The Inn at Phillip’s Mill

We had a lovely dinner at the Inn at Phillip’s Mill recently. The service was very attentive, and the BYOB factor is a plus. The food itself was hit or miss … our main course came out barely lukewarm and had to be sent back to the kitchen to be heated up. The ironic part is that it came out on super hot plates, and the waitress warned us numerous times about the plates being hot. So it was a surprise that the plates were hotter than the food on them lol. Other than that, it was a really lovely evening. Warning: No credit cards accepted.

Today is our 10 year wedding anniversary so we decided to have dinner at a quaint historic inn near us that we have passed hundreds of times but have never gone to. We have stayed away from this place for years as the reviews tend to be awful, for service, not their food. We were pleasantly surprised with an AMAZING meal and our server was attentive and pleasant. We had an oxtail quinoa soup and a gorgonzola puff pastry to start. I had the strip steak in a red wine reduction and my husband had sea scallops in a white wine lemon butter sauce for entrees with were both cooked to perfection and delicious.
They were really busy with several large parties that came in when we did but everything was great. I have to assume the people who had negative experiences maybe were on the weekend when they were super busy or think this is a diner where food comes out of a box or bag so it’s fast. Expect a leisurely dining experience. Soup, app, entrée and dessert was a little over 2 hours but the courses were well spaced. It is a beautiful place so make a reservation if you are in the area and check it out. It is BYOB and cash/​check only but we will be back for sure!

Imagine taking the back way home from New Hope and finding a quintessential Bucks County Farmhouse along the curvy country road. There’s hardly a sign to signal a business, but local foodies in the know have been coming to the Inn at Phillips Mill for exquisite French faire and romantic atmosphere for 45 years. Stepping inside this 18^th Century building, which at times served as a private home, mill, and all girls school is like taking a step back in time. The old plank floors, beamed ceilings, and plaster walls make you feel cozy and warm as soon as you enter. There’s a great stone fireplace with a comfy couch, lots and lots of period antiques, and old French advertising posters decorating the walls. It’s a little cramped and crowded as one might expect, but this only adds to the romantic feel of this wonderful space
The food was nothing short of amazing as we had expected. I started off with a chef’s terrine of wild mushrooms and bacon on baguette chips with red onion and cornichons. I usually order pâté as a first course at a French restaurant and this was a unique and welcome change. We both ordered salad, my wife described her spinach pancetta and hard boiled egg salad as nothing short of amazing. I had a braised leek salad which was delicious and as unique as my terrine dish. For entrée I had the veal in wine sauce with sweet potato mash. It tasted every bit as good as it looked. My wife had the charred New York Strip which she described as done perfectly. We both had coffee and for dessert I had the Crème Brûlée which did not disappoint. One small note if disappointment was no Espresso or Americano coffee.
Bring two bottles of Bordeaux as dinner will take two hours. The restaurant is surprisingly modestly priced with appetizers and salad at $ 8 to $ 14 and entrees at $ 20 to $ 30. The BYOB setup obviously reduces the cost of a meal. The parking is tight and the GPS will take you to a wrong place. You pretty much just have to know where it is. The wait staff seemed a little disorganized and scattered. Their reservation system reminds one of a Seinfeld episode where they know how to take, but not hold a reservation. We only waited 10 minutes for table for two, but another larger party was waiting for a hour. Arrive early and plan to spend the evening. 5 enthusiastic stars.

Of all of the restaurants in my area this is not one I would expect to disappoint. And yet…
First we had to wait 10 minutes before we got a menu. We were told they had none available??? Service continued to be slow, including getting the check.
The food served was tepid to cool. This included a cold and tasteless escargot and a tepid but good soup.
For the main course my steak was grainy and cold in the center, as we’re all of the vegitables except the mashed sweet potatoes. I complained but was graciously brushed off and it took a second complaint to get another platter. This time the steak was hot and good but all vetables again were cool.
My companion told me his steak and vegetables were also cool to cold but he is not a complainer.
We noticed that they seemed understaffed but that should not be the customer’s problem.

Beautiful building and pleasant ambiance. The romance ends there however. The wait staff was very unprofessional and unrefined. They need some basic training in courtesy and customer service. Questions were answered abruptly and with sarcasm. Once we were seated, an eternity passed before our presence was acknowledged by a server.
The food was definitely not what I would have expected from the other reviews that I’ve read. The bread appeared to have been purchased at a supermarket discount outlet. The butter tasted like it had been left for a very long time exposed in a refrigerator and had taken on a plethora of other flavors and odors.
The drink list contained «Phillips Mill Sparkling Water» so we asked for bottled water. The waiter abruptly replied, «We don’t have it.» We looked at the menu again, showed it to him, and he replied, «We don’t have any.» No drink options other than soft drinks and coffee – completely unacceptable for a «French» restaurant. We attempted to drink the tap water that was served to us but the odor and taste of chlorine was overpowering.
The rock shrimp special was full of shell and was tasteless. The leek salad should have been renamed, «Limp, lifeless leeks.» They were boiled to death and tasteless. The veal medallions were extremely salty – not a good situation to be in when acceptable drinking water isn’t available.
The beets, mashed sweet potato and roasted potato garnish were the highlight of the dinner.
It is BYOB. They should indicate «BYOW» as well (bring your own water).
It is cash only. That should have been the first red flag.
From the exterior, it appeared very quaint, charming and, judging from the number of customers, very popular. One truly should not judge a book by its cover…

