The Berkeley Hotel — Hotel in Richmond

Valet parking. Finding a place to park for Valet can be tricky as its a very busy intersection and not tons of room to park while waiting. Wouldn't show up right at check in time to save the hassle. When you check in they ask if you are using Valet if you are they will add it to your charges 32.00 for the night. Worth it for that area! Then you will get a text from Valet and you are able to tip them through the link, and when you want your car you just need to give them a 15 minute text on that link, and when you leave, your call will be waiting. Not the case for us, upon leaving, when we checked out the Valet attendant was on the street talking with someone else and didn't grab our car for us, the hotel desk clerk went out and told him to go get it. He hurried to the kiosk saw our text so he was able to get the key and whoever he was talking with he hopped into that persons car to go get ours, so even tho it wasn't ready for us, he was quick in retrieving it.||Check in and Check out were a breeze. Check in, the desk clerk Alfreda is kind, and attentive and very helpful! She even went as far as to book us a reservation for dinner and called the hotel room with the reservation time shortly after. She is a true gem.||Room- We booked a king bed, with sofa room. The view was terrible! LOL, but that is our luck sometimes. We didn't get a balcony because it was raining the entire time, so we knew we wouldn't use it. The view we did get was another brick building that was no more than 6 feet across from us. ( okay maybe 10 -12 feet) Very uncomfortable if people were in there, we kept the curtains pulled shut the entire time. Will opt for a balcony room next time so we have a better view that isn't into someone else's windows.|The room was a little dated, but spacious. Decently decorated. It wasn't terrible for the price. A couple minor things that we noticed but didn't bother us enough to deal with were the vanity make-up mirror was ripping away from the wall, so it looked a little tacky, the vent in the bathroom had a lot of lint/dust. Other wise the bathroom was exceptionally clean! It stated on the website, included were 2 bathrobes. We aren't bathrobe people, but notice only one. Could have been an issue for someone I suppose. The alarm clock was set for an ungodly hour which wasn't fun to wake up to. However it allowed us to be up as the sun was coming up, lol- insert a little sarcasm there. There is no mini fridge, so for some, that could be a problem as well.|Besides those slightly negative remarks, I will say overall, every employee we had contact with was amazing and kind. The location of this place is incredible! We had a non stop downpour while there so didn't venture out, but there is at least 3 restaurants on the same block and within walking distance of so much more!|RESTAURANT - Chef's Kitchen. It's a small area, but the seating arrangement makes it feel intimate and secluded. Hubby ordered the Braised Lamb Shank and I ordered the Veal and OMG they were delicious! Both meats were so tender, like fall of the bone, don't need a knife tender. Both choices of meat were huge! The vegetables were fresh and not overcooked and mushy. They were bright, fresh and cooked just right. The cheesy risotto that came with the veal was superb! We also ordered the fried calamari and it was also good. Great size for 2-3 people. It came with a few pieces of jalapeno in the mix so some pieces had a tiny kick to it. |The one mixed drink that was ordered wasn't good at all. Not sure about the other mixed drinks, but has a large wine selection and a decent beer selection. We had nothing else planned for the night so had the time it took for dinner. It is not fast service, but only had 2 people working who were both so friendly. Think if they had one more server there it would have helped but the two seemed to manage the absolute best they could! The price for such a delicious meal wasn't bad at all. For the appetizer, 2 good sized delicious dinners, and a total of 5 beers, and 1 mixed drink( dont judge, responsibility free night lol) the bill was 130. Worth every dollar! Will eat here again for sure! Highly recommend...

I've never experienced anything like the last hour and a half. Ho-ly crap. Since I wasted all that time at "lunch" I really can't afford to spend even more time writing this potentially lengthy review. I will do my best to make this quick.

Around 1pm we showed up with a party of four. We just needed a quick lunch. We waited in the dining room for about 10 minutes for our waitress to approach. She seemed stressed and without really welcoming us to the Berkeley, she started telling us that they've had a rough day and we should expect a 20-25 minute wait on our burgers. Huh?! No one even mentioned we were getting burgers. What was she talking about. She then explained they were promoting a new burger that was holding up the kitchen. Ok, no big deal. We've all been waiters before, we can relax and wait the 25 mins.

