Had my wedding here and it was AMAZING! The food was delicious and the staff was so great. 10/10 would recommend

After unknowingly parking in the parking lot during the Memorial Day parade, one of the rudest people I've ever encountered came out from this business and ordered me to leave in the most disrespectful, inappropriate way. I've lived in this community for 24 years, and will never, ever hold a function here, and neither will anyone else who values my opinion. They should probably learn to understand the power of word-of-mouth and perhaps more effective ways of communicating with potential clients. Bad business. read more

My Fiancé and I checked this venue out as we are looking to make a decision of where to hold our upcoming wedding. We were emailing with the coordinator who offered for us to come in to check the place out and receive pricing. I ended up having to call to schedule a time, because the response in e-mails abruptly stopped. We were given a pamphlet with pricing, but noticed that it was missing a lot of information, as far as extra charges that come along with the packages. The coordinator was going over this information verbally that was not listed on the pamphlet. I then asked if we could be emailed this information. Boy, did I get the side eye and a swift "no." We then were shown the rooms. This venue has been remolded in the recent years and looks great, compared to when I used to work there some years ago. The coordinator told us for a 100 person wedding, that we would have to have the smallest room. Being that I used to work here, I know that sticking 100 ppl in the smallest room would have the chairs of each table back to back, with no room for guests to move around. I have worked weddings where they did this in another room and it was awful. This is also not considering the DJ, Head Table, and gift table that would need to be placed in the room. It just would not work, so the fact that she was so confident that this is all they could offer, I was up front that this would not work for us. She took us to another room in the hall that is considered a little bigger and would work much better for 100 people. She said though, that the other room would have to be booked first before we would be able to get the next size up. Honestly, for what these venues charge, they should be striving to make sure all their guests are comfortable with an appropriate size room for the number of people attending the wedding. I got some really bad vibes from this woman and I can't help but to strongly feel that she was not interested in our business. I would never recommend this place to anyone who doesn't want to work with an already difficult venue coordinator. These venue coordinators are supposed to make you feel welcome and make sure your needs are taken care of. She gave the opposite feeling. In all honesty, it seems they are not interested in catering to all people who are interested in this place. Sorry not sorry, change your attitude!...or ownership, because this is not how Barrister Gardens used to be! read more

If you are not white, you are not welcome here. Rates are determined based on nationality. The receptionist (Rita) places cultural stereotypes. She's insensitive and unprofessional. Over the phone we were given a lower rate then in person. When asked for an explanation, she simply said it was due to my race. After sharing my thoughts on how I felt (disrespected) she basically shrugged her shoulders. I would not recommend this racist venue to anyone. They deleted my Google review. Fortunately, Yelp doesn't give them this option. read more

The only big problem I have with this place is the noise. The walls seem paper thin. I was at a wedding this past Saturday and we couldn't hear any of the speeches because all we heard was the other rooms music blaring! We could even hear it when standing outside. The food was good--Salad was the best I've had! The main course was ok. Meatball were really salty-- too salty to eat and mashed potatoes were not that tasty. Other than that, the hall was nice and bathrooms were clean. read more

I was on the vendor side of this visit this time. From a vendor's point of view it had many ups but a very big down. I'm a DJ and today's load-in was very easy. The access doors basically make the wall nearest to where I set up. I literally just had to turn around and there was my car. So that was a plus. Access for a table and the power supply was also very easy, too. The BIGGEST downfall was their banquet manager. He was extremely pushy to the folks paying for the room and forced them to move things along quicker than they were comfortable with. Even being "ahead of schedule" he was forcing them to serve dinner right away because he had other events to attend to. I felt bad for the man that out this event together because he wasn't able to enjoy anything before he was rushed to the next thing. The food was great, but I would strongly advise against anyone using this venue because of how pushy their banquet manager was. You're better off somewhere else. read more

My wife and I had our wedding reception here five years ago, and her family had the reception after her uncle's memorial service here last week - there were 325 people at our wedding reception, and about 150 people there for the memorial. We personally visited a dozen different places before picking Barrister, and were thorough in our research - it was great to see that little has changed in five years. There's not a lot in the way of ambiance, but the service was top-notch both times, and the food was very, very good for both our wedding's family style service, and the memorial buffet. The staff couldn't be friendlier, or more accommodating. There are fancier places out there, and I've been to a few of them - the food here is just as good, and the staff are just as professional. I'm giving it four stars instead of five because the interior is very plain and the venue doesn't have a lot of character - that said, if the party and company are good, who's remembering what color the walls are? read more

My daughter worked here for a few weeks - they take the gratuity charged to parties and use it to pay the entire staff an hourly wage of $8.25 and NO gratuity. Very unethical and probably the reason their entire staff used to work the parties is under the age of 18. read more

This is a beautiful venue. Newly remodeled and is lovely. The staff was very polite and attentive. During the planning process, Rita was always available and helpful. The food was AWESOME!! The only issue I had was the fact that the tables were very close together. It was difficult to navigate from table to table. read more

RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!!!!!!!!! This place is horrible. It is beautiful and the managers seem nice at first but they are all in it to make a quick buck. My fiancé and I put our money down here 1,000 for a wedding that would be almost two years away. Unfortunately, I had a death in my immediate family that made money look very differently for us. I tried to speak with the owners about what was going on and they didn't show an ounce of empathy. When I asked for money back to help my family, they told me that they can't find someone to book for that day. A DAY THAT IS ALMOST TWO YEARS AWAY. That is definitely a lie! They even stopped responding to emails. I should have known this place would be bad news when the managers kept talking over me and pushing me into things I didn't want. RUN!!!' read more

