Featured Restaurant on Rick's DineSite Journal

Atmosphere is lively, bright and warm with high ceilings, wood, and large windows which tend to make the room a bit boisterous and noisy. It should be noted that the restaurant is inside the Universal Studios theme-park which contributes to the atmosphere - especially the fact that is it located directly on the 'City Walk' 'main street'. It's ironic and a pity that while they promote and enforce a dress code to maintain a proper and respectable decorum for fine dining, they fail to enforce the simplest rules of etiquette and allow less civil diners to don baseball caps, detracting from the integrity and ambiance of the dining experience. The theme-park site also results in a $16 parking charge which is less than incidental and a bit unnerving for a vacation destination dining experience. The overall experience is also diminished by the need to reconfirm reservations - which would not be an issue if their phones were properly manned. It took more than a half dozen phone calls to finally connect to voicemail only to be told by recording that they would not accept reconfirmations by voicemail - only in person - requiring several more calls to finally connect and confirm.
Atmosphere - 4/5

Food - The food was magnificent in all respects - from the salads to the entree's to the deserts. The sushi quality Atlantic Salmon, the beef brochette, and the duck were all fabulous. Selecting the duck to compliment a special wine selection as part of an extended wineflight, both Bill C and I agreed it was as good as if not the best duck preparation we had ever experienced. The dark reduction sauce was extraordinary. The whole dining experience met the highest expectations.
Food - 5/5

Wine - The wine list is broad and deep with inspiring and imaginative selections. There are quality selections from California, France, Australia, and Italy. We were embarking on an extended multii-evening flight of top rated Aussie Shiraz's. We were able to extend our flight with a selection from the winelist that  was a good value selection as well as a exceptional complement to the dinner as well as the rest of the flight with the Hazyblur Baroota Shiraz. Their hospital corkage policy allowed us to extend this wine experience to experience with their fine dining. See Wine Journal.
Wine - 5/5

Service was personable, engaging, attentive, yet unobtrusive and overbearing,  in line with expectations.
Service - 4.75/5

Overall Rating - 18.75/20