I would like to love this place, but it's not good value for money. Food isn't flavourful, portions are small.
That said, service is good, and the settings, on the floor of the church or in the Belfry, are beautiful.
BELFRY - EXCELLENT Place!! - Yes the portions are...
BELFRY - EXCELLENT Place!! - Yes the portions are not huge but if you want huge go to a buffet and stuff yourself silly! This is excellent quality food where taste and presentation takes precedence over everything else! I will definately be coming back! The service was excellent although I was slightly disappointed with the wine that was reccomended. (they didnt have the wine I requested and they reccomended something else)
I ordered the fois gras and the rack of lamb and my wife had the steak tartare and the beef rib. The beef rib was in a lobster ragu that was absolutely excellent. We were both impressed with the presentation - very good! Dinner for 2 with a bottle of wine ($65) was $220
Went to the Belfry (upstairs at the Church). What...
Went to the Belfry (upstairs at the Church). What a huge difference from last year when they had the small plate menu format. The place was full at 5.30. The new menus are the regular one, which is a la carte, or a $30 menu with several choices for appetiser, entree, dessert. Even coffee is included. The food portions were perfect, and appeared at exactly the right time. Service was excellent. For two people, with a bottle of wine, the price was $138 (including taxes) Excellent value. Highly recommended
I've been here a few times... the first time it...
I've been here a few times... the first time it was amazing!
The second time appalling, the third time..
well as they say.. three strikes you're OUT!
We are talking about the final visit.
Martinis came, on the rocks.. they didn't ask so they just presumed.
Staff was all over the place, nobody seemed to be "our" wait staff.
Food was cold, and not at all interesting..
You go here for a tasting experience....presentation and interesting tastes are the pluses...service was good....forget about feeling full when you leave.
Washrooms are in the basement....two stories down.
I wish that I had read the reviews before going to dinner.
I bet that the people at the next table were wishing that they had as well. The portions in comparison to the price tags was outrageous. What little food we got was good but if it hadn't been for the bread that the waitress kept bring we would have gone home still very hungry. (maybe she knew this).
This restaurant was a major disappointment, more style than substance and grossly overpriced. The serving portions are minimal at best, nowhere sufficient to satisfy even the smallest of appetites. What little food there is, is average. My three small pieces of beef tenderloin were luke warm and certainly not worth the hefty price tag of $39 nor are the deserts at $15 for the similar small portions.
Pretentious it is, value for money it is not.
Seems a lot of really great reviews mixed with some really bad. We didn't know what to expect except that the reputation of the restaurant in Stratford is so strong that we thought we would put ourselves in the hands of the chef. I'm not really sure where the bad reviewers were dining, but it couldn't have been the same restaurant that we visited. For a 'fine dining' restaurant, the portions were very good, the flavours intense and focussed, couldn't have asked for a better experience. Our waiter (a blond chap) made a couple of mistakes throughout the evening, but we suspect that he might have been new to the restaurant.
Disregard the nay-sayers and enjoy the restaurant for the destination that it is.
Some reviewers have cited that the Church is serving small portions and I guess that's probably true if you normally eat at American chain restaurants. If you order the 4 plate pris fix, you can't miss. The portions are more than enough to satisfy and the flavor combinations are interesting and complex. Our waiter was very kind but not as knowledgeable as we would have liked. We'll try the Belfry next month when we come back.
For $200 we got 5 tortellini (nothing special), 3 1-inch in diameter beef tips (tough), a red mullet about the size of a sunny my kid might have caught (unexciting), a spoonful of linguine (with scallops and octopus we couldn't find), 6 half-pieces of asparagus (nothing special), and a very small portion (1/8 cup?) of rabbit (tasty, except for the truly disgusting "soup"). Had we stayed for further courses, we would have spent over $500. Had we actually ordered enough for a modest dinner, it would probably have been $1,000.
The proportion of plate (very large) to food (microscopic) was the most outrageous I've ever seen. It's unbelievable that anyone thinks this is an acceptable restaurant. We had more knives, forks and spoons than there were bites of food.
