Cafe Matisse

My family and I had lunch here on Saturday before visiting ICE! at nearby Gaylord Palms. Very poor selection and quality of food. 18% tip automatically added to bill. For 3 people for a buffet lunch, with taxes and tip, total was just under $ 50. The quality of food was equivalent to Golden Corral. Would not recommend this place.

It looks like the prime rib buffet is done for went 2 times in Nov and Dec and only entrée menu available which was nothing special. Better places across the street at The Pointe.

Very good food, good dervice, and reasonable price. The buffet is not extensive but uou get the prime rib, and 2 or 3 other proteins, good salad bar, and good sides.
You also get 5 different desserts and ice cream
They have a good 25% discount coupon on the website of the hotel.

I really enjoyed the dinner I had here! I ordered off the menu instead of doing the buffet since I wasn’t that hungry. I had the Grilled Cheese and Creamy Tomato Soup — SO good! Everything was cooked perfectly and really delicious. The grilled cheese was on the fancy side as it included brie along with cheddar and another cheese (pepper jack? my memory fails me). Great value for the price you pay for that particular item on the menu. All the buffet food my friends were eating looked awesome as well and they loved it. I would recommend this place and return!

Worst breakfast buffet over priced and tip included at 18. Percent for only 2 people and its serve yourself it was $ 34 for us and the bar is Skippy with a lot of breads and things to fill you up. The best part was the omelet made to order. Hotel is great this place sucks

While staying at the Rosen we enjoyed dinner at Café Matisse. They weren’t offering the buffet so we decided to give the full menu a shot. While the menu was burger heavy we decided to try the Short Ribs, and Salisbury Steak. Both were well prepared, and service was quite fast. Both meals where very good, and prices were line with what you’ll pay at any hotel/​resort restaurant. Upon our next business stay at the Rosen we will make to stop on by.

It is unusual to find a restaurant in a hotel that provides the kind of service you get in your neighborhood establishment. The wait staff was not just cordial, it was friendly. Service was efficient with multiple fillings of our beverages and check-​ups on whether we needed anything.
Since we were there for lunch, the salads were the perfect choice. We passed on the luncheon buffet and ordered these freshly made salads, mine was loaded with strawberries, blue cheese, bacon, and a wonderful vinaigrette. This was accompanied by two warm dinner rolls.
The price was another nice surprise. Hotel restaurants are usually high priced with less than stellar food. This place is an exception.
The best meal I’ve ever had — no. But it was much better than what you can find in most establishments like this.
The 18% mandatory tip was not a turn off for me, I actually added to that because our service was so good!

I’m with the general consensus that the ambiance is nice, the service is good, and the food is average.
What I find particularly galling is that the Café adds an automatic 18% gratuity, regardless of the number in the party. (I was dining alone.) Normally, I tip well anyway. However, I do not like to be coerced into a sizable tip, at a buffet, without my suggestion.
I will not return to this restaurant, mostly out of principle. The foreign tourists are blindly charged to the Great American Rip-​off as are business professionals such as myself. Restaurant owners in this country make enough off their workers’ backs. They can pay their workers a living wage as opposed to extorting the customer.
There is a reason foreigners don’t tip well, particularly Europeans and Japanese. They respect their employees enough to pay them a living wage. This is much preferable than extorting handouts from the patrons.

Please don’t waste your time (and namely money) dining here. For the price of $ 18.95 + tax you would expect a wider selection of choices.
Proteins:
Horribly salty chicken
Pan seared cod in a cream sauce that had no taste
Pork (looked dry so didn’t take)
Prime rib (sliced by a «chef» Who was more interested in speaking to a workmate. The «sauce» this same «chef» offers for the prime rib is really a jus)
Starch:
Pan burnt potatoes and that’s literally it
No rice or pasta options
Hot Veggies:
Carrots in a supremely sweet orange glaze
Overdone green beans
Steamed cliché cauliflower, broccoli and carrot freezer bag
Salad Bar:
Only saving grace — caesar, greek, mixed greens, spinach and then the add ons such as olives, sunflower seeds, cottage cheese, tomato, onion, cucumber and a few others
Dessert:
Chocolate cake
Pineapple cake
Chocolate mousse
Some other unidentifiable mess
There are too many great nearby restaurants to waste your money here. They seriously need to improve the options and quality of ingredients to at least be able to seriously compete with other restaurants on the strip.

