Room Service Bayview — Restaurant in Milwaukee

I wanted to love it so much…

This place was hyped up in every foodie social media group, the Journal Sentinel, etc. It was clearly the place to be! The atmosphere and menu looked impressive. I knew this is where I wanted to have my 30th birthday (May 10th). I reached out on FEBRUARY 6TH to figure out exactly what I needed to do to secure a reservation. I was advised: “We currently accept reservations up to 30 days in advance and due to high demand, especially on weekends, we're unable to accommodate parties larger than 10 in our main dining area.” No problem…I set a reminder for April 10th and reached out then to secure my reservation.

This is where the most DIABOLICAL reservation experience ensues. I received the following: “Due to high demands we have limited availability for larger parties. We can currently only accommodate larger groups of up to 8 guests in the main dining area.” In my book, too bad…I already had a party of 9 commit to this. They made the exception (as they should). Then I am told: “Of course, however, the spot for the prime time between 5:00 - 8:30 PM has been taken for larger parties. We currently only have a few spots open at 4:45 and 8:45 PM would these work for you? Otherwise the room patio still has availability around 6-7PM.” HOW!? I reached out on the first possible day (30 days in advance) to make a reservation. Every time should be available.

Oh it gets better: “We apologize for the inconvenience. Weekend nights tend to fill up very quickly, and those prime spots between 5:00 - 8:00 PM for the main dining area tend to fill up as soon as reservations open. Our roof patio is covered and has heated lamps. For your reference, we've attached photos of the Roof Patio. We would be happy to help you secure a reservation on the roof patio for you. Please let us know if you are interested.” INSANE! I demanded an explanation, and after trying to skirt around the issue a bit, this is what I was told: “Please accept our apologies for any confusion. As we mentioned, we typically take reservations up to 30 days in advance. However, we have been receiving many requests for larger parties further out than 30 days, particularly for the popular 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM timeframe, similar to your request. And due to this surge in demand and our restaurant's capacity, we have limited availability for larger parties. We currently only have three specific slots designated for larger groups: one between 4:30 PM and 6:00 PM, one between 6:00 PM and 8:00 PM, and one between 8:00 PM and 9:00 PM. Unfortunately, the prime-time slot within the 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM window has already been taken.”

So, what they are saying is that they started making exceptions to book reservations more than 30 days in advance due to high demand. I REACHED OUT IN FEBRUARY!!! HELLO! If exceptions were being made, why was I not called to be offered one!? HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! This is what I responded: “Knowing that there are a lot of reservation requests, I did my due diligence by reaching out in February, and I played by the rules by not requesting my reservation be secured until 30 days out. I set myself a reminder to reach out on 4/10. It's very unfortunate that others received an exception to make a reservation greater than 30 days away, but I didn't despite making my intentions known far in advance. I also want to provide feedback that I have called the phone number listed on the website a multitude of times to have a more productive conversation in February and on 4/10, but it just rings and then disconnects. There is no voicemail message/option either.“ This is such a wild way to run a business that strives to be a top-tier restaurant in the area.

Will I return? I don’t even know. Is it worth the hype? Meh. I spent more time trying to secure a reservation in a whirlwind of stupidity than I did actually dining at the restaurant. The dining experience was great…read about it in all the other reviews. I wanted to love it so much, but I’m not...

