Old Mill Winery — Attraction in Geneva

Sadly, our review is one star because of the service and not the food or wine. Both food and wine we good and would have been the perfect ending to our evening. After ordering drinks the waitress brought over a tray of our waters and drinks. She then proceeded to accidentally spill the entire tray down the back of one of our party. We are not upset about the accident but about how everything was handled after the fact. First, no one brought over more napkins or paper towels to help sop up the soaked guest. When I went over to ask for more I was told to wait and someone would bring them over. I ended up having to request more napkins again before we were brought any. Second, luckily this was our last stop but as someone was soaked I asked to buy a sweatshirt so that she could at least sit through dinner because we haven’t even ordered our food yet. No one who worked there even considered offering a discount or for free so their customer would not be soaked because of their own waitress error. We all agreed that in hindsight if we would have known how poorly this all would have been handled we would have chosen to leave at this point. Third, at no point did anyone check in on our table or see if the guest who was soaked was okay. Fourth, after ordering our food and getting it quickly dropped off we didn’t see anyone again until our checks were brought to us. There was no discount offered, one quick apology to the table and we did not complain once but we all walked out with the worst opinion of this establishment. It was overall the most disappointing part of our day and sadly, a terrible ending to our amazing day. Personally, the quality of the food and wine do not make up for the lack of service. We would all recommend to skip this winery. There are so many better options.

EDITED TO ADD 10/25/23 How the owner should have actually responded- “ We are so sorry this happened and had such a negative effect on your evening and opinion of our establishment. We have talked as a staff about this specific situation but also any other uncomfortable situations that might arise in the future and how we can better handle them. Again, we are sorry this happened but thank you for laughing during this accident instead of being rude, for letting us know and letting us grow from this very unfortunate event. We promise to do better.”

Please see the owners actual response, until I’m sure it gets changed, below. I think the owners real response is a direct reflection of the leadership within this...

I don't believe that the cook knows how to cook anything other than fryer foods maybe not tho . Zucchini Fry's took 30 minutes or better . Very soggy an not to much taste had to drown them in ranch . An as for the meal I ordered a medium rare burger an it came out raw ! Yes still very raw meat . An mind you that's not good you could make someone very sick . My date ordered the Cincinnati chilli that was pretty decent but how can you message up chilli a spaghetti noodles . Ok now back to my burger it took what seemed to be years before anyone came back around to see if the meal was ok an or alright . I had to ask another person that was tending to the table next to me if this issue could be addressed . It took them another 15 to 20 minutes to get me something back to the table . My date had already finished her plate an now had to still sit there while I ate my meal . Needless to say burger was cooked Well to temp not med rare I ate it I was hungry by this time . They did comp my meal of half price for the burger witch was semi the right thing to do . If I was a manager I would have made a customer pay for that meal . How do you make a customer pay for a plate of raw ground beef on a bun . Yes it was corrected but still come on if you can use a meat thermometer to tell when meat is done to temp you shouldn't feed people . It's not hard to do I promise you this . Would love to have a better chance at a better meal an experience there do to I do live right here in town an would love to permote the business to others an bring others to the area for good food . Maybe I will give it another try some day .as of right now I have to say it will be a moment before I come back to spend my money on a experience like that . Sorry for the bad review but that's not how you feed people food .you send out a plate that you would eat an that you would want to pay for . People don't like poor...

I can only give this 3 stars, and here is why: Our first experience at Old Mill was great! Wine tasting, appetizers, and wine slushies! Good service. Our second experience was good. We knew what we wanted and made a quick stop. Our third experience was yesterday. We had a party of 6. We were stopped at the door and told they were " not accepting walk ins and not adding to their wait list." Surprised, but not angry (we are well aware that they may be experiencing staffing shortages), we asked if we could just order drinks from the bar and sit at one of the many open tables on the deck. We were told "no," that they were reserved. We could stay in the "waiting area" and have our to-go drinks. There is no service in the area. We decided to stick around. The waiting area is also where employees go to smoke so that was not ideal. We enjoyed our drinks, but watched how parties that arrived after us were added to a list and eventually seated. Our party, and others, had been turned away. If more seating opened up, why couldn't they ask us if we still wanted it? Also, I feel it's necessary to note that there was no rain in the forecast and there were empty tables inside and outside. I'm not saying we won't give it another shot, but was a terrible first impression for our friends. Perhaps situations could be handled in a way that better communicates to would-be customers. We hope to visit again. We really do enjoy Old Mill. Just some constructive criticism to hopefully help keep customers...