Riviera Review
Ok so yesterday went to a friends wedding at the Riviera. The ceremony started at 6:30 and it was at the Riviera. It's right on the water and you have a beautiful view behind you when getting married there. The grounds were nice, of course its grass so if you're wearing heels obviously you're gonna keep sinking in, but that is my stupidity for not realizing that so i should've brought flats just for the ceremony. Weather was perfect yesterday especially for July, it wasn't hot at all and there was a nice breeze.
Cocktail Hour-
It started right after the ceremony, We were standing around just talking to our friends instead of motivating to the other side lol...so by the time we got to CH there was a big line for the bar and food. So I got on the line for food and FH got on the line for the bar so we can make it easier. The outside area for CH is beautiful, theres about 3 decks, one on the lower level, then a ramp going up to another deck then another ramp to another deck. The tables outside are very nice. I loved the cocktail hour, it was great sitting outside with perfect weather having drinks and food right on the water. The food is all up against one wall, right next to the bar. Here are the things I tried, Fh and i got a few plates and jusst tasted a little of everything we got: mussels with small pieces of lobster which was very good, the mussels were big and the sauce for it was great. Baby lampchops-they were excellent, the seasoning they used for it was delicious. Linguini w/shrimp-it was very good and it wasnt heavy which was a plus, the sauce was light and tasted good. Penne a la vodka was also great. The only thing is that for some reason they didnt have burners under the trays so by the time I got to the pasta table it wasn't that hot anymore, it wasn't cold but not hot, more like room temperature i guess. They kept having to fill the trays up bc everything was going fast, i think alot of things were filled up 3 times. But they wouldn't always fill it with the same thing. I had seen people with eggplant rollotini but it wasnt there the 2 times i went up for food...Now the reason i went up twice is bc the 1st time they ran out of calamari and the other girl didnt come out with more calamari yet so i just said i'll go back, i saw lots of ppl with it and it looked delicious. So i go back bc someone said they were bringing out more trays. I went to the table and i asked the girl if they are bringing more calamari and she said yes they should. Fh had wanted some of the 2 pastas since he didnt really have any so i said i'll be back, when i went back there was still no calamari so i told the girl its not a problem i'll just wait, can you tell i love fried calamari? lol. This girl brings out more trays but it was other things, and different than before. THey had HUGE baked clams and those were SO good. The girl was real nice she felt bad i was waiting so and she said if i want she'll save me some and put a plate aside, and i said its ok i don't mind waiting. Then she went to find out and they said there was no more calamari. I was a bit disappointed since i wanted it so bad but what can you do. I did get the baked clam which was worth it lol. Also had shrimp cocktail and a friend had chicken and potatoes in a creamy sauce and she said it was real good.
Reception-
Ok while we were at the CH some girl had went in to get her place card and see where she was sitting, when she came out she was complaining about her table and at first i didnt understand when she was describing it. There were about 200 guests, if you have less then it won't be a problem but as you know if youre getting married here you walk in and theres the dance floor the main tables right on the floor, then on the side a bunch of more tables and it keeps going down but towards the end of the dance floor theres a wall on one side and theres tables along that wall. So there are some people who couldn't see the dance floor at all, they had a wall right behind them. Then other seats you could sorta see and others had a good view but a little far. People were complaining to eachother. I didn't mind bc all the tables more by the dance floor were all family, the groom has a real big family, either his mom or dad were 1 of 8 so had close to 30 first cousins, lots of aunts and uncles plus her side wasn't small either. All the friends were the ones further back so its understandable, family goes first.
Then when we got inside the guys wanted to get drinks but they wouldn't serve anything until after the toast which i had never seen. Our waitress came over, and she said shes sorry but she is taking care of 3 tables today and theyre not supposed to have that many, they were under staffed yesterday for some reason and there was no bus boys at least not by us. Fh gave her money as soon as she came over so she can take care of the table. She took our food orders and then drink orders. It took a while to get the drinks and some ppl knew it would so they had went to the bar to get it themselves...She comes with the drinks and there was confusion as to who had what, i had bacardi and diet coke and there were only 2 dark drinks and nobody else had anything close so they gave me both glasses, i taste the first one and it was soda, not that the drink was weak but there was absolutely no alcohol, then i sip the other one and again same thing, i think she probably misunderstood which might've been the guys fault since they were screaming orders non-stop it was even giving me a headache. But FH went to the bar and got me a drink. Oh I almost forgot, when we got to our tables i wanted to eat the appetizer and realized i didnt have any forks. I looked around and most ppl at my table didn't have one, there were about 11 ppl at our table and only 2 had forks. At this point the waitress hadn't come over so one girl was going to the bathroom and said she'll tell them. Actually our waitress first came over when she was told there were no forks.
The appetizer-Fresh mozzarella w/tomatoes and peppers-i ate just the cheese and it was good
salad-caesar salad-it was good, lots of parmigan which i love, not alot of sauce but i was glad bc i didnt want a heavy sauce at the moment.
