Cygnus 27

I must say we had the best service possible. Carmen was amazing. My scallops were cooked to perfection and Carmen helped us pair the perfect glass of wine for our dinner.

Had dinner here with my wife last Friday to celebrate some excellent news. Love that the restaurant is located in the Amway hotel on the 27^th floor. Reminds me of the Chart House in the Tower of Americas in San Antonio Texas.
Food was great… we shared 5 small plates. Wine assortment was solid… lots of options across varietals and price points. Views are probably the best in West Michigan.
Valet at the Amway is free when you dine at Cygnus. Swanky wine bar downstairs to start, new Wolf Gang restaurant that just opened and dessert at Ruth Chris.
Great experience overall. Love finding new restaurants in West Michigan as we just relocated from Chicago.

I’ve been here a few times, but only for large event gatherings for dinner.
Food was good, and the staff was always attentive.

Still just OK…
I’ve given this place several tries over the years and my experiences have been similar. I just went again to meet with some friends and so can give a recent review.
The good:
–Fantastic ambiance. Located on the 27^th floor of the Amway, this place has a hip vibe reminiscent of a cool hotel restaurant in California (like the «W» in San Francisco, for example.) Phenomenal views of G.R. in the spring/​summer. I would definitely bring friends here for drinks before going out on the town or somewhere else to eat.
–Great drink selection and bar space. As a modern bar alone, the rating would be higher. They do gouge quite a bit for the higher end spirits, though. $ 65 for a shot of Macallan 18 year old? No, thanks.
The bad:
–The food quality is decent but not spectacular, and for the price, it should be spectacular. The Albondigas (chicken meatballs) app had a good presentation, but was very bland. The Chorizo Croquetta was the best app, beating out the Lamb Empanadas, which were tasty but came with barely any of the mint mojo sauce. My filet was ok, but not cooked correctly. The accompanying Brussels sprouts were underdone and tough enough to beat your kid up and take his lunch money. My wife enjoyed her Green Mole Scallops, but then said she preferred the scallops at Rockwell Republic. The Tres Leches dessert was not at all good as it had citrus in it which totally overpowered and ruined it. Thankfully, a friend gave us some of her Chocolate Sphere dessert, which was excellent.
–The service was friendly, but slow. At one point, I ordered an appetizer and was told by the waitress she would not take my order and I would have to wait until the drink orders came before I could order anything. Uhh, what??? Later on, we had to actually get up from our table to search for our waitress after she had disappeared for 30 minutes. What??? Again, at this price, one would expect more attentive service.
As a few of our group left the place, we looked at each other, shrugged and said «that was… ok»
I sure do miss the 1913 Room. Currently there is simply no option for truly fine dining at the Amway — just expensive dining. At least this place beats the lamentable «McDonald’s of steakhouses» located on the ground level…

The location is obviously unreal. Super classy. The food is fresh, good, just not spectacular, a bunch of «tall food». It’d been better to put Ruths Chris up there & keep The 1913 Room open, now that place…

Went to Grand Rapids for a getaway weekend and had the pleasure of dining at Cygnus 27 located inside the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel. What a treat. Not only is the restaurant located on the 27^th floor, providing gorgeous views of the Grand Rapids area, but the food is exceptionally good.
We enjoyed the manchego fritters to start. Our entrees were perfection — the lamb shank, which was fall off the bone delightful and monkfish. Perhaps my favorite part of the evening was dessert, which was a chocolate sphere that the server pours hot chocolate sauce over until the sphere breaks, tableside. Delectable.
We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait to return to this ultimate five star destination.

Beautiful Restaurant over looking Grand Rapids that just has a way of making you feel on-​top of the city. Service staff was attentive and extremely professional. Buffet hands down a wonderful diverse pallet pleasing thangg and to be finished with the most adorable delicious desserts mmhmm. Highly recommended if your willing to drop some money.

Went to Cygnus for my anniversary over the weekend and discovered Cygnus had a new head chef and manager! Being my fourth or fifth time here, this past visit was exceptionally enjoyable! The service was just spectacular that evening! The new manager (Manny, I believe!?) was very helpful and even pulled out pictures of the food he had already tried on his phone when we needed help deciding on our entrees, he took the time to check on us and even packed our food for us. Very nice guy. Our waitress was also very attentive, polite, and knowledgable.
I was told that the food is now under a Latin/​Spanish influence so it was whole new menu. Portions sizes were pretty big (10−12oz,) so we got our money’s worth about $ 30 per entrée! We ordered the lamb shank and spiced rubbed pork chop, both were rich and flavorful! A little dry for lamb shank but still delicious!
I’m also a huge fan of their Sunday brunch! So I’m excited to see what the new chef has to offer!

