Cedar Knoll — Restaurant in Virginia

Cedar Knoll is an amazing venue to have a wedding. We started out our venue search by looking for the typical, big room, lots of seating capacity, dance floor, catering, exc. However, we really wanted something special and not cookie cutter, something unique and a place to remember. We live in Alexandria and frequently bike along the Mount Vernon Trail and always rode by Cedar Knoll. When we first walked into the restaurant, the entire staff greeted us and we met up with Jessica the events manager. She instantly raved about how good their food is compared to other venues (I tend to think the typical wedding food is well.. pre-made re-heated, nothing to get excited about). Well, their food is truly amazing. We decided to go with Cedar Knoll because of the price, the food, the location, the uniqueness, the beauty, and the history. When you go through and walk around the restaurant, each room has its own theme. At first, you might worry about how can I fit 100 people in one room (we had 109) forget about tradition; spread your guests throughout the restaurant. We were afraid people might get offended by not being seated near the bride and groom but they did not seem to mind it. We decided to have our food served family style. This forced everyone to have to chat with each other and made it feel like a good old Thanksgiving dinner. Before we had our food tasting, we printed out our invitations with a cow and a fish because that’s the traditional food choice. Towards the end of our tasting Andrew (head chef) brought out the last entre (they use all different size and styles of neat plates). He served us a pork tenderloin with sweat potato and pineapple hash served on top. At first bite, I looked over to my wife and said, “ah crap”. Not because it didn’t taste good, but because I knew this had to be included. The problem was that we had already sent out our invitations with a cow and a fish as the options. This tasted so good we decided we had to have it included and scrapped the steak. Our guests certainly enjoyed this decision! I wanted to include this experience to try and hopefully paint a picture into how good the food was at our wedding. We had an outdoor ceremony on the front lawn which was beautifully setup with the big oak tree as our back drop. Yes, because of its proximity to GW parkway you could hear the cars from the road, however you ignore them as soon as the ceremony starts. The ceremony went off without a hitch and cocktail hour was excellent. Jessica kept bringing us food to ensure we would not miss out while we were having our pictures taken. I’ve been to several weddings where the bride and groom missed out entirely on their cocktail hour. For the reception, our guests were spread out and we had three tables setup in the grand room so we could have a dance floor. Sure, the dance floor isn’t the largest however, I believe that it was a good thing. It makes it seem less awkward when you only have 10 people dancing. Everything went off without a hitch during the night and the staff, Jessica, and Andrew all did a wonderful job. They allowed for us to leave our stuff overnight so we did not have to worry about cleaning up. When we came back to pick everything up we saw a lot of the same staff from the night before. They all congratulated us again and talked about how wonderful the night was. After using Cedar Knoll for our venue, it’s apparent they are like a small family, one that I am happy to have...

This is going to be a long one, so hang on, folks. First off, I feel sorry for the wait staff. Our experience was largely not their fault.

TLDR: DIRTY. EGREGIOUSLY FILTHY. RDICULOUS WAIT TIMES. MISSING OR POORLY MADE FOOD. AND WE GOT FOOD POISONING.

We dined there on Dec 17, 2022. I made the reservation by phone a month in advance, as the Open Table reservation system didn't allow for any earlier. It was for our five year anniversary, and I made that clear. They offered a free champagne toast and free dessert, at a quiet table. We didn't receive any of that. (well, we did get a free dessert and cheap bottle of sparkling crap after we complained, but not as a part of our reservation compliments.)

We arrived 10min before our reservation time. We then waited another 45 min beyond that to be seated. There was no one at the host stand to receive guests, and we weren't the only angry party.

We sat down to a dirty table, with dirty silverware, and were finally delivered water in dirty glasses with white particles floating in the main bottle, another 25 min later. We complained, but the replacements were also dirty.

We received our appetizers, both of which were cold, even though one of which was supposed to be hot (deep fried goat cheese) and it didn't come with the "blistered grapes, honeycomb, basil, [or] apricot sauce". It was literally cold, fried goat cheese on some arugula.

The waiters didn't know anything about the wine, or maybe they were too stressed to process our request for a pairing.

When the wine came, it also had black particles floating in it. We complained about that, and got another glass, with the same black particles floating in the replacement.

We almost just left at that point, but the waitstaff assured us that our entrees could be rushed. It's been over two hours at this point, and the babysitter is only covered for three.

The entrees tasted good, and they came out hot. We got ours before three other tables that arrived before us got theirs, and even before the one table that had finished their meal before we seated had the opportunity to pay their bill.

In the restroom, I discovered black mold around almost all of the corners and around the toilet bases. It smelled of "hoarder house" despite the desperate "air fresheners".

We were informed that management had agreed to host a "last minute" holiday party in one of the other dining areas and had not adjusted the staffing to accommodate said party.

Then we were ok for a day, and following, my husband and I took three days off work for GI distress. We literally could not leave the vicinity of a toilet for more that 20 min at a time.

It wasn't worth the money we spent, nor the 20ish calls back because NO ONE BOTHERED TO ANSWER THE PHONE.

Steer. Clear. Of. This. Establishment. The health department should shut it down. Don't eat here.

Two stars because the entree was good and the waitstaff were really trying their best.

Edit: I'm editing almost three years later because the awful management never reached out to us or replied. That's how much they care. Dropping the service to zero.

What is wrong...

My family was very excited to go to Cedar Knoll for Thanksgiving . We were excited to try the menu items. Sadly our expectations were not met. My mother who is legally blind asked for a table by the window when she made the reservation in early October then on the day of Thanksgiving she called again to confirm they would give us a table in a well lit area by the window. The person on the phone told her they would. Unfortunately when we arrived the hostess sat us as far as we could be away from the window in a darker area. I asked to speak to the manager. Instead of being apologetic he said he had no note on our reservation essentially blaming us the customer. The reservation for the holiday was made over the phone. It was the responsibility of the restaurant to make note of the request. He was unprofessional and had zero customer service skills. He could care less my mother was blind and would have trouble seeing during our holiday dinner. He only offered us a table outside which we refused since it was very windy. My mother advocated for her needs and the restaurant failed to follow through with her request.

The service was also the worst service I have ever had for a thanksgiving dinner. All the staff needs to be retrained. The servers brought appetizers but did not provide plates. They did not clear the table after apps and brought dinner which there was so little room for and once again our dinner got cold as we waited for dinner plates. The table was so cramped for 8 people. They failed to refill our water glasses throughout the dinner. We had to ask several times for more water. Only at the end as we got up to leave they decided to provide a bottle of water for the table. They provided only salad forks for the meal. Once dinner was served no one asked if we needed anything further or bothered to check on us. Our coffee was provided in tea cups and only half filled. We noticed the room was cramped with too many tables and it was difficult to maneuver around them. No flowers or candles were on the tables. We were instead surrounded by an ugly room divider.

In the future, please respect your customers especially customers with disabilities. We deserved better treatment especially my mother who went out of her way to ask twice for a well lit table only to be let down by the restaurant. I am beyond disappointed by our treatment. I do not recommend your restaurant for any holiday dinners. I recommend all your staff be re-trained. We had to ask for so many things that were so obvious. Clearly none of the servers were prepared to provide the quality service customers deserve. Please do better so other families do not have to experience such poor service in the future like...