The excitement ended very quickly. There were four of us: my two teenage daughters, my husband, and me. The hostess was unfriendly, unsmiling, and apparantly mute, since she uttered not one word to us. She simply walked to our table, handed us our menus, and put napkins in our laps. Not a good first impression. I decided to ignore this and enjoy the beautiful room. This was hard to do, though, since our table was adjacent to the bar, and parties of people were practically sitting on us, waiting for their tables.

My husband and I gave each other looks back and forth which communicated our displeasure. You know, those looks that let the other person know exactly what your thinking. We were thinking, "I hope the food is at least good," but we were wrong.

My husband, who has traveled for the last 22 years on business, said "it was the worst meal he has ever had in his life--Denny's would have been better." He had the seared tuna. It was awful. I had the duck, and it also was awful. At least my oldest daughter's filet was good.

My husband and I kept most of the opinions to ourselves until later, since the girls so wanted to love this restaurant. Plus, since the bill was over $200 (my husband and I needed drinks to make the evening somewhat festive!), the kids didn't want to show any displeasure with our dining experience. It was an experience, all right. I guess the other reviewers were there on a "good" night, but we sure didn't experience anything good about this place.

My husband had seared tuna at THE LAND pavillion in Epcot the next day for $8.99 that was far superior to tuna at Emeril's. All we can say is, shame on you, Emeril restaurant. We won't be coming back.

I had the calamari with feta cheese as my appetizer. Wonderful! It was lightly breaded and nicely seasoned. For my entrée, I had the shrimp stir-fry wok. It was very good, and the portion was very large. They served some of the best lo mein I have ever had.

The wine selection by the glass was very limited and quite pricey ($8).

Service was wonderful, as we had two servers and another water person. The food prices are very high, but that is expected at restaurant in a theme-park hotel. Overall, the experience was very good.

For those gourmands who are fascinated with watching the chefs prepare the food, you may request to sit at the viewing bar to observe the goings-on in the kitchen. As I watched the chefs, periodically asking questions about the preparation, I savored a Hoki Hoki Mai, a light and refreshing version of a Bloody Mary with a hint of wasabi. Very tasty!

The menu is eclectic Asian-Pacific. Emeril's philosophy is to serve the best and freshest ingredients, and this was apparent. The dumplings served in a bamboo steamer with a ginger soy dipping sauce were delicious. The Chilean sea bass served on a potato cake with tender shoots of young broccoli melted in my mouth. I declined dessert, but I will indulge on my next visit.

I highly recommend Emeril's new restaurant, only open about seven weeks. I give it a five-star rating!

Every table is served shrimp crackers with a peanut dipping sauce. My husband had the sampler platter, which was very filling and included ribs, pork, and chicken. I had the salmon with vegetable chow mein (which seemed more like lo mein). For dessert we had an upside-down pineapple, ginger ice cream (which I loved), and the macadamia nut pie. There really isn't any reason to order appetizers (unless you see something you want to try), since they will refill your shrimp crackers (like rice crackers but pink and green colored).

We probably saved $6 or $7 by dining at lunch rather than dinner and, although the food was very good, the most enjoyable part was the element-inspired (fire, wind, water, & earth) interior. Also, by going for lunch, we were able to stay at Universal Studios until the concert let out at around 10pm (way too late for me to eat dinner).