SETTING: First I have to say that the building itself is gorgeous. It’s an old stone mill with details that just don’t exist in new construction. Each room has its own charm, with carefully curated wall art that pays omage to its old purpose. Tons of French art. The back room has a comfy sofa in front of a fire place. Really romantic. Candles galore.
SERVICE: Our waitress was great. I never had to seek her assistance because she was very proactive. Total sweetheart.
APPETIZER: My girlfriend started with the brie and it was delicious. It came with sliced almonds and a apricot sauce. I had mushroom soup that I would intravenously consume if given the chance.
ENTREE: For an entrée, I ordered the filet mignon with blue cheese butter. The steak was PERFECTLY cooked and it was seated skillfully. Nice cut of meat too. And just $ 29. Girlfriend had the pork tenderloin with fig, which was also amazingly prepared! Each dish came with fresh corn, sweet potato purée, string beans, and a potato wedge. Yum yum yum.
DESSERT: For dessert we shared crème brûlée, which had a nice thick sugar coating on top. I knew was freshly prepared because of how nicely it cracked from my spoon.

The food here was excellent… perfectly prepared… portions were good… light sauces… baked brie was great, as was the pork loin and duck dishes…
BUT the parking was awful-​not enough spots… and the sign outside is so weathered, we drove passed the place twice… BUT the food here was excellent… the dining room was so dark (NO electric lights at all-​just candles!) we had to use our phone/​flashlight to read the menu… BUT the food is excellent… cash/​check only and its BYOB… BUT the food is excellent… We couldn’t order our appetizer first, and ask the waitress to come back to take our entrée choices-​she had to have the whole order go in at once… BUT the food is excellent.
If you’re tolerant of all the above, you’ll have a delicious meal. One of the best I’ve had in a very long time!

I love this inn. It’s homey and old-​fashioned and romantic. The rooms are each different and all charming. You can have a lovely basket delivered to your door in the morning with croissants and coffee. I have to warn you that when we stayed in Feb the coffee was pretty bad, which is my only real complaint.
I like the restaurant, too. The menu is old-​fashioned French food. It’s not fussy or pretentious, but it can be a little heavy. The waitstaff is sweet, if a little informal for the setting. I seem to remember that many years ago, this restaurant offered a finer, more special-​occasion type of experience, but I still think it’s good. On a busy night, it can seem a little disorganized, but, somehow, I still get a kick out of it. It all adds to the charm for me.

I haven’t been to many bnb’s, but I can’t help but think this is one of the good ones. The rooms are cute and cozy. The beds are comfy, and the overall vibe is super relaxed and private. It’s not fancy by any means, but you feel pampered and something about it had a classy Hemingway feel to it. Go with rooms 1 or 5 if you like a clawfoot bathtub.
The restaurant is also amazing, delicious fine dining in a cozy and romantic setting and the staff are very old school/​friendly. Take your desert in front of the fireplace for bonus romance. BYOB but you definitely appreciate it when you see the check!

Nice restaurant in what used to be an old mill. The food was delicious. I had the filet of beef with blue cheese butter and it was as good as it sounded. Service was personable and not snobby. The only thing that detracted from the dinner was that the room was damn cold! We were seated in the sun room area of the restaurant off the main room. There was a small fireplace that did nothing to warm the room against the freezing February temperature. We had to wear our coats the whole time, as did everyone else in the room. If eating here in the winter request the main dining room. It was much warmer.

Atmosphere and food are solid 4 stars, however service is not refined or polished and detracts from the experience.
Dined here for Christmas Eve. Have been here before and enjoyed the food and atmosphere. Was surprised to not see a special holiday menu. Server took at least 10 minutes to serve us water and open our wine — we had to ask her to open wine after she explained the additions for the night (1 soup, 1 dish). Server stumbled through the additions as well as the regular menu offerings, for our table as well as the neighboring ones. My husband ordered the poisson trio (as it is written on the menu in French) and she said «the what? I don’t know any French». At a high end french restaurant no less. Service was efficient, they did not explain their typical 5 vegetable sides as they did during the summer. A neighboring table complimented the duck and asked how it was prepared, the answer, I kid you not, was «I think in the oven». Yikes.
While these were relatively minor infractions, they were incongruent with the atmosphere and food. However, a much more blatant lack of professionalism took place as the 2 servers with loud voices discussed — in a candlelit room with 6 tables and a distinctively romantic air — how they would allocate the tables to the next incoming parties of 3 and 5 and about how another table changed from 2 to 3 people. I made eye contact with one of the servers to politely remind them they were distracting the diners hoping for a special meal. They went on to discuss moving chairs as well as handling incoming reservations. Not the type of details I would expect to hear or be exposed to at this type of establishment. This also led to a significant delay in getting our check, which ironically would have helped their cause.
Overall the food is very good but the unprofessional service detracts from the experience. We will be likely to choose from the various neighboring establishments next time.

