I attended the Christmas Afternoon Tea on the 21st of December at 2pm for a party of 4. My guests and I have all had multiple afternoon tea experiences in the past, so we know what to typically expect at afternoon tea. For the price I paid of $208, there are several issues that I feel were disappointing for the 4 of us and that are important for the manager of Caroline’s to be aware of.
The first issue was the lack of a tea menu offered, as the tea itself is a big part of an afternoon tea experience. I have never been to one that did not offer a selection of different teas.
After being seated, we immediately noticed that the waitstaff seemed a bit all over the place and untrained in certain areas. Our waiter did not know what a lot of the offerings were. He did check on us frequently and refilled our teapot which we appreciated.
The scones: The presentation of this tier was poor to say the least. It seemed as if someone tossed these scones onto the plates. The top tier had nothing but the clotted cream on it. The pairings to go with the scones were certainly not enough to go around for 4 people. We were served one tablespoon of each - The jam, lemon curd and clotted cream. This serving is enough for 1 person, possibly 2. To share this amongst 4 people was a stretch and was a little frustrating. The scones themselves tasted okay, but were not even an inch in thickness. It seemed as if the kitchen staff purposely made them this thin to conserve the scone dough which isn’t a great look.
The savories: This tier was underwhelming unfortunately. The pâté tarts were divided in half which again seemed like some conserving was happening but were also inedible for all but one of us. They tasted like they had been sitting out for hours and were just unpleasant. The cucumber sandwich and salmon sandwich both tasted fine, but shared the same type of plain white bread. The asparagus phyllo bite was okay, but lacked flavor. Additionally, the flowers tossed all over everything was unpleasant.
The Sweets: This was the most disappointing tier of them all. I have had homemade pettit fours, macarons, poundcake and gingerbread cookies before, and none that were offered seemed like they were made by the kitchen staff. They looked and tasted store bought, which to me, is unacceptable for the price I paid. The presentation of the gingerbread cookie and pumpkin snowman cookie was baffling. I don’t understand how they were served to guests looking the way they did. I will include pictures of what they looked like below. Aside from the poor appearance, the frosting on both seemed storebought and had a very unpleasant mouthfeel. The deer sugar cookies, snickerdoodles and gingerbread cookies were inedible due to being as hard as a rock. A few of us also could not finish the pettit fours or macarons due to their artificial/storebought taste. The only okay tasting thing on this entire tier was the jam cookie that had 1/4 teaspoon of jam in the middle and the jewels which at least seemed made by the staff. This tier reminded me of my elementary school Christmas party, which is not what should be served at a pricey afternoon tea experience. I have baked and prepared a homemade afternoon tea myself this past October and know what fresh and homemade finger foods taste like, this was just not that at all.
As a whole, this experience was certainly not worth the price that I paid, I left feeling embarrassed that I invited my guests to something like this. I am especially disappointed because this was something that I wanted to be able to attend next year…
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
Luke Hansen
The salmon flatbread was so good my wife didn’t want to share too much with me. Seriously, 10/5 food here.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
c “cfl” lane
We had a nice gathering and small celebration on the patio. Service was friendly, the food was good and the patio was nice.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Laura
The food, service and atmosphere are typical of a hotel...o.k.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Max Tomerlin
Caroline’s is a special place. With a beautiful view of the landscape and a solid seasonal menu, you’re going to have a nice experience here no matter what. We had wine which increased the cost of dining. Worth it 😉
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Cara
Drinks other than wine were super strong and poorly made. Food was under done. Elk steak was so raw as well as my chicken. Terrible mustard and paprika paste on the chicken and my carrot risotto was paste like. Worst meal of our trip.
Leah
The food was fine and our server was nice, but I asked for a to go box for 3/4 of my 40 dollar steak. The server asked to wrap it up for us and came back 5 minutes later saying he had dropped it. Although he did apologize, he didn't offer to remake the steak or potatoes that fell and didn't give and compensation for the meal. This was a bummer since the food was quite pricey and we were only in palisade for the weekend.
Jenni
We had a wonderful experience at Caroline's! The staff was helpful and incredibly attentenive. We never had to ask for anything and they were always checking in. Not only were they completely on top of our service, they were kind and friendly. Everything we ordered was amazing as well. 11/10 experience. Will definitely come back when we are in town!
Julie
We were very impressed with the service from the time we walked in the door until we left. The steak was delicious!
Marty Myers
Lovely meal. Be brave and try the cioppino with peach and green chile broth. It was awesome! The chef taled it up at the wine tasting and then cafe it from the kitchen to check whether I liked it or not at dinner. Peach bread pudding also awesome. My husband had the elk loin. Equally delicious.
