Sparks - Spartanburg

So far, one of the most disorganized breakfast services ever. Ignored for five minutes at the entrance. When finally acknowledged, led to a table that had yet to be cleaned. Then dealt with three servers before one finally took our order. They forgot the omlette of the guy next to us. We still have no silverware. My wife got the buffet so she could eat. I ordered from the menu. Fingers crossed.... 12 min later, my wife still does not have her tea, no sign of my order ... 15 min. Tea came, no food. ... 20 min. Food finally arrived.

Every year we go for Easter Brunch and normally rave about it. This year however is not one to rave about. First of all, we made reservations a week ahead of time. When we got there they wanted to seat us in bar area. I said we didn’t want that so they sat us in what I can only describe as an overflow are. We ordered our drinks and then proceeded to the buffet. The French toast was cold. I had ordered hot tea with lemon but it took about 30 minutes to receive it without the lemon. Never received it. My daughter asked for a cup of ice. My husband had to get up and find a glass of ice. The coffee cups were filled about 3/4 full. Had to ask for cream and sugar. My daughter picked a piece of chocolate cheesecake but some how the cake above it had pecans and one inadvertently one was in chocolate cheesecake. She is allergic to nuts. So we had to leave and find a convenience store to buy Benedril because the hotel store was out of it. All in all it was pretty disappointing. We usually go for mother’s day too but I don’t think that will happen. It’s sad that the experience that we have enjoyed for years will no longer be a family tradition.

Honestly worst food I’ve had, the food has no flavor. The kitchen doesn’t even care to warm up the bread that comes out with the burger. The okay part of the salmon was the asparagus and that’s unfortunate. We were served an appetizer without plates ate on a napkin because waiting for the service would’ve been even more annoying. Save your trip go somewhere else. I do not recommend for anything.

Please beware of mandatory gratuity charged under a service fee. Went in had a late evening meal on the terrace. Have been coming here for years and this is the first time that a mandatory tip( charged as a service fee) was added. When asked what the fee was the server said that the manager told them that he should charge the gratuity since were a party of 7. There was six of us. When the manager came she said it was a party of 6 that they charge. When asked why their menus weren’t noted that they charge mandatory gratuity. They said that they are printing new ones, that it is a policy that they just started 6 months ago. As far as I am aware in order for them to charge mandatory gratuity they have to have it posted in the menu. My point is if you change your policy at least have the menus updated before you have the policy in effect. Ended up paying the service fee of over $35 for all of us. Will be going to a place where tips are earned and not mandatory imposed as a service fee. The service was not outstanding, definitely had better service else where and didn’t mind leaving a well deserved tip, way over the 18%.

Wanted to try something different and this is one restaurant I had not visited yet in the Spartanburg area. Honestly, I wish I had left it as one of the restaurants I had not visited in the Spartanburg area. My guest and I arrived and waited at the front entrance for a few minutes before being acknowledged by an employee. Up until the employee greeted us we were debating if we were supposed to seat ourselves. The employee, which later turned out to be our server, was not friendly nor was he rude. He just came across disinterested in either seating us or working in itself. Upon being seated and handed menus haphazardly we mulled over our dinner choices. We waited over ten minutes for the gentleman who seated us to bring us water which we didn't order or request. I suppose as a courtesy. It was over ten minutes later that the same gentleman came back and finally took our drink order. At this point it became evident that the same gentleman would be our server. Our first attempt at ordering drinks was thwarted because the bar did not have all the ingredients necessary to make the drink prominently displayed on their menu. Our second attempt was a success but took over 15 minutes to arrive to the table. When we finally got around to having our orders taken, our initial choices were thwarted because they did not have all the ingredients to make the chicken dish prominently displayed on their menu. We then opted for pasta dishes. During our wait for our food we observed several interesting tidbits. The guests in the bar area were receiving their food at a fast pace. The staff all were consistently fiddling with the cellular devices and then returning to their duties without washing their hands. One staff member had food delivered via GrubHub or some other similar delivery service from another restaurant. A kitchen employee had music with foul language playing on his phone for us in the dining room to hear. No one seemed interested in their jobs. Over 30 minutes later our dishes arrive, not with any fanfare or excitement however. Both pastas were served hot but the lobster/seafood pasta had a distinct smell, not your ordinary seafood smell, but one of the mishandled or perhaps out of date variety. We hesitated at first but at first bite everything seemed to be fine so we proceeded to eat. Not 4 minutes into starting our meal did we then get bombarded by small flies. They were either gnats or drain flies. We attempted to ignore the issue but the insects intensified. We alerted our server and he apologized and gave us the option to move to another table. He then stated that there wasn't much he could do about it and also let us know that the issue had been brought up to engineering. As I sat there dumbfounded at the sheer inconsiderate notion that simply moving to another table and wondering how that would rectify the issue, I let the server know that the insect infestation had ruined our appetite. Again, nothing..... At this point, instead of speaking to a manager, I requested my bill so that we could leave. It took our server 10 minutes to honor said request. His name was Kenneth. It then took Kenneth another 5 minutes to process the card and return it for my signature. It only took him 3 minutes to return to the table to remove the signed copy of the bill while we were still sitting there. To add injury to insult, later the very same evening my guest started feeling ill. The illness was from the result of food poisoning. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS RESTAURANT TO ANYONE IN THE AREA OR OUTSIDE. I ALSO SUGGEST THAT THE GUESTS OF THE HOTEL DO NOT DINE HERE. It is beyond unfortunate that such an operation is still open for business.