Amarante's Sea Cliff — Restaurant in New Haven

I had my wedding at Amarante's July 2019. The venue was gorgeous inside and out, the scene for pictures was gorgeous as it overlooked the water, and the food was good. The staff was also responsive and flexible. I was very happy about those points.

I would have given them 5 stars. However, the reasons I've only given 3 are below:

1. The entree delivery on the day of the event was very late. Noticeably so. I advise that you either urge them to serve the entree on time or schedule your event in such a way that your order of events is not dependent on the timing of the food service. Amarante's extended our event end time by 15 mins to their credit.

2. People received very poor drink services during the main reception. Some background- Our guests comprised of a large number of non-alcohol drinkers. We were informed a few days before that the soft drinks & juice would be served at the bar, and not brought to the table. I found this strange and inquired as to how the guests would know soft drinks & juice would be served at the bar, since normally, only alcoholic beverages are served at the bar (or at least that would be my guests understanding). Grace, the owner at Amarante's assured me that the servers would inform guests at the table that there are free soft drinks and juice at the bar. So, of course, we paid for that option. But on the day of the event, most guests only had water to drink with their entrees, as the guests were not informed about soft drinks and juice at the bar. This of course, made me upset, as I wanted my guests to feel well taken care of and entertained with more than just water during the main reception.

3. More upsetting was that when I informed the owner (1 week after my wedding) about my concerns, she denied that the food service was delayed. With regards to the drinks, her words were 'your guests should have known that there were drinks at the bar.' This came as a shock, because I specifically informed her that my guests WOULD NOT intuitively know this, thus, my prior expressed need to have the servers inform them since they were not serving drinks at the table. She also implied that I did not have the right to give her the feedback about the late food service and drinks since every other thing went well. Given that we paid in full for the services, I felt that her response to me lacked integrity and professionalism. I was not asking for a refund, and a simple acknowledgement and apology would have been ideal

My advice- If you have a large teetotal (non-alcohol drinking) crowd like we did and you want to provide them with a variety of non-alcoholic dink options, I suggest that you either insist on Amarante's serving your guests their drinks at their tables or have your master of ceremony announce that drinks are available at the bar. Do not rely on the servers to duly inform your guests about their drink options or where...

If I could give Amarante's 100 stars I would. I had my wedding here three weeks ago and our day was absolutely PERFECT in every way. More impressive is the communication, compassion, and flexibility leading up to the big day. My husband and I got engaged in March of 2020 -the very beginning of the Covid pandemic and the same weekend the state essentially shut down. Our entire wedding was planned via Zoom and email. Dawn was outstanding. She returned every email and phone call (and there were a lot -I was constantly asking questions) within hours. Her patience as we navigated how to host our wedding amid a pandemic was nothing short of saintly. We had to constantly shift gears -inside, outside, back inside. Number changes. Spacing and regulation shifts. We need a tent. No, actually cancel the tent we can be inside...the rollercoaster was endless. Nevertheless, our day was perfect in every way. The food was spectacular. I felt like a queen -waited on hand and foot. Our maitre 'd, Darlene, was constantly checking in on not only us but also our parents and my grandmother as well, asking what we needed or wanted. Advil? A drink? A plate of apps to tide us over while we did photos by the water? A to-go box for a guest who couldn't eat her whole dinner? Amarante's nailed it. Not only is the facility beautiful (we also had an amazing sunset overlooking the water which made for stunning photographs) but we literally didn't have to lift a finger. Everything was done for us and done better than I could have imagined. Thank you doesn't seem like enough. It was the best...

I was so excited to go to this wedding. The pictures from the website look beautiful. Unfortunately I would not recommend this place to anyone. First of all when you pull in there is barely any parking!!! It was a 250 person wedding with about 30 parking spots! and very tight spots i might add. Our elderly grandparents had to walk down a road just to get to this place. The outside was pretty but they had us stand on this outside deck while it was raining. The weather was very cool and some people wanted to go inside but were getting yelled at by the staff everyone has to stay outside. In a sleeveless dress with it windy and sprinkling was not fun. None of the wait staff knew what any of the appetizers were or what was in them. Which made it difficult because some people couldn't have dairy including myself. I have never in my life experienced the most rude unprofessional wait staff in my life. At on point the gentleman in charge yelled at the children for dancing on the dance floor!! Mind you it took them over 2 hours to serve salad and the main course. No kids under 12 are going to sit that long. Then he at one point didn't like where my purse was and literally KICKED it under the table spilling out my ID and camera. Then started yelling at the wait staff in front of everyone. The staff was also rude and also almost hit my grandmother with their serving trays 3 times. And was yelling behind her MOVE! Why.....?? because they put 250 people in a room for 150 so there was nowhere to stand. It was so claustrophobic. After the 3 hour mark we were just ready to get...