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| - A group of us (12 adults) were staying at the JW and wanted to have a nice dinner. I spoke to Aaron Lee (group dining coordinator) and he set up the reservation at the Meritage. They don't have a private room so we got a corner table. I had preordered 2 seafood platters, calamari/shrimp , and sweet potato fries. We arrived and was promptly escorted to our table. At 8pm on a Tuesday night, they dining room was only at approx 40% capacity. We were immediately served water and cocktail orders were taken. Cocktails were a tad pricey at $15. I tried one of their signature cocktails (pomegranate and whiskey concoction) and thought it was good, just not $15 good. We ordered some white and red wines as well (fair selection). The seafood platter was nice. Oysters were decent. You have to ask for the drawn butter if you want it with your crab legs and lobster. I thought that made it better. People said the calamari and shrimp was over seasoned and I would have to agree. Fries were just fries. For my entree, i opted for the prime rib (medium rare) and the rest ordered the rib eye. I thought my prime rib was cooked perfectly. I liked the smokiness that was hyped up. The entrees didn't come with any sides. We ordered the cream of spinach, mash potatoes, and mushrooms. The sides were just ok. I still would prefer Lawry's prime rib and their sides over this. The rib eyes were good. We had some issues with the temperature of the rare and medium rare. The waitress initially came out and made it seem as if we were wrong ("when you see it in better lighting, you would see that it was cooked properly) but sent it back. I mentioned to her that rareness is judge not only on color but temperature. And the steak she brought out was too warm to be called rare. The chef came out himself to apologize and made sure the new ones were cooked well (and they were). He also sent out some extra sides.
From that point on, service was great. Actually it was great throughout. We ordered a couple of the desserts. The banana cream pie was awesome but the creme brulee (chocolate) was just ok.
My last complaint was that we had a package with the hotel and was suppose to receive free appitizers and desserts. I thought the group coordinator would pass this along to the restaurant. We never got the freebies. And when I wrote the coordinator about it, I did not get a respone...
All in all, this pace was decent and deserves a 3.5 star rating. It doesn't really stand up to the Flemings, Maestros, or the other high end steakhouse. But for being on the resort property, not a bad choice.
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