The Grand Baltimore — Attraction in Baltimore

It pains me to write this review, but it needs to be said. During this festive time of the year, get together of friends, co-workers, and memories from the past create great anticipation of experiencing the ideal Christmas , be it for one night or many. The key to enjoyment is reflecting on an event and knowing that despite shortcomings of a hosting restaurant or wedding venue that the memories of the evening will be cherished for years to come. My wife and I will cherish last night, meeting old friends, making a few new ones also, as we were most graciously invited to attended the Christmas festivities with my former employer. The bottom line, however, is that the Grand Baltimore did nothing to enhance their reputation last night. And it can all be attributed to the staff leadership poorly managing a variety of challenges for the evening. Hopefully the wedding reception that was going on one floor down met with greater success than our holiday party. What went wrong? Inadequate staffing,whether it was the rush job to find spoons for the lukewarm soup some had, or whether the well-prepared filets were actually served hot vice warm to cool, whether a salt and pepper shaker could be found (ha ha!). Many indicators of poor planning by the Grand Baltimore staff appeared throughout the event. But we all had a good festive time, enjoying reflections of the past and good conversation. And the final nail in the coffin awaited us as we prepared to depart for our homes. Assuming there were 40-50 cars needing to be returned from the valet parking, only two individuals had the responsibility of doing the 3-5 minute walk to the garage and returning each person's car for pickup. This resulted in the majority of the men huddling outside in line for very close to an hour just to get defrosted once our car did or did not arrive. It reached a crescendo when we all requested our keys so we could go get our cars ourselves! I will say the venue is very beautiful. It's just too bad that the management of the facility poorly planned staffing for the event. Based on this experience, I would caution people considering this place for a wedding or other festivities to seriously consider...

The building may be grand, but that was the only thing that was. My company had their holiday party there. It was a group of 80 people and The Grand failed miserably.

During the cocktail hour, a server brought around meatballs, but there were no toothpicks or forks to eat them with. The server suggested picking up the meatballs with a napkin.

After we were seated for dinner, the soup/salad was served to about half the tables, and there was a long wait until the other tables were finally served. When our server finally brought the soup/ salad, she started to give everyone a salad even though they had asked for soup. When the soup was brought, a spoon was not brought with it, and there were no spoons on the table.

After the soup/salad, a seafood appetizer was served. It was a nice selection of shrimp, oysters, and lobster tails. However, no serving utensil was brought with the seafood. After we had passed the plate around, the server finally brought some tongs.

For the main course, a platter of beef and potatoes was brought for the table. But the appetizer plates weren't cleared and we weren't brought new plates, so we had to push the seafood shells to the side and use the plate (which may have actually been the charger) for the main course. A little while after getting the beef, a platter of chicken and asparagus was brought for the table. Then, just as I was finishing my beef, a platter of crab macaroni and cheese was brought out. The timing of the food was terrible.

To cap off the bad experience, after the dinner, we went to get our cars from the valet. Supposedly, they had two valets, however, one seemed to have disappeared. After waiting in the cold for an hour, only four people had gotten their cars back. Finally, after complaining to the manager, they gave us our keys and let us get our cars ourselves.

I believe The Grand is incapable of properly handling a nice dinner for a group...

I recently had “The Grandest” experience at The Grand thanks to Jacqueline Hannah! One can find a beautiful venue anywhere, but it is the staff that makes the difference and Jacqueline Hannah and Lisa Crawford made sure that my husband and I had the best day of lives. Jacqueline went above and beyond the call of duty to make our day special. She answered my all questions in a timely manner (even the ones sent at 12am in the morning), gave us her personal cellphone number if we needed her, walked us through every step of the process and very professional. On the day of, she and her staff stepped up to help out when other vendors dropped the ball to make sure the day went smoothly, and I really appreciate it. My mother is wheelchair bound and they went out of their way to accommodate her and her needs. Our families and friends are still raving about it being the best wedding that they’ve ever been to and that wouldn’t have been possible without the staff at The Grand.

The venue itself is gorgeous we had a different room for the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception space and all had a unique and elegant look to it. All of our guest raved about the abundance and quality of food during cocktail hour. Specifically, the lamb lollipops, meatballs and spanakopita. They stated that it was so much food we didn’t need to have dinner. The staff was courtesy was professional.

The Embassy Suite’s hotel skywalk connection to The Grand was great for out of town guest. We got married in January and had over 75 people staying at the hotel. It was great to not have to worry about bringing a jacket to the event and it was very convenient for them to walk upstairs after the festivities and not having to worry about drinking and driving. Aaron did a good job with the discounted hotel block and making sure that our guest were...