Sorbet-it was honestly one of the best sorbets i had. One guy we were with couldn't stop saying how creamy and delicious it is lol and said wow i want 3 more lol.
Entree-the choices were: filet mignon, cordon blue and shrimp stuffed with crabmeat. I had the shrimp and FH had the filet mignon. The shrimp was delicious and i LOVED the crabmeat stuffing. The string beans were ok and the mashed potatoes were ok too, not alot of flavor but maybe i should've used the salt & pepper lol. I had a piece of the filet and it was real good, i loved the sauce for it and fh liked it too...One girl had the cordon bleu and she told me it was good and it did look real good.
The waitress didn't come back much after that, and i normally don't care bc i have no problem walking to the bar which i didnt have to bc after 1 drink fh got me i stopped drinking. But the only thing is that FH gave her money to take care of the table ya know and from what i know it about $60. She did come one time after dinner after FH had called her while she was at another table and he asked for a round of drinks. Since some ppl ordered beer she brought a bucket full of beers so they can have for later. Now later on towards end of the night the bucket had gotten knocked over since she left it by the chairs, guess from ppl getting in and out of their seats. Well our waitress walks by and Fh goes to warn her oh watch out theres ice and she sees this and gets mad. Now i understand it s*cks but you can't say something to the guests and get mad at them. Especially not the person at the table who tipped you and the person who was trying to be nice and warn you, i didnt hear her i saw her saying something and FH turned around and got real pissed, he actually kept his mouth shut which is surprising but he was annoyed. Its ice its not the end of the world, at weddings things will get spilled. All the other waiters seemed calm and ok but i think it was her first time handling that many tables and she let the stress get to her. I didn't mind her not coming around much, i understood things do happen and she was put in a tough situation. I am not above getting up and getting things myself, the only time i got annoyed is when she got mad at fh that there was ice on the floor, and even when she was picking it up she had such an angry face and mumbling something to herself...now its ice so she didnt have to clean it up, she couldve let it melt, it was mostly under the table but then again i was annoyed for 2 mins and got over it right away and went to dance.
VH-it was on in another room. There was ice cream with apple pie, italian pastries, cake, cookies, chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmellows and rice krispies. There were less things than i normally see at a VH so not sure if it was a Full VH. Fh ate cake, ice cream, rice krispies with chocolate and other things, canolli's and so on lol and he enjoyed them all...i only had a small piece of rice krispies w/chocolate and it was good.
if i could think of anything else ill post later...sorry its a bit all over the place but i ve had stuff to do at work so i kept having to come back to it, minimize, come back and so on lol
We had an AMAZING time though
Cocktail Hour-
It started right after the ceremony, We were standing around just talking to our friends instead of motivating to the other side lol...so by the time we got to CH there was a big line for the bar and food. So I got on the line for food and FH got on the line for the bar so we can make it easier. The outside area for CH is beautiful, theres about 3 decks, one on the lower level, then a ramp going up to another deck then another ramp to another deck. The tables outside are very nice. I loved the cocktail hour, it was great sitting outside with perfect weather having drinks and food right on the water. The food is all up against one wall, right next to the bar. Here are the things I tried, Fh and i got a few plates and jusst tasted a little of everything we got: mussels with small pieces of lobster which was very good, the mussels were big and the sauce for it was great. Baby lampchops-they were excellent, the seasoning they used for it was delicious. Linguini w/shrimp-it was very good and it wasnt heavy which was a plus, the sauce was light and tasted good. Penne a la vodka was also great. The only thing is that for some reason they didnt have burners under the trays so by the time I got to the pasta table it wasn't that hot anymore, it wasn't cold but not hot, more like room temperature i guess. They kept having to fill the trays up bc everything was going fast, i think alot of things were filled up 3 times. But they wouldn't always fill it with the same thing. I had seen people with eggplant rollotini but it wasnt there the 2 times i went up for food...Now the reason i went up twice is bc the 1st time they ran out of calamari and the other girl didnt come out with more calamari yet so i just said i'll go back, i saw lots of ppl with it and it looked delicious. So i go back bc someone said they were bringing out more trays. I went to the table and i asked the girl if they are bringing more calamari and she said yes they should. Fh had wanted some of the 2 pastas since he didnt really have any so i said i'll be back, when i went back there was still no calamari so i told the girl its not a problem i'll just wait, can you tell i love fried calamari? lol. This girl brings out more trays but it was other things, and different than before. THey had HUGE baked clams and those were SO good. The girl was real nice she felt bad i was waiting so and she said if i want she'll save me some and put a plate aside, and i said its ok i don't mind waiting. Then she went to find out and they said there was no more calamari. I was a bit disappointed since i wanted it so bad but what can you do. I did get the baked clam which was worth it lol. Also had shrimp cocktail and a friend had chicken and potatoes in a creamy sauce and she said it was real good.
