Pond House Cafe — Restaurant in West Hartford

From the instant we walked into this breathtaking venue, we knew - this was it, we were meant to be here. The place where we would celebrate the start of our forever.

From the very first meeting with Charlene, it only reaffirmed what our hearts already felt. Charlene was our first point of contact and from the moment we met her, we knew we were in the right hands. She is so kind, caring, and supportive. When she told us she had a Saturday evening available, even though it was on a shorter timeline than we had originally in mind, it still felt right. We made it work without hesitation, and it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.

Throughout the planning process, Leslie, our wedding coordinator, was nothing short of extraordinary. She has a gift for transforming a vision into reality, and working with her felt less like business and more like connecting with an old friend. Every time we met or checked in, she made us feel at ease and truly excited for what was to come. She brought our dream day to life with such grace and care, and we are endlessly grateful for her.

During the months leading up to our wedding, we dined many times at the cafe, and each visit was made even more special by Joe and the staff, who always greeted us with warmth and joy. Joe made us feel like old friends - cherished and genuinely welcome each time we walked through the door. Diana also deserves heartfelt thanks for her keen eye in helping us curate a menu with Leslie that perfectly balanced the cuisine and appetizers. She is so lovely, thoughtful, and kind.

On our big day, the chef and his incredible team left everyone in awe with the delectable cuisine they crafted - every appetizer, main dish, dessert, and more was exquisite. Even the bartender went above and beyond to ensure our guests were well taken care of adding to the seamless, joyful atmosphere of the evening.

From start to finish, every step of our journey felt like a dream come true. To be welcomed and supported so genuinely at every turn validated our choice of this venue over and over again. We could not have asked for a more beautiful place or more wonderful people to bring our wedding to life. To everyone who played a special part in our beautiful day - Charlene, Leslie, Diana, Joe, the chef, the bartender, and every member of the staff - thank you with all our hearts for giving us a wedding we will...

The second star is for the outdoor setting. Otherwise, one star is appropriate. We arrived early and asked if we could be seated before our reserved time. We were told that it was unlikely. The restaurant was, however, only about a quarter full. When our server came he offered a special on a bottle of wine. When I declined, he said we could bring the undrunk wine home. He was more a sales person than a waiter. I had checked out all the wine offerings on Winesearcher before arriving. None were more than average. It was my wife's birthday and she had a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon that cost 13.30 despite being just average, it was about the same price as a glass of wine she had had at Jean Georges a 3 star Michelin restaurant in NYC. I had what tasted like powdery iced tea. Our salads took an unusually long time to arrive despite the restaurant being still only half full. My wife's ahí tuna turned out to be a raw hunk of tuna with poorly fried wonton skins and a few other ingredients just placed on the bowl. My poached salmon salad had dry tasteless poached salmon, a very hard boiled egg on what tasted like package lettuce and grapefruit sections from a jar. It came with a creamy raspberry "balsamic"dressing that looked artificially pink. I asked whether there was cream in it and when I was almost finished, the manager came and explained that the dressing had lemon juice, orange juice and "champagne" vinegar in it. It just tasted like vinegar and obviously had no balsamic vinegar in it. When the waiter finally came back, he said he was going to get dessert menus. He didn't ask if we wanted dessert, another sales tactic. It took a while to get the bill and I had to stand up and start walking out to get someone, the manager again, to take my credit card. Despite the exterior being in a park and having a private garden, the fake flowers in the center of the luncheonette looking decor did not enhance the decor. We had been here a long time ago when the experience was much better with farm to table food. My wife who chose the restaurant for her birthday thought it was now more...

I remember when I was looking at venues and stumbled across The Pond House’s image of the banquet room beautifully bright with floor to ceiling windows. It was breathtaking and I’m so happy it was my wedding venue! I opted for a Sunday brunch wedding with a 12:30 ceremony and reception ending at 4pm. Our wedding was at the end of June, when the roses in Elizabeth Park are in full bloom which made for the most amazing pictures!

Pond House Café was great through my entire wedding planning process. Diana, the Sales Manager, is very on top of things and quick to reach out. As we approached the 6-montth mark I began working with the on-site coordinators. There are anywhere from 2-4 coordinators and managers and I didn’t have a dedicated person working on my event (they all just work together) so sometimes I did find that part frustrating; I had to have faith that everyone on the team was getting the memos. In the end, there were no major errors and the wedding day was a success.

Pros: My guests said great things about the food! It’s not your basic buffet and/or plated meal. The chef puts in a lot of effort to ensure local, fresh and organic ingredients are used. We got to meet the chef and go over our menu selections. We got to try one of the buffet options per our request. Another pro is that your cake is included in the price—and the cake was super yummy!! Pond House recently updated their enhancements list and it’s packed with ways to make your day even more special. My biggest pro was how beautiful The Pond House was decorated and showed. Their team puts a lot of time and money to replace the window sill flower boxes, swap out décor for the buffet table etc depending on the time of year, even the outside of the venue gets decorated. My decorations were MINIMAL because of how spectacular the space already is and how much décor is already on-site.

Cons: No bridal suite. Guests share a bathroom with the public (if the café is open during your...