Grand Bellevue Rail Dining Experience

attended a mob themed murder mystery dinner train ride, and the whole experience was outstanding. the food was also absolutely incredible. some of the best I've had dining out

My friends and I had such a fun time at the Murder Mystery Dinner Train. I’ve raved nonstop about it to all of my friends and family, with the caveat that it is a INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE so make sure everyone going is ok with participating because that’s what makes it fun.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5

Took my wife for our 1-year wedding anniversary, and what an absolute blast! The rustic vibe as you walk to the train just gives you a blast of nostalgia the moment you park your car. Everything from the food,drinks,the views, the STAFF which we can not say enough great things on how respectful they were and accommodating. The murder mystery was such a fun/fantastic experience. The train and the event felt like one big secluded party vibe, but with such an intimate feeling. Overall 100/100 and looking forward to future evenings.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

We did the masquerade murder mystery to celebrate my birthday and we had a blast! I believe we had Val and Joselyn (sorry if that’s wrong I’m so bad with names) as our actors on board and they were awesome. They were super engaging the whole time and they were also hilarious. We also felt like all the courses came out at the perfect time, the food was good, and our wait staff was super attentive and sweet. We were able to guess the murderer correctly and I won best dressed! Highly recommend at least once, I would love to come back!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Love, love, love the show, the food, the service, and the views! Thank you!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

What an incredibly, unique experience right in our backyard! I absolutely loved everything from the attentive staff and carefully curated menu to the authentic feeling of the restored trains and fun of the whole night! Not to mention...Mother Nature put on quite a show for us! I definitely recommend!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

A realistic evaluation of a delightful experience.

Google maps will get you right there, parking is ample and it is a short jaunt to the ticket house. Grounds are clean and well manicured setting the stage for a well-run, high quality experience.

The first interaction with the staff is at ticketing in which the young man, dressed appropriately in period-correct rail house attire, happy helps and answers any questions guests may have. As we boarded, the friendly staff were lined up at the entrance to greet us. Walking into the dining car was like entering a time machine back to the days where rail travel was the only high-class way to go.

The car was spotless, even the fancy beaded chandeliers and ceiling fans, perfectly maintained, well lit, and elegant. We were there for the murder-mystery dinner and arrived early enough to enjoy a delicious cocktail before the train got underway. The drinks were priced as expected for an experience such as this, and were of high quality and adequate volume. There was a note in another review about a short pour of wine, however there never appeared to be a lack of volume in anyone's glass, or dissatisfied faces for that matter.

I never used the restroom, but by the guests accounts I was with it was noted the bathrooms were clean, and sanitary.

The actors for the murder mystery were delightful, and set the tone immediately for the fun that was to insue and last the duration of the nearly 3 hour adventure that was to come. In the interest of not giving anything away, If I could rate the Murder Mystery Co. Separately they would receive 5 stars. The entire train car would laugh, gasp, and were fully engaged in the adventure of solving the heinous crime. This made the car a little noisy at times, however it was the sound of joy, not of a brouhaha, or obnoxious behavior.

As the train lazily meandered along the track there was never any mechanical noise, smell of the engine, or clanking to deal with. It is a train, however, so some minor rocking and a few small jostles are to be expected. The views at sunset were just breathtaking, and a reminder of how truly beautiful Rhode Island is.

The meal was paced perfectly through the entirety of the experience. Our waiter (Brandon I believe, but I could be wrong) was continuously attentive, kind, and quick to respond. He was bery additive to the overall experience. The manager on board did come by to assure the experience was exceeding our expectations. The Food quality was that of a entry-level find dining experience. The food was beautifully presented, and cooked perfectly. Flavors were not overly complex, but fresh and high quality. A different garnish aside from the edible flowers that were placed directly on the food may have been warranted, as they tasted overly earthy in comparison with the savory favors of the food. The attention to detail continued, and even the vegetables were perfectly cooked, cleaned, and filled with flavor. Get the chocolate lava cake for dessert, you will not regret it!

