Well the concept of this theater really appealed to me. I still think the concept is great, however thought in the execution seems to have been absent.
We showed up at 9:20pm for a 9:45pm show. We waited outside the ropes for about 10 minutes until we'd be allowed into our theater. This gave a a few minutes to look around. The theater is linked to both the Salt Lounge and Tanzy Restaurant with coordinated decor making for a very stunning and appealing sight with a comfy feel. We had just came from dinner at Tanzy's (separate review). We ordered the Gold package and were told our server would take care of everything once inside the theater.
Once we were allowed to enter everyone entered the same door. It wasn't until we were trapped in the line that we realized there was another door on the other side that would have sped up the wait to get into our seat. Maybe if they were both open that might have streamlined seating.
we got to our seats, got comfortable (more on that), experimented with the electric recliner and generally got situated. Once our server showed, we ordered. My wife wanted a white wine. The server highly recommended one of their Chardonnays. We learned after tasting that 1) don't take wine recommendations from someone not old enough to drink and 2) iPic doesn't know a quality wine from vinegar. The Chardonnay was easily the worst either one of us had tasted and we didn't finish it.
We ordered Chocolate covered strawberries and the Oreo Ice cream sandwich. Our server didn't know they were out of the ice cream sandwich and told us when she delivered the strawberries. Probably a good thing since that probably prevented another food abortion. The chocolate covered strawberries were also horrible and unripe. My bet is, they're not made on premises but charge as if they were. After just eating at Tanzy, I wrongly assumed the menu would be similar since I believe they're owned by the same. Menu was not great..at least the dessert menu with it's three options. The other option was a Berries Sabayon which the server tried to push after our two previous dessert failures.
Not long into the movie my wife noticed her 3D glasses were dirty. It took about 30 minutes before we saw our "server" again to ask for another pair. The second pair was better but not much. They reuse glasses and the high school kids working there probably aren't too into cleaning them well.
Comfort. I was all set for a nice comfortable recliner. Not. There is a metal bar running across the middle of the back of the recliner that will be guaranteed to let you know it's there by the middle of the movie. I spent the second half of the movie trying to avoid the bar to no success. The only way I was able to minimize the bar in the back was with the foot rest down which kind of defeats the point of a recliner. Since your feet won't touch the ground (and I'm 6'1"), that is an uncomfortable feeling as well.
While the concept is fantastic, the designers and operators really ignored the details. If you build it, they will come is not a good business model. They may come.....once. And once it will be. We will not be back.