Nord Social Hall at French Meadow Cafe Reviews

Reviews

• Miriam A. Sent on 10/31/2019
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Smooth event

  Our wedding reception at French Meadow/Nord Social Hall was perfect! They were able to run the event completely smoothly without any preparation needed from us the day of the wedding, down to playing background music! All our guests loved the space and the food.

  Our wedding reception at French Meadow/Nord Social Hall was perfect! They were able to run the event completely smoothly without any preparation needed from us the day of the wedding, down to playing background music! All our guests loved the space and the food.
• Anna Sent on 10/05/2019
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Wonderful Memory at French Meadow

  We first had our eyes on the Nord Tasting Room because it was beautiful but decided on the Social Hall due to capacity. We live out of town so it was not easy for all communication, but Janel was very accommodating and made it work smoothly for us. Janel recommended our decorator and she was amazing too. When we arrived at the venue everything looked wonderful. We used the Social Hall for both our ceremony and reception. After the ceremony all the chairs are rearranged. All the staff were very friendly, organized and personable. Overall I am glad the we chose this venue and our memories here is wonderful.

  We first had our eyes on the Nord Tasting Room because it was beautiful but decided on the Social Hall due to capacity. We live out of town so it was not easy for all communication, but Janel was very accommodating and made it work smoothly for us. Janel recommended our decorator and she was amazing too. When we arrived at the venue everything looked wonderful. We used the Social Hall for both our ceremony and reception. After the ceremony all the chairs are rearranged. All the staff were very friendly, organized and personable. Overall I am glad the we chose this venue and our memories here is wonderful.
• Michelle Sent on 10/15/2019
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Beautiful & Unique!

  We got married in the Nord tasting room and could not have been happier with it! It is perfect for a super small, romantic wedding. It is gorgeous on its own which makes you not need a ton of decor. Janel, the coordinator is great about answering any questions you have in a prompt manner. She has such a relaxed demeanor, which made us feel so at ease. She also took care of the flowers and set up for us, which looked beautiful. We were at full capacity in the room which is 26 people, and it didn’t feel overly cramped or tight. We are so happy with the entire experience. Highly recommend!

  We got married in the Nord tasting room and could not have been happier with it! It is perfect for a super small, romantic wedding. It is gorgeous on its own which makes you not need a ton of decor. Janel, the coordinator is great about answering any questions you have in a prompt manner. She has such a relaxed demeanor, which made us feel so at ease. She also took care of the flowers and set up for us, which looked beautiful. We were at full capacity in the room which is 26 people, and it didn’t feel overly cramped or tight. We are so happy with the entire experience. Highly recommend!
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• Megan K. Sent on 09/06/2019
  5 out of 5 rating

  5.0
  • Quality of service
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Average response time
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Professionalism
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Value
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
  • Flexibility
    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  I Can’t Say Enough Positive Things

  Where do I begin? Our experience planning our wedding at The French Meadow was incredible! From our very first email Janel was an angel sent to help a very stressed out bride (me) plan the wedding of our dreams! We had our ceremony in the Nord Tasting Room (small ceremony of 16 people total), and our reception in the Nord Social Hall (40 person dinner, 50-60 people for dancing). The entire team at The French Meadow went above and beyond for us time and time again! We were allowed to set up the decor the day before; the wonderful staff flipped the ceremony room after the ceremony to be a “quiet place to talk” room during the reception; we painstakingly created the reception dinner of our dreams with the help of the very talented Chef Beth (this should not be down-played: we asked for a six course vegetarian tasting menu with wine/beer/non-alcoholic pairings, and we were not disappointed. We also had a fry bar after dinner, and an incredible dessert bar that our guests still rave about today); we had an incredible wait staff during our dinner (the tasting menu with pairings did not make their job easy, but they made it look easy); both Noah and Janel were constantly making sure everything was running smoothly during the reception; we had said that our dream wedding would have a fire pit where people could make s’mores, and Janel made our dreams come true by buying a fire pit for us, allowing us to set up a s’mores station, and Noah continuously tended to that fire on the literal coldest day we had last winter; and at the end of the night, I swear I blinked and Noah and the rest of the wonderful wait staff had all of our decor torn down, put nicely back into the boxes they were brought in, and ready to go! AND they are BY FAR the most reasonably priced, quality restaurant venue in the entire Twin Cities! The venue is beautiful, the staff is wonderful, they are LGBT friendly AND vegan/vegetarian friendly (with SO many more options than just a crappy tomato pasta and french fries)! I truly could not say enough positive things about our experience here! If you are looking for a place to have a reasonably priced, intimately sized, beautifully fantastic wedding; you have found the place that you are looking for!

