1540 Room — Restaurant in Savannah

Came here last night after an art reception. It was SUCH a pleasant experience.

The hostess was friendly, polite, and just generally a lovely person. Our waiter was prompt despite being the only wait staff there for the night (there were only 4 tables occupied while we were there) and extremely knowledgeable about the food and the chef. He told us all about the chef's travels, his knowledge of middle eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. His timing was excellent and was actually a pleasure to talk with.

The decor is tasteful and clean, white walls, contemporary art, decent lighting without being garish and the fixtures give a modernized art deco feel.

The wine list by bottle is very extensive. I have long ago stopped ordering bottles, so I got a Tuscan wine by glass. The by glass menu is limited, but there isn't a bad wine on there (although I'm partial to imports and generally dislike Californian wines, I can't attest to the Lodi wine on offer's quality).

As an app we shared the hummus. It was very rich, almost more like a pate, with a lemon olive oil drizzle and served with house made pita, radish, and purple carrots. I ate twice as much of that as I planned on. Our server even brought us extra pita and another house made bread to try. It was baked with olives, carrot, and some other things baked into it and was just so satisfying.

For entrees my boyfriend had the brick chicken. I tasted it, and somehow it was so juicy and moist, with the apple sauce it actually almost tasted like an awesome pulled pork almost. I had Turkish manti. Now, the last time I ate manti it was about 10 years ago at some hole in the wall Turkish place in NYC owned by Turkish immigrants and thought it was the best thing ever. This was probably true for my unsophisticated 22 year old palate. THIS manti though was so much better. It was rustic and flavorful, the yogurt was definitely garlicky (like, it was pouring out my pores this morning which I don't mind because I LOVE garlic), and the mint leaf garnish was just enough mint for that cooling finisher without overwhelming the other flavors by infusing it in the yogurt sauce like I'd had before. The dumplings were all well formed and the lamb well seasoned.

We usually split a dessert, but there was some curiosity about a dessert that we couldn't really pronounce but was deemed by our server to be interesting so my boyfriend ordered that. It certainly was interesting, the base was rice grits, and the spices were fascinating. There was definitely saffron, but the major flavor was something familiar yet novel, no idea what it could have been. I had the semolina cake. In times past I've had this with chocolate ganache before, but usually the chocolate kind of drowns out the delicate flavors. This was a little personal bundt with just a little ganache drizzle, perfect to compliment the cardamom and mandarin, but not overpowering. It was a nice clean tasting finisher for the evening.

Our left overs were taken and wrapped for us by the manager, another very friendly fellow, and off we went. We had such a nice time. I know they just reopened in November and genuinely hope that not every night is only 4 tops because this is definitely a place we would love to come back to and would hate to see not make it. 10/10...

I sent the following email to the restaurant and haven't received a response in 11 days so I am reproducing it here.

Dear 1540 manager, I would like to relate to you my experience of your restaurant on Saturday April 5, reservation 7 pm, party of 9.

Bottom line: there were a few things our waiter did that made for an unpleasant experience. It wasn't completely awful but there was enough unpleasantness that I tipped less (22.6%) than I do normally (25-30%).

Some specifics: He was rude in the manner he used in insisting that we order two of the beets for our size party. Even when I noted that I didn't want to overdo it. He was pushy, maybe almost bullying. Two of our guests also later independently told me they thought he was rude.

When I asked what the green vegetable was on the tahini plate, he first said, it's not a cucumber or zucchini? (In a tone that said, why are you asking). I looked at him and shook my head no. He went on to say he didn't know. I was about to ask him to ask the chef when he said, 'I would ask the chef but he's really busy.' Really? Will the chef be busy the entire evening? I had the distinct impression he was dismissing me. For context, we have been to farm to table restaurants across the country- we ask about the food and the waitstaff are ready with an answer or will proactively offer to ask. People who go to these kinds of restaurants are interested in the food and ingredients! The wait staff at these restaurants expect questions and sometimes even seem pleased that we are so appreciative of the menu. Your waiter's preemptively saying he would ask the chef BUT, made it uncomfortable for me to insist.

At one point I overheard him say to one of our guests that it wasn't normally his job to refill water glasses. I don't have the full context of the remark but that was very strange. I have never heard a waiter say something like this out loud. It's unpleasant. It makes me think, does he want us to feel bad for him, or does he think he's better than other restaurant staff? These are not the kind of thoughts and feelings you want your patrons to have when they dine at 1540.

When he was placing the entree- specific silverware, he asked which dish we ordered. For me, I said duck confit (French pronunciation) and he said something like, thank you for pronouncing it right. This is also strange. A) I don't want his comment on my pronunciation if I don't ask, and B) it makes me wonder if he is judging my friends for not pronouncing bolognese in the correct Italian way. Again, you don't want your patrons to be distracted with the strange, uncomfortable behavior of your wait staff.

Now, you may wonder why I didn't say anything during the meal. It was my husband's birthday dinner and I didn't want to make a fuss. I wanted things to be pleasant and enjoyable for him. Plus, I wanted to spend my time enjoying my friends as much as possible.

In any case, the food was great but the service could use improvement. Thank you...

This was our primary 22nd anniversary dinner reservation for our anniversary weekend getaway. We were disappointed from start to finish, primarily due to a complete lack of polished service typically commensurate with a dinner at a restaurant in this price range - not to mention a restaurant hyped to a high farm to table standard.

We were dressed well, but were not welcomed. Nobody was at the reception podium when we entered, and rather than being greeted with charm and delight, it was as if we were disturbing someone by entering - I believe the woman who arrived after a moment asked what we needed. We had a reservation and the restaurant was practically empty at 7:30pm on a Saturday - yet it was as if we were bothering her.

The wait staff were warmer, but awkward- lecturing us on the availability of oysters (my wife is french - oysters on the half shell are common in brasseries) before she politely let him know she was allergic to shellfish. Sodas that should have been served with ice were served without - extra glasses of ice were brought out- then filled with water on some occasions by the second server, who also haphazardly dropped my appetizer onto the table just in front of me. silverware wasn’t set timely for main courses, a second drink never brought, and so forth.

The food was good, but the lack of congruity with the website menu (which had been discontinued end of June to make way for a lighter summer menu) left our party without some of the critical dishes for everyone to be happy (our oldest son was with us for the weekend and would have liked the bolognese - Italy is rather warm in July - they don’t discontinue bolognese for the summer because it’s heavier). Anyway, the cous cous preparation with merguez was excellent (common dish in France of North African influence) and the grouper was delicious - if only it weren’t served plated over a cold side dish. The lighter summer papardelle was nicely presented, but my son found the pesto a bit oily and my wife found the pasta lacking salt.

No efforts were made to recognize our anniversary… neither at reception, nor from our server at table-side, nor during dessert. Wexford Irish Pub did a better job celebrating our anniversary with us than 1540 Room.

Overall, it felt like we were walking into a fairly standard hotel lobby restaurant, which certainly wasn’t the experience we anticipated based on the 4.6 star google rating and glowing reviews from some guests.

While aspects of the food - particularly the presentation - were special, the overall experience at the restaurant was inappropriate for a special occasion and I would not be inclined to return despite retaining some optimism for the chef and sous-chef, and...