The Wild Rose Restaurant at Stonehurst Manor — Restaurant in Conway

To the manager:

We came to the Wild Rose restaurant after receiving rave reviews regarding the food and atmosphere. Undoubtedly, the initial impressions were absolutely true it was a beautiful drive in the grounds were well kept and the interior was absolutely breathtaking, which is very romantic, especially on a cold winter evening with the fires going!

We were greeted by wonderful hostesses who really understood the layout of the restaurant and were able to accommodate us with a beautiful table for two.

As somebody who works in the food management industry not only as a manager but as an executive running a kitchen serving over 300 meals per day, I have an intimate understanding of kitchen and executive operations, most of which is customer service.

One could imagine then how disappointing it was to have been seated at a beautiful table with a beautiful atmosphere on a beautiful evening out to only find that they could not accommodate a simple request i.e., the kitchen. My guest needed to have their meal pureed. This is a very simple non-invasive practical application in the kitchen by using a food processor. Keep in mind we were there for dinner and we're about to spend upwards of $150 for the meal. Instead of making the accommodation, we were met with a list of reasons from the server as to why the accommodations could not be made and that no substitutions were allowed on the menu.

As a result, we walked out feeling shameful. However, the plus side is that we literally left the grounds, the very next day went across the street to Table and Tonic Farm Cafe. Perhaps this will be a raving review for them because they were able to take the entire meal of our choosing and put it through the food processor and within 5 minutes we had a fully delicious pureed meal.

It's very disturbing to see that a upper class restaurant didn't have the time to cater to its constituents needs and rather lost hundreds of dollars in revenu, not only for a short visit but also the meal. We spent our money and our time in a place that was able to make a small concession, which is a practical expectation for anybody running a kitchen.

My Hope Is that this review reaches the manager who is equally outraged of the loss in revenue business through this review and that you hold your Chef...

Well, this place is "not what it used to be" and we found it overpriced, even understanding that this area has to make its money when it can.

It has been more than a few years, so obviously things change, but this used to be a reliably wonderful place for a higher-end dinner. The building -- Stonehurst Manor -- remains classy and beautiful and gracious; the library lounge has an atmosphere we have not found anywhere else. But, dinner? Good but not consistently great. An appetizer of potato, bacon, and lobster soup was delicious. My spouse's dinner of seafood pasta was reportedly very good (he ate it all without giving me a chance). I tried a dish of ravioli, chicken, and veal, mostly because I was wondering what inspired the chef to put veal on top of a dish that already had chicken, vs. picking one or the other. (Normally I won't eat veal, but again, in the spirit of "the chef must have something specific in mind here"....). The dish was visually unappetizing, looking like a regurgitated mess in the bowl, and individual elements were completely drowned by a parmesan sauce. It felt overspiced in general. And I still could not figure out the point of having chicken (diced bits) and veal (a couple of tasty but not noteworthy lumps) in the same dish. For dessert, a cheesecake was attractive but did not taste fresh. A cup of tea was served in a diner-style mug, and the tea selection was limited and heavily featured Lipton tea. Seriously? For $170 for dinner for two people, you're going to plunk down a mug that you'd find in any truckstop in America, and Lipton tea (I like Lipton tea just fine; just not for fine dining)? Especially when the restaurant reportedly features afternoon tea and has any number of pretty china teapots on display. Service was friendly and appropriate overall, but everyone was looking alittle ragged this Labor Day weekend. Finally, no doubt I am out of touch, but I would like to think that when it comes to a nice restaurant, the hostess might ask that diners remove their baseball caps (a pet peeve of mine, I totally admit it). I think next time we will stick to drinks in the lounge, and that way, we can walk away feeling the magic of this...

Giving 2 Stars because the manor is beautiful- if not it would be no stars. Normally I love this place but I was just here last weekend and the food and service was terrible. First my salad was wrong - no big deal she brings the right one about 15 min later after my mom was done eating hers. She forgot the dressing I asked for. she continue to wait on other tables Forgetting to bring my dressing again, Finally, she came back to the table and realized she had forgot it For the third time she went and got it the ramakin barely had any dressing in it not even a 1/4 if the way full I just wasted 30 plus minutes waiting for it. It was really a joke. we had our appetizer and when we were finished she said “i’ll put your dinner now” she forgot to put the order in - I just knew it would be down hill from there. My mussels were freezing cold and super fishy tasting - Fishy seafood is dangerous. The rest of the food was burnt to a crisp maybe because they were trying to make up the time from the muscles that were already cooked. I’m not sure. But the scallops wrapped in bake in the bake it was so burned. It was just disgusting. The crabcakes were burnt, I didn’t eat the muscles because I was too afraid of shellfish poisoning. The waitress came back. She didn’t even ask us how everything was. I wasn’t surprised I’m sure she could see my full plate of muscles and all the burnt pieces we picked off of the food. It’s sad when you go out for an occasion and this is what you get. I assumed the food was burned to a crisp because she forgot the food and she probably told them to hurry up, but who knows. This is not the service of a restaurant trying to be of this “caliber” We usually come for the holidays too, but I don’t think we’ll be back- Very...