The over all cost ended up being a little under $200 per person for our group. That is not the kind of price tag many can just drop on a whim, however that kind of money buys you a unique, engaging, and fantastic evening for a little more than one would spend on a quality dinner and after-drinks in Newport, or nosebleed seats at a Patriots game. I believe this is where the Grand Bellevue Rail Dining Experience builds a pretty extreme value. I would definitely recommend this experience for special occasions, or fancy evening out. It certainly exceeded my expectations, and so long as you are realistic about what to expect from a train-based quality dining experience and show, it will exceed yours too!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

Overall this was a great experience! The train has been restored beautifully and the route/scenery was lovely. The food was very tasty, the blood orange creme brulee was excellent.

In regards to service: Our servers were wonderful - friendly and efficient, taking time to recommend drinks and take pictures. We appreciated being greeted promptly and having our meals reviewed. We liked that the car was spacious and tables felt intimate, no extra charges for a private table as some other dinner trains have. However, this was not the 5 star service experience it is described as -- upscale yes, fine dining no. There only seemed to be one main server for our entire car (at least 13 occupied tables) as well as a server taking care of drinks, I did see a couple other staff towards end of meal service. I am unsure if they were short staffed or this is their normal staffing model, but unfortunately this meant lags between courses, drink orders being a bit out of sync with courses, no offer of coffee/tea after meals and no opportunity for the server to check back on our food. When a neighboring table asked about the scenery we were simply pointed back to the route map, a host/maitre d or non serving staff available to answer these questions and provide commentary would have been wonderful. Silverware was not changed between courses and no soup spoons were provided meaning the spoon for tomato soup was also the spoon for raspberry sorbet and even dessert!

A manager did come around between dinner and dessert to ask about our experience, when she asked if the service was up to expectations it was hard to answer - yes for our server but no to the overall experience. I wasn't going to say no and have a very friendly and hard working server chastised midshift or deal with any awkwardness during our remaining journey, wasn't the best time to ask the question.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 3

It was beautiful and the food was fantastic!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Edited 7/28/2024 - Firstly, my pronouns are She/Her as I am not male or otherwise gender neutral. I find it offensive that I am referred to as disguising myself as someone else. Rather, I am someone who represents the LGBTQ+ community in Central Florida. Secondly, my review is honest and accurate as a paying customer who was visiting Newport and the Ocean State on vacation and who saved for months to do so. There are many other negative reviews of the "Newport Dinner Train" currently at 3.1 stars. They keep creating new Google Business Profiles to try to change their image.
My name actually is Ginger and I am reviewing this business using my own Google account so I am quite confused by the response from Grand Bellevue assuming they know who I am as there was not a birthday celebration within my party of 2. It appears to be yet another erroneous and pathetic attempt to mask their shortcomings rather than vow to improve from honest customer feedback.

