The Wine Bar & Bistro at The Griswold Inn

Fabulous new summer menu & love the new wines. We will be back for sure!!! Thank you Steve & Essex Wine Bar team for the outstanding service - first class all the way, as always!!

Great place for and light fare. They have a wonderful cheese board and a variety of lighter fare ( small plates to share). I enjoy the wine flights.

Excellent place for some wine and food. Cozy and warm environment. Alexis, my server, was superb. Very helpful choosing my beverage to pair with my food.

Everything was perfect, as always! Ambiance, food and service all spot on! It was especially nice to get to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Wine Bar!

Scrumptious meal, comprised of baked cod and butternut squash ravioli.

Vegetarian options: Two vegetarian options

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I brought my cousin from out of state who is a big foodie and they were very impressed! The menu options were a mix of comfort and elegance with a dash of creativity. The staff were extremely professional and very attentive - my water glass was filled frequently without me having to chase anyone down! Will definitely be coming again.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

I live in Essex and love The Griswold Inn. We are regulars and know most of the staff. My experience tonight was very different to any experience before. We arrived in the wine bar and was told by a lady that I shouldn’t have walked through to the wine bar but I had had a drink in the bar and there was no signs telling us not to ? I had brought my friends who were visiting from Maryland they ordered Dirty Martinis the same lady then told us no blue cheese olives that’s fine. My friends asked for very dirty martinis but were told it was too far for her to walk to the other side to get the olive juice. She was just not very helpful ! We then went through to the restaurant for our dinner reservation and Diane was exceptional. Unfortunately the young lady in the wine bar is lacking customer service she comes off very abrupt thank god Steve is lovely but I think the gris needs to sort that out.

Great food and atmosphere

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Another great experience at the Wine Bar! Great Romain Sal's with goat cheese and berries, lamp chops, special pasta with pears, bistro steak and a special bread pudding for dessert! Everything was great! Service was attentive and knowledgeable and ambiance was relaxing and sophisticated.

This was my first time to this restaurant and I was very impressed with the quickness of service, quality of food, and very reasonably priced high quality wine. I will return. Quinn was an attentive and well informed waiter.

Thank you Steve & Essex Wine Bar team for an outstanding experience. We always look forward to our Friday night with you and no better way to kick off the weekend. See you soon!

I brought 2 friends whom had not been before- interior really nice, service great, but we were not impressed with the food at all. Ordered a bottle of Malbec. It was very nice. Ordered the olives as a stater. The presentation was poor - it just came in a small bowl. 1 of us ordered the pizza. It was good but expected more than a simple pizza. 2 of us ordered the scallops. Taste was okay. But $26 for 3 small scallops was pathetic! We were there to hear the talk at the museum on the CT ferries. We will not go again.

We started going there in 2022 for New Year's Eve, arriving on the 30th and staying until the 1st. in 2022 the experience was just fantastic all around, last December there were a couple of hiccups but the Inn Keepers responded promptly and remedied the situation. The place is charming with a lot of character. The rooms are a bit small but hey, that's what you get in historic places, people were smaller back then. The food is spectacular and the overall experience is worth every penny. If you want to go back in time and get the feeling of New England a couple of hundred years ago, this is the place to be!

After walking through the streets had a had a pleasurable lunch. The ambiance is unique given the age of the Inn dating to the 19th Century. The staff was friendly and food delicious. The Clam Chowder is a must and the Reuben was a hit. The fish and chips were good - but felt seasoning could have helped bring out the flavor more. Recommend making reservations. A great lunch spot

My wife and I enjoyed a lovely dinner last night. We both appreciate the “tapas” style menu, as we can sample a few different items and not feel over stuffed. The “by the glass” wine list was impressive, as was the “by the bottle” list. I found the wine prices to be very reasonable for a restaurant. Lastly, but of equal importance, was the service experience. From the young lady who took care of us all night, to the hostess and food servers, everyone was pleasant and engaging. We will definitely return.