The Dining Room at The Vanderbilt — Restaurant in Newport

The Vanderbilt Grill is billed as a fine dining restaurant, and somehow has gained a very favorable AAA Diamond rating that would lead one to believe it to be one of Rhode Island's top restaurants, but this is not at all where I would recommend you dine in Newport. My experience was marred with failures and inconsistencies in service and food.

I disliked my "Squid Ink Linguine" entrée because the kitchen ruined the beurre blanc sauce by spiking it with too much tarragon and an irresponsible amount of lemon. I couldn't finish this dish because of these overly-assertive flavors, which made this not only a waste of my money, but a frustrating waste of good fresh scallops and squid. My "Beignets" dessert, although not a total miss due to its silky sweet custard, was accompanied by coffee ice cream with ice crystals in it. Not at all what I expect from a fine dining establishment. Even the bread course I found to be insipid with its "ginger carrot walnut tapenade" - I wish I was making that up, but I'm not, and it was predictably awful. In fact, only one thing I ate here I would ever eat again, and that was "Theo's Octopus," and that only wins on a technicality: I like octopus everywhere and anywhere, especially when avocados are involved such as they are here.

Admittedly, I got off to a bad start at The Vanderbilt Grill when my waiter unapologetically told me that a key menu item (the Guinea Fowl) was not available after I ordered it. This was a massive problem, because the otherwise lame "country club"-oriented menu wasn't interesting enough beyond that; the Guinea Fowl was an item that this place could ill-afford to not be available. Mind you, it was not as if I was here late on a Saturday night during peak season and the kitchen ran out due to demand. No, I was in an otherwise empty dining room at 6pm on a Thursday in late March. To not have a kitchen with stock and capability of fulfilling the menu under these circumstances is not acceptable. Even less acceptable is letting a customer order something off a menu before proactively telling him or her that an item is unavailable.

If you think I'm being picky, dear reader, know that I'm not measuring this restaurant against the neighborhood Applebee's, I'm measuring it and its price point against the other two AAA 4-Diamond establishments in Newport (i.e. The Dining Room at the Castle Hill Inn, and The Spiced Pear) which, unfortunately, blow the pants off The Vanderbilt Grill...

Five star service! My friend and I just came back from eating at the Vanderbilt hotel tonight and we were shocked at the wonderful dining experience we had. First of all, it’s BEAUTIFULLY decorated and the vibe is elegant, posh, yet still somehow manages to feel inviting like you want to stay an awhile for some chill conversation.

And while we knew it would be a nice restaurant, we were pleasantly surprised by the level of attentiveness and attention to detail by everyone, from the hostess, front lobby attendants, and waitstaff. Our server, I think his name is Cean, was super in his dining and drink recommendations, accommodating my allergy requests, and checking in on us to make sure we were happy. What was also cool to see is that the very friendly staff supports each other, so we had several people checking in on us, giving us status on our orders, making conversations with us, and making us feel comfortable. How comfortable? I’m talking about always pulling out our chairs for us to be seated, being offered a pillow to put behind my back, a staff member came out of nowhere to pickup and replace my friend’s dropped fork before my friend could reach for it, and other staff members also checking in on us to see if we needed anything and offered to take our pictures. The list goes on. And the food was excellent. The special tonight was the rack of lamb and it was perfectly cooked. Our server recommended the toffee pudding dessert with ice cream and I had mine with a latte. Amazing! Hats to the chefs for an awesome dinner, and much gratitude to all the staff for a memorable experience! I would highly recommend this restaurant and we will definitely return next time...

Not sure where all the reviews come from but SERIOUSLY the WORST experience ever - was there about 4 years ago and the experience then was amazing, not sure what has happened since then it was horrible. We booked way in advance as a surprise for visiting friends, was a surprise alright because in the end we left there after almost two hours with only having had starters - no drinks were ever refreshed or offered, we had to make a effort to get the attention for a second round of drinks. In fairness to the waiter I think he was overwhelmed as he was the only waiter in the dining room. As we placed our appetizer order were then told about ten minutes later by the manager that some if it was not available, as you don't have the largest selection it's hard to think that you can't even offer what is on your menu. He did t even apologize or try and get a replacement just ok when we said just leave it then It really felt like we have the audacity to inconvenience the staff by actually showing up for our reserved table. If there is a minus rating, I would definitely give that - the manager leaves a lot to be desired and maybe that is why the place was in such chaos and he really didn't care that we decided to walk out without getting our food. Oh, wait we did the plates were ice cold the food lukewarm and then we were told now we would have to wait as they are busy. The manager did not even have the decency to come and talk to us we had to ask the waiter to call him. He also didn't even make an effort to apologize or try and explain the hold up and cold food the response was pretty much let me get your check. Like I said compares to a prior experience Way down in what...