The Circle — Restaurant in Palm Beach

Took my father here for brunch as a belated birthday gift as he saw a review on this restaurant on YouTube. The wait time for a reservation was 4 months so as you can imagine we were highly anticipating this meal. Within 15 minutes of being seated by one of the hosts the general manager, Dan Rundle, marched straight over to our table to ask my father what the reservation name was so he can check us in. We both looked at eachother perplexed because we had already gone through the check-in process and out of 50 tables he only came up to ours! We were the only table with two black people -- no other table in the restaurant at this time was fully ethnic. So of course this made us uncomfortable and it felt like it was intentional. My Dad politely answered the manager but was shocked by the entire encounter and was really upset by this. We felt singled out and it was extremely embarrassing as everyone around us stared at us and watched the entire thing. Unfortunately this encounter ruined the entire mood of the meal. Then to make matters worse our waitress drops off the bill at 12.58pm and tells us we have two minutes left. Before this moment I did not know that there was a 2 hour time limit so my father didn't even get to grab his final plate which he purposely saved for last. This should have been communicated at least once that morning so we could've have been mindful of the time. I paid almost $500 for this experience and I'm disgusted by how things were handled. My Dad pulled the manager to the side at the end of our meal to let him know that we felt singled out and explained how uncomfortable we felt and all we got was a "sorry, we won't do that again" and his business card (picture attached.) He didn't make an effort whatsoever to try to salvage what had been done. At minimum you would think a drink voucher or something would be offered as a small token to show that they're legitimately sorry for how the encounter made us feel, right? Wrong. We intended on suggesting this place to family members and friends visiting from overseas but will refrain from doing so. This place needs to revisit how management handles guests and they need to avoid (subconsciously) discriminating patrons. I would've given 1 star based on this experience but added another because we enjoyed the food. A lot of the food was cold and should be at least tepid (cold mussels and lobster? Very odd) but caviar, oysters and wine alone...

I consider myself somewhat of a foodie and have sampled a number of buffets both across the US and abroad. On the occasion of my BDay my wife picked this venue as a special one off experience for the two of us. Needless to say, I was most certainly was looking forward to checking off the proverbial list. My impression you ask: As to atmosphere, it most certainly checks off all the boxes. Great history, ambience, superbly kept up, not to mention the beautiful melodies from the harpist as a great backdrop to the amazing vistas. Service you ask, I would rate it as adequate but far from attentive. Now as far as the buffet itself, frankly I feel disappointed and somewhat let down. Yes, the seafood was there and the caviar, as well as the lamb chops. But all and all, nothing really stood out especially when one factors in the price pp and the expectations built into that. No real sampling of freshly baked goods with any spreads were available. No real choices of salads. No charcuterie boards or cheese trays to speak of. The omelette station would be on par with Dennys (?) or not. The lamb chops were cold and overly sweet from the glaze. At this level, maybe a hibachi grill, searing meats to order would be in line of what I would expect. The potatoes were also look warm; mind you that our reservation was for 11:00am when they just opened, not closing time. Also, there was no soup station to speak of. My neighboring Whole Foods’ food stations offer a much greater variety and quite possibly at a much lower price. As for deserts, again mostly adequate but nothing close to Paul’s or even the trusted artisan bakery if you’re lucky to live close to one. Also as I indicated, we were celebrating my BDay, and yes I did get a sample dish of treats and a candle. But again, maybe the pastry chef can prepare among other offerings a small number of mini BDay cakes as a special touch for me and a handful of other guests celebrating their own. So all and all, go for the atmosphere, maybe get a cocktail or two at the bar and perhaps order a la cart at one of the restaurants. As far as the buffet for two, $500 even in today’s economy could afford you better food choices. Many thanks for...

As a native Floridian, I always wanted to visit and never made my way up there. The present cost is $155 + tax and automatic 20% gratuity. I had made the reservation 3 months prior because I learned they were hard to come by. They called 2 days prior to confirm and go over the price and rules- one of which is a 2 hour limit. I was a bit turned off by this especially knowing I was paying a premium price for brunch but agreed.

Our reservation was at 11:00 and we were seated a few minutes after that because a line formed once they opened. We were promptly given water and mimosas but bloody marys and sangria are also included. Full bar at additional cost. Zara our main server was wonderful. We were off to the buffet. I knew exactly what I had come for- seafood! I enjoyed lobster tails and claws. While I'm not a huge stone crab fan, I had a couple of those too. Other seafood offerings were shrimp, oysters, caviar. I also enjoyed the pasta and the mac n cheese gnocchi was heavenly. My husband sampled a little of everything- pasta, vegetable fried rice, chicken, seafood, prime rib, then he had "breakfast". I did sample the cinnamon roll pancakes from his plate and those too were divine.

We finally agreed it was time to try some desserts and we pretty much sampled them all. My favorites were the tiramisu cup and key lime pie tart. Zara also brought me a cappuccino and our mimosas were still flowing. She dropped our check and told us that we could sit at the bar where we could still enjoy mimosas, which is exactly what we did. We sat, chatted, enjoyed the architecture, people watching, and met Daniel the bartender, who was so kind.

If you have a special occasion, I definitely recommend coming or adding it to your bucket list...