Muse at Wakefield Mill Hotel and Spa — Restaurant in La Pêche

Went for our 5th year wedding anniversary. Heard good things about this restaurant. But we were extremely disappointed. So many details were missing from the menu. No mention of caviar on the scallops dish, no mention of bacon in the filet mignon dish. They mention to tell your server about food restrictions. But you can’t start listing everything you don’t want to eat or can’t eat. Allergies, yes. When you charge $65 for a table d’hôte, you need the full description of what is being served. The amuse bouche of a shrimp was a joke. The server mentioned all the ingredients, all I tasted was the horseradish. The steak tartare was good but the gelée? More like slime on the plate, very displeasing visually and texture was so bizarre. Then out comes the filet mignon. I notice a piece of bacon in the sauce, that had a bunch of other unknown ingredients. We don’t eat pork. But there was absolutely no mention of bacon being used on this dish, so we figured it was a good choice. Nope. The manager was nice, took our plates and said they were firing up a new plate. We waited and waited and waited. Got our plates back. The filets shrunk. I asked for medium-rare and my husband asked for medium-well. Mine was medium-well and his was well done. The potato “fondant” was a rock that tasted like the back of the fridge. There was 2 cherry tomatoes, 3 green beans and 3 tiny asparagus spears that were barely warmed. Basically raw. OH and blue cheese all over. Again, with no mention of it on the menu. I despise blue cheese. We were starving at that point and just ate the damn things. But I’m pretty certain that they just scraped off the sauce and reheated the filets, which is really wrong, in any kitchen. Desserts, we chose the deconstructed lemon meringue and the cream cheese mousse. The lemon meringue was nasty. The pastry was hard and tasted stale and the custard was so eggy, it wasn’t good at all. At least the mousse was good, but doesn’t belong on the menu of a “4-star” hotel. We just wanted to get through the evening and not put a damper on it by complaining and complaining about the dinner and just enjoy our company on this special occasion. But we were left with a bad taste and a very VERY pricey bill. We’ve had way better food for way less money. It was pretty sad that nothing was done on our bill. We will never recommend this place. The unfortunate thing is that we (my brothers and I) bought a stay for my parents for their 60th birthdays. I will advise them to avoid that restaurant and go eat elsewhere in Wakefield. This is not real gastronomy cuisine. It’s a joke and you are robbing...

My husband and I have been occasional customers at the Muse for a long time. On our 20th, he decided to surprise me with an overnight stay at the Mill, and a 5 course discovery menu at La Muse. Let me preface this by specifying that this review is exclusively about the dinner at the restaurant, rather than the hotel, which is lovely. However, that is a lot more than can be said for our food.

The experience began with us being berated over the fact that my husband is vegetarian - which he very clearly mentioned when making the reservation. No veg, gluten-free, or other such nonesense is apparently allowed (neither of us are gluten-free, but no matter). Being a very agreeable man, he said that he is happy to order a la carte, at which point the waiter kindly relented, told us that he spoke with the chef, and an exception will be grudgingly made - though only because it's Thursday, apparently.

The server was memorable - which is at least more fun than the usual bland Ottawa&environs standard - though this was not due to the actual quality of service provided. When the amuse bouche came half hour or so after we first sat down, we still have not been asked what we would like to drink on our fancy night out. Trying to find out what sort of food I'll be getting in order to pair it with my drinks proved to be almost an insurmountable challenge. Nevertheless, eventually it was overcome, and we got on well with the server, though it really felt like we were there to try and please him rather than vice versa.

Most importantly, the food largely ranged from not great to bad. The one very tasty thing I did have were two blackened shrimp of some sort, which were meaty and delicious, though lacking an acidic contrast in their little bed of greens and sweet fruit. The rack of lamb was ok, and had two decent size pieces, and one paper thin one, served with some sort of a sweet potato mush. Lamb is a meat that already has a hint of sweetness. It does not pair well with sweet potato mush lacking anything like a herbs or a garlic kick. The 'cheese course' was a chevre mousse over something like an apple compote, topped with radishes. The thing smelled off and tasted horrendous. I never waste food - but I simply could not eat it. Entertainingly, the server said that this is a common reaction to that particular course. Dessert was an oddly spiced tiny slice of pain perdu, which is about the least exciting dessert option in existence even when done well.

There are great dining options in Wakefield. By all means folks, stay at the Inn, but if you value good food,...

We stayed at the Wakefield mill and visited the muse for both dinner and breakfast. I called when I booked the reservation (with the dining package) a couple months ago to ask if the restaurant would accommodate vegans and I was assured that they would. I called again the week before to confirm this was noted on the reservation.

When we arrived for dinner, we were seated for more than half an hour before the server was able to tell us what could be offered for appetizers. It was also clear he didn’t understand what vegan meant and told us that ‘’some vegans eat eggs.’’ We were brought bread, and then had to ask twice and wait more than 30 minutes to be brought oil to dip it in instead of the butter on the table. My husband ordered a drink that didn't arrive for more than an hour. Our appetizers had already been cleared before he could then tell us what they could do for the entree. His words were, ‘’we’ll see what the kitchen can scare up’’ as if they had had no advance notice and were simple scrounging around. Unfortunately, what we were offered made it very obvious that no thought was put into what they could serve us. We were offered a salad or a soup that were from the menu with several components removed and then a roasted vegetable pasta as the entree. True to the waiter's word, it was obvious that these were random components that had been "scared up" from the kitchen. For dessert, we were served fruit and a very icy sorbet. No mention was made of the fact that it was my husband’s birthday, which was included on the reservation.

Breakfast the next day was the same thing. We were served random components from 3 other items on the menu, all put together on one plate. Again, the effect was random and unsatisfying - guacamole, toast, potatoes, mushroom salad, and asparagus. No effort was made to serve a cohesive dish.

Neither of the meals we had there had a single source of protein. Overall it was a very disappointing experience given the caliber of the restaurant and the amount of advance...