Cultivated F+B — Restaurant in Houston

First of all, I emailed the food manager Mr. Shim twice before posting this. I never heard from him.

We purposely look for hotels with restaurants, to make things easier for ourselves, so shortly after we checked into the hotel, we came back downstairs to get some early dinner. It was around 3:00pm. There were probably seven people in the restaurant at the time, with only three or four tables occupied.

When we approached the bar, a female came up and asked if she could help us. My husband said, “We would like to get a table, please.” She very quickly responded, “Uh, do you have a reservation?” I looked at my husband puzzled, as the restaurant was essentially empty, and he replied, “No, we do not.” As she was walking over to her computer, telling us “how busy they expect to be,” a waiter grabbed a couple menus and walked us to a table, then proceeded to serve us. I actually thought, for a moment, we were going to be turned away by an empty restaurant!

We sat there for over two hours, and during that time, there were only three tables occupied, the entire time. The restaurant did not get close to “full” like we were informed it was going to, at least not while we were there.

The food was excellent. The meal, itself was wonderful. It was topped off by a delicious strawberry whipped mousse, on the house, as someone told the server it was our anniversary. That was a delightful surprise, to which we told our waiter, “Thank you, that makes up for the unwelcome feeling we had when we arrived. It felt like no one wanted us here!” It was the first time our waiter smiled all service.

Despite the unwelcome feeling we had the first day, we wanted to try more of the wonderful food. This time, upon returning from our show, we asked Allan, the food director, if we needed a reservation. Again, it was around 3pm, maybe two tables occupied, and we were told they were expecting a lot of reservations and we should make one. Because we wanted to go up to our room first, we said we would come back around 3:30pm. Allan made our much needed reservation, and so we returned at 3:30.

This time, we stood at the bar area for a moment, before Allan saw us. He was in the corner, behind the bar, by the kitchen. Instead of walking over to greet us to walk us to our table, he basically motioned us with his finger to “come over here.” My husband instantly looked at me, shocked, “Did he just finger us across the restaurant, like a dog being called?” I was just waiting for the whistle.

Allan sat us in the furthest, most inaccessible table from the door, in a corner, up against a wall, as we walked by open table after open table, awkwardly maneuvering my wheelchair past chairs and disturbing other patrons.

As we took our seats, Allan said, “It’s quiet over here in this corner, and we have a lot of reservations.” As if to justify why he was seating us in the corner, at a small table, when there were more accessible open tables available.

Ironically, instead of it being quiet, Allan proceeded to have an audible conversation with our waiter Fred right behind us.  It was a conversation that perhaps needed to happen in a private location, after Fred’s shift, but definitely not right there.

It was after this, Allan pulled Fred aside and had a very unprofessional encounter with him, directly behind us, chastising him over meat temperature and not being attentive.  At one point, Fred looked at the bartender and asked, “What are you laughing at?”  To which the bartender bluntly responded, “I’m making a fucking drink, homeboy!”

I almost got up and walked out, as a former manager myself, I was appalled by the behavior. The food is good here, but the service...

I dined here with my wife at 6:00 PM on 2/16/2024, the first night of our 3-night stay at The Lancaster Hotel. The service was good and the food tasted good (at the time), but we felt a little cramped at our small table in a high-traffic area.

Having not eaten anything else since a very basic breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, I tried several of their seafood items (fried calamari, shrimp scampi, and scallops) and became violently ill with food poisoning a few hours later. I spent the first night at the hotel on the toilet for 5-6 hours straight (let's just say I couldn't safely get up) while also projectile vomiting into the nearby trash can as I struggled to retain fluids. I then slept curled up on the bathroom floor until about 9:00 AM while my deeply concerned wife struggled to get sleep on the bed.

Instead of enjoying Houston's excellent food and attractions, I spent the following day sick in the bathroom, eventually eating saltine crackers (once I could keep food down). I was finally feeling well enough to leave the room around 7:00 PM that day, thank God. Today, my wife and I had Afternoon Tea at the hotel for about $260 (after tax, the 20% "service charge," and tip). Afterwards, I spoke to a restaurant manager and courteously requested that our dinner be comped (a reasonable gesture of good will, I assumed, after we'd spent $1000+ at the hotel plus $260 for tea and finger foods). My wife and I feel as if we were doubted and looked at like con-men trying to make a quick buck (if you don't believe me, just ask the poor housekeeper who looked into the trashcan and said "oh my God..." after we warned her of its contents). The manager agreed to comp at least some of the food items but nickel-and-dimed us on the soup and beverages, resolving the matter completely unapologetically.

I'm posting this (along with Nikita from two months ago) as a warning to others who may be especially sensitive to contaminated foods and in an effort to get some semblance of a genuine apology from management. For an establishment with the motto, "where hospitality is a fine art," I...

We were really looking forward to this experience but ended up so disappointed. The service was top notch and exactly what one would expect from a fine dining establishment and the drinks were well- crafted. Dinner was mediocre; the Kobe burger was good but not great. I found the Pan-seared scallops to slightly undercooked and served on a very thin layer of watery mashed potatoes; highly over-priced at nearly $50 for four scallops and no edible sides. The highlight of the night was dessert - the bread pudding was phenomenal and worthy of 5 stars! Unfortunately, the atmosphere was the absolute worst. Maybe it's a design flaw but the bar was packed with hotel happy hour guests and it is located at the heart of the dining area. The happy hour guests were clearly having a great time (as one should at happy hour) but the overly loud, drunken conversing at the bar overwhelmed the dining area to the extent that it was difficult to communicate at your own table at times. We were looking for the complete fine dining experience and this was not it; perhaps more of a nice restaurant with a casual, loud, and lively atmosphere, but definitely not fine dining. We may be back after a show for that bread...