The Kitchen — Restaurant in Orlando

My husband and I recently visited The Kitchen at the Hard Rock Hotel. We were literally just going in to have a diet soda and to learn more about their food challenge that we had heard about.

The hostess Shana sat us at our seat. She was incredibly friendly and hospitable. We told her how much we love sweets and she brought over the display tray to tell us more about the delicious desserts that they offered. They even had their 7 layer dessert "The Kitchen Sink" available to see.

Lori was our server who was incredibly attentive and super sweet. We had told her that we were literally just stopping by to have some sodas and talk about the food challenge. She gave us more information, but unfortunately the time we were there was not the time that they have the challenge available. She was super informative about it. As a side note...most waitresses you would think might be "off put" by only ordering sodas, but she was such a rockstar and so freaken awesome. She checked on us often, gave us refills, chatted about food places we had been to and just wanted to make sure we were happy.

Upon bringing us the check for our sodas, my husband and I decided that we would just order The Kitchen Sink dessert to see what it was all about...after drinking our diet sodas for about 30 minutes we couldn't leave without trying it.

She brought over the massive tower that consisted of 7 different flavors of cake/pie. Patrick the chef that day did an amazing job with flavors! It consisted of the following layers: Brownie, Peanut Butter Crunch, Chocolate Chunk Cookie, Pecan Pie, Vanilla Cheesecake, Devils Food Chocolate Cake, Vanilla Chiffon. It was encased in a chocolate butter cream frosting topped with Caramel and Chocolate Sauce and a side of Vanilla Ice cream.

It was such a unique and delicious dessert and experience. It was almost as if you were getting a sampler platter to try all the different types of cakes they had which was pretty cool. The cheesecake layer was super creamy, the cake layers were all super fluffy and moist, the pecan pie had nice crunch to it, the cookie and brownie layers tasted as if you were eating a giant brownie or cookie. The peanut butter had good delicious pb flavor, but did lack a crunch we were hoping for. Honestly this entire creation was just so fun and such an experience! We devoured the ENTIRE THING and the ice cream!!!

Dawn the Manager came to check on us and also to see how we enjoyed the dessert, plus was curious if there would be any left....

We had such an incredible time there. Everyone was super helpful, friendly and wanted to provide the best service out there. We talked food recommendations with Dawn, Lori and Shana and we can't thank you all enough for just being awesome people!!

Thanks Patrick for giving us a delicious challenge to devour your fun creation!! One day we'll have to come back for...

We have eaten at the Kitchen Many times, its kind of our place to go when we get an early start at the parks. Breakfast Buffet is excellent. We have met so many great staff members there and that is why I am so disappointed in having to send this note.   We came on over after parking in Universal Valet and walked through City Walk to get over there.  We then walked in to be greated with a sloppy looking older lady with brown hair, Shana on her name tag, No hi, no how are you, not even a good morning. Just "Phone number"?  that really struck a nerve as we are always treated so nicely when we come in. she ushered us off to a small table that looked over the buffet, one chair and 1 booth seat in the corner like we were bad children and just dropped there, None of the usual chatter that we get if we are there at night, but ok, she needs a coffee. Next we sit, and sit, and sit more. We know we are getting the buffet so we just get up and go over. we come back and have to flag down a server. His name was David, and this man was obviously annoyed that we were there. we were very thirsty and finally we got our drinks and then were left for dead. No refill, no checking in on us, nothing. I got up and found milk on the buffet and added that to my coffee since the one on the table was empty.  Empty dishes were piling up on our table and the coffee pot was empty, our OJ was empty, no water was offered. One of the nicer things that happen when we eat is the coffee cup to take with us. Not offered. never saw our server again, really. He was to busy doing something else, not visible, but of course when it was time to drop a check he was now super friendly for that tip. by this time I was just really frustrated with how we had been treated/ignored. I dint even bother to ask for my passholder discount because we wanted to get out of there and enjoy our day. We had not idea how long it would take for us to get the check back from him so I just dropped cash on the table and left. The same hostess was standing at the front door and not even a good bye or thank you.  I looked at my wife and said to her, I hope this is just a one off because I really like it here even though it has gotten very pricey with the recent jump in cost of the buffet, but I am fine with it if there is at least friendly service. We did not get friendly service, or even get treated nicely except by the guy making omelets, he was great. As far as coming back, I dont know. $75.00 for some eggs, coffe and oj and to be ignored and not even welcomed in nicely may not...

Went to the Kitchen this past Saturday night. The night started by not being greeted for 5 minutes after arriving for our reservation. The woman at the front desk never looked up from her computer or phone call. Another gentleman had to come and seat us. This was a double birthday celebration, but they never knew because no one pulled up our reservation. Once seated the waitress recommended we order drinks because the bar was backed up. We did and waited almost 20 minutes for drinks. We were brought a bowl of chips, which was fine. However, it continued to get worse from there. Our order was taken and after the appetizers and one more drink, we didn't see our server for over 30 minutes. The chef brought food out to the table herself along with a food runner. It was another 10 minutes before our server came back to see how our food was. Most was ok, but one in our party ordered the crab leg special and the shells were coated in the garlic butter. They were very difficult to crack and very messy before a night out. Finally our server came back and we asked for our check. She brought it about 10 min later. We put our cards in the holder and put them on the edge of the table immediately. We waited another 10 min before she took it to run our payment. We were there for TWO HOURS! I am local, but had several out of town guests with me and don't think I would consider coming back. We didn't get to CityWalk until almost 11:00 which really shortened our birthday night out. This was a very disappointing start to our night and some very bad service from our waitress. I would be happy to share her name and more detail if anyone from the Hard Rock wants...