Very bad quality bread was frozen and old the rest of the food was old and over cooked just go somewhere better like ihop

If staying at the Rosen Plaza Hotel, Café Matisse is in a convenient location, tucked inside the lobby area. The few times I swung by the restaurant during my stay this week there were few guests, which is a little worrisome on one hand but very welcome on the other hand if one is in a hurry.
I decided to get an early lunch at Café Matisse on a Friday. I was seated promptly and presented with a menu I believe I had seen before upon my hotel arrival a couple nights previously – the room service menu. Needing gluten-​free fare to avoid general abdominal cramping, I had hoped the spinach salad would be safe, as it came with grilled chicken, strawberries, and a strawberry vinaigrette. I was disappointed to find the strawberry vinaigrette to be more like a strawberry syrup, and the chicken was grilled, but also seasoned with some sort of glutenous herb mix. The taste took me (way) back in time to childhood when my mother prepared chicken with Shake n’ Bake. Do they still make Shake n’ Bake? I digress…
Anyhow, after an unhappy stomach earlier in the week, I was sure to ask the server about gluten-​free options. She didn’t know, so she consulted with the chef. The chef came out to my table, and when he said one of the salads would work, I jumped on the option. He told me he would freshly grill the chicken without seasoning, which made me super happy. The salad arrived at my table — mixed lettuce, huge chunks of apple, chicken cooked perfectly, and a gluten-​free balsamic on the side, all packaged into a very generous portion. I don’t like hijacking the kitchen staff to answer questions, but it was worth it to avoid a gut bomb.
If you’re in a hurry and aren’t as picky or high-​maintenance as I am, I think Café Matisse is a fine option. I found the staff to be extremely polite, prices not sky-​high, and the food OK.

We were staying in the Rosen Plaza and didn’t really feel like leaving, so we decided to try this place out. Twice. The place was practically deserted both times, which made me feel a little bad for the people that worked there. Especially the cooks in the back who make all of that food and then no one comes. But I have weird guilt issues, so maybe it’s just me.
The first night, we just ordered entrees off the menu. I ordered some kind of burger, which was pretty good. Pretty standard, but pretty good. The service was a liiiiittle slow on the refills and such, but still very polite.
The second time, we tried out the buffet. Honestly, I liked everything I tried. The only buffets that I’ve had have been Golden Corral-​style, so this was a little nicer. I tried a little of pretty much all of the entrees and liked everything. The salad bar was pretty good as well. And they have a soft-​serve ice cream machine as well as a selection of cakes/​cake-​like desserts. Really though, everything was yummy. A little more than I usually pay for food, but it was a nice buffet and we were on vacation. (Then I went and rode Tower of Terror 4 times in a row about 30 minutes later, sooo maybe not my best decision…)
If you like buffets and are willing to splurge, I’d say give it a try!

While staying at the hotel we ate here and had the dinner buffet. (We received a discount for being hotel patrons. They also had a coupon online.)
The buffet wasn’t huge, but all of the food tasted good. The selections were geared towards an adult palate (prime rib, mushroom stuffed ravioli, vegetable medley, etc.) but at least kids six and under eat free, so we didn’t have to pay for them to say that they didn’t like their food.
We were there at the very start of the dinner service, but I was surprised that it was so empty. There were, maybe, five other tables seated. (This isn’t a complaint. I appreciate a buffet that isn’t packed with people.)
Our server was a little slow returning for refills and such, but she was very friendly.
I would definitely return, just maybe not with the kids. They preferred room service.

I stayed at hotel and ate here several times this past week. It was ok but I had a gripe with Sunday brunch. There was none. Breakfast service did not exist when I went there after a long day traveling the previous day. I don’t know about others but I expect the descent hotels to have at least some sort of breakfast food on Sunday morning and through to 2pm. They were not even apologetic about it or considerate of my fellow travelers whose bio-​clocks were 3 hours behind. They could easily have put lunch items out and scaled down breakfast gradually as the time got later. Who doesn’t like an egg on their burger?
For my money the Lite Bite was a better deal and the lady working the food prep area was very nice.
I did Matisse buffet one night and it was also «ok» but the place was empty.
Saturday night I had southern Cobb salad and it was very odd. Nuts? Really. Hardly any blue cheese either not to mention mystery dressing.
Overall it was as mediocre as the hotel

I only had a carry out salad here but it was very good with grilled chicken, candied pecans, and apples. They let me substitute the «chicken salad» kind of chicken it came with for «grilled chicken» that I wanted.
It was a good size, fresh, and filling.

