Garni — Restaurant in Orlando

I wavered between a 3 and a 4. There were some great things about the Garni, and some not so good. I have to say, we were a party of 4 with 2 being fairly persnickety eaters.

The restaurant is very pretty and has an energetic vibe. Our server, Whitney was fantastic.

We went during Magical Dining Month, which was good, because it was much more reasonably priced. Otherwise it’s pretty expensive.

We started with a Hendricks Gin and tonic (very good), and the Blood and Sand (a bourbon drink) which was excellent if you like bourbon and sweet vermouth.

For appetizers, we ordered fried calamari and Quinoa and Walnut salads. The calamari was fried but tender, with a lightly seasoned breading -very good. The dipping sauce that came with it was not very good. The Salad was excellent! Lots of kale and walnuts, and a small amount of quinoa so it was a perfect balance. The lemon vinaigrette was a perfect pairing.

For entrée, 2 people ordered the Haven Burger cooked medium. One arrived medium, the other was medium rare. It had several toppings - bacon, avocado, Gouda cheese, lettuce, tomato and pickles. It was a good burger, but not outstanding. No one at the table liked the aoli (which luckily was served on the side). The fries were excellent. Lightly seasoned and firm.

The other 2 ordered the Mahi Souvlaki. It was small but excellent (although the persnickety didn’t like it much because it had a kick to it). The tzatziki did have a spicy kick and there wasn’t much mahi, but the flavors and the pita were fantastic.

Dessert was “controversial”. No one liked the desert they ordered, but we switched around and everyone liked something! The Peach Bread pudding was odd. It had a sort of artificial peach flavor, but did have some slices of peach. The ice cream also tasted somewhat artificial. But again, one person liked it. The Ricotta Beignets were good, the ricotta was smooth and sweet in an otherwise regular fried dough. If you’ve had a New Orleans beignet, it wasn’t as unique. The hazelnut sauce was not good. All of us like hazelnut and none of us liked it. With that said, it was the favorite dessert for two of the diners. The Kunefe was disliked by 3, and it was my favorite. The shredded filo was crispy and light, the mozzarella inside had a nice mozzarella flavor, and the rose syrup wasn’t too “rosey” and seemed to have a touch of honey flavor which it needed. The guava paste was really just a few cubes of guava paste on top- it would have been really perfect if there was more guava flavor.

All-in-all, it was good, but the sauces were the...

The atmosphere is trendy and upscale and the food is overall was good, my disappointment was with the service. My friend ordered the pan roasted salmon and when it arrived she was a little surprised to see the skin on the salmon. Admitting that she isn't very adventurous with food, she was still open to trying the dish. After a few bites she realized the bones were still in the salmon. Still willing to eat it we decided to speak up on her behalf and ask for another dish in it's place instead. The manager came over shortly after and stated that this is a salmon steak and these cuts are of higher quality and proceeded to explain in great detail how they are prepared with the spinal cord in tact as it adds to the flavor, but is virtually impossible to prepare and remove the bones. He took the position of educating us on the cut of salmon and when I suggested that for future the server should consider informing the guest that this is a salmon steak, bones will be in, etc. that may help to avoid any surprises. He did not acknowledge my suggestion, again restating that salmon steaks will have bones so now we know in the future (even though the menu description does not state it is a salmon cut steak so even if the guest is aware of that they would not know by reading the menu description). I found his comments condescending - almost as if he needed to educate our table on expectations for a fine dining experience (although I would not consider Haven fine dining). They did replace her dish with another, but still charged her for the salmon (that she ate two bites of) instead of the second dish she ordered that cost less. Also it was a friend's birthday and we asked for a table knife to cut the cake we brought for her but the server said they needed to cut the cake. We assumed that was so they could charge for cake cutting, which would have been fine, but did not expect to be charged $35 to cut a 5 inch cake. Again, it would have been better received if this information was shared prior to vs seeing on the final bill. Lastly, I asked if I could use the $50 I had in Tavistock rewards on my final bill, the server said yes but then we she gave me the bill she did not apply the $50 rewards. I was so annoyed at that point I just paid and left. If there were different categories for the rating I would give the atmosphere 5 stars, the food 3 stars and the...

Attended an Easter Brunch for $130 a person at Haven Kitchen in lake Nona. The only reason I reserved the even was for the Easter Egg hunt in the garden. We stayed at the hotel last May and the sculpture garden is lovely. When we checked in I asked the host when the egg hunt was happening (no details were given in any of the descriptions). They shared 1pm, our reservation was at 12:45. I let them know how excited my daughter was for the event and asked if we could leave our items at the table and come back after the egg hunt. The host wasn’t sure so I asked a second person. They also didn’t know. I then asked a manager and a second host. They both told me no need to rush. The egg hunt was happening between 1-3pm and there would be plenty of time to eat and later bring my daughter to the egg hunt. I reinforced how important the egg hunt was to my daughter and the manager said don’t worry it’s an ongoing event not a one time event.

The food was subpar to say the least. It clearly had been set up at 11am when the event started and not refreshed or replaced during the 2 hours since the event started (event was a total of 4 hours). There were seafood items left at room temperature with small flys. Most of the stations were depleted. I will say the dessert section was very well put together with Easter themed items.

We stayed at Haven for a very short time since the food quality was poor (temperature/ left out for hours) and my daughter desperately wanted to hunt for eggs. When we made it to the garden around 1:30 there were several families wandering around with very disappointed kids and empty baskets. I asked a passer by if we needed to check in anywhere and she informed me the egg hunt was over. My daughter’s face fell and eyes began to well up (she is in kindergarten).

I am less concerned with the waste of money on a subpar brunch as I am that my daughter was so disappointed and clearly so were several other kids whose parents had missed the even. Had I not asked 4 people I would have been made at myself. Very...