The Greenhouse

This review is a tad late since i've been soo busy.....but it has truly irritated me every time I think about it. I have been wanting to eat at Greenhouse/Plume for brunch for about 2 years...but always missed the reservation window...... I wanted to take my parents and nephew for an amazing brunch as we do every year and to my surprise i found an open table for this past Easter Sunday and booked it as fast as I could. Unlike a normal booking on open table this particular res required a cc for complete booking. I did all the steps and finalized the booking and then just forgot about it until Easter day. We walk there from St. Matthews and get to the reception and they don't have the reservation on their end. I was obviously blown by this since it really is a beautiful place upon entering and I heard great things about the food. Either way in the beginning they seemed very accommodating and nice about fitting us in despite the mishap. I wasn't really trying to play the blame game I just wanted to get to a table and enjoy brunch. It's 1:30 in the afternoon and they politely tell me we can go to the bar area and have drinks and that they will figure something out. Well....they close at 3pm and like dummies we all sat at that bar for about 2 hours lightly checking with the hostess stand to see if there was any progress. They continued to tell us we would be seated through out this process but ultimately didn't seat us until 3:45......In retrospect I wish they would have just said sorry we cannot accommodate you. I even offered the reception $100 tip to take care of us and no help. Once they finally did seat us they put us what seemed like the waiting room entrance area...not even in the main dining area. It wasn't a horrible spot but I wanted to be at least inside the main area. I agreed and from this point it was all down hill......The area they put us in was very dirty with food all over the floor......the table was clean but it took some time to notice just how gross the overall area was....silverware lying on the floor and crumbs and food....it was quite disgusting......even with the servers coming over they didn't notice and I had to point it out to remove some of the food. The waiter was very rushed and didn't speak much english.....for $110 pre-fix menu I would at least have expected a simple description of any of the food. NONE.....we asked for flat water and over the course of the meal random wait staff would come over to refill the water glasses but they kept putting sparkling water in our glasses....this happened 3 times.....just horrible service.....even during the meal for 4 people.....they never even tidied up the table from the crumbs and un-needed plates from prior apps etc.....I can't complain about the food...it was delicious.....but the whole experience to me was a total let down and basically ruined my day.....as I looked into the dining area it was painfully evident that the people in there were being treated like royalty and we were basically treated as peasants. For 4 with drinks and coffee and the forced 20% tip the bill came out to just under $700......I'm not cheap so the money isn't the issue but man o man......this just burns me up that you could go somewhere and pay all the money to get treated so badly.....from the blonde/brunette at reception to the horrible wait staff to the mandatory 20% gratuity.......just mind blowing and needless to say I will not be going back.....

Beautiful restaurant, attentive staff, they really pay attention to the details at the Greenhouse.

I made reservations for 1:45 PM at the Greenhouse in the Jefferson hotel and was running late so I called ahead of time to let them know I would be there around 2 pm or after. I also let them know I'm coming from far away and wanted to confirm id still have my reservation. Karen picked up my phone call and said that would be okay. We get to the greenhouse around 1:57 and I'm rudely told by the man at the front that their kitchen closes at 2 and we can't eat there. He informed us that their other restaurant at the hotel 'Quill' features exactly the same menu. I insisted that I wanted to eat there because of the ambiance and was told it was okay if we were late. Literally no indication was made beforehand that we would lose our reservation. The man insisted we go to Quill so we went. Upon getting to Quill, the host took a while getting to us and handing us the menu. Literally nothing on the menu was the same and the entire ambiance of the place was completely different (dark, dreary looking room). We go back to the greenhouse and now a different woman is at the front. I informed her everything that happened and this lady goes 'sorry ma'am your reservations were for 1:45 pm it is now 2:30, you're way past the kitchen closing had you arrived at 2 maybe something could've been done'. I look at my watch and it's only 2:10 pm and I tell her we got here around 1:55 then this lady starts being rude, completely making it clear she's not even listening. She ignores everything I say with no tone of empathy and tells me she can call her manager. The manager arrives and is just as rude and basically says the same thing as I heard before and leaves us standing at the lobby. First off all. Who would have reservations for 1:45 PM if the kitchen is to close at 2 PM? Makes absolutely no sense. Even if we were to arrive at 1:45 it would take a couple of minutes to sit down at a table and take at least 15 minutes to order....and the kitchen closes at 2. I explained this to both the manager and the lady and all I heard back was 'I knowwwww' their tones felt condescending. Had we been treated with some sort of respect I would have returned at another time but due to our horrible experience I will never be coming back here.

Beautiful spot for a formal lunch. My very proper grandfather was pleased.

I come here for brunch every Sunday. Delightful ambiance, great food.