A series of unfortunate events is a good way to describe last night at Room Service. I had very high hopes for this experience after reading all of the previous reviews. Unfortunately, our night was not like these past guests. We had a reservation for 4 at 7:30PM and arrived about 15 minutes early. Our table wasn't ready yet, so the host walked us upstairs to the rooftop to wait. The bartender up here is amazing and was working extremely hard. The space itself is bizarre and while I get the vibe they are going for; it is not practical. The majority of the space is filled with beach lounge chairs. Fun, but doesn't really make sense for people choosing to eat/drink up here or just wait for their table to be ready downstairs. We waited around another 30 minutes past 7:30 to be seated. Our waitress, Carli, had an attitude with our group as soon as she walked to our table. She didn't introduce herself to the table or welcome us to the restaurant. The only reason I knew her name was from the bill, given at the end of the meal. She didn't ask if we had been to the restaurant before or help go over the menu. She didn't even tell us menus were only on the QR code at the table. These are all basic things that are done at a sit-down restaurant. We were being thoughtful in asking for her to split the bill 2 and 2, upfront, to not make it more difficult for her at the end. Asking this was clearly not the right thing to do. She appeared offended in us asking her this and said that it makes it more difficult for her, so she would rather not do it. We didn't push it since she did not seem inclined to split it up for us. She came back around and placed four small trays with water on one side and a rolled-up towel on the other. She said nothing to us and walked away. I figured it was for washing your hands before the meal, but as part of the experience here, the waitress/waiter should probably explain that to the group instead of saying nothing, assuming you know what it is. One of us ordered sushi and while everyone else got their entrees in a timely manner, the sushi took an hour to come out. She claimed, "this has never happened before." The host ended up taking the sushi off the bill and treated our friend to a dessert. Funny thing is that they ended up adding the dessert, we did not order, to the bill, which we had to then ask to have removed. We were at this dinner celebrating two birthdays and my fiancé not only mentioned this in the initial reservation, but he called the day of, as well as mentioned it again once we arrived. While we didn't expect to have the whole place stop and sing us happy birthday, nothing was ever mentioned to us about our birthdays at all. Not sure what the point of having that as an option on the reservation form is then. It was even more disappointing to see that the other waitresses around us had excellent attitudes, being smiling and being so friendly to the tables they were serving. The entire meal, our waitress had such a disposition as though we were inconveniencing her by being there. We ended up still leaving a 20% gratuity since we know some establishments share tips with the bartenders, bussers, and cooks. If that is the case, they shouldn't get punished for her actions or lack thereof. If she got that entire tip, that is unfortunate, since she definitely did not deserve it. The space itself is gorgeous and everything was decorated with a very modern aesthetic. It is very dark inside and the only light available is from very tiny lamps on each table. I personally thought the music was too loud and that it did not fit the establishment. All in all, while the food was good, because the service was so bad, specifically because of this waitress, we will not be returning to this...

We dined at Room Service for dinner on Saturday night, May 25th. Overall, it was a very memorable experience, although we feel there is definite room for improvement.

The host who greeted us was fantastic, and the space itself is beautiful. The decor is striking and the feel is very upscale. It felt like you were in Chicago or Vegas, not Milwaukee :-).

Our first recommendation would be to present hard copy menus in a "book" style. While it is the trend to provide a QR code and look at menus on your phone, we didn't think it worked here. The menu is too long and with many special items, the phone just doesn't do it justice. Also, Room Service clearly spent some money on beautiful food photography but it is lost on the phone format.

We ordered a house salad, Tom Yum River Prawn Soup, the Royal Dumplings and Sashimi. Unfortunately, the house salad was underwhelming. First, there wasn't enough dressing but even when we added more, it tasted rather plain. The salad was lettuce with a few half small tomatoes. We usually love the Ginger dressings at other restaurants but this one was just too mild.

The salad came first and the soup didn't come until 10 minutes later. The soup had a grand presentation, whereby it is in a glass bulb that is heated with a torch....then it is poured in a bowl with the large prawn on top. The waitress did not explain that the prawn was a full prawn (with the shell, legs, eyes etc.). That would have been important to know as we likely wouldn't have ordered it. The soup, unfortunately, wasn't hot enough and was disappointing in flavor.

Next came the Royal Dumplings. Four small purple dumplings with gold tops are served in a basket with flowers next to a second basket containing lettuce leaves. Beautiful presentation and the dumplings were tasty. However, we had to ask what the lettuce was for and were told you could wrap the dumplings in the lettuce. For the cost, it would be great to get six dumplings and to skip the lettuce as it didn't really add anything in our opinion.

The Sashimi was gorgeous when it was brought out on ice in a wood container. Overall, it was very good, but we were disappointed you couldn't select what you wanted. We felt overall that not offering ala carte nigiri or sashimi was disapponting.

The service and timing were spotty as noted. The host was ultra professional. It seems the staff needs better training in order to guide people through the menu. Prices overall were good for the quality of the experience.

Only drank a couple glasses of wine but the drinks looked impressive. One request would be to get a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc by the glass on the menu given its popularity (versus Columbia Valley only).

Overall, we are happy Room Service opened in Milwaukee and would like to try other items on the menu in the future. We hope improvements will be made based on experience over the...