Travel Edition – Orlando
Day 4
Magical dining month (or for us, week) continues with a reservation at The Oceanaire Seafood Room. This is a fine dining restaurant located in the heart of I Drive in Pointe Orlando on the corner of the plaza next to the Capital Grille. I would like to point out that for many years this has been our favorite upscale restaurant in the area, until tonight.
I spoke about the parking situation in a previous blog but apparently it is inconsistent so while they do offer both valet and garage parking the valet’s seemed to be off their game tonight. They were disorganized at best and we waited 5-10 minutes just to get out of the street. When we did finally move I asked the valet if he was comfortable driving the car (It’s a difficult thing to do if you don’t know how and I have mentioned it in previous posts), he laughed and said “If a valet doesn’t know how to drive this car he shouldn’t be a valet. I chuckled, relieved, and walked away confidently just to watch him struggle for the next few minutes until he gave up and parked in an easy spot (on the street, which made me very uncomfortable).
We entered the familiar Oceanaire with a great amount of confidence that this would be the best meal of the week, it was not. I do want to say that my wife looked stunning and really dressed up for this one, she turned heads as we walked in (I know she will hate me saying that but its true). They have recently remodeled the interior but I was a bit unimpressed with the mishmash styling that seemed to contradict itself and decreased the quality of the previous atmosphere and we felt overdressed.
They led us to a private booth which was very nice and feels upscale. The server was there immediately with a big friendly smile. When we were asked about drinks my wife asked about the selection of sauvignon blanc and the waitress went into how different wines started fruity and ended grassy especially if they were from California or New Zealand (it did not say where they were from on the menu so the reference was immediately lost) and rather than making things easier and just suggesting a wine my wife got frustrated and pointed at the first one she saw (which felt like a waste of time just for the pretentious and was completely useless to us). I ordered the Barrell-Aged Manhattan which was excellent (I try and find different drinks to showcase for you). They have a very nice selection of cocktails, premium pours, and what they call ‘Admirals selections” of wine and champagne.
We ordered from the Magical dining menu. I asked for a recommendation between the Halibut and the Redfish (which I have never had but they fly in the seafood fresh daily so I figured this was the place to try a new fish). I got the same wishey washey kind of answer from the waitress and after several seconds of her going back and forth I just ordered the Black and Blue Redfish which was very good, especially with my drink choice. My wife ordered the steak and lobster tail. I know, she orders the same thing nearly every time but on the bright side its easy to compare the real differences between the chef’s abilities across all restaurants (and frankly she’s not that adventurous with food, but she’s a great wife). We were disappointed that they no longer offer the classic sourdough and relish plate (now its an extra $3.50 and seems silly that they charge a few extra dollars, like a McDonalds charges for extra sauces, in a fine dining establishment). In fact, they no longer bring bread or anything to the table and when the appetizers arrived (I ordered the calamari and my wife ordered the Caesar salad) they seemed off par with the restaurant.
We normally order the baked Alaska since this is one of the few places that offer this exceptionally difficult and decadent dessert so we asked if we could upgrade to that since this is a special occasion. The waitress had become enthralled with another table (apparently had some local weatherman) and we quickly noticed that there was no longer any service or attention for any of her other tables. It was a crushing disappointment from a restaurant that we held in such high regard. We also noticed that the high levels of service (like folding your napkin when you went to the restroom, assistant waiters, or scraping the crumbs off the table) were no longer a priority. Sometimes it’s the small things, especially in service that make a place special and without Scotty (our long time favorite server who left, and now I know why) it just fell flat. We were told that they did not have baked Alaska tonight and instead we got a bland cheesecake and key lime pie where the crust had clearly fallen off the back end (We likened it to something you would find at a buffet or all you can eat restaurant for $20, you know the little squares, yea that).
We paid our $137 bill (I normally don’t include a price but this was worth half that). We aren’t shy about spending money at a nice restaurant for a great experience but this was insulting.
They fell short on atmosphere, service, food, parking, and overall value. They clearly were cutting corners in all aspects and I am not sure if that is due to COVID (but we had great experiences elsewhere) or the Magical Dining and quite frankly I don’t care. This is the second Landry’s restaurant to disappoint in a few days and sadly after many great experiences we will not be back. When you fall that far that fast and forget about great service and great food you do not deserve another shot.
Save your money and go to Applebee’s if you want this kind of service and food.
P.S. To add insult to injury, the valet told me it would be a few minutes to go get my car (which was parked in the street a few feet away) then promptly lost the ticket I handed him and didn’t believe me when I told him that it was the only Ferrari here and had to validate my name. I just told him to give me my keys and we left. Totally disappointed.
Date Nights Palm Beach 