Traditions — Restaurant in Williamsburg

We went for the last weekend of Grand Illumination in Colonial Williamsburg. Traditions was where I could get reservations for the special pre-paid Illumination dinner. I was a little nervous because of some mixed reviews here. But we really enjoyed our dinner. It was buffet style and they had many options. There was a very nice well rounded Charcuterie Board, Caesar and Farro salads as well as two kinds of nice soups to start.

Then there were really nice entrees. There were chicken, short ribs, seafood snd vegetarian cooked squash entrees each with a nice side, like couscous, potatoes or grits, as well as a nice vegetable medley. I tried a bite of everything and thought it was well prepared and I thought they did a good job of providing really nice options for everyone.

There was a lovely dessert buffet too, with an outstanding bread pudding with caramel sauce. As well as pies and pretty little tarts.

And the bread basket had three kinds of tolls and a flavored butter. Soft drinks, coffee or tea were included.

Total with gratuity for two was $145. But Traditions special was actually less than the Tavern specials for the Illumination weekends . Our server was very good two, he cleaned our plates and kept our drinks topped off.

Overall I think it was a nice experience. It was a special night with good food and we left there and walked to the palace green for the fireworks and it happed to be my husband’s birthday , so it was a...

We made a reservation for Thanksgiving dinner. The price for 4 people was $290, which included a tip and had to be paid in advance. This was the absolute worst dinner I have ever eaten. The rolls were hard as a brick, the butter was in a big bowl and had to be scooped out with a serving spoon, the turkey was mediocre, the dressing was mush, the prime rib was mostly fat, the charcuterie board looked like it was a pile of leftovers, and the desserts on the menu were all gone. Not to mention the serving utensils looked like they had been used all day with dried food on them. I complained to the manager, as this was an absolute ridiculous price to pay for food that was literally worse than a cheap frozen microwave dinner. The manager took my name and said she would talk to her supervisor the next day about a refund. My wife also made a complaint on the Colonial Williamsburg website that night. After a week and we hadn’t heard back from anyone. I tried to call and left a voicemail on the manager’s phone, but still never received a call back. They did refund half of our money today, but still didn’t bother to call, and the food wasn’t worth $145 either. Granted our reservation was at 8:30, but if that’s the kind of food you get at 8:30, maybe they should reduce the price by 95% after 8:00. Actually, they couldn’t pay me to...

Do not go there unless you plan on spending your whole day waiting. We were on vacation with the kids. Wanted to grab a quiet cup of coffee with my husband before trecking through town with the family: First we were told there was a 10min wait. After about 20 min we had them change our reservation to takeout. We get a $25 credit per day to use there, so we order 2 coffees and 2 cups of oatmeal (total of $28!!???) There's another 20 min wait for that. So we get the kids from the room to get ready to hit town, only we wait for another 20 min to get our order. When I picked up the food container it felt wet on the bottom. Why?? They poured the oatmeal right in the bottom of a paper takeout container - the kind you would put fries in. The whole thing looked more like dog food than a $28 dollar breakfast. Ended up returning the order, had the waiter refund the price. Will never come back here! We wasted almost 2 hrs on nothing! Giving one star only because they...