Chamard Vineyards Bistro — Restaurant in Clinton

Despite the not so favorable reviews I had seen about this vineyard, I decided to try it myself this weekend. The location is convenient and lovely, but that's where the positives end. We arrived about 25 minutes prior to our dinner reservation and tried to find a place to wait. It was a beautiful day, so we wanted to stay outside. We walked down the hill and saw many cheerful people sitting at picnic tables drinking their wine, but we had no luck finding anyone that could tell us where to get the wine. We walked into one of the areas set with tables and we were told that we couldn't stay there because it was being prepared for a private function. We then walked over to another location and sat at an open table. The same server told us we couldn't stay there due to a private party. Mind you there were no signs anywhere designating the areas private. We then made our way up to the Tasting Room where we stood at the bar for several minutes with not so much as a glance from the bartenders. I eventually got the attention of the young bartender. I acknowledged how busy he was and did not express any concern about being ignored up to that point, but I did let him know that I was interested in tasting if he could explain the process. While I was looking at the wine list, he walked away and didn't return. We then gave up on that idea and decided to go see about our dinner reservations. When we got to the host stand, there was no one to be found. They eventually showed up and told us we could wait in the lounge, but we had to sit at one particular table (not sure why, the other tables were never occupied). I finally received a glass of wine and then we were seated in the diningroom. Appetizers came quickly, but dinner and a second glass of wine didn't come for about 50 to 60 minutes after the appetizer. The empty wine glass and leftover appetizers sat in front of us for an inordinate amount of time. We ate dinner quickly and left the bistro trying to navigate the unlit, unlevel parking lot. I had to wonder if there have been a lot of injuries from people walking on the bumpy gravel in the pitch dark trying to find their cars. The worse part of the whole experience happened later that night when I was awoken with horrible stomach cramps which led to about 10 hours of an intestinal nightmare. I can't prove it was the result of the dinner, but it is very likely. As other reviewers have said, this place has great potential, but the management has a lot...

This is a very difficult review for me to write. Let me start by saying that my September wedding at Chamard vineyards was beautiful and the best day of my life. All the separate vendors I hired were amazing and helped to make the experience. Unfortunately, I was not so impressed with the staff at Chamard. Leading up to the wedding the event coordinator was replaced by a new one which never reached out to us or told us until we asked about taking our engagement photos, and none of our wedding plans were left besides our names and our date. So here we are a year away and had to start the details all over. Chamard grounds are beautiful but they’re more worried about keeping their restaurant in business than the weddings they have there. Between not being able to park there and they refuse to close the restaurants for events. Amy was almost in possible to get in touch with, she wasn’t available for our rehearsal and was barley around for the wedding itself. As event “coordinator” it is ones job to be there. On wedding day, we were battling with bad weather so we moved it inside, we were told we could have it in the barn where dinner would be but then got turned down day before saying it wasn’t possible to set up in an hour. Which we spoke with one of the gentleman that works there and he said it’s very possible. The buffet we had was great, but people were in line for over an hour and the food was not coming out fast enough. I think the one thing I can say they did great was set up the tables like we wanted. We then had issues with chamard loosing our belongings, such as centerpiece decor we had dropped off, table numbers, etc. which when we brought this to the coordinators attention she said she was “frustrated with this” and “could not deal with it”. Us, as bride and groom should not have to worry about not having our things after we drop them off. If chamard wants to continue to be a wedding venue, they need to figure out how to keep the restaurant and weddings separate, weddings should be a priority especially for the money couples pay to get married there. Go drink wine, eat their food but don’t get...

We have been to Chimard dozens of times and just recently had our wedding there. Our wedding was beautiful but we were not prepared to do the majority of set-up yourself. If you ask for anything other than the chairs to be set up and the place to be cleaned you feel like you are putting them out. There felt to be a lack in systems and communication when it came to our event and it was more stress than it had to be. I was told I was going to have some food saved for me because as a bride you don't get to eat and they never did, we actually had to eat out after our wedding with numerous other guests that did not have enough food which was embarrassing. Our grandparents and aunts wanted coffee at one point and they were told it wasn't in our package by the person running the event, even though that was never brought to our attention when we gave the okay for the coffee she brought one cup not taking into consideration that the other elders in the group wanted it as well. Coffee is what $3 a cup, if we are willing to pay for it what is the issue? She acted as if again we were putting her out and we were mortified that our guests were treated without any consideration. I am also a stickler for refilling, cleaning, and organization and this lacked at times also. When our wedding was over we felt shuffled out and it was just not handled the way it should have been. When I brought the issues to the Coordinators attention who is new, she had an excuse for everything and just made it known that they weren't going to comp anything. In my professional experience it is important to make the client at the very least feel heard because this was our experience that should be improved at the very least for other clients in the future. The servers and bartenders who worked our event were amazing and so nice, it just felt either understaffed or poorly organized which is anything that has to do with them. Weddings are not perfect by any means but the way a company handles these situations is what leaves the lasting impression. Based on that we have to rate...