We had the elk and the chicken and neither were good. The peach pie was less the desirable as well. Will never need to stop there again. 😥
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
Mary
The calamari was excellent. The service was excellent. Our wine choice was excellent. However, the main course both my husband and I had, the short ribs, lacked flavor and 1/2 of my meat was fat. I ended up with about 4T of actual meat. My husbands was tough and chewy.' We were seated within touching distance of a table of 5-6, so close we could hear everything being said. Acoustics and ambience are not very good either
Jean Verrier
Food here is typically good, but tonight we received some of the worst service we have ever had and they weren’t even busy. Literally just a few small tables totaling maybe six people. The one server they had on staff spent all of his time talking to a gentleman that was dining there alone. This server literally ignored us and the one other table he had beside the one he was dedicating anll of his attention to. Ordered wine when our meals arrived as he let our initial drinks run dry. That second round never came. As it was the first round took forever and the service was very slow. Was going to order dessert, but decided to skip it and tell the server to take the wine off our bill. I ended up taking my daughter back to our room while my wife stayed behind to pay the check. She ultimately had to go to the counter and request the check as he continued to ignore her. Note to management, this server should never be allowed to manage the front of the house on his own without direct supervision. He needs constant management, like micro management. Though our family has regularly stayed at the Wine Country Inn and eaten at Caroline’s, this experience has certainly given us pause to continue doing that.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 1
Terri Phillips
One of the worst, if not, the worst steak dinner we have ever had. We should have stopped our order when my wife’s “salad” was brought to the table, half wilted, ingredients one layer thick on a saucer, limited ingredient, pale colors. The bread basket was rolls which had been microwaved to the point you could not even chew them. The French onion soup, however was amazing. Then came the “12oz steak” of which over half of it was pure fat, not marbled but a slab of fat. I would say we paid $36 for a 4-5oz steak that was mediocre at best. We brought these things to the attention of the waiter who was the only wait person in the restaurant. Service was poor because he had no help. He was a very pleasant young man and he was working hard. When we complained about the food he said he would share the information with the chef. (The chef had visited at length with another table but did not come to our table so we were unable to directly discuss our concerns with him.) when the waiter returned he said “the chef wants to assure you he will weigh the steaks from now on.” Also we found out the salads are premade and dated and “sometimes maybe the dates are wrong.” Then it made sense why the salad looked like it had spend days in the refrigerator before being served. WARNING-bad food, bad service, lack of concern for correcting issues. The ONLY thing that was good was the French onion soup. It was amazing! The waiter was nice but clearly overwhelmed. The “chef” certainly substandard in the field, serving subpar food.We wish we had taken photos, because no way anyone could imagine the pitiful salad and the slab of pure fat passed on as a New York Strip.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
Karen
We had a wonderful dining experience at Caroline's. Our server , Lupita, was excellent, very friendly and accommodating. The salmon special was delicious. Pesto crusted salmon over Alfredo pasta and spinach. We got a a glass of wine from their local winery that was excellent . The entire staff was very friendly.
I attended the Christmas Afternoon Tea on the 21st of December at 2pm for a party of 4. My guests and I have all had multiple afternoon tea experiences in the past, so we know what to typically expect at afternoon tea. For the price I paid of $208, there are several issues that I feel were disappointing for the 4 of us and that are important for the manager of Caroline’s to be aware of.
The first issue was the lack of a tea menu offered, as the tea itself is a big part of an afternoon tea experience. I have never been to one that did not offer a selection of different teas.
After being seated, we immediately noticed that the waitstaff seemed a bit all over the place and untrained in certain areas. Our waiter did not know what a lot of the offerings were. He did check on us frequently and refilled our teapot which we appreciated.
The scones:
The presentation of this tier was poor to say the least. It seemed as if someone tossed these scones onto the plates. The top tier had nothing but the clotted cream on it. The pairings to go with the scones were certainly not enough to go around for 4 people. We were served one tablespoon of each - The jam, lemon curd and clotted cream. This serving is enough for 1 person, possibly 2. To share this amongst 4 people was a stretch and was a little frustrating. The scones themselves tasted okay, but were not even an inch in thickness. It seemed as if the kitchen staff purposely made them this thin to conserve the scone dough which isn’t a great look.
The savories:
This tier was underwhelming unfortunately. The pâté tarts were divided in half which again seemed like some conserving was happening but were also inedible for all but one of us. They tasted like they had been sitting out for hours and were just unpleasant. The cucumber sandwich and salmon sandwich both tasted fine, but shared the same type of plain white bread.
The asparagus phyllo bite was okay, but lacked flavor. Additionally, the flowers tossed all over everything was unpleasant.
The Sweets:
This was the most disappointing tier of them all. I have had homemade pettit fours, macarons, poundcake and gingerbread cookies before, and none that were offered seemed like they were made by the kitchen staff. They looked and tasted store bought, which to me, is unacceptable for the price I paid. The presentation of the gingerbread cookie and pumpkin snowman cookie was baffling. I don’t understand how they were served to guests looking the way they did. I will include pictures of what they looked like below. Aside from the poor appearance, the frosting on both seemed storebought and had a very unpleasant mouthfeel. The deer sugar cookies, snickerdoodles and gingerbread cookies were inedible due to being as hard as a rock. A few of us also could not finish the pettit fours or macarons due to their artificial/storebought taste. The only okay tasting thing on this entire tier was the jam cookie that had 1/4 teaspoon of jam in the middle and the jewels which at least seemed made by the staff. This tier reminded me of my elementary school Christmas party, which is not what should be served at a pricey afternoon tea experience. I have baked and prepared a homemade afternoon tea myself this past October and know what fresh and homemade finger foods taste like, this was just not that at all.