Reception-
Ok while we were at the CH some girl had went in to get her place card and see where she was sitting, when she came out she was complaining about her table and at first i didnt understand when she was describing it. There were about 200 guests, if you have less then it won't be a problem but as you know if youre getting married here you walk in and theres the dance floor the main tables right on the floor, then on the side a bunch of more tables and it keeps going down but towards the end of the dance floor theres a wall on one side and theres tables along that wall. So there are some people who couldn't see the dance floor at all, they had a wall right behind them. Then other seats you could sorta see and others had a good view but a little far. People were complaining to eachother. I didn't mind bc all the tables more by the dance floor were all family, the groom has a real big family, either his mom or dad were 1 of 8 so had close to 30 first cousins, lots of aunts and uncles plus her side wasn't small either. All the friends were the ones further back so its understandable, family goes first.
Then when we got inside the guys wanted to get drinks but they wouldn't serve anything until after the toast which i had never seen. Our waitress came over, and she said shes sorry but she is taking care of 3 tables today and theyre not supposed to have that many, they were under staffed yesterday for some reason and there was no bus boys at least not by us. Fh gave her money as soon as she came over so she can take care of the table. She took our food orders and then drink orders. It took a while to get the drinks and some ppl knew it would so they had went to the bar to get it themselves...She comes with the drinks and there was confusion as to who had what, i had bacardi and diet coke and there were only 2 dark drinks and nobody else had anything close so they gave me both glasses, i taste the first one and it was soda, not that the drink was weak but there was absolutely no alcohol, then i sip the other one and again same thing, i think she probably misunderstood which might've been the guys fault since they were screaming orders non-stop it was even giving me a headache. But FH went to the bar and got me a drink. Oh I almost forgot, when we got to our tables i wanted to eat the appetizer and realized i didnt have any forks. I looked around and most ppl at my table didn't have one, there were about 11 ppl at our table and only 2 had forks. At this point the waitress hadn't come over so one girl was going to the bathroom and said she'll tell them. Actually our waitress first came over when she was told there were no forks.
The appetizer-Fresh mozzarella w/tomatoes and peppers-i ate just the cheese and it was good
salad-caesar salad-it was good, lots of parmigan which i love, not alot of sauce but i was glad bc i didnt want a heavy sauce at the moment.
Sorbet-it was honestly one of the best sorbets i had. One guy we were with couldn't stop saying how creamy and delicious it is lol and said wow i want 3 more lol.
Entree-the choices were: filet mignon, cordon blue and shrimp stuffed with crabmeat. I had the shrimp and FH had the filet mignon. The shrimp was delicious and i LOVED the crabmeat stuffing. The string beans were ok and the mashed potatoes were ok too, not alot of flavor but maybe i should've used the salt & pepper lol. I had a piece of the filet and it was real good, i loved the sauce for it and fh liked it too...One girl had the cordon bleu and she told me it was good and it did look real good.
The waitress didn't come back much after that, and i normally don't care bc i have no problem walking to the bar which i didnt have to bc after 1 drink fh got me i stopped drinking. But the only thing is that FH gave her money to take care of the table ya know and from what i know it about $60. She did come one time after dinner after FH had called her while she was at another table and he asked for a round of drinks. Since some ppl ordered beer she brought a bucket full of beers so they can have for later. Now later on towards end of the night the bucket had gotten knocked over since she left it by the chairs, guess from ppl getting in and out of their seats. Well our waitress walks by and Fh goes to warn her oh watch out theres ice and she sees this and gets mad. Now i understand it s*cks but you can't say something to the guests and get mad at them. Especially not the person at the table who tipped you and the person who was trying to be nice and warn you, i didnt hear her i saw her saying something and FH turned around and got real pissed, he actually kept his mouth shut which is surprising but he was annoyed. Its ice its not the end of the world, at weddings things will get spilled. All the other waiters seemed calm and ok but i think it was her first time handling that many tables and she let the stress get to her. I didn't mind her not coming around much, i understood things do happen and she was put in a tough situation. I am not above getting up and getting things myself, the only time i got annoyed is when she got mad at fh that there was ice on the floor, and even when she was picking it up she had such an angry face and mumbling something to herself...now its ice so she didnt have to clean it up, she couldve let it melt, it was mostly under the table but then again i was annoyed for 2 mins and got over it right away and went to dance.
VH-it was on in another room. There was ice cream with apple pie, italian pastries, cake, cookies, chocolate fountain with fruit, marshmellows and rice krispies. There were less things than i normally see at a VH so not sure if it was a Full VH. Fh ate cake, ice cream, rice krispies with chocolate and other things, canolli's and so on lol and he enjoyed them all...i only had a small piece of rice krispies w/chocolate and it was good.
if i could think of anything else ill post later...sorry its a bit all over the place but i ve had stuff to do at work so i kept having to come back to it, minimize, come back and so on lol
We had an AMAZING time though
