Ledges Restaurant at The White Mountain Hotel — Restaurant in New Hampshire

Had it not been for a thirty second interaction with the food and beverage manager (Kerri?), this would be a rock-solid and unqualified five star review. The food is exceptional, and fairly priced considering the location and the typical "tourism tax" places in North Conway like to add to their food. (The desserts are priced below what to-go ice cream costs in-town, for heaven's sake!) The atmosphere and views are terrific. The restaurant is well appointed and the views over towards Cathedral Ledge or Cranmore are lovely. Even the service was terrific. Alexia (if I recall) was a friendly, attentive, and helpful waitress. The only odd thing was that she came back for the signed check/receipt before we'd finished our drinks. At the time I thought nothing of it. Other restaurants have done the same thing, especially if the waitress is approaching the end of their shift. I thought back to this when Kerri came over.  Again, we'd paid our check and my wife was finishing her drink. She had about three sips left when Kerri introduced herself ... and then essentially threw us out. Not quite so rudely, mind you, but she said she needed the table for another reservation, half-heartedly offered to seat us over in the bar, and then was immediately irritated we didn't get up immediately. (For some added context, it was barely 7:15pm on a 6:00pm reservation that we'd shown up 20 minutes early to. Apparently, you only have sixty minutes to eat here.) Interestingly, I never saw her approach the table next to us (who had been there longer). I suspect they were guests of the hotel, which obviously made them better than us "riff-raff" from the street. Unless the next diners were the hotel owners, board members for country club, or some sort of head of state, I've got no other explanation for the way we were treated. Because of my interaction with Kerri, the very first thing I will remember is not the delicious risotto, excellent drinks, tasty food, or decadent desserts. Nope. The first thing I'll think of when someone says The Ledges is, "Oh, that place where the food and beverage manager was so incapable of reading the table that she couldn't see we were three sips away from leaving and instead chose to all-but throw us out of the restaurant after spending $250." (And there were still seats open in the restaurant, though admittedly not along the window. I guess whoever it was really wanted to have a view of the pool deck because that's all we could see.) I may think of this incident every time I think of North Conway. It was that absurd and that bad. As follow-up, I did speak to the manager (Tim?) on my way out and he did call the next day, but it seems this requires an extensive investigation to uncover things. I don't really know what their plan is to make it right (or if they even plan to), but this is not a place I could possibly recommend to anyone else, especially to those who only go for dinner. Unless, of course, you're prepared to eat and be gone in less than an hour.

(Quick update: the manager called the next day and I haven't heard from any of...

We had the latest available reservations on Thanksgiving, and were excited to dine at Ledges during our holiday getaway. As can sometimes happen, reservations got backed up and we did end up waiting about 45 minutes. But the staff was friendly and were working their butts off to accommodate not only their their hotel guests, but non-guests with reservations like us, and walk ins looking for dinner at one of the few places open on Thanksgiving Day. But we sat in the lovely lobby enjoying the crackling fire in the big stone fireplace. There is a sports bar adjacent to the restaurant but we were reluctant to sit in there in case we missed our name being called. However, we could have gone in and ordered a drink and brought it back out to the lobby if we had wanted to. Our name was eventually called and we were seated at a table for two in the large dining room. It was dark when we were there, but I can imagine the lovely view from the wall of windows in the semicircular dining room facing the cliff ledges that give the restaurant its name. This was not a buffet dinner but had a fixed menu with several choices of appetizer, main course and dessert for a flat price of $49 per person. Not an exorbitant price for the area. As is often the case when you are a late diner, a few of the items were sold out, including our first choice prime rib, but we expected this could happen, so had our second choices planned for everything. For an appetizer I chose the salad which was just the right size. It included kale, beets, roasted brussel sprouts, with a light vinaigrette. A little goat cheese sprinkled in would have made it perfect. My boyfriend enjoyed the corn chowder which is a restaurant specialty. There were 5 entree choices: turkey, prime rib, stuffed haddock, ham and a vegan option butternut (maybe pumpkin?) risotto. With the prime rib sold out, we both ordered the turkey dinner which was more delicious than either of us expected. The turkey was plentiful and moist and sat atop a bed of amazing sausage stuffing. The gravy, which covered the mashed red bliss potatoes, turkey and dressing was to die for. Best restaurant gravy I've ever had. Butternut squash and green beans rounded out the meal. We were both so full by the time dessert arrived that we just ate a few bites; apple Betty with vanilla ice cream for me and bourbon pecan pie for my partner. Hats off to the chefs and kitchen staff for producing a dinner that was obviously made with care (I wondered how many turkeys they had to cook!) and absolutely delicious. Even being some of the latest diners, our food didn't taste like it had been sitting around under a heat lamp but was freshly plated and hot. We truly appreciated the staff members who were friendly and working so hard to accommodate the many diners. I'd definitely dine here again. Next time I hope to make it during the day to appreciate the amazing view as well as the...

Found hair in our food. Unfortunately, this restaurant is not what we remember. My husband I got married here over 10 years ago and loved coming back, especially for the Sunday Breakfast buffet brunch. We recently arrived and did not see the typical set up for brunch and after we sat, we found out the old Sunday brunch had changed. This was our fault as we should’ve checked prior to going, but we didn’t think such a popular weekend brunch would get removed.

While disappointed, we checked over the menu. Both of us had a hard time picking an item, as many of the options were “different” and not at all what we expected for brunch. We found ourselves unsure of what the items used on the menu were, and picked the crepe option, as it seemed the safest for our tastes. Again, our fault for not looking online for the updated menu and brunch changes, as we would’ve went elsewhere.

The hostess and waitress were nice, dropping off our orange juice and cinnamon bun starter, but our waitress never came back to the table. My husband had found a hair under his food a few bites in, cooked into the base of the cinnamon bun. We sat for a bit waiting for her to come back, but that didn’t happen.

After some time, I then went to the hostess station and informed her of the hair we found. At this point, being caught off guard of the brunch we remember being cancelled, and the different menu, the hair was the final straw. The hostess was apologetic, and we moved on to a different location to eat.

As much as we loved this venue for our wedding, the Sunday brunch, and many stays, it’s just not the same as we remember, especially for the cost and the many other options to eat...