Café Matisse is another Rosen buffet (like Café Gauguin at the Rosen Center). This buffet is smaller than Café Gauguin, but also pretty good. I would say it’s better than any other buffet type restaurant you can find on International Drive. (10x better than Ponderosa or Golden Corral).
The buffet is not open every day. It varies depending on if conventions are in town, or if the hotel occupancy is high. I definitely suggest calling prior to going to see if the buffet is open, and if so, what they are having.
I often will call Café Matisse and then call Café Gauguin to see what each is serving, and make a decision based on menu.
For Orlando residents, they participate in the Orlando Entertainment Book, making it an even better value — for buy one-​get one free buffets. Definitely a GREAT deal then.
On holidays, Café Matisse offers expansive buffets (that are delicious). You must make a reservation for them (Easter, Christmas, Thanksgiving), as they sell out quickly.

We were attending a trade show at the Orange County Convention Center, were hungry for lunch but wanted to forego the usual convention center food and also needed to talk about some business items while we ate. We walked to the nearby Rosen Plaza Hotel and found Café Matisse. They were offering a lunch buffet, but from where we sat it didn’t look terribly extensive, so we all ordered from the regular menu. Aside from the buffet, their lunch menu itself is pretty varied. Service was a bit on the slow side, but in the end we were able to order our food, discuss everything we needed to take care of and head back to the convention within an hour.
I ordered the open faced prime rib sandwich, but when it arrived it was a bit more than I’d expected. It was a full-​sized cut of prime rib, probably 10 oz., placed atop an open, white hoagie-​style bun and drizzled with horseradish sauce. It was served with fries, lettuce and tomato on the side. To be honest, I started to laugh a little, because this open faced sandwich did not resemble any kind of sandwich, open faced or otherwise, that I’d ever seen. This was also not a typical lunch portion, this was a full-​sized meal and a half. Anyway, I got through it and it was very tasty!
In all, I’d recommend this place to convetion attendees. It’s not really a far walk from the convention center, and on this day we’d checked the restaurant at the Peabody hotel and while that place was packed and had a 45 minute wait for a table, we went here to Matisse, walked in and were seated immediately. Also, the price was fine for what it was. Even with the huge slab of prime rib I was served, my sandwich and fries was only $ 9.95 which is more than reasonable.

Buffets never have and never will be my thing… and Café Matisse in the Rosen Plaza Hotel is no exception. Something about the stench of breakfast, lunch and dinner all combined into one smell and people all around you gorging themselves just does not appeal to me, nor is it appetizing in any way. However, I will say that buffets can be convenient and affordable at times which is the only reason I’ve eaten here… twice.
The first time I dined here was for breakfast and despite my hatred of establishments such as this, it really wasn’t too bad. Their fruit was very fresh and plentiful. Most of the classic breakfast items were on the buffet line like eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles with a few international treats mixed in like crepes filled with a sweet cheese mix of some kind. However, as is usual with massed produced food, the bacon was not crispy, the foods that were supposed to be hot were not and the oatmeal and grits were so thick it was rough trying to get it in a bowl. The omelet station did a good job, but was terribly slow and used too much butter for my liking.
Lunch was nothing special, but does the trick if you’re hungry. The salad portion was all fresh and had quite a bit to choose from with all of the usual items present. The rest of it was a hodge podge of meats, pastas, rice and a few mystery items that I couldn’t decipher. Dessert, as is usualy, wasn’t bad with chocolate cake and ice cream… by far the best part.
Service is average, but nothing special seeing as it is a buffet establishment which pretty much means self-​serve with the exception of your drinks. Prices are not cheap, but much better than some of the other tourist trap restaurants nearby. Quality is average… I’ve had a lot worse than this before.
Overall, it’s okay.