Topping Rose House — Hotel in Town of Southampton

We have had such mixed experiences at JG's over the last 2-3 years it's hard to know where to start. We've lived just down the road for 12 years and have had dinner there at least that number of times. I wish there was a shred of consistency since we keep trying!! At the end of the day this lack of consistency, plus a recently-added "rip-off" prix fixe has forced us to pan this very-occasionally terrific local spot.

Rewind the tape 2 years (pre-Covid) and we had a spectacular meal there in March of 2019, followed by a disastrous experience in May, where classically loud and obnoxious (and "R-rated") conversations and shouted tales of braggadocio from almost all the surrounding tables drowned out our candle-lit romantic dinner. We're NOT 'feint-of-heart', but the staff's unwillingness to enforce a base-level of acceptable table-behavior and good manners among it's clientelle was shocking. We wrote it off to the "summer crowd" of you-know-whats", but 3 weeks later 2 good friends went there for there 1 year wedding anniversary and later told us that the experience was so awful that they left before their entrees arrived (they are not 'feint-of-heart', either!

Then Covid, so fast-forward to more recent times. This past Spring and summer we had 2-3 very good & memorable dinners: just us 2 twice and once with friends. I believe the had hotel changed hands, and the food was excellent, the ambiance terrific and the service first-rate.

So much so that we recommended the place to friends who drove from the North Fork to join us for dinner there this past Friday, only to have yet another fiasco of an experience!

Jean-George has converted to a $98 prix-fixe dinner menu. Which I thought was utterly "price-gougy" but would hopefully be spectacular. It wasn't. It was their standard menu of $35-$45 dollar entrees and $20 appetisers. Nobody wanted desert (there were 3 boring choices anyway), and we might not have felt completely ripped off, had the service not been atrocious. The hotel was hosting a 100-person wedding and the waiters must have been pulling double-duty. We sat down at 7:00pm and left by 9:45pm. In that span, it took us 15 minutes to order wine, 20 minutes to get appetizers, we had entrees arrive before plates had been cleared - so we bussed our own table, it took almost 30 minutes for desert to arrive (which we hadn't wanted anyway, but neverthelss had to request twice), and another 20 minutes to get the check handled. We poured our own wine throughout the meal - which was tasty, but diminished by being over-priced and poorly served. To say the waiter was in-absentia would be an understatement.

I had to apologize profusely to our guests, as they faced a long drive to get home after dinner, and left shell-shocked and disappointed by the experience. A modest bottle of wine ($95 ish) and a generous-though-completely-undeserved tip ($100 is) set the 4 of us back about $640. Quite astonishing. Crossed off our...

All the reviews I read seemed pretty positive however, the welcome we got was very vague. No offer in recommendations or assistance in reservations, even to their own restaurant. There was limited information of the amenities (e.g. bikes, car service), and a lack of information relating to events happening during our stay.

The restaurant was amazing and food was delicious and great service. I had better luck calling the restaurant to get a hold of someone at the front desk because they rarely answered (again, there is a theme of a lack of communication).

The room was really nice but for being an “upscale” boutique hotel, I’m really surprised they couldn’t even have a coffee machine in the room. Also, our door didn’t lock which the front desk told us it was because they’re European doors but if they were so “unique” it would’ve been nice if someone explained how to use it.

I was mostly disappointed that there ended up being a wedding during our Thursday night stay which ended up being directly in front of our room at the pool. Luckily it ended at 11 pm but we weren’t able to use the pool and there was people all over setting up so we felt in the way that entire day. There was also a photo booth setup which lit up the entire bathroom with flash after flash. It would have been nice if they put us further down at least and when we said something, they just mentioned they communicate events on their website. I don’t think there’s clear wedding dates listed on their site and if there is…it would have still been nice if someone just gave us the heads up when we checked in.

They did also have the fire pit setup but didn’t have a fire any of the nights…once again seemed like another amenity we couldn’t use. We haven’t been traveling much during the pandemic but this experience was pretty disappointing and feel like I’ve received better service traveling for work and staying at a Marriott. I would like to support smaller boutique hotels but I felt like a burden since I wasn’t paying thousands on a wedding…just a few thousand on two nights which is clearly nothing to them

Also, I was really surprised that there was so much traffic. The hotel is in front of one of the main roads, it’s only two lanes but there were a ton of large tractor trailers constantly driving by when dining and can easily be heard from the room...

Three of us went to TR House for Thanksgiving dinner 2017 hoping that, all things considered ($$$$), we'd be served something a little special. We arrived on time for our early dinner reservation and were seated 35 minutes later. No big deal; it was jam-packed, but I was genuinely pleased to see they were doing a brisk business; that's a good sign, and good for them! It was also loud. Very loud. Two crying babies held center stage, but this was a special day, so fine, who doesn't love babies, even high pitched ones?

However, when our harried waiter finally came to take our order, we were informed that they were officially out of turkey. At 6:35? Okay, stuff happens.

We adjusted our expectations and ordered other items on the menu. Ten minutes later, our (even more) harried and, by now, we realized, utterly charmless waiter announced that the kitchen had turkey after all. Hooray! We all ordered the turkey dinner!

What was eventually put in front of us was a dollop of mashed potato and gravy, 1/2 a dollop of stuffing, 4 (or was it 5?) pieces of brussels sprouts, a schmear of cranberry, and . . . . turkey roll! Turkey roll! At least we were each given our own plates . . .

. . . which we all cleaned in short oder, but for one item . . . turkey roll. After a couple bites, none of us found this hapless roll of fowl meat to be in any way satisfactory. It was thick, dry and devoid of anything remotely Thanksgiving-y. To say that, for almost $500.00, the three of us were disappointed, would be a gross understatement.

I will say though, the scallop appetizer was quite okay, as was the desert. And the hat-check girl, too. But the main event, bleh!

We left feeling that we had paid hard earned money to be part of a bad dress rehearsal for kitchen and staff. I won't even mention how many times we had to ask if our wine was on the way. Did I mention our harried and utterly charmless waiter? A little smile every once in a while might've gone a long way. At least to signal "hey,...