American Audubon Dining Room — Restaurant in Clifton Forge

Our server was very nice, as was the rest of the staff. The stars for food are a balance between breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was fine. We ordered off the a la carte menu instead of the buffet. It was odd that their default seasoning on a fried egg was so much paprika it was red. Had to send that back and ask for just salt and pepper. The menu said nothing about heavy seasoning otherwise we would have asked to hold the paprika.

Dinner was a different story. They’re testing a new menu. It’s not apparent from the menu they publish that it’s not a normal menu with appetizers, salads, entrees, etc. It is designed - per the server - to be enjoyed as a tasting menu so every item is absurdly small portions for the price. You either have to order from each “course” on the menu - even though they’re not described as such - or be a very light eater. Each plate was a few bites. The appetizer was literally 3 pieces of pasta. For a menu clearly designed to be eaten in courses, the flavor between the courses wasn't cohesive. Both salads had overpoweringly strong cheeses and the amuse bouche had enough garlic powder to bring down Dracula. Following that with a delicately seasoned piece of venison (which was excellent) was unfair. There’s no prix fixe option with this menu, and we had reserved when the old menu was up with the prior dinner options and the prix fixe four course.

In order to actually eat what would feel like a complete meal, you’d have to spend $150+ pp from this new menu. Because that’s not transparent in the menu structure or literature, it’s left to the server to explain and for the guests to be surprised. If you’re planning on spending this amount, eat at Jefferson’s instead. We went to Martha’s for a la carte breakfast items and should have gone to Jefferson’s a second time instead of being disappointed by Audubon.

It was also probably 90% empty in the restaurant, so we could hear other people saying similar things as the diners were all seated in a small cluster. We told the maitre’d the entire situation because he asked for honest feedback on the new menu, and he thanked us but did nothing else. I think the staff knows this change is for the worse because they’re watching it unfold at each table over and over throughout...

Fixed price for the dinner, $95 per person, even though my kids refused almost all of the unusual choices offered. Other than the Filet mignon, which was very good, it was mostly inedible for me, dad, as well. I heard people complement the food here which is hard to understand as most of the items were surely frozen and microwaved. For some reason they also refuse service at the restaurants after 8, so if you're a late eater, just plan to go offsite. The Dining room service is about as poor as you can imagine, with no coming around to ask if you need anything. After putting in the order, we waited for approx 30 min before we were able to ask for some bread, wherupon he brought 3 pieces for the 4 of us. He also forgot to bring our desserts, and was generally so slow that the entire experience took approx 2.5 hours. Mind you this is when he only had 1-2 other tables to service. Grumpy if you ask for an alcoholic drink because he explains that he will need to walk over to the bar in the next room to get it. For this price, and the expected $90 tip, you would think getting us food and drink would be without complaint. Unless you have a lot of money and time to waste, I would recommend everyone skip the formal dining room altogether, and go offsite if Woody's and The Jefferson Restaurant are closed (which happens a lot). Jefferson Restaurant is very good, and is plenty good enough to be the only fine dining experience of this beautiful resort. At the Jeff, try the mac and cheese without lobster, Filet mignon, and the swordfish. All to die for. Enjoy your stay! If anyone from the resort is reading this, please close the Dining Room, and make the Jefferson Restaurant open 7 days a week and until 10pm. You will be surprised how...

The Dining Room at Omni Homestead was not even close to the fine dining experience we expected. First, we were sat next to a dirty waiter's station with dirty dishes and napkins stacked on it. The service was bad from the start with our waiter never explaining the menu, dishes, or courses in general. He was pushy and rude about ordering and kept repeating not to order from the top of the menu. It wasn't made clear those were complimentary hors d'oeuvres and he seemed annoyed with us asking questions. When we did get the first course, he pulled the pre-plated hors d'oeuvres from behind that same dirty waiter's station... which had been sitting there for who knows how long. Needless to say they tasted old and some were congealed.

When we asked for a drink menu we got the same response a lot of other diners complained about- they only had a few options otherwise they would have to walk "all the way to the other bar". I asked for a cabernet sauvignon, he said ok and was going to walk away. My husband asked what exactly he was going to bring, what was the brand or were there options? He didn't know so I ordered my usual Louis Martini. I also asked about any main course supplements or upgrades like a steak we could order and he said no I would have to go to Jackson's. Then I asked what Chateaubriand was and he said oh that's a steak... again would have been helpful to walk us through the menu at any point.

The service and overall experience was very disappointing. I would not recommend or go back here until they make some major changes to training...