I wanted to report back on our experience at Cafe Orleans this past Saturday, 10/7. To put things in perspective, we did the BB dining package back with the old version of F! We really enjoyed it, so decided to try CO for the new version of the show.
I called to make dining reservations. They could not accommodate our party of 6, but told me I could make 2 separate reservations for parties of 3...both at 6:40. I was told that I should speak to the restaurant when they opened to see if they could put the 2 tables together for us. I was also asked if we were celebrating anything (yes...a birthday and an anniversary), and if there were any dietary restrictions (yes...one vegetarian and one person with food allergies). I further explained that the vegetarian was 12 years old, and was not interested in the Monte Cristo. I asked if she could just have pasta marinara (from the Chicken & Pasta dish on the kid's menu) in an adult size. I was told that this could be done...just request it once we arrived at the restaurant.
I went to the hostess stand at lunch time, and was told that I could only request that our party be seated together once we actually checked in for our dinner reservation. I did just that, and was told that it would be no problem. We were seated pretty promptly...but things went downhill from there:
- The server was unaware that we had people in our party with food restrictions. When we told her, she brought us the "allergy" menu, which was the same as the regular menu. The only difference was that this version specified which dishes were good for specific allergies.
- We asked for pasta for the vegetarian, but were told that this is no longer on the menu. The server said that pasta used to be on the menu, but not anymore. The only vegetarian options were the Monte Cristo and the kid's Mac & Cheese. The person in our party did not care for either one of those, but she ate a little bit and didn't complain. They would *not* let her get a kid's version of the meal even though she wan't going to eat the food anyway.
- The service was terrible. It took forever to get the starters. Once we got them, neither of the kids in our party received the ranch dressing to go with their crudite. The entrees came out next, about 2 minutes after the salads. Then the ranch dressing eventually arrived. The timing was completely off. The food was not good, in my opinion. The service was not good either.
- Neither the birthday nor anniversary we were celebrating were ever acknowledged or recognized in any way. Why do they ask you about food allergies and special occasions if that information is not getting passed along to the restaurant?
The positives: we asked if we could have beignets instead of the F! desserts, and that was no problem. We were also asked which show we wanted our FP's for -- we were told 10:30 show when we made the dinner reservations, but our server seemed happy to give us whichever show we preferred. The F! seating area for CO was excellent, and it was not very crowded (perhaps because we went to the late show).
I've attached the kid's menu because I wasn't able to find it posted anywhere else. Hope this helps someone else.