The Eleanor Room — Restaurant in Greendale

I've dined at The Eleanor Room several times since it opened, and at first everything was close to perfection, however, the last two times the food was off as was the service. The Mushroom Bucatini was served cold, both when I ordered it for the first time and when I returned with several family members. My Niece ordered the Mushroom Bucatini, and once again was served cold. The excuse - the cream added is cold, therefore, it cools down the pasta. As a home chef, I always warm up cream anytime I add it to a dish, so I'm not sure why a professional chef would add cold cream to a dish. In any event, a pasta dish should never be served cold. Also, during the last dining experience with my family members, I ordered The Eleanor (which I have ordered a few times previously), however, the tenderloin and the rapini were also served cold although the double baked potato was served hot. I'm assuming that the plate timing was off and the tenderloin and rapini were prepared way before the double baked potato was ready, and instead of putting the plate with the tenderloin and rapini under a heating lamp, the kitchen just left the dish out. Again, unacceptable. Unfortunately, the service appears to also have gone down a bit. The restaurant itself has a wonderful ambiance, and it's disappointing that the food and service quality appears to be declining when everything was wonderful previously. I will go back again in the hopes that things will/have returned to the high level it was previously.

Adding a review from my dining experience on Sunday, July 13th. For this dinner and service, I give the restaurant five stars.

I took four of my family members to dinner and it was their first time dining at The Eleanor Room. There were some menu changes, and the website was not updated reflecting the new menu, so the menu was a bit of a surprise to those family members who checked out the menu online and had decided beforehand what they were going to order. The new items on the menu were a pleasant surprise, although I'm sorry to see The Eleanor taken off the menu. I ordered the NY Strip as did one of my family members, and it was delicious. Unfortunately, the French Onion Soup wasn't as good as I remember. It seems to missing something (maybe some Sherry or Thyme?). As starters, the bread board was also a hit as was the Beef Carpaccio and the roasted broccoli. The Dubai Dream was out of this world! I do have to say, however, that charging $1.00 for blue cheese stuffed olives for my Martini was a surprise. It would have been nice if the server had informed me that there would be a charge. I've never been charged the times I've previously dined at The Eleanor Room, and I certainly have never been charged for blue cheese stuffed olives at any other fine dining establishment. It seems rather tacky. In any event, overall it was a lovely dining experience. The service...

First visit for four of us. Very nice and clean atmosphere. 5:30 reservation. Ordered two excellent drinks at bar. Bartender delivered tour our table. Waiter was pleasant but seemed newer cuz he didn’t know the type of trout being served. Dinner Menu is not huge. Placed orders and did not see our waiter for at least 15 minutes. When food arrived. Ordered pork Schnitzel, rainbow trout, short rib risotto and tenderloin Eleanor.

Upon arrival. My trout/rice was served in a bowl opened/butterflied skin up. It was warm… not hot. Rice underneath was hot. Little seasoning/herbed flavors on any of it. I had to flip it to find out it had been mostly deboned. Interesting that it was served in a bowl.. no liquids. The head was resting on one edge and tail over the opposite edge.

Short rib risotto was flavorful. Edges of beef were warm/risotto was not creamy… thinner texture and also warm

Pork was pounded very thin and breaded. Almost looked deep fried cuz it was so crunchy and in my opinion -overdone

The tenderloin was surprisingly sliced into 3 large slices showing us the it was rare rather than medium rare as ordered. Steak was cold. Twice baked potato was warmish. Green beans hot. Her ordered sauce would be delivered shortly…??? No salt/pepper on table. Cold sauce arrived 5 minutes later but forgot salt/pepper. At this time our friend wanted cold steak heated up. No waiter for at least 10 minutes. Meanwhile rest of us are slowly picking at our food to be polite and wait for the steak to be remedied. Our friend finally went to bar to flag down someone. Manager in charge came over and apologized and asked if she wanted it heated or remade. For speed purposes she asked it to be reheated. As did the short rib cuz everyone’s food was now cold. Several minutes later. Reheated food came back. Both were warm on surface and still cold underneath. Mgr came over to check on it and she requested a new steak be made Med rare and hot. 15 minutes later new steak /tater/beans arrived. Still rare and cold in middle. Mgr bright her a glass of champagne as a sorry gift. Decent gesture but she doesn’t drink champagne!

No offer of discounts or compensation at all but they did ask if we wanted dessert. Again no offer of coffee or after dinner drinks.

Very dissatisfying experience overall. It was sparse when we arrived and crowded within an hour. It seems like the establishment wants to be a higher class dining experience but falls well...

Overall a pleasant experience for such a young establishment. Very attentive wait staff. High quality ingredients, which is typical of a newer restaurant. Hopefully their foot traffic can support their structure because their menu begs for quality which it delivers right now. My wife had the salmon over the dill potato cakes and it was very good and presented well. I had the summer risotto with salmon. The salmon had a great level of firmess and was seasoned well. The risotto was overall good. I think I’d like to see a little less risotto and a few carrots or other vegetables (maybe greens) plated with it to bring out the salmon color as risotto and salmon alone can be somewhat bland visually.

We had the bread plate and felt it needed some sea salt flakes as the butter was delicious as was the rosemary bread but it needed a micro level of salt to bring it up another level.

Dessert was the Crème Brûlée. Honestly the worst thing we had tonight, the crust was far too thick and the overall base had curdled due to being too hot due to the crust thickness. A thinner crust would do wonders.Also the popcorn is too “soggy” and distracts, I’d rather see berries in the summer and an cinnamon apple or pear on the brulee in the fall. The overall bread and pastry program is a winner (brunch menu has homemade biscuits and also homemade puff pastry (!!!)) and it’s evident that the pastry chef has a lot going on and seems to be executing well on everything but the crème brûlée. Really good bread program.

The wine list is well thought out and the mixed drinks menu is awesome…definitely a great addition to Greendale. I’d like to see a little more variety on the wine list but our understanding is that there are limits to how many bottles can be on menu due to vintage 38 being nearby. I think that’s ridiculous and feel bad for owner and management to have their hands tied like that. The menu begs for a Riesling and a Beaujolais now or a Syrah this fall if the menu shifts to more autumn fare.

Again waitstaff from the host to the server and manager were great. Two of the owners little girls were there helping which is cute, my caution is that could be an issue long-term with the dinner sophistication the ambiance and the menu asks for.

Also handled allergies well, made me feel comfortable ordering.

Overall...