We started noticing EVERYONE in the dining room was looking around, waiting for service, even chatting with other tables to show their dismay. No one was happy. We ended up getting our food about 15 mins after everyone had cleared out. We estimated it was around 45 minutes after we arrived. When the food got there, it was wrong. All wrong. The $14 veggie pasta was supposed to have seasonal vegetables with mushrooms, etc. It was literally noodles, with 4 pieces of yellow squash. That's it. My friend ordered the Oyster Po Boy. Simple enough, right? When it arrived, it was a bunch of fried oysters on a salad. When she complained about it, the waitress snapped at her and said, "that IS the po boy".... um no. We asked to see a menu. ACTUALLY, they did have a po boy salad, but it was called something else. It was under the salad section. And you had to ask especially to get the oysters added on. Clearly, there on the menu under sandwiches was "Northern Neck Po Boy" which was a sandwich with..... oysters. Anyway, the waitress argued with my friend (who is VERY sweet and didn't even want to complain) and told her she would bring her some bread out so she could put the oysters on the bread herself. Wow.... It actually gets worse...

My chicken sandwich was overcooked. I couldn't eat it. We had had enough and decided none of us could eat this food for the pricey penny they were asking. I had to ask for a manager. Ten minutes later he waltzes out, and waited for us to speak. After we politely went through everything, he just stood there. He slowly said, "I can offer you 15% off your meal." ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Am I taking crazy pills or did this guy just offer me 15% for an entire meal that we didn't eat and took an hour to arrive. We got a bit louder, and admittedly, more irritated and basically told him that wasn't good enough. The waitress came back and said we were free to go. THEN, she mentions that we didn't actually wait an hour, because she checked the ticket and she put our food order in at 1:20, which means we were only there for 45 mins waiting. She literally argued with my very polite friend about how long we had been there. We did wait for her to come to our table for 10 minutes, plus I know she waited to put the order in. So she doesn't even know what she's talking about. She then claimed that the Berkeley is considered fine dining and that it usually takes about an hour. Well then, if you originally apologized to our table for the 20-25 minute wait we should expect, then say that it usually takes about an hour to get your food, something doesn't add up. Not to mention we've been there plenty of times and it has never taken that long. And if you can't handle a lunch rush in the middle of downtown Richmond, maybe you shouldn't be in business.

All in all, a terrible experience that will go down in history as worst food, service, and experience of any restaurant. I sincerely hope Chef Ramsay finds his way to this slop show and...

My husband and I stayed at the Berkeley hotel beginning on a Monday and departing that Friday. The location we chose to book for our anniversary had no availability until December so, we decided to do something in between to just escape the norm. We live about 1.5 hours away in a rural location but both grew up in cities so, we welcome a city getaway!

Prior to reserving this hotel i checked a few of the reviews as I always do. I was a bit skeptical because of some of the negative ones but, a great selling point for me as opposed to the many other hotels close by was the balcony. I really wanted one! So against some of the negative reviews, I booked and thought...if it's awful...at least there are several other hotels near by! Because of the reviews, I knew that I needed to call and request a mini fridge and microwave in advance which I did. A young woman by the name of Raevyn was instrumental in assisting with that process and they were in our room upon arrival.

We were greeted by valet immediately upon pulling up to the front of the hotel. He approached us with a very friendly and welcoming demeanor. He assisted with placing our bags on the cart and, then took our car to park. We entered the hotel for check-in and the lobby was cozy and quaint. Some reviews spoke about the appearance of the "old looking" furniture but, the pictures on the website and, the lobby presented accurately the decor.

We were greeted at the front desk by Raevyn, who presented just as personable and, well-mannered as she did over the phone while assisting with the room additions. We were satisfied when we walked into our room as I did not feel mislead. We had a king terrace room and it was clean and appeared well-maintained.

Throughout our stay... we never had to wait more than 15 minutes for our car. We would call down ahead of going down and, the car would be there for us when we got there. The valet and, hotel staff were all very friendly and accommodating. We walked soooo much because there are so many restaurants within a 2 mile radius. We were able to have a few drinks and walk to everything we needed or wanted! The terrace was absolutely amazing! We never seen anyone else out there while we were there. I really enjoyed the accommodations, location, and staff. I also appreciated that while we were there, there wasn't a lot of foot traffic throughout the hotel.

There were only 3 things in which I did not care for but was able to get through for the week. The bed is extra soft and bouncy. My husband was okay with it perhaps because I don't move much when sleep. His rubbing his feet together had me bouncing around on the other side of the bed! Second, we could not lower the thermostat past 68 and 68 didn't feel like our 68 in the home. It was a bit warmer than we would have liked at times. Third due to covid there are no housekeeping services while guests are staying in the room. You can request stuff like towels but that's it. I do appreciate the bed being made daily but we got through it along with the other issues! Overall... I'm looking forward...