Biltmore Estate Dining Room — Restaurant in Asheville

If you want to overpay for deplorable service and limited selections, this is the perfect place to go. This was one of the things I was most looking forward to on my trip to Asheville. It was a horrible experience from start to finish. Had reservations for afternoon tea. I am perfectly fine with having a mandatory dress code, but to then be greeted by a person that has visible piercings all over her face was the first turn off. Don’t insist you have your guests dress up while your staff looks like they were an extra for Pinhead in Hellraiser. Second turn off was that it smelled like I walked into a low end breakfast diner off the side of an interstate. We were 10 minutes early and then was asked to wait until closer to our serving time. That was fine, even though the dining room was 90% empty, whatever. They forgot about us completely and wouldn’t have remembered unless we reminded them, mind you it is 90% empty, it wasn’t like there was a line of people waiting for their reservation, we were literally the only ones waiting. Finally being seated, it took another 20 minutes before someone acknowledged we were there. Already within the first 30 minutes being there we had been forgotten twice. The wait staff when they finally came over tried to make it right by offering champagne, twice we turned it down since we don’t drink. After taking our order for tea, she then comes back with champagne for us. Problem is we had turned down champagne twice already since we don’t drink and in fact get triggered around alcohol., extremely inconsiderate gesture. They then brought out a bottle of Peligrino, which felt like a slap in the face for being ignored and made to wait on an empty dinning room. Manager was lurking for minutes in the background like a vulture. Had made a comment to my date that he was and he didn’t approach until I mentioned it to her and she turned around to look. when he came over he offered no apology the first time or second time he approached our table. It was not until the end the he approached to attempt to apologize, but he missed the mark all together and apologized for the wait. I would have waited another hour to spend time with my date. It was the fact we were ignored on multiple occasions and then given a half-hearted token of an attempt to make it right. Tea selection was very limited and rather nothing special on the menu, if there was anything special our wait staff surely didn’t point it out. I would have expected more selections and far better service with the how much they expect you to pay. Normally when presented with your servings at a tea you are given the menu to know what you are getting, that didn’t come until after our first serving was done and gone. The servings aren’t even in proper “British” order which was advertised. Don’t waste your money selection were poor and services was...

My wife and I stayed at The Inn for our 5 year anniversary. We went to The Dinning Room for dinner and breakfast. These were two drastic differences (1 time for dinner on our anniversary and 2 times for breakfast) for dinner it was a great experience. Our server was fantastic and informational, the food was good (not really our style of food, but it was still good) and the wine was good. The deserts “looked great”, but turned out to not really be our kind of deserts (overly sweet).

Breakfast was like a 180 in terms of experience. We had a package that included breakfast at The Dinning Room (will hit on that later) so we wanted to try the breakfast out Saturday morning. We got there at about 9am, they said it would be a 15 minute wait, which isn’t that bad. 35-40 minutes later (wife was starting to not feel well, we just wanted to sit and get some water/coffee) we got a text that our table was ready. We walked up to the front to be seated and they were confused, talking amongst themselves, they were confused, they then decided to seat us.. in probably the worst spot imaginable (were they dump ice water into their serving pourers, which are metal). We can’t hear ourselves think let alone talk, and from the time of sitting and waiting for our actual server was about 10 minutes (still just wanting some water). It was bad enough we both realized we can’t stay here because we know this entire breakfast is going to take an hour plus (we have reservations to make). When the waiter finally arrived we asked for water and that we won’t be staying, she said “ok I will be right back”.. 3-5 minutes later.

The next morning we arrived at about 8:30-9am, and this time we were sat immediately, and the server got to us in maybe 2 minutes. We had a Bed and Breakfast package with The Inn, which never once did they discuss what food we would get free. We decided on the buffet because it seemed more up our ally (we were worried about the dinner and the styles of food not meeting our wants for a breakfast). The buffet wasn’t bad, but a little bit of a let down as their eggs are clearly still powered eggs, and their biscuits were not too fresh, bacon was ok, pork sausage was ok as well. We got some cappuccino’s and as they brought us the bill, I assumed it was all covered due to our package. Come to find out, only the food was, the drinks were not (when their drinks are $6-10 each, that is enough to make you say “really?”).

When it comes to dinner at The Dinning Room, the experience is great. When it comes to breakfast, DO NOT expect the same experience as dinner. Expect the same experience you would get at a IHOP or something of...

What a fabulous experience. My friends surprised me with a 52nd birthday dinner here at the Biltmore Estate Dining Room and any expectations I had were surpassed at every turn. The setting is beautiful, we had a window table in a wing off the central dining room and I loved it, it was like our own private dining space. The view of the mountains from our table could only be described as breathtaking. We were quickly but gently approached by the first member of our service team with a very friendly but formal greeting. The young man knew my friend's names and ours as well, making it a point to use these in the greeting, brining a level of warmth and comfort to the elegant and upscale environment. Our lead server arrived and also gave us a lovely and persona greeting. She was very professional, knowledgeable and highly skilled at her craft. I speak on the staff as the art of fine dining has waned in the past number of years, and as a former restaurant manager for the steakhouse in a very exclusive club I want to share when I find exceptional service shared with that level of panache. The whole night no one missed a beat, we were cared for and given plenty of space to enjoy. And enjoy we did... lets talk food. WOW!!!! The food was beyond yummy. As a favorite baking show says, "Worth the calories!" and "Scrummy!" So freaking good, expertly crafted, cooked to perfection and artfully plated I could go on for paragraphs, but I would actually say go and try it yourself!!! Words will not do this justice, it is culinary art craft at it's best. I will say that the She Crab Soup is not to be missed, and the Joyce Farms Chicken Roulade was elegant. And the Cauliflower plate blew me and my partner away, so packed with flavor. Then there was dessert... again,,, no words ... just go try it... oh my happy taste buds!!! The wine list is extensive and well plotted. There is a huge range of great wines without being overwhelming. The craft cocktail I had was sublime, it was the Honeysuckle Lemon Martini.... I plan on returning soon to sit on the deck, have one of these, a few appetizers and bask in the changing colors of fall. It was that good. So go, enjoy, have fun and spoil yourself with a great dinner, you will not be...