The Plant Room Restaurant

I came to Calloway Gardens for a family reunion. We reserved a private room for my uncle's 80th birthday celebration. We arrived an hour before our scheduled dinner reservation to take pictures in the courtyard and set up a projector with a slideshow in the room.

In front of our room, instead of a sign welcoming our party, there was a sign announcing another family's luncheon (which most likely occurred earlier that day). When I asked the hostess about it, she seemed not to care and choose not to do anything about it. I was disappointed they did not want to make the same effort to recognize my family's special occasion as they did for someone else's. I was shocked that they wouldn't even remove the old sign.

About a half hour before our dinner, I noticed one of the employees approach my cousin (who made the reservation) in a panic, saying they could not find the birthday cake she brought. In the end, they were able to locate the cake before we sat down to eat dinner but we should not have had to worry about them losing it in the first place.

At our scheduled reservation time (which was well past their opening time), we were told we could not go get food from the buffet because they were not ready for us yet. They forced our large and hungry party to wait by the hostess stand while allowing several other parties to go inside and get their food. We were very unhappy with this delay.

Once they finally let us go to the buffet, they did not have all the food listed on the menu by the hostess stand. After not seeing it with the other salad dressings, I had to ask a waitress for the muscadine vinegarette. She ran all over the restaurant looking for someone and eventually came back and said a waitress would bring it to me at my table. I was so hungry I decided to start eating my main course while waiting, which was good because it took nearly 10 minutes for the dressing to arrive.

When my family started to filter in from the buffet, it became quickly apparent that there were not enough seats for our entire party (only 40 instead of 50). The waitress tried to blame that on us, but we had absolutely provided an accurate head count in advance as members of our family were coming from all over the country.  We did not have any last minute drop ins as everyone's plans were finalized months in advance. They were able to get another table set up fairly quickly but many of my family members should not have been put in that uncomfortable situation of feeling left out with plates in hand and nowhere to sit and eat.

Regarding the food: The macaroni and cheese was dry. The ribs had no flavor. The fried chicken and mashed potatoes were good. The brisket was delicious. The catfish was ok but not nearly as tasty as it sounded on the menu. Once the dressing arrived, the salad was good but nothing special. The banana pudding was tasty. The chocolate mousse was delicious. Overall I was very disappointed with the quality of the food for the price.  Golden Corral has better food on their buffet than The Plant Room.

The service was lackluster. The waitresses were not friendly and did not seem like they wanted to be there. It appeared that they knew the tip was included in our bill so they did not have to provide good service.

Overall I was very disappointed with the experience and will not return. When we were walking out, the whole restaurant smelled strongly of fish left out too long which further cemented my desire to never come back.

This was always been a quick and easy restaurant after a long fun day walking, riding bicycles and taking photos of nature at Callaway Gardens. Almost every time I had stopped here for a buffet, no waiting time, great Southern iced tea and a good homy Southern Hospitality.

Everything seemed scratch made without cutting corners, Macaroni and cheese was so rich and creamy, with a great toasted crust on the top, although the mushed potato is rumpy red potato, it was so very creamy, the brisket was so tender it melted in my mouth, fried chicken was juicy with a crispy skin. The ribs just fell off the bone.

I think it was the best banana pudding I've had at a buffet, Some peaches had some crunchy texture in the peach cobbler, I knew it was probably made using fresh peaches! Chocolate mousse in a cup was heavenly, dark chocolate mousse with white chocolate whipped cream with white chocolate shavings, I had to get a second one, tempted to get another hahaha

The food was outstanding, and I will come back on my next Callaway Gardens visit or after hiking at F.D. Roosevelt State Park.