Connecticut

Venue help!!! Riverview

Ladies this bride needs all the help she can get!!!! My fiancé and I have been touring venues for the last month and the only place we really love (that's in our budget hahaha) is the Riverview in Simsbury, we love the beautiful outside tent and the gorgeous ballroom! we were all set to put a deposit down....until we talked to three people who said the food at Riverview is "awful"  we are so concerned because they do not allow food tastings and now we are not sure if we should book them for our wedding :(.   So if any of you ladies ever attended a wedding there or had friends who attended weddings there, how was the food!!??

Thank you!!!!


Re: Venue help!!! Riverview

  • I would like to hear more about not "allowing" a tasting.  Is it just not something they do?  Is the catering done in-house or does another company come in?

    Personally, I would not have booked my venue or caterer without being allowed to sample the food.  
  • My venue charges $30 for tasting since they don't normally do them due to not being an actual restaurant. That might be the case with Riverview as to why they don't do tastings. I had read reviews though that the food was good and they also hosted a bridal show where I got to try the food as well.

     

  • Yea food tasting is not something that they do, it is not in their policy, they only allow tastings of the cake. Catering is done in house, so you would think it would be easy enough for them to let us sample the food. They were the only venue we visited that did not provide a tasting, i guess we are suppose to take their word for it that the food is good! I would even be willing to pay for a tasting if that was an option. 

  • I went to two weddings there this year. I had a chicken dish and my fiancé had the beef. Mine was fine but his both times was not cooked how he wanted it (should have been medium rare ended up well done). This would be fine and good except the second wedding service was ridiculously slow. By slow I mean we sat down for dinner around 7 and dinner was over at 9:30/9:45 this left an hour for dancing. Cocktail hour also went over, it was probably an hour and a half. We had looked at it as well, but would NOT recommend it based on the weddings we went to.
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  • Thanks JennyP37! my fiancé and I decided not to go with them as well. We just don't think its appropriate for a place to charge that much $$$ and not allow tastings. Its a beautiful venue though!

  • @aniable14 my venue did not do tastings ( testas in southington) i knew enough people who went to weddings there who said the food was out of this world and i trusted them and our reception was flawless and the food was amazing

    my brother had his reception at the riverview and the food was amazing yes he did not get a tasting but he had heard so many good things about the food. the food at his wedding was so good cooked perfectly amazing and the staff was great food came out fast and hot. 

    you decided to go elsewhere and thats your choice but  the riverviews food is outstanding. reason me and hubbs did not go with them was it was my brother and sil venue and pricing was outside ouf our budget 
  • I got married at the Riverview a little over a year ago. I had the veggie tower and my husband had the beef. I have to say - the veggie tower was not good. I barely ate it because I just did not think it tasted good at all. I knew from the get-go they didn't do a tasting and I really loved the place so I'm glad we went with them, but I don't have great things to say about the meals. The hordeorves were really good, though.

    We also attended a wedding this past year at The Riverview...they had different meal options than we did, prime rib was an option. Some of the people who got the prime rib at our table didn't eat it because it was basically rare. I like my meat that way, but that's not usually how the majority of people like their meat cooked.

    Anyway....I don't regret getting married there because everything else was great. My recommendation is to not go too crazy on the menu. Choose some basic things - beef, chicken, fish. Unfortunately, I think they only have on option for the vegetarian dish and it really is not very good.

    Good luck!!!
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