I had my wedding ceremony & reception this past summer at barrister gardens. Firstly I would like to say that it is a beautiful venue which was the main reason I chose this place. I booked my date dec 2020. At the time I had the only event booked that day. I wanted the larger room so I had to have a minimum of 200. $45 pp is NOT cheap. They knew beforehand that my event would need a lot of hands on deck. ESPECIALLY considering I would be having my ceremony and reception within the same space. Which meant we would have to flip the room. Typically the floor manager would be present for the rehearsal . Considering that's his job to make sure things would run smoothly, negative. Fast forward to the morning of my wedding, the venue contacts my father and tells Him that they don't have enough chairs to accommodate my party. Why? Because they fully booked the entire venue EVEN THOUGH I booked way in advance and they knew my total count and the fact that I wanted chairs for my ceremony and reception, they wanted to profit more . Which i understand the business aspect BUT they couldn't handle it. So when it came down to flipping the room, they didn't have enough man power so MY OWN GUESTS ended up moving the chairs from the ceremony to the reception side. So basically when the ceremony ended we all had to file into the hallway. And what do you know, just as we're coming out, another wedding party and their guests were filing out as well. Therefore we could barely take our pictures . Everyone was mixed in. It was chaos. When we finally made it back inside of the room, it took them forever to bring out the food. We didn't get served until almost 9:30pm. It was maybe 4 people including the boss' daughter serving 25 tables. We paid for family style but because they were so short staffed and running behind, they plated the food and brung out two plates at a time . Never again would I book a large party with them. I understand the pandemic caused stress for us all, but why take on that big of a commitment if you can't pull it off professionally? read more

I attended a wedding recently. The service was not good and the person running the show was very rude to the guest. I was shocked he was in the customer service end of the business and not in the back room somewhere doing inventory. Not my kind of place. It's no wonder the other rooms where not booked. This place should have been packed for the summer. Might want to rethink your customer service or lack There of. Food was not worth the cost. read more

They are cool as long as you pay, Rita is a horrible person, the service was crappy way overated we paid over $7,000 for a venue, we tried to talk to Rita she was very dismissive and arrogant, save your money I would never recommend Barrister Gardens, Hate I had my Wedding there!!!!! read more

The food was terrific but the service was terrible. We had a guest cut their foot on a broken glass after we were told it was cleaned up. Come to find out it wasn't even touched. Never going back here again! read more

I attended a wedding here recently. The ballroom was beautiful and decorated very nicely. The salad and main course vegetables were very tasty. The servers were polite. Those were the nice things I have to say. Here's my honest review: 1. I have never been at a wedding where the servers were instructed to clear your dishes so incredibly fast. I was asked no less than 15 times during the night if they could take something that I had just set down. As I was attending to a toddler, my food and wine were taken before I could even finish them because I wasn't in my seat to stake claim to my dinner. It came off as very pushy and rude. 2. When I asked the man who seemed to be orchestrating things if he could tell me if the facility had a changing table, I was told he was too busy to answer my questions and I was waved away with a flip of his hand. 3. There is no changing table, that I could find. I had to take my child to the parking lot in the rain to change his diaper - twice. 4. The smokers congregate outside the entrance. The doors were all open. Therefore, the second you left the ballroom for any reason (for instance, if you had to take your child to the parking lot to change his diaper), you walked into a cloud of cigarette smoke, even though you hadn't even left the building. read more

For starters, family style food serving to a gathering of sailing club executives has no class, but the organizers of this event probably agreed to this. However, serving family style plates to tables designed for six places but stuffed with ten is a major disaster. No place to rest the serving plates while serving and no places to store them after. With all of the false glitz including the impractical chair coverings, the event bordered on the ridiculous! read more

I would NOT recommend this hall. We had so many problems with them. After our wedding I called to speak with the owner and he didn't return my phone calls. He finally returned my call once I posted negative reviews about the hall online. He meet with us and decided to give us back a very little amount of money to try to make us happy. He knew we weren't happy, but he just wanted us to remove the negative feedback from the internet. We did, but I'm still not happy and I want everyone to know that I would never use the Barrister Gardens or his new hall at 25 and Van Dyke ever! read more

Great hall. My family hosts all of our events here and have never had anything but a good experience. For everyone complaining about other rooms being loud.....have a couple more drinks at the bar, you will be loose enough to remove the stick out your a** and you will enjoy yourself. I've never had an issue with noise here. The food is always on point and they work hard to accommodate your needs. For my wedding they threw in hot hors de oeuvres and served champagne for no additional charge. They also gave us the bigger room at no additional charge. Compare barrister to other halls in the area and you will see the value. read more

My daughter's wedding was at this establishment. I will start with a positive. The food was great. However, there was a problem with the cooling system in our room. I had people leaving early. Hardly anyone was dancing. It was a horrible experience. I confronted the manager the following Monday asking for some compensation for our discomfort. She essentially called me a liar stating that noone left early when I know for a fact that entire tables of people left before 10PM because of the heat. We, and the 200+ people at my daughter's wedding will never use this venue again. read more

Food at Barristers was good and the hall was nice BUT they ruined my cake that i paid $600 dollars for by wrapping it in paper napkins without my knowledge! Me nor my guest got to eat the cake! When I reached out to them they said it was my fault!! NOT TRUE Why would they wrap the cake in paper napkins and not serve it on a plate?! I paid $1000 in gratuity! The owner who was RUDE and didnt want to reimburse me for the cake so we are suing them! Also I paid for a premium bar with Absolute vodka but not sure what they gave me bc it was in a gun? Also the bartender got an attitude bc I kept asking for drinks! I asked him did he have a problem and he replied "Im just gonna keep serving until management tells me to stop" Huh... I paid till 11pm so you will pour till 11pm! Also the have new workers every few months so you always have to talk to a new person! STAY AWAY NOT WORTH THE HEADACHE!!! DONT LET THEM RUIN YOUR SPECIAL DAY! read more