Beauty & The Feast

Critic's Review

Beauty and The Feast is closed. Another hotel restaurant is now in place. See details here about the breakup.

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I wasn't going to go to the new restaurant at the Atlantic Hotel, because I've been burned before. Fake marketing doesn't fool me, and this place that advertises itself as a 5 star venue has failed to impress me since day 1. But when I figured out that the Solita people have moved their operation off of Las Olas into the hotel; and when I saw some obviously biased "reviews" by the usual local liars, it was time for a little bit of the Truth.

When they opened East End Brasserie they spent 1000's on fancy signage, which apparently did no good. This time they didn't bother with any signage. There is no indication at all that there is a restaurant open from the Street.

Atlantic Hotel North Entrance

The first thing I'll say is that this is a bad name for a restaurant; not only is it gimmicky; but when you Google it you get a lot of high powered web sites like Food Network and OpenTable that are going to be hard to beat in terms of indexing. Techie talk, but meaningful.

The outdoor space is largely the same as it's been; they've replaced the poorly maintained teak tables and chairs with big wicker chairs with pillows, but the space is still completely devoid of visual appeal. I thought about eating in the dining room, but there wasn't 1 soul in the main room or the bar, and it would have been creepy eating in there alone.

Beauty & The Feast Bar

The view here isn't quite as good as the other hotels on this street; there are a lot of big pillars and plants that block the view. You have to settle for little windows of sunshine.

Beauty & The Feast View

I ordered an Iced Tea and they brought me some water in a bottle; not sure if it was anything special or just filtered tap water. It wasn't cold that so that's a minus.

Beauty & The Feast Beverages

The menu is largely the same concept as when they first opened East End; they serve "brunch" until 2:30pm, but I didn't want to pay $14-22 for an omelet. I pondered a few things and settled on the pulled pork sandwich; something I rarely order. My server offered fries or a salad; I selected a salad and she started to head off. "Do I get a choice of dressing", I yelled. "Oh, well it comes with a white vinaigrette (whatever that is)". "Do you have blue Cheese". "We Do", she said. And so it was settled.

The big thing here is the "Feast", where you can get a pig for 4 people or some other menu items for 2 or 4. There is no "Feast" at breakfast or lunch, so it's just your typical overpriced hotel until dinner time.

Piped in music seemed to be in a sound track loop; Tunes from Frozen were followed by "Everything is Awesome" from the Lego Movie.

A runner brought out the food.

Beauty feast lunch

Those of you who read here regularly know how I feel about getting a bowl of weeds; when did salads become purple? This is just ridiculous overreach; a restaurant that is so desperate to be fancy that they can't serve real food. Putting blue cheese on weeds is a stretch, but I'm certain that the result was better than the default vinaigrette.

Beauty & The Feast Side Weed Salad

Yum.

The menu says that the pulled pork comes on a Poppy Seed Roll and there's no mention of cole slaw. It also says it's a mustard based BBQ sauce, but it was sweet with no hint of vinegar whatsoever. A completely misrepresented sandwich.

Beauty & The Feast Pulled Pork Sandwich

The "house-made" pickles were made with zucchini instead of cucumbers. "house-made" is another scary buzzword, as if some chef from the Culinary Institute can make pickles better than Claussen. These were sweet, which was unfortunate, because a nice dill pickle would have been good to counter the sweetness on this sandwich.

Beauty & The Feast Zucchini Pickles

The sandwich wasn't bad, a bit sweeter than I like and not a very generous portion of pork, but about what you expect from an empty hotel restaurant.

Beauty & The Feast Pulled Pork Sandwich

When the check arrived, the Hotel that does everything wrong puts a cherry on top with the mandatory gratuity.

Beauty & The Feast Mandatory Tip

It saved me 80 cents, so I shouldn't complain. I hope all of the servers at the Atlantic know that in 2014 they must be paid in full salary, as mandatory gratuities are no longer considered to be tips.

So why do you hire people who were insignificant on Las Olas to open restaurants in a hotel to serve a menu that seems completely out of their Red Italian roots? I dunno. Maybe the same reason that you buy a big hotel and don't even bother to put a menu on your website for your main restaurant.