Brunch was pricy but worth it. Unlimited mimosa with peach juice! $ 3 bloody Marys. Staff was very friendly. Brunch prime rib, you will get your monies worth…

Very good actually!

A bit pricey for grand rapids but provides a great view of the city. I recommend stopping by for a drink to start the night out in style. Always interesting who you might meet.

Went today for Sunday brunch. Felt more like we were dining at Golden Corral than the top of the Amway Grand Hotel. Unlike the best brunch experience I had here last winter, today was just ok. Only omelets (which was cooked perfectly) came out of the kitchen, everything else was buffet — not my favorite. The sushi station tried to come across as inventive, but I have had better from a grocery store. Prime rib was as good as expected, lox Benedict was unexpectedly good. Top it off with mimosas included and above average service, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon.

The view was beautiful. Had a great corner seat. The food was very good. I had the whole fish and my husband had the halibut. We were disappointed with the level of service. We sat there for about 10 minutes before a server came and brought us one drink menu for the four of us. After we complained things got much better. The manager came over and apologized. Made the experience better. But, we honestly thought she was going to comp our apps or something. Oh well…

I cannot comment on the quality of dinner here, but I did come on my anniversary for cocktails during sunset.
This is like Grand Rapids’ version of Chicago’s «Signature Room,» and the prices are almost as high. For a Chicagoan, this is acceptable, because I am used to it, but if you are not used to throwing money at the table every time you eat a nice dinner or order a fancy cocktail, be forewarned. Cocktails are $ 14, I believe. Insanely high for Grand Rapids as a whole, but really seems on point with the quality of the drinks and the ambiance.
Amazing views. Great lounge. Great furniture. Not too crowded (drinks at 8:30 on a Saturday night? I assumed we would be waiting, but we didn’t have to).

Great Happy hour! Bartender was exceptional. Went with friends and had a wonderful time. Great way to spend couple of hours.

Sunday, February 2, 2014
Party of 7 had a 1:00 reservation (only time they had available) we finally were seated at 1:30 at a ridiculous booth where we all faced out, no chance to visit and a nightmare for a brunch buffet. After we were moved to a round table it was like they forgot about us. There is supposed to be a choice of 3 juices for the table, they were out of all but orange. (really– out of juice). The service was not great. The food was not great and you have to order your entrees separately, so you wait alot. For the price of $ 37.95 plus the 20% tip they add on I won’t be back. We were all very disappointed and wished we had gone to Charley’s Crab which was our other choice. For such a nice restaurant I can’t believe how awful this experience was.

It’s nice that they have a secret vegetarian menu, but it features non vegetarian items. I ordered the black thai pasta and found out halfway through the meal that it was made with squid ink — not vegetarian, as the ink comes from dead squid. The rest of the food and presentation were nice. Sadly the vegetarian menu is not that imaginative — I’m sure they could spend a little time and find some high-​end non-​Asian vegetarian foods. The 4 entrees were bibimbap, curried vegetables, lo mein, and Thai pasta. Appetizer menu was similarly themed, so the cream of mushroom soup struck me as out of place. Dessert was great — cheesecake of the gods, Greek yogurt cheese cake with fresh berries, pistachio brittle, and small chunks of fresh honey comb.