Original Review on 7/27/2024:
Save your hard earned money and don't bother dining on the rails with this organization. You are better off riding along on Thomas the Choo-Choo train instead. Even the trolley to the Neighborhood of Make Believe is a better experience than the Grand Bellevue. In fact, the Neighborhood of Make Believe is exactly where the managing staff exist thinking this is a fine dining theater experience. After months of looking forward to what was promised to be an elegant, upscale, nostalgic, and fun experience, this overwhelmingly overpriced sham of a "4 course" dining experience fell absolutely flat to feeling price gouged at $135 per person for what should be a $25 meal (no filet mignon option or surf and turf) and a $20 train ride. After seeing and hosting many Murder Mystery style interactive plays, I cannot say that the actors were any worse than adequately amateur. However, the major complaint is with the quality of food, overall price for what you get in return, and the incredibly poor management who cannot follow through on simple host requests. Further, the $135.00 plus tax and gratuity "4 course" meal consisted of a low quality soup shooter, followed by a small scoop of a raspberry sorbet which in and of itself should never be considered a course, but rather a palate cleanser between courses, followed by the main entree of a sirloin steak, small piece of dried overcooked halibut possibly cod in disguise topped with a small dollop of tastelessly bland cracker and crab stuffing akin to a baked stuffed shrimp, the ever cheap roasted half boneless chicken found at any hotel menu of catered wedding affair, or something that remotely resembled a duck breast. Each entree accompanied by the usual and boring green beans, single carrot, baby potatoes, asparagus, and bland creamed corn sprinkled with microgreens that were absolutely pointless. As if dinner was disappointing at best, lastly, the 4th course, namely what should be the crescendo of a so-called fabulously elegant meal, was the biggest let down of it all. Having a choice of key lime pie that tasted like it was right from the refrigerated case at the grocery store, to a creme brulee with unripened berries and a slice of orange, to a chocolate lava cake served like a warm dried out bland muffin coated with powder sugar and not an ounce of a molten chocolate center that makes Domino's Pizza's lava cake look like a gourmet dessert that is a thousand times better for a fraction of the cost!!!

All in all, I can honestly say that the nostalgic feel of the train itself was the only thing that did not feel like a first class rip-off. We are happy to pay for first class experiences, but this was a far cry from first class and felt more like the caboose in Snowpiercer!

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 1

Service: 3

Ordered a glass of wine. I could not believe it when it came to my table. The glass was about one inch full! I was utterly upset and called the waitress over. Told her I ordered a glass of wine, not a sip of it. She said she was sorry and would send it back. Well, when it came to me it was no better. Less than half a glass!! What the heck!! It was a $12 drink. I was not a happy camper. Also the AC was cranking on high. We were freezing our heads off, bring a jacket!! They should put on their web site how to dress for ac atmosphere. Overall the food was delicious. I was stuffed. I had the Haddock. Was cooked perfectly. The scenery outside was beautiful as we traveled slowly on the train. I would definitely go again. But heads up people. Don't order a glass of wine, because you will not get a glass of wine. Just an itty bitty taste of it.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

If your looking for a night full of entertainment, quality food and superb service ( it helps if you like trains), try this out. We've been twice so far, doing the Murder Mystery second. Both dinner's exceeded our expectations. We found them purely by accident when looking for something different to do for a birthday celebration. Can't say enough good things, we loved it. -tom
Thomas, Massachusetts

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

My wife and I wanted to share a dinner before our son was born as a last moment together with just us two. She brought me onto this dinner train and I couldn't be happier. The whole ride was amazing, we shared great conversation and so much love while watching a great view enjoying the ride. We will definitely be back to try playing Murder mystery!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

June 2024: This was a fantastic evening with a very unique railway atmosphere. A very memorable evening and we want to thank the entire staff for this experience. The Manager of Onboard Services, Lynn Tasca was very professional with our reservation from the beginning and all the attention she afforded us during the ride. In addition, Chef Hand put out a wonderful meal, with appetizers, the bass, the Intermezzo of Raspberry sorbet, the sirloin steaks, and Halibut, as well as desserts and cappuccinos. A professional experience from start to finish. Thank you everyone at the Grand Bellevue Rail Dining Experience. Do not hesitate to book this dinner ride.

This was such a fun experience! Easy to park and board the train. The cart was very comfortable and we were lucky to be seated on the side with the water views. Our server was so kind and attentive. There were new bartenders that night so drinks were mediocre. The red sangria and dirty martini weren’t good, but the house margarita was tasty! The appetizers were delicious, the chicken and monkfish dishes were good too. The chocolate dessert was very rich. The best part was definitely the view!! It was also fun to wave at bystanders as we rode past them. Lots of excited kids. Bathrooms on board were clean. I would definitely do this again!

Parking: Very easy to park. Dirt lot right next to entrance.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 3

Service: 5