Odyssey Restaurant & Events — Restaurant in Los Angeles

My boyfriend brought me to the Odyssey as part of my Valentines gift. It was a yesterday, Sunday February 19th. We had 1045 reservations. The only time i had been there was 15 years ago for a wedding reception. The front of the odyssey was clean and inviting. The Koi pond was scarce but it was nice and clean. Upon entering the lobby of the resturaunt I was hit with a bad odor similar to sewer smell and stagnate water or maybe someone had terrible gas! I though it was coming from the bathroom since they had the both doors propped open. But the ladies restroom smelled better than the lobby entrance of the restaurant almost like lots of airfreshner and sewer. I wanted to leave right away but we drove an hour to get there and my boyfriend had been talking about taking me to this place for almost 3 years. He has a terrible since of smell and could not smell the funk of the resturaunt. (Lucky him) so I decided to not make a big deal of it.

We only waited about 10 minutes to be seated next to the window with beautiful views of the valley. I could not smell the odor from our seats at first. The staff is not dressed in all black They all had on the same light blue button down shirts (some wrinkled and dingy) with either blue jeans black and some tan khakis covered in a black apron. Looked a little on the sloppy side. It gave me serious cafeteria vibes not classy resturaunt vibes at all. One of the plates that were already at our table had jelly on it. I sent it back. Our waiter was great, pleasant, and attentive. We came for brunch buffet but to our surprise, but not really surprised there was no buffet offered since covid. Brunch items were plenty on the menu. We ordered the platter for 2 and crabcake starter. Which was delivered quickly. The crabcake only comes with one on the plate made with lumpcrab presented with sauce and a tablespoon of roasted corn. It was pretty fresh and yummy. The Benedict although presented well, it was cold and lacked flavor. It was bland! The fingerling potatoes were terribly spoiled it had the essecence of sewer water and were dried out. The steak had great flavor and was cooked perfectly. We didnt finish our meal and opted to take the rest home because everytime the front lobby door opened the breeze would send that terrible sewer odor to our area and I simply could not enjoy my food, the views, or the atmosphere. As a matter of fact I wish we sat outside but it was cold, gloomy, and about to rain. However, there was a group of 4 sitting on the cold patio and I was honestly a little jealous. I wondered if they chose to sit in the cold with storm clouds hovering because of the awful smell of the resturaunt. They were pretty darn cold because they were shivering even with heat lamp on.

While paying boyfriend took care of the check I asked the waiter if the resturaunt had a sewer issue because of the odor he looked confused and said not that he was aware of. Smart answer! Maybe, it smelled that way all the time and he was used to it. Maybe, he has a terrible since of smell as well. (lucky)

The place is completely over rated, because it smelled bad, served cold tasteless food, gave serious cafeteria vibes, with classy restaurant prices. I think the only thing they have going for them is the staff and the beautiful views of the valley.

I thanked my boyfriend for taking me there but explained if we never come back to the Odyssey I am absolutely ok with...

Oct 2024

Come here for the view. Take or leave the food. That pretty much says it all.

Large parties and conferences beware. You are going to get food that came off of a conveyor belt. No attention to detail, like if you want your beef cooked a certain way for instance.

You're better off coming here as a couple, maybe a group of five or six at the most.

Here's why:

We came as a large group for an event. The doneness of the meat though was a "spectrum." It would have been nice if the waiter would have asked each person how they like their beef done. For instance, the person next to me had a piece of meat that was definitely way overcooked. Then the person to the left of me had something more on the medium rare side. But not once did I hear a waiter ever asked "how would you like your beef?"

So you pretty much got what you got in terms of doneness of the beef. And who in their right mind would send it back to the kitchen, especially in a large group of people, to be singled out, so embarrassing.

Granted, this was a large function, I would say about 100 people in attendance. And there was the option of fish or beef. So most of us opted for the beef. The salmon as well seem to be way overcooked. No Spectrum of doneness there.

