Barnard Inn Restaurant — Restaurant in Barnard

We booked a private room at the Barnard in for my sister’s bachelorette party and the experience fell far short of what I was hoping for. First of all, when I initially reached out I was looking for a private chef at our nearby Airbnb. After receiving quotes and beginning to plan, I was told they could no longer offer the private chef service and that we would have to come to the restaurant. I agreed, even though the charge was the same for coming to the restaurant as it was to cook for us at the Airbnb. Leading up to the event, I reached out to Corinna multiple times seeking assistance regarding the quote she provided, but she was always too busy to get back to me. I hardly heard from Corinna until she reached out to confirm our arrival time the day before the event. Once we arrived, they were not quite ready for us, but we still really enjoyed the cocktail hour. The drinks were great and the space was lovely. Then we were brought to our dining room. To be honest, it felt like juSt another dining room in the restaurant and we would have been sat there due to party size if we had just made a regular reservation. But I paid $500 JUST to be in this room. Service was decent, though anyone drinking soft drinks had a hard time getting a drink. Food was pretty good as well. The quote said it would be family style, but we all just ordered off the menu. Overall the dinner was fine, just fell short of what I had envisioned and not worth the money. We asked for a group photo at one point and although Corinna agreed to take it, she rushed us and made us feel like a nuisance for asking. We also overheard staff talking about us being a bachelorette party in a really unfavorable way. We were respectful, courteous, and actually quite low key as bachelorette parties are coming concerned. And then we got the bill. Although we were not in charge of how quickly service moved through the meal, we were charged $200 of overtime. When I reached out to dispute, I was met with a lot of attitude from Corinna and not very much customer service, especially considering I had just spent well over $2k, maybe close to $3k at the restaurant. Corinna basically said that it was my responsibility to understand and adhere to the timeline and said “I’m sorry if hosting is new to you”. I explained that this is actually my first time hosting this type of event. Additionally, I cannot adhere to the timeline of the service is not running on time. She continued to state that what was in the estimate was binding, yet she never made herself available to discuss the estimate with me despite multiple requests and the estimate itself contained TBD’s, including menu and drink options that were never discussed. All in all it was a very disappointing experience and I would NOT recommend them for special events. Corinna does not know how to talk to people, she can be quite condescending and is either unaware or...

Do you remember the food at any wedding you’ve been to? Probably not. Well our guests do! Even 3 months after our wedding, our guests are still raving about how delicious their meal was. If you’re looking to have a wedding (or any event) in Vermont, you should not look any further than the Barnard Inn. The people are friendly, the location is beautiful, and the food is freaking amazing!

We were looking for a venue for our fall wedding and we only had a few requirements. We wanted an outdoor wedding at a venue that didn’t feel like a “cookie cutter” wedding venue, that would let us extend the wedding past 10pm, and that could serve our guests great food. Will and Corinna at the Barnard Inn checked every single one of our boxes.

The property (restaurant, barn, garden, and pond) is very well maintained and absolutely beautiful. There is a gazebo by the pond that makes for a stunning wedding ceremony backdrop. Will took the time to sit down with us and the parents of the bride to go over the wedding menu and other details of the venue. He listened to all of our concerns, took notes, and was able to address them far beyond our expectations. From making sure there were enough bartenders serving our specially requested drinks, to having plenty of meat in the chicken pot pies, Will was on top of everything.

The bride + entourage got ready in the recently renovated space below the barn and Will made some luncheon food for the bridal party to eat throughout the day, which was delicious and we had to stop ourselves from overeating. Corinna came in every once in a while to check on things, and even went out of her way to bring the bride (who was sick) some extra tea, honey, and lemon.

We decided on pumpkin risotto, chicken pot pies, and braised short ribs for our wedding meal (as well as horderves during the cocktail hour) and we were not disappointed. All of the food was locally sourced, and the quality and presentation were what you would expect from a high-end restaurant. As an example, the risotto could have been simply plated, but each one was served in a miniature pumpkin! When the meals came out, everyone was envious of everyone else’s food because it all looked so good. Even though we had 100+ people at our wedding, the food was served to all our guests hot, simultaneously, and on time.

We could not have asked for more from a wedding venue and are so incredibly happy with everything that Will and Corinna did to help make our wedding as special and...

This was just an overall awful experience. The place itself was beautiful and the girl who filled our water was sweet but other than that there was no saving grace. To start, the meal for thanksgiving was $125 prefixe.. which if it were a beautiful sit down 5 course meal we would have had no problem paying.. but it was a buffet. The food was average, but we actually had to ask the staff to refill the chafing dish with turkey, stuffing, etc. It was extremely dissapointing. On top of that, our server was so absent the entire meal she never even checked on us to ask how the meal was and that was after our cocktails took 20 minutes to be delivered. The final negative was the 20% service charge added on. This would have been okay at a restaurant where the service was exceptional and it was a plated meal, not a buffet. They warranted this charge with covid and giving employees a livable wage.. but we as a family of four felt that was outrageous for a buffet where we hardly received any service, and the service we did receive was awful. Our bill came to over $700 and our waitress didn’t even say goodbye or happy thanksgiving on our way out. If you have quality servers and are charging $125 per person for a prefixed meal, the tip should speak for itself. We will never return here, save yourself the money...