The Griswold Inn

Hotel

As always a lovely dining experience! Highly recommend!

Terrific meal in a landmark spot. The service was impeccable, the food was tasty and filling and the environment was extraordinary. Will be back.

Nicely appointed rooms. Our room was quiet and overlooked Main street. No TV 😁. Dinner in the main room was prompt and delicious. Waitress was cheerful and attentive. Great time all around.

Excellent experience in a northeast Inn.

It was just an amazing evening with good beer, awesome Music and good friends👍

Great food! Love the seasonal menu!

Great food and service plus music. Loved the atmosphere.

Very enjoyable lunch and relaxing, staff wonderful.

Good service and good food.

Love this Inn! So quaint and adorable. We love staying here Food in restaurant is amazing!

Great atmosphere, wonderful food, and the waiter, Daniel was phenomenal!

Best Fish & Chips and chowder! Great service.

What a great restaurant everything was perfect our waiter Daniel everything he recommended was great Great service Matt our other server assisted what a wonderful night see you soon 🍷🍷

My first time there. I loved the atmosphere and they even had carolers outside.

It is so nostalgic and the food was great.

Great atmosphere, food and service!

Good food and accommodations.

Wonderful relaxed, cozy atmosphere and great food. We'll be back.

Had a great meal, waiter was pleasant, on a fabulous night.

A wonderful 2 days — great service, fantastic room Essex is frozen in time with the Gris full of the history. Loved all of it!

We stayed in a beautiful, historic room with modern amenities and wonderful views of the water. We also enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert in their restaurant. They also have a helpful, friendly staff. Highly recommend!

First time dining at Griswold’s. Everything tasted wonderful and the service was fantastic. I highly recommend anyone who gets a chance to stop in and enjoy this restaurant.

Great food and service! Beautiful day!

Beautiful atmosphere, delicious food and wonderful staff! Definitely will be back.

10/10! Highly recommended, great food and awesome atmosphere, if you like history this is the place to go.

Great food and atmosphere!

Had a wonderful lunch there today. The staff was fantastic and the food was great. They are handling COVID splendidly.

Excellent food and service!

We had an amazing dinner experience in the most picturesque New England setting. I ordered the Paloma to start which the bartender made perfectly! The clam chowder was some of the best we’ve ever had. Absolute perfect portions and the steak was perfectly cooked for us both. The staff was so pleasant and our waitress was great. We can’t wait to return for more date nights and any other reason we can have dinner here.

The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect for an early fall lunch. Can't wait to go back. Loved the sticky pudding dessert.

Due to COVID, there was no live music but great pub, friendly staff and good food.

One of my favorite restaurants. Always enjoy the atmosphere and food.

Great cocktails. Amazing service and delicious food!

We loved it all the way through! Very excellent portraits and table ambience.

Awesome food great live music beautiful atmosphere and has fireplace places next to the ocean.

Great setting, great food, and great service!

Cozy atmosphere, very festive around the holidays, very good food, reasonable prices.

Great Thanksgiving buffet. Very friendly service.

Some of the best food I’ve had. Very pleasant staff. Great decor.

Been going there over 60 years it always been my favorite restaurant! Love all the pictures of the old boats. And the beer and food is good also. And the music was from the 60's and I think that was the best time for music.

Intimate venue, good food, relaxing, historic.

Awesome Brunch with a ton of food selections. Great old building with tons of charm.

Great pub and formal dining. Service was excllent. When in the area stop you won't be disappointed. Enjoy.

Very nice engagement celebration dinner. Great food and wine.
take a cocktail out front on the bench and people watch, or walk down to the harbor.

Great place! Highly recommended it! Old School. Lots of fun and entertainment.

Atmosphere. Good. Food. Friendly people.

We shared small plates and the food was outstanding! The scallops were meaty, tender, sweet and delicious! We also thoroughly enjoyed the corn risotto, braised beef, and the edamame are not to be missed. Friendly service and beautiful room. We'd go back!

Went here yesterday for my birthday with my folks and wife. Slow waitress service, the fish and chips was not that good, the sausage sampler was a joke, hardly any parking (we ended up parking in a private driveway by mistake) and the dinning room has the tables all to close to each other (not good when people bring in young kids to a so called fancy place). My wife got a good piece of prime rib and the salads were good, so not all is bad here, but I bet there are plenty other places in the area that are so much better.

The Griswold Inn is a window into the past. Way back in 1776 the place existed and mostly the same as it was. The hospitality of the staff was impeccable and the room was charming. The continental breakfast was good and eating in that old time dining room area felt like I was in another century.

Historic deliciousness. A must see. Pricey, but well worth it. Visiting from New Mexico. Service was great. Walked around the town after lunch. Fabulous.

