Description: My personal bias against hotel restaurants will come through in this review, I’m sorry to say. Not because I’m sorry that I have a bias, but more that I’m sorry that this restaurant fell short in many ways and was much like the cliché hotel restaurant . . . short on menu selections and disappointing in overall value.
Billing themselves as “The best Creole restaurant in Williamsburg” they are highly advertised in the local tourist magazines and featured on Restaurant.com, we had at least moderate expectations for this place. As we navigated through Williamsburg’s tourist area to the edge of the restored historic area, I soon realized we were going to be dining at a restaurant in a hotel. Sure enough, this one is located inside the Four Points Sheraton
We arrived shortly after their published dinner hour of 5:00pm to be greeted by the hostess who sat us as the first dinner patrons. The bar area was filled with men who looked to have just gotten off work, drowning their rough day in beers and cigarettes (hack – hack).
As we reviewed the menu, a young man came by for our beverage orders; unsweetened iced tea for David and water with lemon for Mom and me. I continued through the one page menu, with a deep sinking feeling that this was going to be a huge let down. When he returned with our drinks, I asked him if they served hush puppies with their entrees. “NO?” How can you be a Cajun or Creole restaurant and not have hush puppies? He just shrugged and said “Gee, I don’t know.”
When he returned for our dinner orders, I whimped out for a chicken dish that was served with a robust Creole sauce. It was spicy but not overbearing on the meat. Mom had the same while David thought he would experiment with their jambalaya and a side of black beans and rice.
While we all found our meals to be generally acceptable, they were really nothing to write home or brag about. That was probably my greatest disappointment in that I enjoy bragging about great food and this meal simply left me feeling empty inside even if my belly was full.
This experience would be one of the few negatives of sampling and experimenting with dining options while on vacation. It comes with the territory when shopping for a restaurant through a broker type service such as Restaurant.com. Still, with that being said, with our $25 discount gift certificate, the price we paid for our dinner was reasonable at about $53 total (after using the gift certificate). Some might say “you get what you paid for” but I would argue, that what I got was the “typical restaurant in a hotel experience” . . . good enough to send you to bed with a full tummy but not longing for the next opportunity when your travels may bring you back this way again.
Close