  Where do I begin? Our experience planning our wedding at The French Meadow was incredible! From our very first email Janel was an angel sent to help a very stressed out bride (me) plan the wedding of our dreams! We had our ceremony in the Nord Tasting Room (small ceremony of 16 people total), and our reception in the Nord Social Hall (40 person dinner, 50-60 people for dancing). The entire team at The French Meadow went above and beyond for us time and time again! We were allowed to set up the decor the day before; the wonderful staff flipped the ceremony room after the ceremony to be a “quiet place to talk” room during the reception; we painstakingly created the reception dinner of our dreams with the help of the very talented Chef Beth (this should not be down-played: we asked for a six course vegetarian tasting menu with wine/beer/non-alcoholic pairings, and we were not disappointed. We also had a fry bar after dinner, and an incredible dessert bar that our guests still rave about today); we had an incredible wait staff during our dinner (the tasting menu with pairings did not make their job easy, but they made it look easy); both Noah and Janel were constantly making sure everything was running smoothly during the reception; we had said that our dream wedding would have a fire pit where people could make s’mores, and Janel made our dreams come true by buying a fire pit for us, allowing us to set up a s’mores station, and Noah continuously tended to that fire on the literal coldest day we had last winter; and at the end of the night, I swear I blinked and Noah and the rest of the wonderful wait staff had all of our decor torn down, put nicely back into the boxes they were brought in, and ready to go! AND they are BY FAR the most reasonably priced, quality restaurant venue in the entire Twin Cities! The venue is beautiful, the staff is wonderful, they are LGBT friendly AND vegan/vegetarian friendly (with SO many more options than just a crappy tomato pasta and french fries)! I truly could not say enough positive things about our experience here! If you are looking for a place to have a reasonably priced, intimately sized, beautifully fantastic wedding; you have found the place that you are looking for!
• Sarah C. Sent on 10/30/2019
  4.6 out of 5 rating

  4.6
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    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0
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    4.0 out of 5 rating
    4.0
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    5.0 out of 5 rating
    5.0

  Great venue for our intimate reception!

  We loved having our reception at French Meadow. The venue was perfect for our small reception (under 30 people)... our guests raved about the food, and the room was beautiful.

  We loved having our reception at French Meadow. The venue was perfect for our small reception (under 30 people)... our guests raved about the food, and the room was beautiful.
• Concetta Sent on 07/31/2024
  2.2 out of 5 rating

  2.2
  • Quality of service
    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0
  • Average response time
    1.0 out of 5 rating
    1.0
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    1.0 out of 5 rating
    1.0
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    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0
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    3.0 out of 5 rating
    3.0

  Poor Communication & Event Management

  We hosted our cocktail style Wedding Reception here in June and felt it was woefully mismanaged from start to finish.
  
  We booked all three rooms back in Fall of ‘23 and paid our deposit and were excited to get planning come May this year. We got to a month before the event and hadn’t heard anything from the Event Coordinator regarding current menu, bar, timing, anything.
  
  Three weeks prior to the event we reached out and heard nothing for a week. Two weeks out we followed up and found out the Event Coordinator had changed from the one we booked with and the new one was out for an indeterminate period of time with a family emergency.
  
  We worked as best we could with the Event Captain but ended up with incorrect menus and pricing and were finally told the Event Coordinator would be back the Monday of our event week and it would be handled then.
  
  We got finalized menus and pricing 36 hours before our event. This was extremely stressful, however, we empathized with the Event Coordinator and were assured the event itself would be great.
  
  On the day, we arrived and the staff setting up was unsure how many chairs we wanted. They didn’t know which equipment we had paid for to use that needed to be set up. They didn’t know what the event was for. They were all very nice and let us know they had extremely limited information about our event which was very concerning for us.
  