This review is in regards to my intimate wedding reception dinner I held at Cygnus’ Private Dining on the 28^th floor («2^nd floor» of Cygnus).
I did not expect the poor experience I had working with Amway’s Cygnus 27 for my wedding event. I experienced lackluster communication with the event coordinator, poor service from staff, and irreplaceable items were cthrown out by the janitor service in cleaning up.
The poor service started with spotty email communication with the event coordinator in the initial planning stages. Although it improved closer to the event date, sometimes days would go by without a return email in the intial planning stages.
When I set up an appointment to walk through the private dining space, I was hardly greeted, questions were only briefly answered, and there was little energy spent explaining the room setup (had that been communicated clearly in the beginning, allot of stress would’ve been saved the day of the event).
There was an issue booking an additional hotel room for a guest. I was initially quoted one price for rooms but when I went to book the room for them, I was told it was unavailable. I got a manager involved and the original rate was honored, but it was a pain to have to elevate the issue
The day of the wedding was the most stress for me:
Working on a tight schedule, I arrived the morning of my wedding with table decorations. The bell hop who unloaded the decorations on the table for me, ended up leaving a large dirt spot on the table linen which had to be changed in order to decorate. The security personal called a housekeeper from «the Amway side» to assist since no one from Cygnus was available. The individual came over with new linens but refused (or didn’t know how to) starch these new linens and started throwing wrinkled table clothes over the table.
The security personal refused to contact a manager from «the Amway side» to assist further and continued to state that I would just have to wait until a Cygnus member came in around 3pm to discuss it with them. Again, I was under a strict time table for the day of my wedding and I could not come back at that time to set up as my ceremony was at 5pm. I left Amway in tears with my decorations still in the box and wrinkled table linens out, worrying if the room would be set up at all.
THANKFULLY, when I arrived after the ceremony, I saw that the room was beautifully decorated and everything was in place. My guests raved about how great the room looked and we had a very nice dinner. The meal wait staff was courteous and professional and the food was excellent. While I was exceptionally delighted that the room was set up, having a clean, pressed table is a basic item I didn’t think I would have to fight for with Amway on the day of my wedding.
During the reception I had two small books that clearly said «Advice for the Bride» and «Advice for the Groom» on them. My parents, friends, and family added their own personal marriage advice to the books. As the night went on, the books were apparently left behind on a high top table in the downstairs Cygnus Bar area. When I realized the next morning that they were left behind, I poked by head in a back room of the Cygnus dining area and asked the janitor if they found them. The janitor then casually said «oh yeah, I saw them in the trash yesterday». I asked if she pulled them out of the trash. Unbelievably, she simply said «No, they were covered in napkins. And I thought it was a shame they were being thrown out since they looked nice and they probably belonged to someone but I didn’t know who so I didn’t take them out».
I couldn’t believe that the janitor acknowledged seeing these books, acknowledged that they must be special to someone, and then simply walked away knowing they went in the garbage. I can never get those books back and I didn’t even get a chance to read the advice; my husband and I wanted to save these for our honeymoon. I will never be able to have everyone in the same room to sign these ever again.
Cygnus did not reach out to me afterwards to see how experience was– I contacted them to get an itemized bill. And while I understand that I didn’t have the most expensive wedding and I’m not a prominent business or community leader, I would expect Amway as a hotel and the people working for them, to treat each customer, regardless of the size of their pocketbook or the size of their event, with appreciation.
I hope my review of Cygnus’ service enlightens the hotel staff on opportunities for improvement. I hope that other brides set realistic expectations if they choose to work with them for their big day
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My wife and i were staying at the Amway Grand on our anniversary. They have a wonderful couples package and we try and do this as often as we can.
This was our first time dining at this restaurant and the total experience was quite enjoyable. The service was really top notch. You have two people who wait on you and our team was very knowledgable. We started out with the recommended Lobster Bisque which was all it was touted to be. Very robust and rich.
Our main courses were the shrimp and scallop dish for my wife, and the beef and rice dish served in a stone bowl for me. This is where things fell a bit short. If i was giving a review based solely on the main course the best I could do is give them 3 stars. It is pretty over priced and the quality of the food was just ok.
Make sure you request a window table because it makes all the difference in the experience. Without that extra ambiance this would not have been worth it. But again the service and atmosphere do make for a wonderful evening.

Pros:
Great view
Delicious/​inventive drinks using fresh ingredients
High-​end creative food without the east coast price tag
Beautiful presentation of food and drinks
Soft cushions for sitting
Not super crowded or claustrophobic
great ambiance and decorations
Cons:
Slow service for order taking — but friendly and faster during the check ups throughout the night
Limited window seating
Close at 11 p.m. (a little early)
Olive oil ice cream in the banana split was overspun so the texture was flaky and it tasted like butter.
Recommendations:
Get the grilled frog legs! They’re really meaty, and a great «adventurous» eat for those who stick to known foods. The seasoning is delicious and you can eat them just like chicken wings
The sangria café for $ 16 is worth it for a total of 4 drinks. It’s fruity and comes with real fruit in the glass. Great way to sip and enjoy.
The banana split comes in a super modern presentation and the caramelized banana is out of this world. I would replace the olive oil ice cream with something else (vanilla?) to complement the hazelnut chocolate ice cream that also comes with it. Make sure the texture of the ice cream is good — or I would send it back.