Victoria & Alberts discontinuing 7 & 10 course options starting July - confirmed

[helenasue]

Questions for those recently attending -
When you choose wine by the glass, is it premium wine or less than premium.
What are the cost ranges of wine by the glass
What are people tipping for the meal? 18% of $700 is $120.00

Thanks for bringing this up, @RRB!

I'd hope folks are tipping 20%. As former luxury waitstaff myself, I generally leave 20% for terrible service and increase it from there. 15% to 18% used to be the going rate, but today I wouldn't feel right about leaving less than 20% -- especially at a place like V&A where there's little or no table turnover, multiple servers, and a lot of individualized attention.

Most restaurants have started subsidizing payment to other non-tipped employees throughout the restaurant via obligatory tip-share based on your server's sales regardless of what their actual tips received were. The going rate is generally 3% of your food cost and 5% of your alcohol cost, but it varies.

I know that some people are opposed to the concept of tipping in and of itself, but if you stiff your server leave an inappropriately small tip, they've likely paid money out of their own pocket to wait on you. Good to keep in mind for those friends who are visiting from out of the country and may not realize that servers make a very small hourly wage and have to share their tips based on a percentage of their sales. I know 20% seems steep when you come from a culture that doesn't tip or if you're getting a very large bill for your meal, but please don't rationalize it away.

 

[Hisgirl]

Well then. I did not know the price of Vic & Al was 235 now. We have eaten here twice in the past four years. First time, we were so satisfied and impressed. Second time, not so much. We actually found the food at Capa's rooftop at Four Seasons to be superior. (compared to our second visit). That's sure a lot of bucks per bite. I think I'd rather stay an extra night at the Grand and eat at Kona.

 

[Hisgirl]

Questions for those recently attending -
When you choose wine by the glass, is it premium wine or less than premium.
What are the cost ranges of wine by the glass
What are people tipping for the meal? 18% of $700 is $120.00

If you're eating at Vic & Al's I would hope you are tipping a minimum of 20%. In fact, I don't know anyone who eats at chef-owned, fine dining who even tip at 20%. Most tip north of that. Unless of course you receive poor service, then feel free to tip less and speak to the manager, but that won't happen at V&A's....assured!

 

[drwadadli]

Thanks for bringing this up, @RRB!

I'd hope folks are tipping 20%. As former luxury waitstaff myself, I generally leave 20% for terrible service and increase it from there. 15% to 18% used to be the going rate, but today I wouldn't feel right about leaving less than 20% -- especially at a place like V&A where there's little or no table turnover, multiple servers, and a lot of individualized attention.

Most restaurants have started subsidizing payment to other non-tipped employees throughout the restaurant via obligatory tip-share based on your server's sales regardless of what their actual tips received were. The going rate is generally 3% of your food cost and 5% of your alcohol cost, but it varies.

I know that some people are opposed to the concept of tipping in and of itself, but if you stiff your server leave an inappropriately small tip, they've likely paid money out of their own pocket to wait on you. Good to keep in mind for those friends who are visiting from out of the country and may not realize that servers make a very small hourly wage and have to share their tips based on a percentage of their sales. I know 20% seems steep when you come from a culture that doesn't tip or if you're getting a very large bill for your meal, but please don't rationalize it away.

If you're eating at Vic & Al's I would hope you are tipping a minimum of 20%. In fact, I don't know anyone who eats at chef-owned, fine dining who even tip at 20%. Most tip north of that. Unless of course you receive poor service, then feel free to tip less and speak to the manager, but that won't happen at V&A's....assured!

I completely agree with both of you. Our tip came to 23% (on credit card) with an "extra" $50 left on the table with a note that the money was to go to the chefs that we talked to the most during our dinner at The Chef's Table.

 

[helenasue]

Soooooo did anybody go with the new menu yet? I'm super curious about what the offerings were!

 

[nycdisneygal]

Will be at the QVR in 3 weeks!

 

[pkrieger2287]

Just read through this thread... Thanks for the info everyone! My wife and I have a reservation for late-September but are on the fence about it. Curious to hear any reports on experiences with the new menu.

 

[helenasue]

Just read through this thread... Thanks for the info everyone! My wife and I have a reservation for late-September but are on the fence about it. Curious to hear any reports on experiences with the new menu.

