Flibbertigibbet

Dinner at the Waldorf

My parents and I had a great Thanksgiving. Dinner was delicious. The Rockettes were fabulous.

Dinner at the Waldorf=Astoria's Peacock Alley was really quite good once we got over some initial confusion.

First of all, I requested dinner reservations for Thanksgiving. What I did not realize is that the kitchen was closed on Thanksgiving and we had no choice but to accept the Thanksgiving Dinner offer they had going.

It was $120 per person.

This was about $40 per person more than I really was looking to spend.

What irritated me even more (not just that no one mentioned this arrangement to me prior to our arrival) was that the dinner was buffet-style.

If I am going to pay $120 for my dinner, I want someone carrying it to me.

But we resolved to stay and enjoy ourselves and we had a great time.

The food, though buffet-style, was excellent. The turkey, in spite of being kept warm under lamps and sitting out, was moist and flavorful.

They had lobster, oysters, shrimp, and ribs in addition to the turkey. Lots of great vegetable dishes.

And! There were as many desserts as veggies. They had a chocolate fountain in which to dip strawberries and marshmellows and other things. There were brownies and cheesecakes. There were these little fudgey things with gold foil on top and some tiny little eclaires with similar foil.

It was excellent.

So, my only complaint about the food is really a complaint about my belly: I can't eat very much most of the time. I felt like I could not take full advantage of all there was to offer there, but what I did have was great.

Let me add a couple more things: the service was mediocre. It was actually pretty bad at first because none of the people we spoke with initially were able to make themselves well-understood in English, which is a non-negotiable, fundamental requirement for working in a fancy-pants restaurant here.

But once our wait staff fell into their groove, service was excellent. They were EXTREMELY attentive. Perfectly so. I had but to glance at our waiter and it was as if his Jedi/spider sense would tingle and he would come running. A simple gesture and he knew exactly what we wanted.

Our wine was also excellent. We picked it out ourselves, but our waiter told us a lot about it before we opened the bottle and provided a comparison to some other wines. As a special bonus, at the end of our meal, he poured us glasses of one of the other wines, just so we could try it and compare.

In the end, I don't think dinner was worth the $600 bill that included tip. I blame the silly holiday "offering."

The regular menu prices are far more reasonable for that level of service and the quality of food, though. I would certainly go back for that.