Owera Vineyards — Attraction in Town of Cazenovia

I'm not sure how places like this receive 5-star reviews. Is it because people are swayed by the beautiful views? Or perhaps they don't want to admit to themselves that they paid so much for a mediocre experience? Owera has what it takes to be a high-end restaurant, but they aren't there.. yet.

If this review was based solely off of the scenic views, it's 4-stars. If I'm rating the service, it's 3.5-stars. The food (based on what we ate; we obviously did not eat the entire menu) is without a doubt 0-stars. The owners should go undercover one day to see for themselves a few hours before close.

We went on 'Wine Down Wednesdays', which was a nice feature; half-off wines can't be beat. The Dry Riesling was acceptable, although lacking the standard aromatic features you would expect. There was no 'burst' of tropical fruit as portrayed in the description. The flavor was flat but refreshing. The views are peaceful and you get the feeling you are somewhere in the Finger Lakes.

The server knew what she was talking about and was friendly. The service was slow. We asked for a side of shredded cheese for the pizza and waited five minutes as our pizza got cold. But don't be so quick to blame the server. Servers tend to be blamed for everything. Start with the owners first, then management, and then servers.

Our food was a mix between Wegmans frozen pizza and a poor attempt at homemade soup. I do not feel I got my money's worth. The worst feeling is going out to eat after a hard days work and leave feeling underwhelmed and disappointed.

They have to do away with their 'Boards' concept. The pizza came out on a nasty, stained, and greasy piece of wood. I'm sure on paper it sounded rustic and different, but in real-world use it's disgusting and gave the ambiance of a Texas Roadhouse. Although I am not suggesting the boards are unsanitary, the appearance is a turn off. It would be much more classy to serve their meals on an Acopa Nova White Asymmetric Plate.

They describe the 'Fire and Smoke' pizza as being brick oven fired with Gouda. Are you sure it wasn't a microwavable pizza? Half the pizza had no drop peppers, and if it had Gouda on it, neither my spouse nor I could taste it. And where is the 'fire'? Three small spots on the pizza gave some sort of indication that maybe it touched a brick oven. Their oven temperature is set too low and they're cooking it too slowly. Are you sure the oven is set between 530 and 800 with 630F being optimal for 90 seconds? Again, don't place the blame on the person making the pizza. The owners should be guiding their employees on how to make the perfect pizza. The pizza would taste amazing with prosciutto and 'slabs' of smoked Gouda instead of 'shredded'.

Their menu describes the Onion Soup soup as, "..gratinéed with Swiss and provolone cheeses." What was served was a cold blob of cheese and bread. I never understood how a server can bring cold food to the table and not expect the customer to complain. The soup lacked flavor and texture. The attached picture was taken less than ten seconds after it was served. No steam. This is not 'gratinéed' in any sense of the word.

I hope the owners use this review constructively, investigate my thoughts, don't take the easy way out by screaming at employees, and make changes as necessary. The scenic views are great, but word-of-mouth reviews are quite powerful. No amount of scenery can replace the lack of food quality. We won't be coming back to this...

First of all, i wish i could’ve done less than one star! Last night, myself included in a party of 10, made the over an hour Journey to Owera vineyards. This was a 2nd time there for most of us and our last experience was great. They don’t take reservations, so we called at the beginning of our journey to let them know, “hey, we have a party of 10 coming, we will be there in about an hour”. They said okay, and thanked us. Upon arrival, we were very excited. We walked in and were told there would be a 25 minute wait for a table. Okay, no problem, so we squeezed near the crowded bar, and about 8/10 of us got a drink. 25 minutes goes by, no table. Give them about another 20 minutes, still no table. I ask if and when they think we will get a table, and the young girl(who was nice by the way, but timid) says if you could please give us about 10 more minutes, we are trying. I said okay no problem. I knew they were busy. Two high top tables cleared out, so once again, we were excited that maybe we were about to at least get two tables next to each other. However, they seated two other smaller parties at those tables, while we have now waited for an hour. There was a band playing so other guests who had already checked out sat and listened to the band. I think that Owera really wanted to do something about this they could’ve. They could’ve put us at the two empty tables, but they didn’t. Finally we decide, we’re done and going somewhere else(after driving over an hour to come to Owera specifically) but I was still upset, so I asked to speak to a manager. A manager came out, another couple tables that were not next to each other had cleared and said we will seat you right now, and give you a couple of bottles of wine for free. We said okay, but it has to be right now. He says okay and walks away. 5 minutes later, still nothing. So we left with our party of 10, and went on TripAdvisor, found the BEST reviewed place in Cazenovia, The Brewster inn. We called them and asked if they had room for a party of 10 in 10 minutes. They said absolutely, come right over. We head over and upon arrival it is beautiful just like Owera. They were also packed but they made special seating accommodations for a party of 10 in another room. IT WAS READY WHEN WE GOT THERE AND WE CALLED ONLY 10 MINUTES AHEAD OF TIME! The service was excellent. We ordered more drinks, appetizers, our entrees and desert. Congratulations Owera, between the 10 of us and our dinner and tips, we spent nearly $1000. And that is what you lost with your lack of GREAT service. By the way, we will never be back. A young group that likes to go out to dinner frequently, and we will not buy your...

This was our first and last visit to Owera Vineyards. We had a reservation for our birthdays. When we arrived we stood at the host area for 10 minutes before anyone even acknowledged us. Once we were seated everything was very slow. They said they were busy but there were only a few other tables. We were brought out like warm water. It took a very long time before we had our orders taken. We order a pretzel appetizer and we said we could wait to give our entree order so that we could get the appetizer first. Our waitress said she could take the whole order together but would bring it out first. It took a long time before we received anything. At first we didn’t mind but tables around us were getting food before us when they arrived after us. We then received one of our entrees and were told the rest would be out shortly. Ten minutes later, we received another entree. Another ten minutes later we received a third entree. At this time I asked to have our pretzel appetizer canceled because we still hadn’t received it. We thought that would have been a quick appetizer to make. We were told it was coming right out. Ten minutes later we got our 4th entree with the appetizer. One of the entree was a seafood special that was way too salty. Another entree was an open face steak sandwich which was basically steak on top of bread. It was ordered medium rare and came out purple on the inside because it was raw. We were brought our bill and we asked to speak to a manager. Our waitress said she’d take care of our bill first. When the manager came over we explained how poor our service was. She basically said it was busy and thanks for the feedback. Truly a very disappointing way to spend a birthday dinner. Would...