The Kitchen - Lemon Hill

We didn’t actually get to eat here due to a series of mishaps, although I’m sure the food is delicious. This is more a commentary of their communication and service. We drove four hours round trip to eat here, which my partner was extremely excited for. When we got there and parked, an employee asked us from their car “why are you here? Don’t you know dinner was cancelled today?” a bit rudely. We went to the front door where a hostess said “we cancelled dinner, I definitely called you guys.” We showed her our call history no calls from them and asked how long ago she called. She said half an hour ago. A couple of things here: 1) apparently the AC broke that morning which isn’t their fault at all but 30 minutes cancellation notice isn’t acceptable, especially if you have known for a while things might not work out. I’m sure a lot of people are traveling hours every night for this 2) there should be better ways to communicate a tock email blast? A text message blast? Because we got no communication 3) it was weird to me that people kept insisting we got called until we showed them our call history? We didn’t get a call? I’ve already told you this what’s with insisting we have? I’m sure that people were just flustered and there was no ill intent but it was honestly a huge waste of our time and left us feeling not great (particularly because we felt as though the insistence they called was trying to offset the blame onto us). They offered to move our reservation to another date but given that we don’t want to drive another four hours just to not eat dinner we declined and asked for a refund.

I think it’s an experience but very pricey. I did leave full but I will say I asked for another serving of the first course and 1. I felt judged. And 2. I never got it. Turned out it was the new general manager who took my plate and didn’t give me another serving. When I asked again for another serving of another course I was told there was a ton of food coming and were going to be eating like 4,000 Calories. I was with a table of 10 and others requested second servings later on and received them. Maybe mine was bad luck. The food was mediocre. And overly priced I think. It’s an experience for sure but I don’t think I would go again

Incredible food. They take dietary needs seriously. Service is impeccable. True fine dining in a fun, high energy atmosphere. This is restauranting as art.

Background music too loud. Competes with patron conversations and server explanation/conversations. Chef must yell to reach the whole room. Mic on the chef is recommended. Intimacy lost in the new location. Too many people sitting at the wrong angles to be part of the family. The relationship between the audience and chef is lost. At all 3 of my prior visits, the chef introduced each course, explained sourcing, plating, prepping. That part of the experience is sorely missed. Food was good.

The ambiance terrific. The service beyond terrific. The presentation terrific. The food 1/4 spectacular, 3/4 okay. The house full. The two speechs fine. The duration 4 hours. The cost . The company priceless.