordered what looked like a cockroach. She hardly ate it. I know she didn't enjoy it, but like me smiled through it. Whats wrong with the chef? Is he too lazy to take skin off fish and heads off of shrimp? The service was excellent though, and the key lime pie is still the best I've ever had. Overall, you don't get what you pay for anymore at the Terrace. I always have my assistant seek out charming non chain hotels. This is now just a non chain hotel. My clients too claimed the hotel hasn't kept on par with others and they refer them elsewhere. When I come back to Lakeland I will not be staying there, but will probably end up in the restaurant again, hoping for a more...