Lana Murhina (.
Google
If you want to make your holiday dinner truly awful, come here.
This was, without exaggeration, the worst Christmas Day dining experience I’ve ever had.
I made a reservation well in advance for two people. On Christmas Day at 4:52 PM, I confirmed the reservation directly with the restaurant via text message. Despite this, our reservation was still canceled with no explanation, no call, and no message.
When we arrived, no one was at the restaurant entrance. We walked inside to find help and were told to go back because our reservation was for the restaurant, not the lounge. After waiting again, a staff member finally appeared — only to walk us into the lounge anyway, with absolutely no explanation. I overheard her say to another employee, “Oh, that’s the table I told you about.”
We were seated at a high-top table right at the entrance, even though the lounge was not busy and many proper tables were available. No explanation. No apology.
Service was extremely slow. Our server took a long time just to acknowledge us, despite only serving one table of six before us. We couldn’t order wine before getting food, which is unacceptable for a Christmas dinner.
The Christmas buffet was awful. The charcuterie was clearly left uncovered for HOURS — cheese dried into a hard shell and salami greasy and unpleasant. The buffet selection was very limited, especially proteins. Hot meat options were dry turkey, completely under-seasoned roast beef (adding salt didn’t help), and poorly cooked cod.
Seafood was the only decent part, but very limited:smoked salmon, shrimp, oysters, and calamari with inconsistent seasoning — sometimes overly salty, sometimes flavorless.
The buffet setup was poorly designed. Some hot dishes had lids with nowhere to place them, forcing guests to awkwardly juggle plates and lids. Desserts looked nice but many were already dry, and the same tongs were used for different desserts.
One especially uncomfortable moment: our table centerpiece wasn’t lit while others were. When my husband tried to turn it on, a staff member stopped him and asked us not to play with it because it was rented — speaking to us like children.
Being placed at a high-top table made the experience even worse. I had to stand up at least few times just to retrieve my napkin after it fell because I couldn’t reach it from the chair.
Between the unexplained reservation cancellation, being moved without consent, terrible seating, slow service, poor food quality, badly managed buffet logistics, and disrespectful staff attitude, this was a complete failure.
The price is absolutely not justified. I will never return and do not recommend this place to anyone.
I was considering Hotel Arts for corpora Christmas 2026 event — after this experience, that will never happen.
Stay away.