Reflections Restaurant — Restaurant in Manheim Township

While we made a dinner reservation, went through a long drive before getting to the restaurant to pick up a guest for dinner, arriving at the restaurant to be seated right by the door on a cold night was ridiculous. Especially when you are paying $26-38 per person for a meal.

Leaving wasn't an option because of the driving we made before and being with a first trimester lady. We got there and the greeter pointed at the table saying this is your table, then throw her hands up in the air, saying that is all we have. Why? Apparently she already knows it is a ridiculous seat to give someone at such a restaurant. If someone makes a reservation to such a restaurant, on a 30's degrees night should you have stated on the call that we will be placed 6 ft from your single entrance and will be freezing throughout the meal?

What is even more annoying is looking down the area we were sat, 5 tables were empty in more warmer locations not 6 ft from the single entrance. The entire time we were there, which was for a 2 course meal, 2 of those 5 tables were never filled. In addition at any given time 4 tables were always open in that room. We thought maybe they were practicing social distancing but the 2nd table in was filled later, while we sat on cold table 1.

Mismanagement by the greeter I would say, using your table by the door on a 30 degrees night should 1, not exist, 2, not used for someone who made a reservation, or 3, used as a last resort. This is not a pizza joint where eating a quick slice next to the door is acceptable. People are coming to your restaurant for the whole experience not just the food, they are paying for that. The food was cold almost instantly but flavors were detected. It is a good chance it could have tasted really good if it was warm food on a...

Dinner reservations recommended, especially weekends any time after 5:30pm. You can tell that Reflections has a loyal, local following. Atmosphere is "vintage nice", and we found the wine, beer and cocktail selections to have something for everyone.

Appetizer was an adequate seared ahi tuna appetizer -- nothing special, but solidly executed.

For entrees we selected two of the daily specials: a prime sirloin (we ordered rare), as well as seared diver scallops over angel hair pasta. The sirloin and the scallops themselves were FLAWLESSLY prepared. Nice sear and crust on both, perfect rare for the steak. Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth perfection.

Our server was friendly, not gabby or hovering -- just right. And when she came by for the first bite check-in, she didn't say what you often hear, "Is everything ok?" She sincerely asked: "How's your steak -- is it perfect? And how are your scallops? Are they delightful?" This is a restaurant that cares whether you enjoy your meal. Full props there.

But I do I have to dole out some tough love, I'm afraid. The angel hair pasta dish under the scallops was a train wreck. Tiny, mangled bits of asparagus and thoughtlessly chopped fresh tomato swam in a bland, soupy olio dominated by (I kid you not) dime-thickness slices of almost-raw garlic. Little to no flavor layers, terrible texture, overcooked pasta. A mistake start to finish, and believe me, we were still tasting that chunky garlic when we ordered dessert. Culinary School 101.

Still, the dessert tray looked good, so we tried and were rewarded with a ginormous piece of delicious mint chocolate cake.

We will be back. But we'll stick to steak and seafood -- that seems to be the...

The atmosphere and the setting was great, decorated beautifulfly for the holidays. The dinner options were very limited. That made us assume it was a higher end restaurant. At first, pricing seemed reasonable, however, upon receiving our check, it was clear, the pricing was unreasonable and it is no where near a high end restaurant. There is no pricing on the steak and seafood de jour.

Food was mediocre at best. The $34 New York strip steak de jour was recommended by the waitress and was suppose to be topped with melted Gorgonzola cheese. When the steak came out, no cheese was on it. Waitress took the steak back to kitchen and cheese chunks were added then the steak was held up to a heating lamp. We watched this happen. The cheese was not melted.

During dinner, we were able to see into the kitchen and noticed that the wait staff preps food items before they are served. The waitress used her bare hands to prepare our garden salad. The cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes were added to the lettuce with her bare hands. The same hands used to make our salad, were also used for covering her mouth when she coughed as well as taking credit card and cash payments from customers. We were planning to get a slice of carrot cake, but again after observing her moving a slice from a box to a customer plate, using her bare hands, we decided not to.

The restaurant is over priced and really needs to create new food handling procedures. Needless to say, we will not be returning. The restaurant has potential but I feel it is...