The Brae Loch Inn — Restaurant in Town of Cazenovia

My husband and I were married here yesterday. Unfortunately the venue was, from start to finish, one of the most disappointing experiences of my entire life.

When we arrived there was absolutely noone to help with questions and we were entirely ignored for the photos and ceremony. Not a single staff member acknowledged us and we had to track down staff in the three story building every single time we had a question. We had called several times before to plan things and were thoroughly ignored then too but we were so in love with the building that we continued on. I couldn't even imagine the way the Day Of would be as unpleasant as it was.

The ceremony was beautiful anyway because the building is beautiful and frankly because I could have married my husband literally anywhere and I would have been positively delighted.

From the second we stepped down out of the ceremony space where we were ignored by staff though, into the dining room where they couldn't ignore us, things took a sharp turn for the worse.

The gum chewing waitress was SO snappy. From the second we sat down. The bread and butter board contained butter (I'm actually vaguely certain it was margarine because of the texture which would have been perfectly fine if it hadn't been so expensive) tasted like straight cleaning chemicals. My dinner, when it finally arrived after taking FOREVER, was absolutely inedible. The filet was BURNED on the entire outside and waaaay past the medium I requested. It was a literal hockey puck. The lobster was like chewing on rubber. The wild rice mix was mush and honestly tasted like vomit. I went to the bathroom to have a small crisis about asking for something else because I have severe anxiety and another guest mentioned to the waitress that it wasn't okay and she was SO RUDE about it. Unbelievably rude. He had to fight her to take it away.

The waitress almost immediately brought the check when I returned to the table and said so loud "I got the $60 meal removed from the check." like that was in any way our complaint, and smacked it down in front of me. She didn't ask about dessert, didn't ask about anything else. Didn't offer to bring me anything else. Just slammed down the check and when she saw I was tearing up, she rolled her eyes. I literally ran (as much as I can with a broken foot) to the car before I broke down sobbing in front of these people who would pretty clearly mock me for doing so, and left my poor brand new husband to pay the check. As another guest and I left, all of the wait staff was cold and even the host, whom I'm almost certain is the owner, wouldn't speak to us.

It was the worst dining experience I've ever had which is heartbreaking both because I love food (I've been in food service since high school, including fine dining) and because it was our wedding dinner (which the staff onviously knew) but I have absolutely no idea what we did to warrant it! I am SO UNBELIEVABLY GLAD that we were just a small party of 6, as opposed to the entire wedding reception of friends and family that I had planned to take to this restaurant. I would have absolutely died of embarrassment. Needless to say I will NEVER go back and I will firmly discourage...

Let me say that the food was good. The service was terrible. My husband and I met another couple for dinner. They were already seated when we arrived. After 30 minutes we asked if we had a waitress. Someone finally came out and took our drink order. Only 2 of us ordered a drink, a glass of wine and a bottle of beer. She returned with those 10 minutes later. I should add here that there were 3 other parties seated and there was a total of 3 waitresses and a hostess. It was not busy at all. She took our order. My husband realized his beer was warm, but no one came in the dining room so we could get someone's attention. He poured it over the ice that was left from his water. One of us ordered a soup which came out about 40 minutes after we ordered. A few minutes later she returned with our dinners. At this point my husband ordered another beer and the other gentleman with us asked for it to be a cold beer. I should mention that is was cold in the dining room as the air conditioning was blasting. The other couple mentioned that restaurants don't put out bread anymore. I looked around the room at the other guests. They all had bread on their tables. We were never offered any. We were almost finished with our meals when the second beer came out. Along with it was a wet glass which we assumed had been in the freezer but thawed by the time it came to the table. The beer was warm, again. She came back and plopped a dessert menu on our table. About 15 minutes later she came back to clear the dinners that were finished. Shortly after she took our dessert orders. They took over 20 minutes to be served. We were never offered coffee or tea. She finally cleared the rest of the dinners. She did come back after a fashion and asked if we wanted anything else. I asked for a box for the remainder of my dessert and the check. She promptly returned with our check and the box. As our friend was looking over the check, he realized that it was not ours. He stopped the hostess who happened to be walking by to tell her it was not ours. She fumbled over some words and went to tell the waitress who brought out our check. No one ever came back to the table to collect payment. We left the check and the payment on the table. As we were walking out the hostess thanked us while she was sitting on a chair looking at her cell phone. We get better service at the local establishment in West Eaton, and the chef always comes out to make sure everything is okay. This was our first and last visit to the Brae Loch Inn. The 3 three start rating is only because the...

One star because I can't give zero - My wife and I decided to Brae Loch Inn, it was a mistake. We got seated in front of an unused fireplace with very bad lighting. I noticed an oil lamp on the mantel and asked our waitress if the lamp could be lit, Terry the host who sat us came by with a “lantern” that didn’t help and said in a condescending voice, “here, this should help”.

Then our waitress asked if we were ready to order drinks, I said not yet and it seemed to confuse her. When she came back I asked about a beer menu, she knew nothing about the beer that was available. So, I looked at the wine menu and ordered wine. The waitress on her third visit took our orders and for the third time patted my arm. I then told her, “we are not friends, stop touching me”, she got upset, started to yell at me and threw her hands up in the air. So, I asked for a manager. I explained the waitresses’ actions with the beer and her touching me and my request to stop being touched. The manager said, “she’s been with us for 35 years and never had a complaint”, I said she has one now. (Now this manager wasn’t old enough to have been with Brae Loch for 35 years).

We ordered our meals, I had the duck and it came with rice. Both the duck and rice were overcooked, the duck was inedible. When the waitress asked how things were I told her, she became hostile and threw her arms in the air (again). I then asked for a manager, Terry came by, I explained about the food and requested the duck be take off my bill. Then, as “he looked down his nose at me” said ok. He immediately returned with bill (I guess I was being told to leave and not try the dessert). I then asked if there was a manager above him.

Before the last manager came, the waitress asked I f she could take the bill, I said no, she threw her hands up in the air ( for the third time) and left. When the final manager came by, I explained how horrible the whole experience was and all he could say was “I’m sorry”, I also told him I would be putting my review on google, yelp and trip advisor. Then I handed him the money for the bill and we left.

So, if you like bad lighting, overcooked and overpriced food and a host who thinks he's better than everybody else, the Brae Loch is for you.

My response to the owner - thanks for making me feel I was wrong in in my comments. It's nice to know that the customer is never right and your staff is...