The Main Dining Room at The Greenbrier

Unfortunately, the Main Dining Room at THE GREENBRIER does not rate high marks for quality of the food. My family and I have dined here on a number of occasions and each time we say that we will not return. However, at this time of year, several of the other restaurants within the hotel are closed either because of house count or because of the season. The food never seems up to par for THE GREENBRIER. Management needs to take a serious look at this dining venue and improve dramatically

Surprisingly we had a wonderful dinner. We started with the fried oysters, followed by caesar salad, then tenderloin and sea bass. Following the main entrees we were presented with wonderful desserts

We had dinner here on a Friday night. We could not get a reservation at any other restaurant in the Greenbrier on that night, but the Main Dining Room appeared only half full. The room itself has an elegant, genteel atmosphere suitable to a special occasion. Our server was very pleasant and efficient but not very knowledgeable about the composition of some of the dishes. A small tray of assorted crudités with housemade ranch dressing was served before the meal. My spouse ordered the veal Oscar which was served over a bed of lemon risotto, accompanied by green asparagus and adorned with shrimp and crabmeat. The dish was well prepared but not memorable in any way. I ordered the lobster tail which came accompanied by drawn butter, whipped potatoes and white asparagus, a completely uninspired color combination. The lobster tail was small but tender. The whipped potatoes lacked any flavor and the asparagus was overcooked. We ordered a chocolate soufflé for dessert with our coffee. It was accompanied by a vanilla sauce and a small ramekin of whipped cream. The soufflé was tasty and probably the best part of the meal. We were also presented with a plate containing four pretty, handmade confections to end the meal: a fruit gel, a marshmallow, a chocolate, and a mint. Our two meals including one glass of wine for each of us totaled with the house mandated gratuity plus tax plus the hotel's mandated historic preservation fee. It is a lovely setting, but we have had much better prepared meals than this for half the cost

For such a nice venue, my meal was very average. The Trout clearly tasted as if it had been under a heat lamp for minutes. For the pricing, I thought the portion size was small. The Chef salad was not superior to a salad I had picked up at a local grocery store for lunch, and was the price. It was a slow evening, so service was fine. The dining room is a nice setting. But given the meal pricing and dress code requirements, expectations were high for a special meal. I was pretty disappointed

The Greenbrier has a tradition for excellent service and food. Nothing in our recent visit has changed our opinion of The Greenbrier and this remains one of our favorite places to dine