The Garden View Restaurant — Restaurant in Silverton

Raging dumpster fire, avoid at all costs. It was my wife’s birthday.  She said it was her birthday when she made the reservation, but not once did anyone so much as comment, or wish her any sort of happy birthday.  Even when we ordered desert, and again, asked specifically if they could do anything for birthdays, there wasn’t so much as a candle.  This may seem petty, but we have a three year old daughter, who was very excited to celebrate, so we were disappointed.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, the problems with our experience started almost right away.  First of all, we were celebrating with another couple.  Two sets of parents, two kids, six people.  They asked if a booth would work, and we assumed it was some sort of large booth.  Our mistake, but no problem, we squeezed in, it was fine.  Or, it would have been fine if anyone so much as acknowledged that we were present for the first ten, or maybe even 15 minutes, I wasn’t counting.  No server, busser, food runner, or anyone so much as said hello.  Our kids eventually got bored, and we split up so they could play outside while two of us stayed behind to order.

When the waiter did eventually come by, he had four waters.  His greeting to us, rather than “good evening, welcome, etc” was “oh, I guess I’ll need to get two more.”  But, it was just a greeting, not a big deal.  So are we ready?  Yes, but could you tell us about what beer you have on tap?  No, that’s too much work.  Instead, he handed us a hand-written list of the beers and said we could read it ourselves.  Fine.  Great service.

We ordered, and eventually got our drinks, and appetizers.  But, nobody had bothered to bring us napkins or silver wear.  And, nobody came by to check on us, so I got up and went to the host to get some napkins at least.  The appetizers we got were the coconut prawns.  They came out dark, dark brown, as if nobody had changed the fry oil in weeks.

When our entrees arrived, we still didn’t have silver wear.  Also, a number of us had burgers, which arrived dry, with no condiments, and none were offered.  Again, nobody came by to check on us until I flagged down some random person to ask for help.

Additionally, our $21 hamburgers were supremely disappointing.  For a restaurant with “Garden” in the name, at the Oregon Gardens, I would have thought it would be fresh produce.  You could do some sort of exciting farm-to-table concept and really wow people.  But instead, the lettuce was sad and limp, the tomatoes were paper thin and pale.  The burger itself was cooked to over-well and dry.  Also, why is there no option for French-fries with a burger, when you clearly have them for the kids menu?

Speaking of the kids menu, we got the salmon.  The description of the salmon on the kids menu makes no mention of sauce.  As many kids are, our daughter is somewhat picky about her food, and when the salmon arrived with some mystery red sauce all over it, she balked at eating it.  Why would you put a surprise on a kids menu?  If the menu had even hinted that it would come with something on it, we would have asked that it not do so.

So, I worked restaurants for a long time, and I know that I see all the holes in the service, or issued with the food when maybe other people don’t.  But the couple we were dining with didn’t work restaurants, and they brought up how appalling the experience was.  So, I quietly got up and went to have a word with the management at some point.  There wasn’t a host at the front, so I just went to the front desk of the hotel.  There I learned, that management doesn’t work weekends.  By that point, I wasn’t surprised.  Why would management bother to be present on what I can only assume would be the busiest days of the week?

Lastly, I tried to reach out to management at both the corporate and the local level, but I was completely ignored. They don't care and it shows....

I think I take issue when a business knows that they are going to be busy, but yet fail to prepare for how busy they are going to be.

Visited the weekend before Christmas on one of the stay packages and entry into Christmas in the gardens. To be clear - this review is strictly for the restaurant, not anything else.

After coming in from the cold, we decided we should get dinner as the pretzels were not going to cut it that we got in the garden. The restaurant was busy, which we expected. Took about 15-20 minutes for us to get seated, no complaint there.

After we were seated, within about 15 minutes we had our order in. This is where it started to break down. It took 45 minutes for us to get our food. Within that time, our server did not come back to our table once. We ran out of water, nobody cared to refill our water, and our table was the one right where all the servers/bussers/food runners are at, so it is not like nobody saw us.

I ordered the special, the Mahi-Mahi & Steak plate. It was $36. When I received it, the steak was good, but the mashed potatoes, and the fish were cold. Fish was also overcooked. My problem with that is that our waitress was nowhere to be found. Tried to flag someone down, could not get anyone to stop. So I ate my cold food and we left. My wife's clam chowder, and the Kid's meal was the right temperature and was decent.

So in conclusion - my one star rating is simply based off the terrible service experience, and the fact that my food was cold and could not get anyone's attention. I plan on coming back next year to stay again, but I highly doubt that I would...

After making and confirming reservations for a group of up to 20, upon arrival we were told that had no reservation! Although the restaurant was nearly empty, we were told it was doubtful that if we were placed at tables, it was doubtful we would get served. As we were leaving to find last minute accommodation for our tour group, the Governor of Oregon, Tina kotex, arrived and was escorted into the private dining room our group had reserved. This restaurant has no integrity and I would highly recommend you plan alternatives for your dining pleasure. We did, 5 minutes away in Downtown Silverton where resturants were welcoming, efficient and provided a far better variety of menu choice that The Garden View. Further, I am sure the Governor of Oregon, who walked by senior residents of Oregon, would be embarrassed if she knew this senior tour was turned away because they chose to cater to her over a group of seniors who has made and confirmed a reservation. In my opinion, this is also a very poor business decision. The staff we encounter were rude, non responsive, and treated the Seniors with disrespect...