City Food Hall - Orlando — Restaurant in Orlando

Very cool concept and I love the atmosphere and different food options they have. A few cons I had: we came for a dinner reservation at 6:15, never been here before so I didn’t know if a reservation was required but wanted to be safe for our big party.a few of us ended up being less than 20 mins late due to coming all the way from Tampa which can be 1-2 hour drive depending on traffic. Some of the party arrived on time but was told we need at least 5 people to sit. We had 4 come on time and they still told us we could not sit and would give up our table ( this was confusing being there were soo many open tables from the time that we sat down until we left and upstairs was dead I went to check and there was one party up there having dinner. I get reservation policy’s and would never give anyone a hard time about a policy it just did not make sense. Next con was the new restaurant sabba, I called days in advance to sabba directly to ensure they had vegan options which most Mediterranean places do. idk if I spoke to the owner but he spoke clear English and informed me they feed vegan workers that come all the time and gave me a list of things they could make (chickpeas,falafel, stews, etc. he pretty much told me let them know what we need substituted and they can make it. When we got there the only two people working at sabba spoke no English only Spanish which was interesting considering it’s a Mediterranean/ Arabian fusion. I’m not sure how they expect to be effective with no English speakers but our vegan guest ended up only having fries or falafel to eat and I don’t think there were any Spanish speaking servers that could help us. One of the workers even expressed to us how frustrating it can be with the language barrier. Next was the food, we got shays kitchen and true island, true island had great flavor we got the Rasta pasta, but shays was very underwhelming and lacked in flavor and seasoning and the whole group agreed. I have seen many photos of their soul bowls and they are inconsistent in the amount of food or cheese on the Mac or meat in the greens. The soul bowls look different every plate. we pretty much doused our fried chicken in hot sauce to eat it. It was not worth $28 for the soul bowl and small portions. The fish and grits were good. The grits were amazing and creamy but fish also lacked flavor as well as the breading it came with a great sauce on top of it but there was not enough of it literally a spoon full of sauce, I wish there was it would have made it better. The fried deviled eggs were also a fan favorite at our table. The drinks were Very expensive and super strong?? One of us got dark liquor with coke and it was as if they put no coke in it like just straight alcohol, another one of us got a speciality drink. The drinks were very small I would compare them to two shot glasses of alcohol for $18 which was pretty insane but not surprising for an Orlando spot. Valet was only $8 which was nice. We were given a fair warning that food could take long so can’t complain but the drinks took even longer so they may need to come up with a better system. For a Saturday in Orlando there were a lot of empty tables so I’m not sure of the cause. I would go back but know what not to get next time. Seven the waiter is absolutely amazing and made our experience...

Walking up, the vibe is really cool. The concept is good, but the delivery is poor.

I was invited out by family friends. There were 8 of us in total. When I walked up, I was the last to arrive and noticed that my friends were sitting outside, which I thought was strange since it was 90 degrees. We were having a late lunch on a Thursday afternoon at 3:45 so there weren't many people around.

There are several different "kitchens" listed on the menu and you can order from any of them ... unless you want to order from Humbl which we were told moved its kitchen to south Florida, even though it's still on the menu. It was also the main vegetarian/vegan option ... so there isn't something dedicated to animal/environment loving folks anymore. 😕

Our server was really great, understanding, and made helpful suggestions.

The food was pretty good overall. One friend had to send a salad back. Two other friends ordered a pizza that had different toppings on each side. When it came out wrong and they sent it back, the kitchen tried to send it back out by just rearranging the toppings instead if remaking it correctly. So, they ended up having to order something completely different.

As it turns out, my friends HAD asked for indoor seating when they arrived. It was 3:45 and the restaurant was nearly empty. They were told that they couldn't sit inside because some other people have dinner reservations throughout the evening and they don't know what time those people will show up. (WHAT???). Toward the end of our meal my friend went to speak to the manager and mention how disappointing it was that almost no one was at the restaurant and that we had not been allowed to sit inside. It was now almost 6 pm and still the restaurant was not even close to being full. He said that if someone showed up for a reservation he couldn't walk up and ask us to leave our table if we had stayed for long. (He clearly is not the brightest human and probably shouldn't even be managing a lemonade stand). About fifteen minutes later after observing the manager (he had a long grey beard) just sitting at the bar, one of the servers came by our table and let us know that we would need to leave soon because more people would be coming in to eat for dinner. 🤯

Seriously, the concept is awesome and the food that did come out correctly was very good. But the management???? Probably some if the worst restaurant management I've seen in my life. The disrespect was unreal. Y'all let me know if you ever change your management ... until then I won't be spending...

I have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this food hall for years but was horrified by my experience. I should've left when I walked in and noticed filthy greasy floors and a smell reminiscent of a Chuck E. Cheese but I really wanted to try it out. Second red flag: when the others in my party told the server this was not their first time there, the server said, "Oh really? What was your experience like the first time? Everything ok?"

The server took our drink orders: I was going to order sparkling water but he said a small bottle was $6, yikes. So, I ordered a glass of wine. Another person in my party tried ordering beer but his first 3 choices were out of stock. The third person in my party decided to go with just water because she said the cocktails were terrible last time she went.

We then proceeded to order our food: I wanted a banh mi but they simply had none of them available, so the server suggested ramen (not remotely similar). I ended up ordering a hot chicken sandwich with fries.

When our drinks arrived, my glass had a huge crunchy, greasy mark from what I assume was the server's thumb on the outside. As I was inspecting it, the server came over and asked what I was doing. When I told him, he casually said, "oh do you want another one?" I said, "I guess not because it's on the outside?" and he thought that was fine.

My friend got her butter chicken, which was, pretty quickly. Five minutes later, my other friend got his Kathi roll, which was decent. Seems the Indian food is the best bet if you're going to eat here. My hot chicken sandwich was not bad but my fries were so greasy it looked like I poured water on them. The server asked me if I wanted a box for them three times, insisted I should take them home, until I told him why I didn't want them. He said, "if you told me they were bad I could've gotten you more." Fair point, but I doubt they would've been any better.

Essentially, it seems this is a beautiful restaurant with decent food, but is executed horribly. I cannot stress enough how filthy everything was. The floors looked like they had never been mopped, the bathrooms were disgusting, there was food from previous parties on the floors and up against the bar, and the servers had dirty hands that left grease masks on all our glasses and plates.

Such a shame management doesn't care about sanitary conditions. PLUS parking was $3 an hour in the apartment complex lot. Charging more than downtown Orlando?? Is...