The Church is like a parody of the haute cuisine restaurants of the 70s. Save your money and get better food elsewhere in Stratford.
The dessert portions were so small that I'd finished eating my three bites before my latte arrived. The desserts were innovative and interesting but VERY tiny. The $10.00 price attached was way too much. My latte ($3.50) was adequate but nothing special.The waiter must have been embarrassed or annoyed with me when I remarked on the inadequate portion size because he barely spoke to me after that. Eating in the Belfry (the upstairs room at the Church) was dark and ominous. The Belfry's decor was odd and incongruent with the rest of the Church.The hike downstairs to go to the washrooms was awkward, but they were clean and the hand soap was at least pleasant smelling. Overall, $110.00 + tip for seven measly desserts and beverages was very poor value.
Visited the Belfry for the first time in about 8 years, and has it ever changed. It seems they've followed the shared plate trend and are doing so with much flair. Our B&B host suggested we visit after the theatre rush on a Friday and we had the chef's menu. $59 for two people, what probably was 8 plates per couple. Best deal I've ever seen in a restaurant of this nature. All of the flavours were well balanced and interesting. Our server could have been a little lest pushy and the washrooms could have been a bit closer (and less garish), but overall a nice experience. Definitely try to get in on the weekend special!
Everything that we ate was very delicious and artfully presented. The major negative was the wine pairings were'nt very well selected. We will definitely return, but may reconsider the wine package.
Our server informed us that this was only the second night that restaurant was open for the season, and there were obviously no training issues in the kitchen. Each bite of food was sensational. Presentations were show stopping and and the dishes were eloquently composed. It seems that the chefs at the Church have been spending some long hours trialling these dishes. What luck for us!!!
Our gourp had never dined at the Church before, but will be back at least a couple more times this year.
Don't miss this one!
Great food! Totally inspirational! My wife and I are both chefs and we've taken away such a great feeling from this dining experience. Best in town, best in the region, quite possibly the best in the province!
What sort of magic will the chef work the next time we visit? I think thsi was the last night of the season for the restaurant, and the kitchen and service staff performed as though they were just getting their stride. An evening filled with whimsy, excitement and magic. And somehow we still made it to the play.
First, some positive remarks. The atmosphere and...
First, some positive remarks. The atmosphere and decor are beautiful and the staff were friendly and competent. The bread was fine, and my scotch was lovely.
Now for the bad. Other reviewers have noted the pretentiousness of the menu, and it is indeed quite pretentious. But if the postmodern menu is not your thing, you can easily avoid the oolong gas, persimmon foam, chicken gravy suppositories, etc., and order something else. This we did, but all in my party were disappointed by the food. With prices so high, you'd expect that meals would be served at the right temperature. My deer was tepid and my wife's lamb was cold, as was the side of cube-shaped "hash browns with pedigree". Portions are small, and more thought has gone into presentation than into taste. The 100 mile tasting menu contains a few variations of sweetened pork, but precious few vegetables. Cold beet dumplings leave a flavourless slime in the mouth.
Pretentiousness isn't trying new, experimental things - it's trying new experimental things when you can't even get standard meals to the table at the right temperature. Finally, can the "100 mile menu" be anything but an empty, trendy gesture, when further down the menu the deer is being ordered from New Zealand?
Awesome! Delicious! With all the talk of 100 mile diet, it's refreshing to see a community focussing on local products. Server a bit obnoxious, but otherwise a great time. Nice way to spend our 10th anniversary.
This is my first visit to this site, and I'm shocked to find the reviews for this wonderful dining establishment. We've been coming to the Church for years and have been very excited by the menu year after year. Our meal earlier this summer was innovative, intriguing and truly spectacular. The lovely young lady that served us was completely remarkable. You would have thought that she wrote the menu herself with how much information she was able to provide. The preparations (although a little on the small side) were very well put together and very pleasing. The prices seem a bit high but not totally unreasonable for the amount of thought and effort that must have gone into the food. Overall, fantastic! We look forward to our visit in 2008!!!
Young, innovative, imaginative, simple yet extravagant, playful, intensely flavored...what else can I say. Unlike anything else in Stratford. What a treat!
