The Mill on the River — Restaurant in South Windsor

Very off-putting experience. We came for our anniversary after making a reservation, and were shocked and bewildered at the rude service we received at what we thought was a nice restaurant. Our server never introduced herself or told us the specials-she just poured us water and said she'd be back. We didn't even realize she was our server until she came back and asked us if we'd made up our minds yet. This was at 5:30pm in the summer 2021 when there was barely anyone there. Our menus blew into the water. When we told her what happened, she refused to get us new ones, insisting that we could just look at our phones. We declined, saying no thank you, we would like actual menus please. She went inside and then the HOSTESS came out and said they would not give us menus because, they didn't want to "pollute the water" among other reasons. I calmly and politely explained that my phone was almost out of battery and we would like menus please. Our server then came out with some menus, but not all of them. We politely asked for the additional menu, and without a word she went and got it. At this point, we really just felt unwelcome and wanted to leave, but we had put so much effort into getting dressed up and excited about our first time at a restaurant in over a year that we decided to just try and enjoy ourselves. Throughout the evening there were other little things. We felt disrespected and kept wondering what we had done wrong to offend these people. Oh, and you may or may not be allowed to use your umbrella. They wouldn't let us or an older couple behind us open our umbrellas because of the wind (even later when the sun came out and there was no longer any wind) but when a large party came and opened their umbrella, they were not made to take it down. At the end of the meal (which was just okay- decent but honestly not that great), our server brought us chocolate covered strawberries that she just kind of threw on the table without saying anything on her way to the bigger table nearby. It was crazy. By far the worst service I've ever experienced. It reminds me of that restaurant in Boston where they are mean to you on purpose. But this wasn't funny. I was almost in tears and just wanted to go home. Anyway, the scenery was beautiful, but we have no desire to go back there. There are plenty of other places nearby with better food and...

We had our wedding at The Mill on 10/08/2022. While the indoor and outdoor spaces both were beautiful and the setup and food/bar service were adequate, we would not recommend this venue to any couple unless they’d like the tagline of their wedding experience to be “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” Communication from the time of booking up until our big day was very limited (with delayed email responses, many of which entirely overlooked several questions/clarifications), details and provided package information were inconsistent (and we as the customers were blamed for not “catching” omitted package offerings on the final bill) and the transition from working with the event coordinator to working directly with just the managers (upon the coordinator, Shayla’s, leaving) proved very disconnected. If you have ANY expectations of day-of coordination, accommodation of special requests, a hands-on personal touch or professional customer service, do not book your wedding at The Mill on the River. Upon sharing our dissatisfaction, no responsibility was accepted on behalf of the venue for their lack of attentiveness—attentiveness not only in all the communication leading up to the event but also ON our wedding day! Day-of, the assigned manager failed to greet us upon arrival, line up our wedding party for ceremony and reception introductions or ensure our meal was brought out in a timely manner. She was rarely present for the duration of our event at all! While some venues are able to juggle many simultaneous events, while still making each client feel special and attended to, Mill on the River did NOT. I will never forget having to hike up my wedding dress, climb upstairs and hunt down the manager myself to facilitate our reception introductions after several members of our wedding party were unable to locate her. The venue explained this lack of attentiveness as simply our “misunderstanding of their role.” Thus, we feel the need to make it VERY clear to any future potential client what their role truly is: booking a wedding at The Mill grants you contracted use of the spaces, reception table setup, food/bar service and absolutely nothing else. Should you seek to hire a wedding planner and/or day-of coordinator, it may be an entirely different experience but with that added cost, the value of the venue is lost...

My husband and I came for our anniversary dinner on July 6th and our evening didn't start out too good after our interaction with the host Taylor (I hope I remembered her name correctly), she was wearing a cream dress and was giving me a passive- aggressive vibe when I asked to be seated by the river as this was our special occasion and we wanted nice pictures. She said that the tables by the water were all closed for dining service as the waiter had already left for the night, which didn't make any sense to me at all! I didn't understand why couldn't another waiter take over that section, this is the first time I heard of anything like this from a restaurant.

Then I decided to speak to another host Lily (after that other mean host left for the day shortly after our interaction with her) to clarify the situation, and ask if that rule was valid even if we came back on a Saturday evening one day. She said that not necessarily as the kitchen closes later on Saturdays and I figured maybe I would benefit from addressing this issue with the current manager on staff.

The manager for that evening was Melissa, who was extremely accommodating and very courteous!☺️. She actually came up to me with the owner Helmar in tow, they both reassured me that nobody was closing off the tables by the river, and she offered my hubby an I the very last table that was being cleaned after previous diners left. So happy I decided to talk to her and Helmar, they made our evening a blast! Not only we got to sit where we wanted, but we took fabulous pictures and were even offered a free dessert as well as two glasses of complimentary champagne to finish off our fab evening! The food, even though a lil pricey (for the portion you get I mean), was fantastic!🥳 We started off with the BLT Wedge salad, then for the main course my hubby had a burger with sweet potato fries and I had the Pan Seared Chilean Sea Bass with clams added. And a special thank you for our Albanian waiter Erind who also made sure we were superbly taken care of!:) We will definitely be back again only because we got great treatment from the main management. Helmar just needs to pay close attention to his staff, and what they are doing/saying behind his back to guests so it doesn't hurt...