The Pantry The Verve Crowne Plaza

We have been to The Pantry several times. It is inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Natick. While the food and waitstaff are excellent, and the pricing reasonable, they have GOT to do something about the ambiance of this place. It is decorated in retro kitchen decor, with Julia Child playing on one of the screens. The restaurant has extremely bright lighting. They could improve on the ambiance of this restaurant by killing the Julia Child/retro theme, changing the name of the restaurant from The Pantry to something else, and giving the place a more romantic, warm feel. We almost considered eating our meal in The Violet Thorn, which is the adjacent bar, because it has more atmosphere. Also, why not hook up with TCAN in Natick center and give patrons a discount on dinner if they show their ticket stubs...might attract more clientele from outside the hotel.

What a great place! Decor is simply adorable. Cooking shows on TV, utensils adorning the light fixtures, rolling pins on the walls...just preious! Food is delicious, portions are large and great for sharing!

This is the third time I've been to the Pantry. The food is always superlative, but the service is wildly erratic and very amateurish. This time half the main course food arrived cold, the waiter delivered coffee with no milk or sugar, the first courses all arrived at widely spaced times, as did the drinks. There were no little plates for the hors-d'ouevres, which we were sharing and had to just grab off the serving platters and put into our mouths. The waiter seemed not to have had any training and seemed afraid of his job, which he didn't do very well. The decor isn't to my taste (kitchen-y), but the real problem is the over-bright lighting and extreme exposure to the hotel lobby. It has all the charm of a school cafeteria. What it needs is more intimate lighting and table placement, and better-trained waiters. The food is superb though, so I'll go back and be more demanding of the waiter to get it right.

The food is very good, the presentation is lovely. Unfortunately every time I dine there it's so quiet. I think it's because it's in a hotel, and it is subject to the variations in hotel guests' comings and goings. I know they do a lot of special events there that keep the kitchen busy but I'd love to see the restaurant get more foot traffic because it deserves to be patronized.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food, the wine list as well as the service.