Hey everybody! My husband and I just went on Wednesday -- here's how it went:

First off, the food was FANTASTIC. I did get the initial sense that our first server was a touch disappointed that we were his table, probably just because we look so young that he was worried we weren't going to tip him properly. I still get carded regularly, so he may have thought that we were younger than we are. He tried pretty hard to up-sell us on everything he could and we didn't really bite on anything except for my cocktail and my husband's soda, so maybe he was fretting that we were cheap. Having said that, the service was still impeccable and he'd totally warmed up to us by the end of the meal. He took wonderful care of us and we had a great time. By the end of the meal I was very glad that we hadn't added any of the extra courses. We'd considered it, but neither of us are very big eaters. We weren't even able to finish dessert as it was, so it was for the best that we didn't.

My husband wasn't a huge fan of the tasting menu, but he did eat everything he was given, which is rare for him anywhere. He said afterward that it "wasn't bad" but that he liked T-Rex better, so YMMV. I honestly wasn't really expecting for him to enjoy it that much since he's not an adventurous eater at all -- this is a man who ordinarily won't even happily eat a side he likes with the 'wrong' main course. For instance, if I make chicken, he wants rice with it. Even though he loves mashed potatoes, those go with steak, not with chicken. If I make pork chops, the only acceptable side dish is Kraft mac and cheese. With his nature, I took his lukewarm review and his clearing his plate at each course as the highest praise one could possibly expect from him given the format of the meal.

Don't let his pickiness put you off, though. As someone who is an adventurous eater, it was absolutely exquisite. The seafood courses were the best, in my opinion -- especially the fish in the lemon sauce with the ravioli and the alaskan king crab. OMG, absolutely perfect. The melon coulee in particular with the crab was an absolutely perfect touch. It also had something that had the texture of teeny tiny flavor-packed boba bubbles at the bottom. I have no idea what they were -- I asked the server and he said 'grains of paradise', but that definitely wasn't right. I don't think he understood which ingredient I was asking about, so I'm stumped on what it was. It was great, though! The quail was delicious, too. I loved how inventive the dishes were and the way the flavors and textures all mixed together perfectly in unusual ways.

There was one dish that I really didn't like -- the one with the kalamata olives and ink sauce. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it when I saw it on the menu, but I wanted to be open-minded since a lot of people on here had made assurances that even if you don't think you like an ingredient it might be great at V&A's. NOPE, not for me! I took one bite, used my very best manners to swallow it, and then politely left the rest on my plate. Our server asked if I didn't like it and I said it just wasn't for me, and he insisted on making something else. The chef then sent out a chicken dish with a fried squash boat filled with a tasty cheese filling that was absolutely to die for. I asked our server to thank the chef for me, and he assured me he would and said, "an empty plate like this will be the happy thank you he needs!".

Toward the end of the meal, we were given an option between sorbet with a coconut bread pudding and cheese. Our server cleverly recommended that my husband get the sorbet if he's not a fan of strong flavors, and he was absolutely right. I got the cheese, and was VERY glad that I did. The second dessert was a surprise that hadn't been on the menu -- a crunchy caramel banana cream situation, which was 100% up my alley. It was absolutely perfect, and I was thrilled.

They were also nice enough to pack us up one of each chocolate at the end since we were too full and a very tasty orange date bread, so the fun has been carrying on since we left.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Thanks @helenasue! So glad you had such a great experience!!!

 

[RRB]

Hey everybody! My husband and I just went on Wednesday -- here's how it went:

First off, the food was FANTASTIC. I did get the initial sense that our first server was a touch disappointed that we were his table, probably just because we look so young that he was worried we weren't going to tip him properly. I still get carded regularly, so he may have thought that we were younger than we are. He tried pretty hard to up-sell us on everything he could and we didn't really bite on anything except for my cocktail and my husband's soda, so maybe he was fretting that we were cheap. Having said that, the service was still impeccable and he'd totally warmed up to us by the end of the meal. He took wonderful care of us and we had a great time. By the end of the meal I was very glad that we hadn't added any of the extra courses. We'd considered it, but neither of us are very big eaters. We weren't even able to finish dessert as it was, so it was for the best that we didn't.

