The Tavern at The Inn At Warm Springs — Restaurant in Clifton Forge

As a returning customer who had, in turn, recommended this restaurant to many, I’m sorry to say that you have lost my business. I wouldn’t go with one star if only the quality of the food itself had fallen precipitously over the last ~18 months, which unfortunately it has. This experience took me from saying to my partner, after our mediocre drinks and acceptable starters were served, that ‘I’ll give this place one more chance’ to, by the end of our meal, agreeing that we would not be returning.

Atmosphere: the shining light in an otherwise unpleasant experience, tastefully yet eclectically decorated where the theme seems to be that there is no such thing, which works quite well.

Food/drink: watered down cocktails with ok fried mushrooms (whose remoulade is just right) coupled with what seemed to be house made pate, nice flavor but mealy and served with ‘pickled vegetables’ only the pickles of which were actually pickled. My partner ordered the chicken schnitzel, which was served with room-temperature mashed potatoes, dry, and with nondescript ‘cheese’ on top, garnished entirely unnecessarily (or perhaps in place of any sauce or non-beige coloring) with one cherry tomato and some shredded lettuce. No sauce, mustard on request. I had the steak frites, whose fries were clearly not fresh, although the mushroom sauce was the highlight of the dish. The steak itself, ordered rare, was plenty of unrendered fat, while only the outside quarter-of-an-inch was actually rare. Nearly the entirety of the actual cut of meat was raw, which, to be clear to the manager, I can recognize in spite of her suppositions.

Service: our waitress was pleasant. Upon complaining on the uncooked nature of my steak, she left to fetch the manager, who was in turn the straw which broke my camels back on the whole experience. Not only did she speak down to me and presume that I was unfamiliar with what ‘rare’ meant for a steak, she had also obviously not actually seen what I had actually been served (let alone the myriad of mediocrity our other dishes consisted of), as our waitress had carried it off and hopefully disposed of it. Here I should say that upon my first complaint our waitress offered that the chef could take it back and ‘cook it a bit longer’ for me which, the various sanitary implications thereby not withstanding, I was not interested in. Ultimately, only the steak item itself was discounted 50% because I had ‘eaten half the steak’ which is unfortunately what it took for me to notice the predominancy thereof was unrendered and ‘seared’ at best and purely raw at realistic worst, let alone that half (generously) of the steak was actually comfortably edible outside the realm of tartare.

Verdict: if the managerial staff changed and the quality of food rewound itself to the true delights I recommended to friends and colleagues, I would give it another shot. Alternatively, don’t waste your patience (I was remiss to mention that this process took over two hours), money, and potential intestinal health on...

Bed bug Nightmare at The Inn At Warm Springs! My friend and I were excited to visit the Spring Warm Pool and chose this place due to its location. However, our stay quickly turned into a nightmare. We arrived at our room around 11 pm. exhausted, and promptly went to bed. At 3 am my friend woke up realizing she was being bitten and we turned on the light there were full of bed bugs on our bed. Even bed bugs fall from my pajamas. We hurried to the lobby, but no one was there. We dialed the provided number and reached Kim, who informed us that no assistance would be available until 7 am. We pleaded with her for help, explaining our situation, but she said nothing could be done until 7 am. Feeling frustrated and helpless, we went back to our room to gather our stuff. Kim showed up after 20 mins and said that we can move to our next door room. It was too close to our unit #25, so I refused to move to the other room and do an experiment with my own body. Instead, we spent the restless hours from 3 am to 7 am in our car, surrounded by darkness and the animals. Around 4 am, I reached out again, this time requesting trash bags to at least put our belongings. Kim said she can't come back for trash bags only. Around 6 am kitchen staff showed up and I managed to get trash bags. However, our ultimate aim was to meet with the owner at 7 am, hoping for resolution. Disappointingly, Kim reappeared at that hour, revealing that the owner would not be present. Our experience can only be described as being ignored and subjected to humiliation during our time of distress. Now everything is so itchy and I had to skip my work. I came straight home and put my family at risk. I have two little kids and I'm so scared if I bring bed bugs with me.

Updated: Added photos, because response from the owner...

The experience all in all was wonderful. The inn is rustic, but still modernly renovated, so no rickety bathrooms to worry about. The drinks were perfect fall cider inspired, the Appetizers fell a little short for me - the pork belly wasn't properly rendered to be tender and melt in your mouth. It's more so a thick, slightly stringy, cured holiday ham steak. The calamari were cooked well with a light and crisp batter but a little chewy and too fishy tasting for my tastes. I had the chicken schnitzel which didn't seem like a lot of food considering the 3 total brussel sprouts it's served with. Could definately do with doubling up on the veg for the prices. But there ended up being soooo much chicken I couldn't even finish it all. It was cooked well, but not very juicy and especially with no sauce it could be improved. I ended up dipping mine in the calamari sauce and it made a wonderful honey mustard-esk sauce. The mash potatoes were creamy and smooth, perfectly light and buttery. And the pumpkin cheesecake was the highlight of the evening. Definately a more gooey style of cheese cake, we took ours to go and it became more of a pudding on the car ride over. But the pecan topping was addictive. An enjoyable evening and the perfect upscale venue to celebrate a career milestone, birthday, anniversary, you name it, and I'm sure they've seen it. An eclectic take on a more homey yet fine...