As a whole, this experience was certainly not worth the price that I paid, I left feeling embarrassed that I invited my guests to something like this. I am especially disappointed because this was something that I wanted to be able to attend next year…
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 2
Service: 2
The salmon flatbread was so good my wife didn’t want to share too much with me. Seriously, 10/5 food here.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We had a nice gathering and small celebration on the patio. Service was friendly, the food was good and the patio was nice.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
The food, service and atmosphere are typical of a hotel...o.k.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 3
Service: 3
Caroline’s is a special place. With a beautiful view of the landscape and a solid seasonal menu, you’re going to have a nice experience here no matter what. We had wine which increased the cost of dining. Worth it 😉
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Drinks other than wine were super strong and poorly made. Food was under done. Elk steak was so raw as well as my chicken. Terrible mustard and paprika paste on the chicken and my carrot risotto was paste like. Worst meal of our trip.
The food was fine and our server was nice, but I asked for a to go box for 3/4 of my 40 dollar steak. The server asked to wrap it up for us and came back 5 minutes later saying he had dropped it. Although he did apologize, he didn't offer to remake the steak or potatoes that fell and didn't give and compensation for the meal. This was a bummer since the food was quite pricey and we were only in palisade for the weekend.
We had a wonderful experience at Caroline's! The staff was helpful and incredibly attentenive. We never had to ask for anything and they were always checking in. Not only were they completely on top of our service, they were kind and friendly. Everything we ordered was amazing as well. 11/10 experience. Will definitely come back when we are in town!
We were very impressed with the service from the time we walked in the door until we left. The steak was delicious!
Lovely meal. Be brave and try the cioppino with peach and green chile broth. It was awesome! The chef taled it up at the wine tasting and then cafe it from the kitchen to check whether I liked it or not at dinner. Peach bread pudding also awesome. My husband had the elk loin. Equally delicious.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 4
Restaurantji Recommends
We had the elk and the chicken and neither were good. The peach pie was less the desirable as well. Will never need to stop there again. 😥
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 1
Service: 3
The calamari was excellent. The service was excellent. Our wine choice was excellent. However, the main course both my husband and I had, the short ribs, lacked flavor and 1/2 of my meat was fat. I ended up with about 4T of actual meat. My husbands was tough and chewy.' We were seated within touching distance of a table of 5-6, so close we could hear everything being said. Acoustics and ambience are not very good either
Food here is typically good, but tonight we received some of the worst service we have ever had and they weren’t even busy. Literally just a few small tables totaling maybe six people. The one server they had on staff spent all of his time talking to a gentleman that was dining there alone. This server literally ignored us and the one other table he had beside the one he was dedicating anll of his attention to. Ordered wine when our meals arrived as he let our initial drinks run dry. That second round never came. As it was the first round took forever and the service was very slow. Was going to order dessert, but decided to skip it and tell the server to take the wine off our bill. I ended up taking my daughter back to our room while my wife stayed behind to pay the check. She ultimately had to go to the counter and request the check as he continued to ignore her. Note to management, this server should never be allowed to manage the front of the house on his own without direct supervision. He needs constant management, like micro management. Though our family has regularly stayed at the Wine Country Inn and eaten at Caroline’s, this experience has certainly given us pause to continue doing that.
Atmosphere: 3
Food: 4
Service: 1
One of the worst, if not, the worst steak dinner we have ever had. We should have stopped our order when my wife’s “salad” was brought to the table, half wilted, ingredients one layer thick on a saucer, limited ingredient, pale colors. The bread basket was rolls which had been microwaved to the point you could not even chew them. The French onion soup, however was amazing. Then came the “12oz steak” of which over half of it was pure fat, not marbled but a slab of fat. I would say we paid $36 for a 4-5oz steak that was mediocre at best. We brought these things to the attention of the waiter who was the only wait person in the restaurant. Service was poor because he had no help. He was a very pleasant young man and he was working hard. When we complained about the food he said he would share the information with the chef. (The chef had visited at length with another table but did not come to our table so we were unable to directly discuss our concerns with him.) when the waiter returned he said “the chef wants to assure you he will weigh the steaks from now on.” Also we found out the salads are premade and dated and “sometimes maybe the dates are wrong.”
Then it made sense why the salad looked like it had spend days in the refrigerator before being served. WARNING-bad food, bad service, lack of concern for correcting issues. The ONLY thing that was good was the French onion soup. It was amazing! The waiter was nice but clearly overwhelmed. The “chef” certainly substandard in the field, serving subpar food.We wish we had taken photos, because no way anyone could imagine the pitiful salad and the slab of pure fat passed on as a New York Strip.
Atmosphere: 2
Food: 1
Service: 1
We had a wonderful dining experience at Caroline's. Our server , Lupita, was excellent, very friendly and accommodating. The salmon special was delicious. Pesto crusted salmon over Alfredo pasta and spinach. We got a a glass of wine from their local winery that was excellent . The entire staff was very friendly.
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