For a world-renown brand synonymous with Daniel Boulud and the Four Seasons, I would have expected better. I dined here last night with a party of 7.
I found the service to be quite slow (albiet the restaurant was quite busy for a Tuesday night). We waited a good 15 minutes before our waiter came across to take our drink order - he was nowhere in sight before this point. It took another 15 minutes before our drinks arrived and before he took our order. Again, nowhere in sight before this - could not find him nor make eye contact prior to this point. Strike one.
When the waiter finally came around again, I placed my order only to find out the restaurant had run out of two menu items (lobster and fish). I can understand how a small restaurant might have this issue but hellooo...this is Cafe Boulud in the Four Seasons - how is this acceptable? Since they didn't have my menu item, I told the waiter to take everyone else's order and come back around to me. Well...the waiter completely forgot about me and left the table without taking my order...so I had to chase him down! Strike two.
I had oysters for appetizer which was delicious. Our mains followed - my colleague had sliced steak but as the server was putting down the plate, a piece rolled and fell onto the table. He apologized and took a knife and fork to try to pick it up and put it back on the plate. He lifted it up but slipped and it fell on the table again. Keep in mind there were only 4 pieces of steak....so basically 25% of the dish was a goner. They never offered to take the plate back to the kitchen. Strike three.
I had pasta in clam sauce with truffles - found the pasta to be too soft, a bit like Chinese noodles. Dessert was the best part of the meal - a thinly sliced apple tart with ice cream.
Overall - service was meh. Food was meh.