My husband wasn't a huge fan of the tasting menu, but he did eat everything he was given, which is rare for him anywhere. He said afterward that it "wasn't bad" but that he liked T-Rex better, so YMMV. I honestly wasn't really expecting for him to enjoy it that much since he's not an adventurous eater at all -- this is a man who ordinarily won't even happily eat a side he likes with the 'wrong' main course. For instance, if I make chicken, he wants rice with it. Even though he loves mashed potatoes, those go with steak, not with chicken. If I make pork chops, the only acceptable side dish is Kraft mac and cheese. With his nature, I took his lukewarm review and his clearing his plate at each course as the highest praise one could possibly expect from him given the format of the meal.

Don't let his pickiness put you off, though. As someone who is an adventurous eater, it was absolutely exquisite. The seafood courses were the best, in my opinion -- especially the fish in the lemon sauce with the ravioli and the alaskan king crab. OMG, absolutely perfect. The melon coulee in particular with the crab was an absolutely perfect touch. It also had something that had the texture of teeny tiny flavor-packed boba bubbles at the bottom. I have no idea what they were -- I asked the server and he said 'grains of paradise', but that definitely wasn't right. I don't think he understood which ingredient I was asking about, so I'm stumped on what it was. It was great, though! The quail was delicious, too. I loved how inventive the dishes were and the way the flavors and textures all mixed together perfectly in unusual ways.

There was one dish that I really didn't like -- the one with the kalamata olives and ink sauce. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it when I saw it on the menu, but I wanted to be open-minded since a lot of people on here had made assurances that even if you don't think you like an ingredient it might be great at V&A's. NOPE, not for me! I took one bite, used my very best manners to swallow it, and then politely left the rest on my plate. Our server asked if I didn't like it and I said it just wasn't for me, and he insisted on making something else. The chef then sent out a chicken dish with a fried squash boat filled with a tasty cheese filling that was absolutely to die for. I asked our server to thank the chef for me, and he assured me he would and said, "an empty plate like this will be the happy thank you he needs!".

Toward the end of the meal, we were given an option between sorbet with a coconut bread pudding and cheese. Our server cleverly recommended that my husband get the sorbet if he's not a fan of strong flavors, and he was absolutely right. I got the cheese, and was VERY glad that I did. The second dessert was a surprise that hadn't been on the menu -- a crunchy caramel banana cream situation, which was 100% up my alley. It was absolutely perfect, and I was thrilled.

They were also nice enough to pack us up one of each chocolate at the end since we were too full and a very tasty orange date bread, so the fun has been carrying on since we left.

Thanks for the review. So the tasting menu is the smaller, less expensive selection? Can you substitute when ordering, for instance swap out the olive and ink sauce for the chicken dish? Did you try any of the wines? If you don't mind, what was the total bill and how much did you tip? Thanks.

 

[helenasue]

Thanks for the review. So the tasting menu is the smaller, less expensive selection? Can you substitute when ordering, for instance swap out the olive and ink sauce for the chicken dish? Did you try any of the wines? If you don't mind, what was the total bill and how much did you tip? Thanks.

No, there's no longer a smaller selection at all; they've done away with that entirely. There's now one menu, and that's the chef's degustation tasting menu. We were a little annoyed about that since we had only wanted to get the 7-course when we booked our reservation specifically because we had wanted to have choices, but we rolled with it since that's the only option there is now. It's $225 per person. There's not really anything to substitute for what's listed, since there's only one menu and you're getting everything on it. However, if you really feel confident that you won't like a listed dish and you say something, I think they'd be happy to come up with something else for you like they did for me.

We didn't get the wine; my husband doesn't drink alcohol and I'm a VERY serious lightweight so it would have been a terrible value. I had one citropolitan and that was plenty of alcohol for me to have a nice buzz. It seemed that some of the women in the restaurant who had gotten the wine tasting were quite drunk, so I'm glad I went with my gut on that one and passed. I wanted to actually remember this meal and have a nice romantic evening.

 

[helenasue]

To answer your other question @RRB (I split this part of my answer out in case the mods decide it's off limits and need to delete it), our bill came to ~$515, and we tipped a bit over 20%.

