No star rating
A diner from Northern NJ
Apr 30, 2009
We had my daughter's Christening party here and the only thing I can say is that I was completely embarrassed at how low class this place was. We were in the Medallion room and the temperature was about 74 degrees when we walked in at 4PM. We asked the manager to please lower the air temperature. She did, however the temperature slowly increased and within 1 hour, the temperature in the room read 80 degrees. They said they could do nothing but lower the air. However it seemed the air was not working and they would not admit to such. (Please let it be known that on Wednesday April 29, my wife spoke with the manager who told her that the air was not functioning in the Medallion room that day because a switch had been turned off on the roof).
As I scanned the room, all I saw was each and every one of my guests wiping the sweat from their foreheads and waving napkins on their heads because the room felt like a sauna. Some of the guests shirts were soaked through like water were poured on them. To say I was absolutely embarrassed would be an understatement.
It didn't help that the room had a skylight, which after a couple of hours they sent 2 cooks on the roof to put a tarp over it (yes, they were cooks, adorned in kitchen aprons and all). I guess this may have been the Excelsior's idea of free entertainment, as everyone watched for 20 minutes as they tried unsuccessfully to get the tarp over the arched skylight by repeatedly tossing it over, (chunks of wood attached to strings at the end ).
We had favors which were chocolate and they all melted on the tables. The ice cream which was served was basically ice cream soup. How they could even bring it out and serve it was beyond me.
Waiters did not bring drink orders to the table when asked. Whether this was their duty or not, the point is they said they would bring them and just never returned.
Pitchers of beer were denied, people were forced to go to the bar to get it. Service level was non-existent.
We paid for a plate for our DJ, and he was never served. the poor guy was sweating bullets and his request for a sprite from the waiter - you guessed it, they never came back.
So they tried to compensate us by (after 2 hours in to a 4 hour event) asking if we wanted to move to another room (subsequently, all the other rooms were perfectly cool - seems the air was working everywhere but out room). Ok, so are we going to make everybody get up, go downstairs, reorganize into tables again, and oh yes, have the DJ set up all his equipment again. (He had audio and visual equipment which took him 1 hour to setup)
After refusal for the move to another room (we just simply asked them to get the air working) they said that they would extend out party for an hour (on them....gee thanks). What kind of offer is this....why would we want to stay for another hour in a sauna.
So then they went down to the manager's office and pulled out 2 office fans. They neatly put one at each end of the floor. Now basically I could of had the same cooling system in a church basement or a barn for that matter. Thanks again, now I'm even more embarrassed.
So basically the majority of my guests left before we cut the cake, and most of the time, the guests stayed outside in the hall ways on the couches (where the room temperature was comfortable - guess the air was working out there)
To top it off, when we went and spoke to the manager at the end of the event, all they did was apologize, and when we asked to be compensated, they said sure would you like a free bottle of champagne. We weren't asking for a refund, just a generous showing to say, here we'll compensate you for the awful conditions and the fact that we did not provide the service you paid for. No such thing.
As I scanned the room, all I saw was each and every one of my guests wiping the sweat from their foreheads and waving napkins on their heads because the room felt like a sauna. Some of the guests shirts were soaked through like water were poured on them. To say I was absolutely embarrassed would be an understatement.
It didn't help that the room had a skylight, which after a couple of hours they sent 2 cooks on the roof to put a tarp over it (yes, they were cooks, adorned in kitchen aprons and all). I guess this may have been the Excelsior's idea of free entertainment, as everyone watched for 20 minutes as they tried unsuccessfully to get the tarp over the arched skylight by repeatedly tossing it over, (chunks of wood attached to strings at the end ).
We had favors which were chocolate and they all melted on the tables. The ice cream which was served was basically ice cream soup. How they could even bring it out and serve it was beyond me.
Waiters did not bring drink orders to the table when asked. Whether this was their duty or not, the point is they said they would bring them and just never returned.
Pitchers of beer were denied, people were forced to go to the bar to get it. Service level was non-existent.
We paid for a plate for our DJ, and he was never served. the poor guy was sweating bullets and his request for a sprite from the waiter - you guessed it, they never came back.
So they tried to compensate us by (after 2 hours in to a 4 hour event) asking if we wanted to move to another room (subsequently, all the other rooms were perfectly cool - seems the air was working everywhere but out room). Ok, so are we going to make everybody get up, go downstairs, reorganize into tables again, and oh yes, have the DJ set up all his equipment again. (He had audio and visual equipment which took him 1 hour to setup)
After refusal for the move to another room (we just simply asked them to get the air working) they said that they would extend out party for an hour (on them....gee thanks). What kind of offer is this....why would we want to stay for another hour in a sauna.
So then they went down to the manager's office and pulled out 2 office fans. They neatly put one at each end of the floor. Now basically I could of had the same cooling system in a church basement or a barn for that matter. Thanks again, now I'm even more embarrassed.
So basically the majority of my guests left before we cut the cake, and most of the time, the guests stayed outside in the hall ways on the couches (where the room temperature was comfortable - guess the air was working out there)
To top it off, when we went and spoke to the manager at the end of the event, all they did was apologize, and when we asked to be compensated, they said sure would you like a free bottle of champagne. We weren't asking for a refund, just a generous showing to say, here we'll compensate you for the awful conditions and the fact that we did not provide the service you paid for. No such thing.
