The Gaines Estate — Restaurant in Fayetteville

Last weekend I was a member of the bridal party to a wedding hosted by this venue. To describe the experience, it would be a far stretch to call them a professional wedding vendor. The employees, from bartenders to the wedding coordinators, were very rude and unpleasant. The venue was unprepared to host a wedding this past week. The owner acknowledged knowing about failed equipment prior to hosting the event, resulting in many amenities being inaccessible despite being up charged for them. Due to a failed generator, there was no AC, no lights for the reception, the DJ hired was unable to provide full services. BATHROOMS WERE LIT BY A SINGLE CANDLE. The venue is lucky a grandparent did not have a fall occur. The venue staff made changes without consulting the bride and groom, they had no regard for their wishes. Dinner choices were altered with no communication. Many bar tabs were incorrect, full drinks were being taken from guests in attempts to ‘clean up’ prior to the sun setting in a plan to promote guests to leave. The owner continued to close the doors, causing a very hot reception space, claiming it was to abide by a noise ordinance, which was not in effect for another hour and a half, all while providing a propped open door for the bartenders to stay cool, but not the guests. It’s a shame that the owner is willing to admit he was aware of a broken generator prior to the event, but there was no communication to the bride and groom. I do not recommend utilizing this venue, unless you want an unprofessional experience by staff and owners who couldn’t care less about the wedded couple and...

Huge disappointment. We wanted to have a nice dinner on our weekend trip and the Gaines estate appeared to be the place. We got a couple cocktails at the bar, not good. I’m not a sugar person but these were like plain diluted liquor. Staff is very friendly, but our server was unattentive. Appetizer sounded good but was not. Fried eggplant w ricotta, fig sauce, confit cherry tomatoes. The eggplant was crazy overbreaded. 3x as thick as the eggplant. Preparation not in line with dish flavors. The tomatoes and basil really throw it off. Salad was sad. A few small cucumber pieces, couple halved cherry tomatoes and greens. That’s it. And very small. No bread was served at all. Entree I ordered pork loin w pumpkin gnocchi. No seasoning whatsoever. Actually the most bland entree I’ve ever eaten. For real. Gnocchi was wrinkled up dry, no flavor. And the butter that topped the dish was the same butter used to fry the loin I think because black bits were floating in the bottom of the dish. It wasn’t a sauce made from the butter or a seasoned brown butter. Had to ask for a salt shaker. Asparagus as a side was over charred and only 4 pieces.

She ordered ribeye medium w bourbon sauce and garlic mashed potatoes. The sauce was watery thin and everything was sitting in it. The ribeye was blue. Not rare, blue. It was stringy when cutting because it wasn’t cooked. Our waitress said she would have corrected it but she didn’t come back around until we were finished.

We won’t go back. Menu sounds good but isn’t. Should’ve just gone to...

We had our wedding at The Gaines Estate, and everything went wonderfully! I received so many compliments from guests about the amazing coordinator, Alison. Not only did she make the planning process stress-free for me, but she also helped ensure our guests had an incredible day, which I truly appreciate (I had several guests come up to me and say how awesome she was). We chose the Italian dinner because I’m usually not a fan of wedding food and thought it was a safe option, but it completely exceeded my expectations! I had no idea they made their own noodles, and they were absolutely delicious. Literally the only complaint I might have (which is only half a complaint) is in the 30 day meeting when I expected to pay the other 50% of the deposit, I was told I already had. It turns out I hadn't, so we owed a little more than expected after the wedding after already reallocating those funds. I would say that is mostly my fault though, I should've double checked something like that I was just being budget avoident at that point, LOL. At the end of the day it is a small business, and I was one of manyyy of their June brides, and I think they did a great job. Also shoutout to whatever the tent company was, because I had to get one at the last second and they got it worked out, so...