The Gate House — Attraction in Niagara-on-the-Lake

Beautiful venue, but unfortunately highly unorganized with wedding planning in our experience. Detailed review below.

Wedding Day

Seating configuration. The floorplan AND table numbers were set up differently than we had confirmed with our coordinator just days prior!! This was the biggest and most egregious error that was made, and unfortunately meant that we had guests apart from certain tables that we specifically planned to have them beside, but most disappointingly, this meant that the Father Of The Bride was in a spot where he needed to be standing away from his chair in order to see the speeches, whereas he should have been more/less front and center. We had brought in and reviewed a hard copy of the floor plan during our in-person meeting and on the day of! This said, It was entirely unacceptable to have this happen as a horrible surprise on our wedding day.

Missing Drink Ladders. The inclusion of 2x drink ladders was confirmed right from our first meeting. They were missing from the event.

Pan Seared Salmon. While the salmon was tasty, we question if the salmon we were served at our wedding reception was in fact pan-seared, but regardless, it was certainly not a replicate of what we had at our tasting, where the skin was crispy & buttery. This was disappointing given the purpose of doing a tasting, and how excited we were about this dish.

Preparing for the Wedding…

Inadequate communication. In general, the communication with our coordinator (After Caitlyn had left) was inadequate. To cite some examples:

Simple emailing back and forth to confirm items felt like a challenge. Multiple emails went unanswered for days, in some cases weeks, forcing us to continually follow up and chase information. Missing information in emails. As an example, we asked for info and materials like photos of tableware, photos of seating, direct contact information (multiple times), none of which was sent. Changes were made without notice. One example would be the price of JW Black Label changing on the BEO from $390 to $400 without being advised. Scheduled meetings were also a challenge as there were instances where our coordinator was not present or on time, forcing us to track her down by calling through the office. Another example was an in-person meeting that we (thankfully) checked in a day prior just as a reminder and were told at that point that they would actually to re-schedule. We understand that sometimes circumstances in life change things, but if/ when things change, that should be communicated. This could have meant wasting an entire morning for us.

For us, and most wedding couples, this was the most important day of our life, and as such, we did our best to be as thorough and detailed as possible when planning, but ultimately, we need to rely on the execution team when the day comes. In the end, we feel that some very important aspects fell short of expectation, and that many of these issues could have easily been avoided with better communication, organization, and attention to detail.

While there were several issues as stated, the reception did also have some positive highlights that we’re happy to share as well.

The food in general was amazing! As we knew it would be. All of the feedback has been great with regards to all of the food.. Thank you to the kitchen!

Although we vetted the timeline with our coordinator two days prior, dinner service was slower than anticipated. This said, we were able to make on-the-fly changes – like bringing out the mariachi band before dessert – and that was a credit to the service team who remained on standby to help with their introduction. The service in general was good – bartenders, table service, desserts coming out, late night coming out. The service team was excellent. Our vendors had a great experience working with the team there to get all set up as needed. The space in general was clean. The bathrooms were clean. When there was a spill it was cleaned promptly.

We hope this feedback can help with planning and procedures...

Very disappointed. We ate last night 15-Aug-2020. Service was way below a reasonable standard and that paired with the food getting 2-2.5/5 at best. Our server didnt know the drinks menu at all, and her knowledge of the food was marginally better.

Starting out I had some questions about the beers on the menu, when I asked what type of beer one was the server just replied "I dunno" and left it there. No offer to find out or give any insight, just "I dunno". I ended up googling the Oast brewery to see what the beer was, hardly what you expect to have to do in a restaurant that sells itself as a premium establishment.

Next we ordered food starting with a portion of fries to pick at while our main courses were being prepared. The fries were nice but they put the dipping sauce which Im assuming was mayo in a glass jar which was either straight out of the dishwasher or was under the heat lamp for a long time. It was HOT and the sauce had definitly started to turn. It was inedible.

Our main courses were only just about ok, I got the chicken and it was just about cooked, not enough to say it was undercooked and send it back but definitly another 1-2 mins were needed. It was minimally seasoned and fairly bland. Only thing they got right was the crispy skin. The dish also came with a chicken croquet made with the dark meat of the chicken, seemed great but it was dried out and again just fell short due to poor execution in the kitchen. Overall it was just about ok but for the premium cost it was not good enough at all. Server never came near us after food was delivered, never asked how everything was, never asked if we needed anything, walked past about plenty of times but only engaged when I called her to come and give us the bill.

The Gate House puts up a social veneer of high standards, doesnt rely on repeat business as its in a tourist trap so they know they really do not need to do good food to keep the doors open. Creates the idea of fine dining on their website but falls very very far short in practice. If the service was better I may have been more lenient on the food falling short but terrible service and mediocre food means it has to be 1 star. There just has to he better places to eat in the town. Do yourself a favour and dig around...

Our wedding at The Gate House was unfortunately filled with frustration from start to finish. After booking in 2024, our coordinator disappeared for months, only to discover they no longer worked there. We lost crucial half year planning before being assigned someone new.

The venue-assigned florist was unreliable and delivered nearly wilted flowers, but we couldn't get a refund when we tried to switch. The night before our wedding, our room's AC failed completely, and my in-laws had a constantly running toilet. Staff suggested we "get ready in the hallway" rather than providing proper solutions.

On our wedding day, time management was poor, with the ceremony and dinner running long, leaving our reception rushed. The expensive cheese station was placed where guests couldn't find it, and the food quality was drastically different from our tasting.

Days before the event, they suddenly restricted our decorations, reducing balloons from 150 to 30 and requiring special covers for our candles. We also discovered our venue space had been double-booked and we were relocated.

After promising to comp our stay due to the AC issues, they later changed to only one night, then never followed up. The few bright spots (gold cutlery upgrade, helpful coordinator) couldn't make up for the continuous problems.

Beautiful moments with family and friends happened despite The Gate House, not because of it. Save yourself the heartache and...