 

[gillep]

No, there's no longer a smaller selection at all; they've done away with that entirely. There's now one menu, and that's the chef's degustation tasting menu. We were a little annoyed about that since we had only wanted to get the 7-course when we booked our reservation specifically because we had wanted to have choices, but we rolled with it since that's the only option there is now. It's $225 per person. There's not really anything to substitute for what's listed, since there's only one menu and you're getting everything on it. However, if you really feel confident that you won't like a listed dish and you say something, I think they'd be happy to come up with something else for you like they did for me.

We didn't get the wine; my husband doesn't drink alcohol and I'm a VERY serious lightweight so it would have been a terrible value. I had one citropolitan and that was plenty of alcohol for me to have a nice buzz. It seemed that some of the women in the restaurant who had gotten the wine tasting were quite drunk, so I'm glad I went with my gut on that one and passed. I wanted to actually remember this meal and have a nice romantic evening.

Thanks for the review! Wondering a little more about how dessert worked. I LOVE their creme brulee, was this not an option? Were you also just given a set smaller dessert?

 

[helenasue]

Thanks for the review! Wondering a little more about how dessert worked. I LOVE their creme brulee, was this not an option? Were you also just given a set smaller dessert?

Creme brulee wasn't offered. Like the rest of the menu, there's nothing to pick from. There is what there is, and that's it.

The night we went, the first dessert was a banana cream dessert with a sugar-torched banana slice and a caramel toffee honeycomb swirl around it. Banana cream pie is my favorite, so I was THRILLED with that.

The second dessert was a rich chocolate sphere with chocolate mousse inside and a dark chocolate ganache on the outside on top of a crispy wafer. It was also delicious, but it was very, very, very rich. Neither of us could finish it, even though we really wanted to.

 

[gillep]

Creme brulee wasn't offered. Like the rest of the menu, there's nothing to pick from. There is what there is, and that's it.

The night we went, the first dessert was a banana cream dessert with a sugar-torched banana slice and a caramel toffee honeycomb swirl around it. Banana cream pie is my favorite, so I was THRILLED with that.

The second dessert was a rich chocolate sphere with chocolate mousse inside and a dark chocolate ganache on the outside on top of a crispy wafer. It was also delicious, but it was very, very, very rich. Neither of us could finish it, even though we really wanted to.

Thank you. Not sure that I am a fan of this change. I am good with pretty much any savory options, even foods I don't usually like, I find that upscale restaurants prepare in a way that are usually quite delicious, dessert though, I am very picky about, and have yet to have certain sweet/dessert items prepared in a way that I actually enjoy them. We weren't planning on hitting V&A again until at least next year, so it will give me time to think about it. Glad you had a nice time.

 

[Lehuaann]

So, I’m guessing no more Kona Chocolate Soufflé? That was one of the reasons I stuck with the 7 course.

 

[Truxi]

There was one dish that I really didn't like -- the one with the kalamata olives and ink sauce. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it when I saw it on the menu, but I wanted to be open-minded since a lot of people on here had made assurances that even if you don't think you like an ingredient it might be great at V&A's. NOPE, not for me! I took one bite, used my very best manners to swallow it, and then politely left the rest on my plate. Our server asked if I didn't like it and I said it just wasn't for me, and he insisted on making something else. The chef then sent out a chicken dish with a fried squash boat filled with a tasty cheese filling that was absolutely to die for. I asked our server to thank the chef for me, and he assured me he would and said, "an empty plate like this will be the happy thank you he needs!".

Awwww. I mean, I know that you're definitely paying for that quality of service and experience, but that's still so sweet.

Glad you had a great experience. V&A is a Disney Bucket List for me. One day. One day...

 

[Araminta18]

To answer your other question @RRB (I split this part of my answer out in case the mods decide it's off limits and need to delete it), our bill came to ~$515, and we tipped a bit over 20%.

Feel free to not answer if you don't feel comfortable, but as someone working on her budget for the meal, did the $515 include tip and any drinks?

 

[pangyal]

Feel free to not answer if you don't feel comfortable, but as someone working on her budget for the meal, did the $515 include tip and any drinks?

I am not the prior poster, but based on the set cost of the meal and the tax rate, the $515 would not have included the 20% gratuity, so that would be on top.

 

[helenasue]

Feel free to not answer if you don't feel comfortable, but as someone working on her budget for the meal, did the $515 include tip and any drinks?

The $515 included our meals, a cocktail, and a soda. We tipped ~23% in addition to that.