AMC DINE-IN Menlo Park 12

Reviews 3

RI

Richard Mazzara

I read reviews all over the place on this theater and saw Captain America : The Winter Solider there last night at 11:30pm. Im pleased and overall happy with my experience at the theater. Reality: Its a movie theater with food in every theater - this may not be for everyone or people who have a sensitive sense of smell. If you expected popcorn and soda your severely mistaken go elsewhere! The Cons: 1. Finding the place - Im from Long Island Queens and the concept of a dine-in-theater appealed to me. So my gps said to take this road, turn here and poof your at the mall. Great, but where in the mall is the theater? Oh its on the 3rd floor! The signs werent helpful and I wound up in the basement going through the mall at closing time. Not the best experience but its what happened. 2. Cinema Suites Vs Fork & Screen - Say what? Yeah, apparently you get 2 types of seats, powered reclining chairs or no power reclining chairs. This is truly nit picking but my wife is short and couldnt reach the floor (5ft) when sitting in the chair and it was uncomfortable. The seats had an arm rest that went up and she was able to prop her legs over mine which worked out. Next time Im forking over the $3 extra for the power seats! 3. Finding your server - They had about 10 people in the theater serving on customers taking orders. My best advise is to show up a few minutes early to the film and be patient. I did get a bit snippy and asked another server to find the person responsible for my area. When they came around she was so nice and helpful. 4. Dinner & a Movie .... SIMULTANEOUSLY! Seriously I didnt think this one through! I Got a bowl of steak, mushrooms, veggies and mashed potatoes! Comfort food - the food was good but hunting and pecking for pieces of DARK MEAT in a DARK THEATER was a bit silly. I had to hold my bowl next to the lights inbetween the seats to see what I was eating! 5. Being waited on during a film & eating during a film. Popcorn works because you can toss it in your mouth - steak not so much! lol Also being asked if I wanted anything else while the actors on screen were revealing plot building story line didnt help. PROs 1. It IS Dinner and a movie! You get what you pay for! I had the steak, my wife had buffalo chicken and my friend had chicken tenders. 2 sets of metal silverware are on the aisle seats and drinks are served in glass not plastic or wax paper cups at other theaters. 2. Taste: The chicken tenders were crisp but not piping hot. The steak was warm and not piping hot - it was tasty and felt like a ruby tuesday or applebee dinner. 3. The screen was large, the 3D was easy to view and the sound was pretty decent. You will be happy with the theater even if you werent hungry! 4. EVERY theater is a dinner theater - you dont need to worry about booking a film and not being offered a full meal. 5. The BAR in the lobby looked sexy and if I wanted a drink I could go get one. Im not used to seeing alcohol at a theater - it looked interesting and my friend was seriously tempted. Im not a big beer drinker so when I saw alcohol (Wine, Rum, Vodka) I think next time Ill come an hour early for my film! Conclusion: Was it worth it? I spent about $120 at the movies for 3 people and dinner including tip. Its something I would recommend doing at least once and if you have the opportunity to have someone else pay, definitely a MUST! I gave this review 5 stars because my expectations were low and I was very happy with experience. I recommend you do the same and prepare yourself to spend money before you make the decision to go - you will enjoy yourself more! :)

AL

Alex Frier

Felt like I was at airport security. My friends and I went here expecting to see a movie and have a good time. Instead we were given an extremely hard time by the ticket scanners, who seemed like they were on a power trip, and I was stolen out of my money over an already overpriced smoothie. Some context: there were 8 of us. We are all below 21 but 18 and up. Issue #1: AMC, wanting so do desperately to rip us off on their overpriced garbage food, refused to let some members of our group take leftovers inside the theater. We had just come from the Cheesecake Factory next door. I can understand this policy, however only a few of us were carrying leftovers in boxes and the theater is inside of a mall. So a few members of our group had to carry all of the leftovers back to one of our cars while we all waited on the side. Okay, whatever, not a big deal. But keep reading, it gets better... Issue #2: heres the real fun part. We get back in line, this time with no food. I have my phone out with the ticket code on the screen. Normally, dude scans my ticket and lets us in. Instead, he realizes that we are all pretty young, and decides to give us a very hard time. Nowhere on the AMC website, where I ordered the tickets, does it specify that you must show ID upon entry if no one under 21 is with you. Whatever, everyone gets out their IDs and he carefully inspects each one. One of our group members, who only recently moved to the US, does not have her legal ID with her. Instead, he shows the guy her university ID. You would think that if someone has a university ID, with their picture on it, theyre over 18. Nope. Still not good enough for this guy. He decides to call over management, who, after several wasted minutes of discussion, finally decide to scan the tickets and let us in. In the end, my friend felt belittled and bullied, because an AMC employee refused to accept hey university ID as proof of age. Between this and the first issue, we were late for the movie at this point, and we walked in way before the movie started. Issue #3: When we finally get into the theater, I decide I would like a smoothie. I see a waitress ask for orders from my friends the row in front of me, but they never come to my row. I hit the button for service, and after 10-20 minutes, someone finally comes over to take my order. I get the smoothie, and a few minutes after it arrives, the waiter delivers my receipt to me. Receipt says $7.27. I put down $8. Waiter is quick to come back and grab the receipt and my money. Yet he never comes back with the receipt or the change. And throughout this entire experience, AMC employees were rude, sarcastic, and extremely condescending. I will be sure to spread the word on how awful this theater is and how terribly they treat legal adults. I am still in awe hours after this experience on how poorly AMC staff treated my friends because we were all over 18 and under 21, and how they refused to accept valid proof of age. If Im going to see a movie, I want to have fun and be treated well, not feel like Im at the DMV or at an international airport. Never returning.

HO

Holger Drallmeyer

After many told me that I got to try this I finally did. Now Ive done it and can say that I personally dont like it. Here is my problem with the concepts: 1: Comfort: The seats are Vinyl, nothing wrong with vinyl. I understand the surface has to be easy to clean after inevitable spills and food leftovers on the seat. The surface is slippery though and I felt like constantly sliding off the seat. The recline is also limited and replaced with some annoying bouncy spring mechanism. 2: There is a constant light source annoying my eyes on the side build into the arm rest. 3: Service: While some servers were professional others were not. The runner who brought the food asked us to pass along the food for the person on the other end of the 4 person row. Not a problem really but the plate was hot and he could have walked around to bring it over himself. Also, it would have helped to pick up the appetizer plates before bringing out the entree. Btw..had to ask twice for silverware. 4. The Food: basic choices clearly made for in dark dining. Simple and no thrills fast food like TGIF, Applebees and so on. Just packaged differently for finger food purpose. Overly salty and served lukewarm. My shrimp pasta tasted like clumsy pasta with ketchup and 4 shrimp on top. 5. Ambiance: What ambiance? If you like the feel of sitting in your uncles fat recliner eating your aunts fat meatloaf while watching The Walking Dead this concept might be for you. Safe your 86 bucks and eat there though. The constant smell of other peoples food and noise from silverware was annoying 6. Alcohol Serving: No Alcohol, that would have made it all better. Little disclaimer here: I was suspicious about the concept but I went anyway because it was highly recommended to me. I guess its just not for me. Next time the plain old movies it is :)

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