Lancelot Restaurant — Restaurant in Vail

Nice location, promising space, but poor teamwork and unprofessional behavior ruin the experience. From ignored drink orders to a hostess with troubling leadership skills, here’s why this visit fell far short of expectations.

Their specialty- prime rib was mediocre. The bigger issue was the clear lack of teamwork among the staff. The biggest issue was the lady hostess in a pink skirt whose leadership, management, and emotional regulation skills were seriously lacking.

On Wednesday, August 13- Before we even placed our drink order, I noticed the hostess in a pink skirt (who I sincerely hope is not a manager, yet her behavior wreaked of “I’m in charge”) speaking negatively about our server to another younger lady employee. Why would management think it’s acceptable to complain about her job standing right by customers? It’s baffling that she would consider it acceptable to complain about staff in front of guests. Our server was juggling multiple tables and clearly doing his best to provide a great experience for each guest.

We ordered two drinks—a shaken cocktail and a bottled beer. After the bartender placed them in the bar well, I expected they’d be delivered quickly to keep the drinks chilled. Instead, I watched at least four staff members walk by, not actively occupied with anything, all ignoring the drinks. One employee even stood at the bar well - looking around - apparently with nothing to do, yet still didn’t take the drinks. Even the bartender was standing around as they had no customers sitting at the bar at this time.

Once 10 minutes passed of the drinks just sitting- I asked the pink skirt hostess if she could bring them, she deflected by passing the task to another idle staff member — who also didn’t deliver them. We ended up waiting for our already-busy server to bring them himself. This lack of teamwork and poor management is glaringly obvious.

This restaurant has serious issues with teamwork, attention to detail, and support for serving staff. Most concerning was the poor attitude and behavior from the hostess in pink, which set an unprofessional tone for the evening. If nothing changes, I promise she will lead the downfall for this restaurant. If the owners witnessed this behavior, they would be appalled.

It’s rare for me to leave such detailed and behavioral feedback, but the experience was frustrating because the potential for a great night was clearly there — it’s vail and the space is nice. If only the staff worked together and prioritized the guest experience for all customers. I would recommend either giving servers smaller sections, spacing out walk-in tables better, or providing support staff for running food and drinks on busy nights. Most importantly, management needs an intervention.

Sincerely, someone who has worked in restaurants their entire life and knows how much better this place could be. Please ask questions - I’d be happy to help improve the experience of this restaurant for all, management, staff, customers, and the owner(s). I don’t know names but I indeed remember faces- you also have access to the schedule/time clock to see who was working that night (August 13th). Somethings gotta change. Might be a good idea for the front of house to read this review together and have an open discussion as a restaurant on what needs to change for employees to consistently and successfully create a positive experience...

NOT FRIENDLY TO LGBTQ COMMUNITY OR INDIVIDUALS WITH SERVICE ANIMALS

My husband and I enjoy visiting vale and on this particular trip we decided to try a new restaurant, Lamcelot. We picked this restaurant because of their legendary prime rib. We made a reservation on open table for 7:30 pm and we had noticed they weren’t very full so my husband went inside to see if we could be seated earlier. The hostess had told him “yes I have a table ready for you outside on the patio”. At that time he told her “thank you I need to go get my husband upstairs”. To which she provided a very unpleasant look after he said that. My husband didn’t think too much of it till after what happened next. He came up and got me and our service animal who happened to be in a carriage with a closed lid. We went back down stairs to the hostess stand at which time she said we no longer have a seat available for you as we don’t allow dogs in here. My husband showed her our documentation and replied “this is not a dog, this is a service animal”, to which she replied “what specific service service does he provide and to demonstrate it”. At that time it angered me and I told her she can not request that. To which she replied that she can and then she said we no longer have outdoor seating for you but we can put you in a seat right next to the kitchen at a small table deep inside, even though the entire patio is open along with many tables inside. When she offered us a table, my husband asked to speak to manager to which she replied “he is not in because he was bitten by a dog”. When asked when will he be in, and she said “I don’t know, it’s not my job to know that” and then she dismissed us. She refused to give us her name, so the only thing I can do to describe her is she was an elderly woman between the ages of 65-70 and hair dyed to a blonde color. One of the most horrific...

The food was amazing. Service was slow. We were a party of 6. We were told that we could split the bill among 3 credit cards. I looked to see if it was stated anywhere that gratuity was automatically included. It did not state that. When we handed our server the cards we told him that we were leaving the tip in cash. He said OK. Then we each wrote “cash” on the tip line. The next day we noticed that we were each charged an additional 20% for gratuity. I find that to be sketchy behavior. Clearly we did not intend to leave a 45% tip. Instead of saying OK when we told the server we were leaving a cash tip- he should have informed us that we were each going to be automatically charged an addition 20%. Our bill was $419.00 and we left $88 in cash plus were charged another $90 on our cards. So beware!

Update- the restaurant owner contacted me to say that he often gets calls from angry customers who leave bad reviews when this happens and explained that the charge is temporary and done automatically by the credit card company. I said that this anger and frustration is avoidable by telling customers who leave cash tips that they are likely to still see a 20% gratuity on their statement but it will be temporary and eventually removed. That way, the customer will not be taken aback when they see the charge and have to spend time finding out...