My family and I have often dined at the "Gris" for Easter and Thanksgiving and I honestly can highly recommend those buffets. Although they're pricey, you get a lot of tasty options and depending on the time you go, you'll have a choice between breakfast and lunch options, or lunch and dinner options… and many desserts. The setting is wonderful, it's obviously very historic and the service is always good. I went to their Sunday buffet today and I have to admit that I was disappointed. It cost $25 and the offerings weren't as "bountiful" as the holiday buffets are, which I guess is to be expected, but still… Of special note, was the paltry dessert selection. All they offered were cookies and some sort of soggy sweet roll drowning in a sugary syrup! Mixed in with the main buffet (in case you missed it) was a very dry bread pudding, which was inedible. I think that someone needs to tell their pastry chef to step it up a bit on Sundays!

Attended a wedding here, the waitstaff staff was so nice and accommodating. The food was amazing, probably the best chicken I've had in my life. And I absolutely loved the decor of suffix history in boats. The Inn is one of those places that belongs in a Hallmark movie. Every inch of the walls filled with something interesting and cannot say enough how great the staff was.

The Griswold is a beautiful historic inn. The rooms were lovely. We had a handicapped accessible room that was quite spacious, with a large bathroom and two comfortable chairs. Our traveling companions had a room with twin beds that was much smaller in all aspects, but still pretty. The rooms had ironing boards and hairdryers, but no television or coffee machine. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The army and dining areas were gorgeous, decorated with period pictures and posters. The food was fresh and delicious. The best part of our stay was the entertainment. A group sang Irish songs and sea shanties to a packed house of regulars. We had a ball.

Essex is one of our favorite places in CT and the Griswold Inn is one of our all time favorite places to dine. There are plenty of comfort foods on the menu along with the tasty brown bread! The chicken pot pie is delicious! For me, it was strange to order something like that in a restaurant but the presentation and taste of the pot pie are exceptional! Cocktails and specials are updated with seasonal tastes — we had a champagne cocktail with rosemary and pomegranate — so good! We like to make reservations here for dinner and start at the wine bar next door for a glass of wine and appetizers — we've also wrapped up dinner with dessert at the wine bar — either way, you can't go wrong! The wine bar has a very adventurous menu that is always changing and always to die for!

I was pleasantly received by the hostess and seated next to the fireplace (perfect for a chilly night, I might add) before being greeted by my server within 5 minutes. I had the Signature NE clam chowder and Arugala salad as starters… both excellent. Entree was the pan-seared trout over greens and beans. Thoroughly enjoyed the sauce that accompanied the trout. No room left for dessert after that meal! Enjoyed the sounds of live music (not too loud, just right) from the bar/lounge area. My room is a quaint room, not overly large, with two twin beds (with beautiful deep-brown wooden head and foot boards) and historic portraits adorning the walls. The flooring boards look like original construction wood, preserved and finished to perfection to add to the decor. Wallpaper, lamps, shades and bathroom are contemporary, all blending well with the overall delivery of this inn sticking to its roots. Can’t wait to come back… and I haven’t even checked out yet! Continental breakfast included cereal, oatmeal, yogurt, fresh fruit, toast, coffee, juice, to-go cups and granola. Perfect!

This ambience was amazing! They have a holiday menu for food and drinks — I had the Holiday Old Fashion. The food was very good — the prime rib was perfect, in portion and taste. The short ribs were a good portion, if you order a side vegetable — I did. The staff were dressed in old fashioned attire and Christmas Carolers went around to all the tables.
Ambience is everything! I will go back.

Let me preface by saying I've been a fan of The Gris for decades. Many meals eaten there, I've been there through changes in management and chefs, changes in menu items, most have been great, a few could have been better but that's the case with many places and other favorites of mine, no biggie.
The sea chantey night's are a lot of fun and very heartwarming, singing with friends and strangers that become friends before you finish your first beer. It's an experience that's not found in many places and the history of the tavern and the ambience lends authenticity to making many great memories!
Last night, my fiance and I brought a visiting friend to the bar for a drink or two and to sing along. We sat down and waited for our server but she never even acknowledged us. This went on for 15 mins and we decided to get our own drinks at the bar. Another 15 mins went by, our sever gave us a cold glance and continued to ignore us. An hour went by but still no service. We got her attention to ask for menus but she didn't bring them. The people at the table next to us saw what was going on and started giving us their food to share, joking about the service being so bad that we should tip ourselves. We joked and laughed and the server came over and said we were too noisy. Noisy? Have you been on a night when everyone is singing together?
She didn't wait on us, no food, no drinks, just being rude.