Russell's on Lake Ivanhoe — Restaurant in Orlando

*update. Finally heard back from a manager who wrote this:"Thank you for your feedback! I have passed along the feedback on the food to our chef and spoke to Pablo about the wine. We are striving for top notch service and food and appreciate great feedback like yours."

My wife and I had our first dining experience at Russell's, Sunday Feb. 14th for Valentine's Day. It was an interesting evening and I wanted to provide some honest feedback as an experienced diner.

Being Valentine's Day, I did not want to bring this up in front of my wife during our visit, so I visited the restaurant website, and found 1 email address to contact. Unfortunately it has been 4 days without any kind of acknowledgement of my email to them (a guess, but probably because the only contact info is for the sales rep and not a manager).

Upon arrival, we found a seat in the bar, since we were 20 minutes early for our reservation. Unfortunately, the two bartenders were so busy, they didn't even acknowledge us for about 8-10 minutes. By the time we ordered drinks, the hostess let us know our table was ready, so I asked the bartender to just send our drinks to the table once she made them. She said she was unable to transfer the ticket, so we had to reorder the drinks from our waiter once seated.

Our waiter was welcoming and pleasant throughout the evening. He was able to describe entrees and apps well,  answering our questions and giving some recommendations. We ended up ordering the pork belly appetizer, my wife had the lamb and I had the duck that was on the special. Once we received our cocktails, our waiter asked to clear our wine glasses, and we told him no, since we planned on ordering wine. (Not great sales strategy) When we ordered the Drumheller Cab Sauvignon, it took quite a while to get the bottle, and only after asking twice, we were told the wine was out of stock behind the bar and they had to go search for it in the back. This wasn't a big problem, just communicate and let us know, instead of making us wait and making us feel like you just forgot about us. Our waiter seemed very inexperienced with serving wine. When opening the bottle, he didn't cut off the foil, but just pulled the cork out, and we both had to check to make sure we didn't have foil pieces in our glasses. Then I made sure to peel off the rest of the foil top myself. When he poured, we were surprised he said "tell me when" instead of pouring a standard 5oz pour. We were left to fill our own glasses throughout the rest of the evening. I am glad we didn't order a more expensive bottle.

Dinner was delicious, however, our plates came out lukewarm. My duck was barely warm and tasted like it was sitting well beyond any resting time before being brought to the table. The potatoes served with the special were extremely salty to my taste, but I realize that other diners may feel differently. The aligot potatoes my wife had came in a dish that also seemed like it was sitting for some time and not fresh. When eating them, they were very pasty and firm, not silky smooth. The flavors of the meals were fantastic and otherwise, we enjoyed the chef's creations.

All in all, nothing from our whole experience was terribly wrong, however, at the price point for such an upscale restaurant, I feel these little details should not be missed. I was also a little surprised by one pair of guests, who came in dressed in sweatshirts and gym shoes together. Is there no minimum dress code at all?

After spending over $180 on our dining experience, it is hard to imagine returning soon when there are many local restaurants where these details are executed well and are competitively priced. I hope this...

