Grand Dining Room — Restaurant in Georgia

The Jekyll Island Club Hotel has three restaurants in it. One is the Grand Dining Room. This is in the original, historic building. It is the fanciest, most formal (complete with dress code), most expensive way to eat. But it is also the most authentic if you are pretending you are a very rich Victorian era Robber Baron - which is, of course, the main reason that I wanted to stay at the hotel! So, of course, we ate there for at least one dinner :). You can buy a meal ticket from the hotel’s front desk (over the phone or counter) and this meal ticket will include appetizer, soup or salad, main course, and dessert. You cannot skip a course if you buy the ticket - you paid for all of them so you better use all of them. Your dinner will take about two hours. They do not rush. I think the meal ticket will include a glass of wine too, you will have to check. You will be all dressed up, because there is a dress code. Come ready to relax and enjoy your meal. The food is delicious - it is worth the money. It is not overpriced for the sake of the experience, no - the experience is spot-on AND the food matches it. It is very good.

The value of getting a meal ticket is that you pay a FLAT RATE for the meal and you can order ANYTHING on the menu, so you can order the four most expensive courses, no matter what you paid for your ticket. Also, the TIP is included on the meal ticket. But, if you do not want to pay for four courses in this manner, that is totally fine. You can go to the Grand Dining Room just like a regular restaurant, and order off the menu what you like, only paying what it says there. Also, you will have to remember to pay the tip yourself right there after the meal. You could eat cheaper this way, but, at the same time you would not want to eat in the Grand Dining Room because you want to save money.

You will also want to get a reservation for dinner because, especially on weekends in the summer, they might be full. So you will want to reserve your table as soon as you have solid plans for your stay. If you want a cocktail before dinner starts, there is a fancy bar in the “parlor” area as you are waiting for the dining room to open, and you will see groups of people sharing a drink before dinner. One more tiny thing about reservations. You buy your meal ticket from the hotel front desk, and you make your reservation with the restaurant (the Grand Dining Room) itself - two separate entities.

There is not as much value with the meal ticket when eating at the Grand Dining Room for breakfast or lunch, although they are still good meals. The best value for the meal ticket in the Grand Dining Room is dinner and Sunday Brunch. Sunday Brunch is amazing and totally...

SAD. We traveled far with great expectations and had a terrible experience here. Although it is a beautiful room on an historic property. However, the food and service were well below expectations. On our Friday night dinner in November, the main dining room was so short staffed that things were delivered out of order, and even served to the incorrect persons and we actually had to get our drinks from the bar instead of from our server. That is correct, the service was so slow and discombobulated that we wound up having to go into the main bar area to get drinks because we could not locate our server. No other service person offered to help when we asked where our server was for about 20 minutes. This place used to have four diamonds, but the service appears to have gone way bad. The server explained that management had cut staff dramatically and there were not enough porters, servers, or food runners to keep things on schedule. When your service personnel are openly complaining about management and a shortage of staff, you are no longer a fine restaurant. Our Amuse Bouche arrived after salads. French onion soup was slightly below what you would get from a Campbell’s can. A table 2 away from us sat down and waited so long they departed, never even ordered. Manager should be embarrassed. It is time for a management overhaul of this beautiful room and historic hotel. For an actual fine meal, take the 20 minute ride to Sea Island and visit one of the fabulous restaurants there-- like the one at the Cloister! The Georgian Room or Tavolo or anything is better than this sad hotel on the decline...

Decor - 4 Stars Service - 1 Star Food - 1.75 Star Piano Music - Very nice Overall - 2 Stars

Attention to detail - Failure I look forward to sharing this with both the Forbes and AAA reviewer team.

(The Cloister nearby is 5...

I had Sunday Brunch here on February 9, 2020. I love this elegant classic Victorian dining room. The dress code is not as restrictive in the past so nice casual clothing (not tee shirts and shorts) is fine to wear. There is live piano music. Our waitress was Tanya. As soon as she came to our table I told her I must eat gluten free. She asked if she could set aside a Chocolate Decadence for my dessert. It is delicious and gluten free. I also asked her which main dishes were gluten free. She checked with the chef and told me the two items I specifically inquired about were gluten free. They were. The salmon was delicious. Tanya was very pleasant and efficient. She was attentive to our needs but not overbearing or hovering. We enjoyed chatting with her as she served us. There were many gluten free options available to me including several wonderful desserts. I do wish the kitchen would put a card on the buffet table next to each item that is gluten free. I returned to the buffet area several times during our meal. Each time, as I surveyed the food items in the buffet and found something I would like to try, I would ask the nearest staff person whether or not that food item was gluten free. Each time I made the request the staff person went to the kitchen to ask the chef while I stood waiting in the buffet area holding a plate. Each time the staff person returned as quickly as they could and gave me a report. This means the chef was interrupted three times and a staff person went to the kitchen and back three times just to provide gluten information to me. We had a pleasant relaxing meal in an elegant setting with good food and...