I was one of the people in the camp of not being bothered by the high prices, but after eating lunch there last week I can't imagine any reason that we would ever go back.
An unexpected downpour happened when we were about 10 feet from the door. As we entered, there were three employees behind the reception desk. No one greeted us. After 2-3 minutes one of them finally looked in my direction, took my information, and told me we could wait in the waiting room until we received a table ready text. I asked her to please point me in the direction of the restroom so that I could try to dry off. She informed me that they were out of towels and that I shouldn't go there. Yes, this interaction was as odd as it sounds.
We went into the waiting room and did our best to dry our faces with a package of tissues that I had in my handbag. The waiting room is between the entry to the restaurant and the walk-in bakery counter. It was full of people who seemed to be sheltering from the rain. Many of them had drinks and food from other locations on the boardwalk. We seemed to be the only actual CBS customers.
When our table was ready I received a text but then we had to hunt down the person responsible for showing us our table. There were just two of us for this reservation. We were led to the smallest table in the outer section of the restaurant, separate from the main dining room. I have a pet peeve about being seated at a two top as a couple when a place isn't busy. I certainly understand two people being given the undesirable, tiny, badly located table when many tables are in use and other patrons are expected soon, but when the place is only 10-20% full this annoys me. This isn't something specific to CBS but it definitely added to the feeling that no one cared whether or not we were comfortable.
This side room area is very plain, all glass and white with the exception of simple lighted swags hanging from the wall sconces. We had no view of the main dining room or any of the decorations and design elements that everyone is gushing over. Our table had a glass covering over it with many crumbs stuck between the table and the glass. There was also a small lamp on the table which was dusty. This side room has very bad acoustics. There were only three other occupied tables and it was extremely loud. Every voice, every tap of cutlery on a plate, turned into an echo. It was difficult to hear each other. Not a good start.
Our server arrived to take our drink orders but then left abruptly before we even spoke. He came back maybe 10 minutes later. We each ordered a pot of tea. He seemed confused that there was tea on the menu when they aren't actually doing tea time yet. He had the handheld device that others have mentioned. He seemed very unfamiliar with how to use it. The ordering process was extremely inefficient, not just when ordering our beverages but also later when ordering our meal. It took at least another 20 minutes for us to receive our tea and glasses of water.
At this point we asked what the soup of the day was. Our server had to go find out. After another long wait he returned to tell us it was tomato. This seemed kind of ridiculous since tomato soup is extremely common on menus at Disney World including right next door at Boardwalk Deli where it is the only option. We had some other menu questions for our server as well but he just didn't seem familiar with any of the items. We discouraged him from going off to hunt down the answers since we had already been there for the better part of an hour.
I ordered the French onion soup. My husband went with the gumbo. The description for the soup says, "Topped with French bread and Gruyère cheese and baked until golden brown. Served with a freshly toasted half French baguette and salted European butter." My soup arrived with just the soup, mostly broth with a few small pieces of onion in it. No bread or crouton on the soup and no cheese. The broth was flavorless with the exception of salt. The French baguette served on the side was rock hard. I was able to pull off a piece but decided not to try to eat it for fear of breaking a tooth. My husband's gumbo was mostly broth with only a few small pieces of meat and veg, even worse, it was cold. His baguette was similarly inedible.
After sitting there staring at our disappointing soup and gumbo with no one checking on us for at least 30 minutes our entrees arrived to our small table and were dropped off by a kitchen runner without the previous plates being cleared. I had ordered the crab cakes. In the description jumbo lump crab is mentioned. I can assure you there were no jumbo lumps of anything in those crab cakes. The cakes were plated on a puddle of remoulade sauce, which I usually like, but this was very bitter and there was a great deal of it. The crab cakes themselves were room temperature which seemed almost impossible given that my plate was so hot that I burned my finger on it. Did they put previously prepared cold crab cakes on a heated plate hoping it would warm up the crab? I don't know but I was not willing to take a chance on seafood served at an unsafe temperature so I did not eat anymore after the first taste.
My husband's entree was the shrimp po' boy. The roll was fine but nothing special. The shrimp on one half of the sandwich had no breading/batter on them. The shrimp on the other half where covered in a thick coating but it wasn't cooked through. The fries served with his sandwich were pale, translucent, and very hard. I believe this happens when the cooking oil isn't hot enough.
Finally our server came to check on us. At this point we were ready to leave. Our server didn't ask us how the food was just asked if we needed boxes, to which we both replied "NO" in unison. He tried to give us a dessert menu but we told him we had already been there for almost 2 1/2 hours and had no interest in staying any longer. He scurried off to prepare our check leaving all of the plates on the table from both courses. At this point a manager wandered by, asked if we were enjoying ourselves, and kept walking. He didn't seem to notice that he never even let us answer the question.
The whole thing was just weird, and there is no reason we'd ever go back again. We walked out at 4:10, hungry, after arriving on time for our 1:30 reservation.
One thing that really baffles me is that I had read several times that the staff here was hired in March so that they could receive exceptional training. Yet no one, from the hosts, to the servers, to the runners, to the manager on duty, seemed to be familiar with the basic tasks of their positions.
Edited to try and clarify what was on the shrimp but I'm really not sure whether it was a batter or breading. In any case, it was missing on one half of the po'boy and in abundance not fully cooked on the other half.