1799 Restaurant

What to say about this place, great experience for dining solo, group, date and other engagement. You will be greeted and will be escorted to your table, efficient service and food heavenly made with care and serve warm off oven and with explanation of the dish. I recommend if you are visiting, staying at Clifton, or just dropping by after work or weekends brunch

What an amazing night we had celebrating my God-daughter's engagement! Eric shared the history of the Inn, as we enjoyed the delicious menu and the beautiful room, imagining the stories of the past that have traveled through the inn. The food and service was beyond my expectations. I've traveled a lot and didn't expect much from this local hide away. I was dead wrong. The Clifton has a Michelin Star and Eric McNeese brings the extra element with customer interaction. I had the Rock Fish, my friend had the NY strip, I had the butternut squash soup as an appetizer, and the French cake with poached pears as desert. The bread they put on the table was something to be experienced by itself. Someone here is doing pastries, very well. We will be back and we will stay at the property.

My girlfriend took me to 1799 at the Clifton to try to cap off a wonderful birthday weekend with an Easter brunch, but what we found was certainly not a “brunch” (you’ll find out why the apostrophes in a second). First of all, my girlfriend was told that the Prix Fix menu would be available 10 days prior to the “brunch”, however after several phone calls to the restaurant, the staff were unable to give her the menu ever, even the DAY BEFORE the “brunch”. I’ve never dined at a restaurant that did not have a set menu in advance, however even this lack of preparation didn’t dissuade us from attending - trying to give the staff & chefs the benefit of the doubt. We looked at the regular brunch menu & assumed (wrong move) that this “brunch” would be in line with that. Nope. Now I wish we didn’t. When we got to the restaurant, I can certainly tell the aesthetics were the selling point - beautiful setting. However, when we sat down it became apparent that the only “brunch” aspect of this menu happened to be the Eggs Benedict (and mimosa). The only Easter aspect of the “brunch” was all the lettuce that came with our lackluster Eggs Benedict - I certainly felt like a rabbit eating all of it directly after the salad course. The rest of the menu was more geared towards a dinner at a experimental kitchen in TriBeCa, instead of a beautiful, historic inn in the mountains of Virginia. Now, if we were prepared to consume menu items like this, we wouldn’t have had an issue with it, however this was definitely not the “brunch” vibes we were going for. Service was okay and slightly awkward - honestly on par with a local Applebee’s, and not as attentive as a High-End restaurant should be. We didn’t even get a refill on our waters until after the check arrived. Don’t think we’d be back any time soon - and certainly will NOT be recommending this “brunch” to any one we know.