  The Event Coordinator was present for about 5 mins to ask us about a backup wine if ours ran out and that was it (it did run out because there was only one bottle).
  
  There was no Event Captain, and the Coordinator was not on hand and (according to staff) unreachable during the event.
  
  We had agreed upon several things including a finite amount to pay for “open bar” and then switching to card after that point and we found out only AFTER we met our minimum that they were never told/weren’t prepared to take cards. At that point, our options were no drinks (N/A or otherwise) for the last 3 hours or so of our event or we could just keep paying. So we ended up paying much more than was quoted/agreed upon due to lack of communication/oversight. We were told that guests could visit the attached Blue Stem bar, but it closed two hours before our event ended.
  
  We also had guests with dietary preferences/restrictions and had ordered vegan options and gluten free cake. We had asked if these could be explicitly labeled to avoid confusion and were told “yes” and on the day it did not happen so many of our guests were unaware there was anything they could eat at our reception.
  
  We were also told we could take our leftovers home and we only got cake when there was a lot of food left when they took it away.
  
  The sternos were out for some period of time and we couldn’t find someone to help with that.
  
  The bar was left unattended. The bartenders were serving and refilling alcohol table to table (which we did not want or ask for), and did not pass appetizers as agreed upon.
  
  We reached out to the owner, twice, following our event to discuss our concerns to no avail.
  
  We LOVE French Meadow and are just heartbroken to have had this experience with them. Posting this (very lengthy) review in hopes no one else goes through this expensive disappointment.

  We hosted our cocktail style Wedding Reception here in June and felt it was woefully mismanaged from start to finish.
  
  We booked all three rooms back in Fall of ‘23 and paid our deposit and were excited to get planning come May this year. We got to a month before the event and hadn’t heard anything from the Event Coordinator regarding current menu, bar, timing, anything.
  
  Three weeks prior to the event we reached out and heard nothing for a week. Two weeks out we followed up and found out the Event Coordinator had changed from the one we booked with and the new one was out for an indeterminate period of time with a family emergency.
  
  We worked as best we could with the Event Captain but ended up with incorrect menus and pricing and were finally told the Event Coordinator would be back the Monday of our event week and it would be handled then.
  
  We got finalized menus and pricing 36 hours before our event. This was extremely stressful, however, we empathized with the Event Coordinator and were assured the event itself would be great.
  
  On the day, we arrived and the staff setting up was unsure how many chairs we wanted. They didn’t know which equipment we had paid for to use that needed to be set up. They didn’t know what the event was for. They were all very nice and let us know they had extremely limited information about our event which was very concerning for us.
  
  The Event Coordinator was present for about 5 mins to ask us about a backup wine if ours ran out and that was it (it did run out because there was only one bottle).
  
  There was no Event Captain, and the Coordinator was not on hand and (according to staff) unreachable during the event.
  
  We had agreed upon several things including a finite amount to pay for “open bar” and then switching to card after that point and we found out only AFTER we met our minimum that they were never told/weren’t prepared to take cards. At that point, our options were no drinks (N/A or otherwise) for the last 3 hours or so of our event or we could just keep paying. So we ended up paying much more than was quoted/agreed upon due to lack of communication/oversight. We were told that guests could visit the attached Blue Stem bar, but it closed two hours before our event ended.
  
  We also had guests with dietary preferences/restrictions and had ordered vegan options and gluten free cake. We had asked if these could be explicitly labeled to avoid confusion and were told “yes” and on the day it did not happen so many of our guests were unaware there was anything they could eat at our reception.
  
  We were also told we could take our leftovers home and we only got cake when there was a lot of food left when they took it away.
  
  The sternos were out for some period of time and we couldn’t find someone to help with that.
  
  The bar was left unattended. The bartenders were serving and refilling alcohol table to table (which we did not want or ask for), and did not pass appetizers as agreed upon.
  
  We reached out to the owner, twice, following our event to discuss our concerns to no avail.
  
  We LOVE French Meadow and are just heartbroken to have had this experience with them. Posting this (very lengthy) review in hopes no one else goes through this expensive disappointment.

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