In The Odyssey defense though, they're trying to crank out 100 dishes, to be done all at the same time. So it's kind of a given that some of the earlier ones that are set out to be served are going to be cooked over done because they've been sitting longer under the warming lamps than the freshest ones that came out last off the line.

The presentation was nice though! Couple of carrots, a few fingerling potatoes, just the right amount of sauce on the bottom.

The salad was okay, but not enough dressing. Too much hassle to ask for dressing on the side.

No more buffet in the regular dining area. I remember when this place had their Buffet pre-pandemic. It was great in the 1970s, 1980s, maybe early 90s. But for some reason, that period from about mid-90s through 2020 was horrendous. In some ways, I'm glad they got rid of it entirely when the covid pandemic shut down everything. They did everyone a favor. LOL

In summary, Honestly, this place is hit or miss, take it or leave it for large groups. It's one of those things that really deserves three stars. You'll have to make up your own mind if you want to come here or not.

But as mentioned in the beginning of this review, you're really just here for a view of the San Fernando Valley.

Parking is free, and there is a huge parking lot available. There are very limited handicap spaces however. And they're almost always taken, because someone from that 1970s era wants to bring their parents, who are probably now over 70 or 80 years old+.

Will I be back? Not in particular, unless there is a special event again, holiday party, or something similar I'm invited to.

Realistically though, I wish the old Emerald Room on top of what used to be the Holiday Inn in Burbank on the top floor would reopen as a bar and restaurant. That place had a similar view, if not better. But the food though at the old Emerald room was definitely way better than Odyssey, or Castaway, or this corporation's third restaurant that I can't remember the name of. Yes, the company that owns the Odyssey also owns the Castaway and a third restaurant of a...

I will most certainly not be returning to this restaurant, and would advise anyone reading this to take your business elsewhere. The service was ridiculously horrible, the food was mediocre and way overpriced, and took them two and a half hours to serve the whole meal after being seated. Definetly wouldnt recomend this restaurant to anyone, extremely dissatisfied.

My family and I arrived to celebrate my mother in law's birthday, and were disappointed almost immediately. The hostess seated us, and we sat at our table for over 25 minutes without being greated by our waiter. The hostess saw us looking for him, and came to the table to tell us our waiter would be with us shortly. Ten minutes after that, the waiter walked up, clearly in a bad mood, and rudely took our drink order. After another 10 minutes, he came back with our drinks (4 waters an 3 iced teas), and having had PLENTY of time to read the menu, we told him we were ready to order. Fifteen minutes later he returns with a few biscuits for the table. At this point we have been there a full hour. Another 20 minutes go by and he finally brings 2 of the 4 table members salads, and then takes another 10 minutes to bring the other 2. The server never checked up on our table, or offered any refills of our long since empty drinks. Twenty five minutes later he brings the entrees, along with the appetizer we had ordered an hour and ten minutes prior. A half an hour goes by, and a man who appeared to be the restaurant manager, approached our table and asked if our waiter had taken our dessert order. He had, but the manager said the waiter never entered it into the system. Without apologizing for the delay, he said the desserts would be out in 10 minutes, and he would bring boxes for leftovers right away. Fifteen minutes later we notice that the manager is clearing another table, and so I walk up to him and ask about the status of the leftover boxes and desserts (3 lava cakes and 1 slice of pie). He looks stunned, and says he completely forgot about it, he would "look into it". So I walk back to the table, and 5 minutes later, our original server (who had disappeared for the last hour) makes an appearance, and says it will be another 10 minutes for the desserts. You may think this is an exaggeration, but I promise you, at this point, we have been there at our table for two and a half hours. Finally our dessert came out (with no concern for the terrible service), and we paid our bill and left extremely disappointed.

We paid nearly $330 for a dinner for 4, which took TWO AND A HALF HOURS. The service was beyond horrible, and they were unapologetic. The restaurant wasnt even busy, maybe at 40% capacity. I can't overstate this....DO NOT GO TO...