The Terrace Grille — Restaurant in Bar Harbor

The award for most disappointing meal in Bar Harbor goes to....The Terrace Grille! And what a shame that is because we saved dinner at this place for our mom’s 60th birthday dinner. We called a week ahead of time and were told that they didn’t officially take reservations but the manager asked what time we’d be in and how many (8) and said they would be ready for us. When we arrived the hostess said she had no knowledge of our party coming in and told us the wait would be 20 minutes. Ok fine, not a huge deal. When we got to our tables (multiple) we were VERY rudely told that under no circumstances could the tables be pushed together because they were very heavy. Umm ok? So we’ll just sit apart then during this really special family meal? We found a manager and explained that we had called ahead and were disappointed that we couldn’t even push our tables together and he acted sympathetic but said that he had just finished cementing them in and there was nothing he could do. Well, we checked...not cemented in. They easily moved around. Lying is pretty obnoxious and we’re getting a little bit more annoyed but hey let’s enjoy our meal! The appetizers came quickly and were delicious. An HOUR after we ordered we started to get pretty annoyed though that our meal hadn’t arrived, though When we asked we were told that our meal had just finished being prepared and would be out soon. The two kids grilled cheeses came out first and were COLD....like cold congealed cheese cold. Then the rest of our entrees came out and the waitress told my husband not to touch his lobster Mac n cheese dish because it had just come out of the oven....ummm it was barely even warm. Two others in our party had cold meals too. It was obvious that our orders had been sitting around for an extended period of time. I am SO disappointed that we chose the Terrace Grille for this special meal. The entire reason we were in BH was for my moms birthday so there was a lot riding on this meal. I hope we don’t think of this meal when we look back on today because we all...

The restaurant is beautiful but I don’t understand why the staff doesn’t take pride in how they treat their guest, how they communicate and how they are dressed.The concierge at the front are not friendly, had the “unbothered” attitude. There are no reservations so it’s a first come serve type of thing. I was told the wait was about an hour(around 6:45pm), waited for about 45 minutes. My husband checked the seating upstairs and the staff said oh yes have a seat so I told the woman downstairs we found a seat upstairs so I returned the buzzer to her. She didn’t even communicated and could have told me it was a different restaurant. So I returned back downstairs (few minutes after) to tell her and she said we would now have the wait longer which is very unfair.Mind you we wasted an hour of our time to visit the shops nearby.

I am a buisness owner my self and I think it’s absolutely ridiculous the fact that it’s such a beautiful place yet the employees at the face of the restaurant do not smile and welcome you. Guests are on vacation and there are plenty to do, no one wants to kill a vacation day spending several hours at dinner alone. They see us approach and obviously because we want to eat there, instead the front staff looked annoyed we approach them. Not to mention we are people of color and that is an upscale restaurant so imagine the gravity of that.

Modern buisness have a 15 minute text before your table is ready so you can do other thing while you wait, however this restaurant makes you wait there with the buzzer so please be mindful when planning your vacation and choosing to visit here. We never got to eat there because it was simply unfair to wait an hour an half whereas others that came after us got pushed ahead. There was a lack of communication and the staff didn’t care either. We thought the place was beautiful and was willing to pay but the...

We, party of three, put in our names at 4:45pm, hoping to get a jump on the dinner crowd. My guests are older, and one is a diabetic. After 40 minutes, the buzzer went off, and we raced around the corner from where we were waiting, only to be informed that our table had been given away because we weren’t in the vicinity, and we would have to wait longer for another table to open up. It had taken less than two minutes to arrive. The three staff at the front acted more like bouncers than hostesses. We were seated at 615pm, as my guest was anxiously checking her numbers as they were going down. The server took the orders of the table next to us who had been seated after us, then offered us some water, but snapped that he couldn’t take our order because there were three ahead of us. Even after my guest had let him know of her diabetic status. I have lived year round in the area for going on 25 years, and normally would not have chosen this touristy restaurant, but when visitors come, they enjoy the splendid views of the water, islands, and boats, and for all that, this place is tops. Especially in the summer season sitting on the terrace. Being a local, I understand how challenging it can be to find and house seasonal employees, and given it is Labor Day weekend, with an enormous cruise ship in town, added stress for the workers. That said, there was zero effort on the part of any of them to be cordial and accommodating. The server mellowed out a bit, but forgot my starter dish. The food there is usually much better. Chalk it up to an off night, I suppose, but I will hesitate to take guests there...