linda s.
Yelp
Vegans BEWARE. Wish we could give it a 0 rating. We live within half an hour of NR - and decided to treat ourselves to a splurge. We hadn't been able to travel anywhere since Covid, and thought this would be a wonderful experience. We'd never spent this much money on lodging, but wanted to have an exceptional experience. We're vegan, and we know it's difficult to find dining options that accommodate - and NR has a restaurant on the property. NR is located on gorgeous ocean view property and we were excited at the prospect of staying for 3 nights, dining at the Inn, hiking and relaxing. We proceeded very carefully while making our decision. We called to inquire if they could accommodate our vegan diet and food allergies. We were assured with absolute certainty there would be no problem. Their website also confirmed this as it states: "Our attention to detail extends to our kitchen. If you have any restrictions or requests please let us know; our chef would be happy to accommodate them."
In advance, we drove up to the Inn to see the property. We discussed the meals with Bridgett letting her know we would be interested in three meals a day and again we were reassured that there would be absolutely no problem.
We booked a three night stay from and again discussed and confirmed our dietary needs with Blair (the manager). We received a confirmation email and in that email they stated that they "shop daily as well as harvest from our gardens."
The week before our stay we called and spoke with Daniel and again confirmed everything --- especially our dietary needs.
The morning of our arrival we received an email from the Inn at 9:00 AM thanking us for informing them of our vegan restrictions and confirming again that the Chef would be preparing our vegan courses and to please contact them to reserve our table and make our menu selections. However, the menu attached to the email was their standard menu and had no vegan options. We immediately called them and they said "don't worry we are taking care of you."
Dinner costs around $106 per person with tax and gratuity. (They advertise as a non-tipping Inn, and add a 15% gratuity on the entire bill at check out.)
What we got: Salad, a handful (literally) of forbidden rice, one carrot cut in four pieces, a few peas and some Swiss chard on top and sorbet.
The bread had sesame oil in it which was one of the severe allergies we had notified them about and which they confirmed in writing as well as verbally.
We were not happy but at that moment did not say anything as we were trying to enjoy the sunset and this very expensive Inn which was a big splurge for us. We did ask if they could find a different bread for the next night and they were non-committal.
Sleep: Our sleep was constantly interrupted by the hot tub turning on at around 2:00 AM which shared a wall with our bedroom and we were unable to find a way to turn it off and no one was on duty during the night. We were unable to get back to sleep.
Complimentary Breakfast as described on the website:
Breakfast - Start your day right with seasonal fruit, fresh-baked pastries, hot coffee, and ranch specialties such as eggs, waffles and pancakes........and it sports a breakfast picture ---- a gorgeous tray of fruit...raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, kiwi, oranges, pineapple, strawberries, melon, grapes, pear, etc. All we were offered was oatmeal with some blueberries. Also cold coffee that we waited 20 minutes for.....even though no one else was in the dining area.
We asked about the $35 per person lunch and were told all the chef could make for us was a salad. The cost for the 2 salads would have been around $90 with tax and gratuity. This was really unacceptable and asked to speak to the manager. The waitperson saw we were upset and talked to the chef and came back to tell us that the chef said "tell them this is not a vegan establishment." Again we asked to see the manager (who did not appear) and at this point we decided to leave as it became clear that we were not going to get what we were promised.
We never saw the manager, Brie, until we were leaving and she came running over to our car. We told her how unhappy we were and that they should not have promised us something that they could not deliver. She was chagrined as she said "this is not the kind of experience we wanted you to have; we want our guests to put their keys and credit cards away and just relax. I did look at our log and I see that you did speak with us several times about your diet." We told her we did not plan to pay for this experience and she told us that she would call us the next day as she "needed to figure something out." We never heard from her but we but we received full charges on our credit card. We disputed the charges but NR insisted on charging for all three nights. We even wrote to the owner in Vermont - no help there either. Ultimately they credited us a small fraction of the total bill.