Metropolis Ballroom — Local services in Wheeling Township

It is only getting 2 stars because the actually venue is pretty.

This is what I wrote the the President/CEO:

I was at the venue at 4PM to do an overview and make sure everything was set up according to plan. Around 5:30 I spoke to the gentleman who was setting up the stage, and we asked to make sure that a railing was put in place where the stairs were. He said that was no problem, but I realized when the awards started in the evening that there was no railing for balance. Our evening began a 6PM, although set up was still taking place at 6:05PM and guests started to walk in. From the beginning of the night when I was mingling at the bar, someone asked the bartender for a glass of the Menage Trios. The bartender then told them that that wine is only severed during dinner. I interrupted, as I chose the wines for the evening, and I informed the bartender that all wine we chose was available at the bar, and 2 bottles of the Menage Trios and 2 bottles of the Kim Crawford will be on the tables during dinner. There seemed to be a lack of commination regarding the place cards as well. I was up by the projector when the servers came around to pick up orders. Some servers took the place cards and some took the place cards with the place card holder, some gave back the holder, some gave back just the card. From my angle it looked out of whack. By the time I got back to my seat they started to serve the soup. After settling in I noticed everyone had their soups and place card but me. I then had to find a server to let them know my place card was gone. Butter was not on the tables when bread came, I went up and made sure they placed butter on each table (easy fix). Time frame in between soup, salad, and entrée ran a bit long. When the entrées came out, as discussed the entire venue was disappointed in the portion size and the temperature. Every single item on the plate was barely lukewarm, and as I mentioned I did not even eat my sirloin as it was way overcooked and I could not even cut into it. We had 71 orders with the sirloin or filet. Not having steak knives was shocking, and if we had known that the steak knives were to be provided upon request we would have wanted them. I worked in the service industry for 12+ years -from server, event coordinator, and management- and I was let down by the Metropolis Ballroom’s. Side note – bathroom ran out of toilet paper. Also, I know this is not part of your ballroom, but the elevator is scary. There is a smell in there, the carpet is stained and looks very dirty, and the floor level sign was being held together with black duct tape. This event was a huge deal to the company, as we flew in employees from all over the US. I am embarrassed that I am hearing people discuss how horrible the dinner was from even in Germany. The actual venue was beautiful, but it did not make up the experience of dinner. Pass appetizer and late night snacks were good.

Tomas Manetti (the President) wrote back saying he would look into it and get back to me and...

I want to preface this by saying that I would have given 5 stars had the venue completely followed through with our wedding. Everything from planning through the reception was great. The venue was beautiful, the staff was amazing, and the food was incredible. The disconnect happened after the reception. The event specialist was not on site and it didn't seem like a lot of communication was done between her and the banquet servers. The banquet servers were extremely helpful with helping my parents load everything into the car, but they failed to mention that we could bring our cake home & also did not ensure that everything on our inventory list was packed. My parents did not leave the venue until about 1:30am so they did not even think to ask about the cake, and weren't aware of everything on our inventory sheet. Two weeks later, after returning from our honeymoon, I went back to pick up a few things that were left behind. One of those things were our extra favors, which were lottery tickets. Somehow, the box was "missing" and the event specialist did not take any accountability for it not being there. They also let me know that they threw our entire cake away because we did not pick it up in time. How were we supposed to know that? Why wasn't the cake given to us the night of the wedding? To top it off, they also threw out our cake topper, which was supposed to be a keepsake of ours. This could have easily been prevented had there been communication between the event specialist and the banquet team, or, if the event specialist had actually stayed through the end of the reception. I understand that it is a long day for them, but that is their JOB. What is sad to me is that despite the wedding being an absolute hit, is that I will never forget how mis-managed the end of the event was. I am also sad that my husband and I won't get to enjoy the top of our wedding cake on our first anniversary, and how our personalized cake topper was carelessly thrown away. People spend so much time and money to plan weddings and the venue and events specialists should make it their goal for everything to go as close to perfect as possible, from start to finish. Like I said before, we had an overall great experience with planning everything and the wedding itself. The events specialist we ended with was not who we signed our contract with and was still relatively new to her position. I am hoping she learned from her mistakes with us and can ensure that this doesn't happen with any...

DO NOT BOOK YOUR WEDDING HERE.

My wedding reception was 9/2/23 at the Metropolis Ballroom and I regret ever booking with them. All our issues began with our first tasting. Dish after dish was horrid. Food tasted and looked awful. Their brochure makes it sound like an exquisite culinary experience and that couldn’t be father from the truth. When the chef came out because we complained about the food, his argued with us then walked out on our tasting. Following this, we had a second tasting with a different chef. Apparently he is the head chef and was out of town during our first tasting. During the second tasting, they rolled out the red carpet and everything was sensational. We then requested that the chef from the first tasting not be working during our wedding. To our surprise, he in fact was cooking in the kitchen on our wedding day and it showed. Food, once again, was horrible. Beef was over cooked, broccolini was over cooked, not one dish was up to the standard of our second tasting or the high price point. On top of this, staff was terrible. Our signature drink was an espresso martini. It was getting served in wine glasses until we complained. The waitress at my father’s table told my aunt that she couldn’t be served dinner unless she remembered what meal she chose. During dinner service, I had to ask for any wine to be served. When cake was passed and the dance floor opened, servers would remove uneaten cake and full drinks from guest seats.The late night hot dog cart was hidden on a wall and looked as though it came from 7-11. And finally, when we asked for the lights to be dimmed they told us they couldn’t until the sun was set. Ultimately we spent thousands of dollars on terrible food, poor service and an overall disgrace to wedding receptions anywhere. DO NOT WASTE...