Dined here for magical dining. The restaurant was full but not crowded. My initial contact with the valet was courteous. I proceeded inside, was greeted by hostess, informed her I didn't have a reservation but wanted a table for 2. She stated it would be a 2 hour wait. I informed her that online there were reservations for as early as 8:15pm (it was 7pm during the conversation) so she stated "ok you can go online to open table and make a reservation," so I said ok I will thanks. Then in a matter of me turning around she states, OK I've put you in for 8:15. Now why couldn't she just do that from the beginning instead of making it seem like I was inconveniencing the restaurant by being there. I didn't complain proceeded outside and sat down until 8:15pm. Went back inside as multiple customers had come and gone and I just wanted to remind her that we were there. She politely stated we are cleaning some tables and will get you in shortly, with a smile. Our waiter was great, very accommodating, patient and kind. He made suggestions, explained magical dining menu and took our order. The Salmon Gravlax was great drizzled in a dill sauce served with a lemon, nothing special for smoked salmon, but I loved the taste. My companion had a wedge salad in which the lardons (fancy bacon) was missing and the waiter kindly brought some out. The salad was great. I ordered the Blackened Wild Salmon, which was drizzled in a grain mustard sauce, I was open to trying the mustard but ultimately didn't like the smell nor taste of the sauce. I attempted to wipe it off and eat it anyway but was not successful to remove the mustard taste. The waiter said he would ask about replacing the fish without the sauce he did and came back to take my dish away to be replaced. ( just as the white customer at the table next to us asked for an alcoholic beverage replacement because he didn't like the cinnamon flavor). So the manager came out and stated she can replace the dish for an entire fill charge because the magical dining menu is fixed and cannot be changed. ( not drizzling mustard sauce on salmon seemed to be a change of menu for her). so I said ok no problem bring back my dish that your waiter just took to the kitchen who seemed to get permission that he could replace the dish ( mind you its COVID-19 times and they should not have taken food from a customer back to the kitchen unless to dispose of). Manager returns 2 minutes later to say well my staff are so efficient they already threw out your food (right, as they should have, smart kitchen staff) so it looks like we will have to give you another dish and will leave off the mustard sauce. Well thank you, you have now created a negative experience for me that could have been avoided and your restaurant still took a loss on 1 piece of salmon. Did I mention the restaurant full and I'm sure the loss of this 1 piece of salmon for the sake of pregnant customer satisfaction was of no consequence to the nightly overall revenue. My companion had the steak dish which had great seasoning and a flavorful mushroom sauce a 10/10 dish. For the restaurant to be understaffed, the hostesses and waiters did a great job moving customers in and out and getting food out in a decent time. Point of this review is that great customer service makes for great reviews and brings in more revenue for your business. Sometimes great customer service makes for return customers even when your food...

We went for brunch last weekend. Overall it was still a generally good experience WITH some major GLITCHES in my opinion.

PRO— The menu has some terrific items including the lobster rolls and the short ribs with a Gruyere stuffed waffle. The food was DELICiOUS!! Great peach mimosas. Very courteous server who KNEW her menu like the back of her hand and jumped on issues like the slowness of the bar in filling our orders.

CONS— High Price. E.g., the lobster rolls cost $28 for a very small portion especially compared with other places in town where you can buy a lobster roll twice the size for half the price.

Menu Descriptions (2 issues). Although ingredients are listed, our server had to explain how several of the entrées were prepared because it wasn’t clear. The server was great, but a clearer menu with guidance for people with allergies would be appreciated.

Another issue we had was with the ‘Garden Mary’ which is described as “Reyka Vodka, Charleston Bloody Mary Mix, seasonal garnishes.” From that description you would never expect to receive what we received.

The word ‘garden’ implies a place you grow vegetables and they use the word ‘garnishes,’ plural. This creates the impression that one will receive a Bloody Mary with plenty of vegetables and a lot of garden vegetable taste, like, say, tomatoes and celery. That’s the type of Bloody Mary that many of Russell’s competitors feature.

That’s not what happened. First, one of the Garden Marys was filled with black peppercorns and undrinkable. I know that black peppercorn is a major element in the Charleston bloody Mary mix. But for there to be that much black pepper in the drink, the bloody Mary mix must not have been shaken and we must’ve gotten the bottom of the bottle filled with black pepper.

It did not taste like tomato or any other garden vegetable. It tasted like raw spice.

The other Garden Mary was garnished with one (1) lemon wedge. I have two issues with this: (i) A lemon is not a garden vegetable. (ii) ONE lemon wedge is certainly not multiple ‘garnishes’ like described in the menu or like other Bloody Marys all over town.

The server apologized for the delay in our beverages and also offered to get me an olive from the bar. An olive was the only vegetable she believe they had available.

The manager apologized too & was kind enough to take the Garden Marys off of our check. However, she reaffirmed the idea that their ‘Garden Mary’ usually featured nothing more than a lemon slice. So I’m listing this as a menu problem.

I think they should probably change the description of the drink if that’s going to be the way they handle it.

All I tasted was black pepper and certainly not a garden or vegetable in sight.

Lastly, the downstairs area is very noisy despite a few sound buffering tiles in the roof. [This may be unavoidable. Years ago, when the same location was operated as an Italian restaurant, Gargi’s, the downstairs area was open to the outdoors seating area. I suspect that when the remodeling was done to close the old patio in and install glass windows, the remodelers did not consider any insulation or sound buffering.]

In fairness, I have visited the location in the past and I sat upstairs at the bar where it was MUCH quieter. Also the dinner menu seems to be more...