"Just had dinner at Orchids with my parents last night, and while the overall atmosphere was stellar, there were small things that somewhat detracted from the eating experience. First, kudos to the manager who came to our table to let us know the soup we ordered didn 't turn out the way it should be served, and prompted us to switch our soup. We instead ordered the French onion soup, and my mother raved about it all night. There were a few missteps (as far as my elderly parents were concerned : 1. my mother 's water glass was never refilled 2. my father was disappointed to know that such a swanky place was serving beer in bottle at the table and couldn 't offer guests a chilled mug 3. my father was disappointed that such a swanky place used commercial bacon bits in their salad rather than fresh. He felt that the cache of the dish was lessened by the taste of what is clearly Bacon Bit 4. all of our food arrived at once (well, everything came within 2-3 minutes . As everyone knows this creates a mass of plates on the table, lots of jockeying for position, and guests who are now toggling back and forth between everything as opposed to being able to savor their meal. I understand bringing everything at once means the server has to come to your table less often, but if you order an appetizer, starter, then main, it should come out coursed. 5. bringing all the food at once meant attention to detail was lost. My father was very disappointed that his pork chop was not served with a cutting knife. We couldn 't get the attention of our server, and in a place like this you shouldn 't have to get up and go search for your server, so I was reduced to using a butter knife (retrieved from my father 's salad plate to cut his pork chop. (And yes, I cut my father 's pork chop up. He 's 80, precious to me, and everyone should be so lucky to serve their elderly parents. 6. the coffee isn 't hot. I ordered a drink at the bar earlier in the evening, and the coffee was lukewarm at best. I asked the bartender for a fresh, HOT cup...and he came back a few minutes later with another lukewarm cup of coffee. I don 't drink coffee, but my father does and he likes it hot. I don 't think anyone likes lukewarm coffee, and even after a few tries I still couldn 't get hot coffee. I delivered it to my father, knowing what was coming, and the second he touched the cup it was like that scene out of The Color Purple where Mister touches the glass of lemonade Celie brings him and without even looking at her, dismisses the offered drink with the words, not cold enough. Except in this case daddy said, that 's not hot, baby. I 've been bringing this man coffee for decades, and to serve him lukewarm coffee was really hard for me, but apparently that 's all they make at Orchids at palm. All in all, this was and is a good dining experience. There 's live music (jazz, NOT blues , everything is a delight to look at, and the food is delicious. There are just a few little tweaks that could elevate this dining experience to make it match the environment and price tag. I 'm heading there for the Mother 's Day brunch tomorrow, so I 'm hoping to have a stellar experience that entourages me to offer up another, hopefully 5-star review."