Monday ¹⁰⁄₂₀ 5:30 pm for 2 — We had 2 very good meals … beef filet and veal medallions both prepared as requested. bread was ok, but obviously not baked in house. our service was just fine, food was served rather quickly to our surprise.
1 appt, 2 meals, 1 dessert plus tip = $ 100

Food was just OK. Filets ordered medium well were delivered medium rare…even after being advised by the server to ‘order up in doneness because the French undercook’. Servers were walking by, but never stopped by our table to open the wine, deliver the bread, pour us water, clear our plates. Given the check without being offered coffee. With the price of an appetizer, salad, entrée and desert close to $ 100 per head, I think the service should match. Won’t go again.

We always went to the Inn at Philip’s Mill for special occasions or to give out-​of-​towners a Buck’s County experience. While the décor is warm and inviting, the food offerings are really, really tired. The bread served to us tasted like supermarket bread baked several weeks before. My tuna was obviously frozen and was a major disappointment. The only reason I did not give it one star was that their soups are still good. We did not order dessert as I have seen better looking desserts in a school cafeteria. It is a shame that this restaurant has lost its soul.
PS: both times we were there recently, the audio speakers had a problem. The music was interrupted by a horrible, repeating sound. In both cases, we spoke up for the other annoyed diners suggesting that they adjust or turn off the music. We received the same answer twice: the speakers have a problem. You think? We suggested that they turn off the music and they did. Did I mention that 3 months had lapsed between our visits? New speakers are pretty cheap these days.

This place is nothing short of amazing. The food was outrageously good, steaks cooked perfectly, great service, tasty crab cakes with NO filler! Decadent desserts! And it is byob. The atmosphere is very quiet, romantic and it is in a historical building. I love this place, we will definitely be back! We had a great anniversary dinner here!

Love the atmosphere on the patio. It is BYOB and the food is Frech cuisine. Special place we love.

I wish I could give them Negative stars. Worst dining experience EVER! We made reservation at 8:00pm on Friday night. When we got them there were a few other groups of ppl waiting and NO host or hostess nor anyone came to talk us! The waitresses were rushing around and no one cared to stop and take care us. We were just standing there for 10 mins until a waitress had us sit down— then 20 mins passed NO ONE even came to serve us water. We were been totally ignored.
In the end we just left after wasting 30 mins at the terrible restaurant. Funny thing we called back after we left just to let them know we were very unhappy with the service and had to leave, the waitress didn’t even notice we left, yelling on the phone I’m coming with your water!
We went to Marsha Brown in the end and had a wonderful experience there!

I came here with a group of lady friends for a bridal shower dinner. The setting is very romantic, but also very dark, which made conversation difficult at times. It is a beautiful historic building.
Overall, our biggest criticism was about the service. We asked for bread numerous times, and it did not arrive until almost an hour into dinner. The same can be said for water, and when we were ready to order, we had to wait some more. We brought our own bottles of wine, which the servers somehow misplaced or served to another table. The waiter seemed thrown off by some simple requests, such as when we asked him to repeat the specials of the day. He was also rattled when telling us the desserts.
I would recommend this restaurant for its historic charm. The food was good, but the service left something to be desired.

The Inn is an older establishment that exudes Bucks County charm the second you drive up. It is an old mill with the flag stone walls, wooden floors, adorable antiques in every room that makes you feel very cozy. You can see how the menu and the atmosphere can impress upon you «oh, this is a fancy restaurant.» However, I prefer restaurants that are unpretentious and just serve good food, which is where Phillips Mill seriously misses the mark.
We took my mother in law here for Mother’s day because she has so many happy memories of this restaurant. On two separate occasions we had enjoyed decent meals so it was a natural choice for Mother’s day. Overall, the food was mediocre and the service was pretty lacking so I was pretty disappointed.
My main issues were with the menu and the way it was presented. A «fancy» restaurant relies on its servers to. .. well.. . KNOW what is on the menu. It shouldn’t be too hard, after all the menu is patterned after «classic» French cuisine that was en vogue about 50 years ago. Apparently each entrée comes with the EXACT SAME SIDE VEGGIES, just like your finest banquet halls or country clubs: a roasted potato, a few green beans, carrot purée, sliced squash, roasted tomato stuffed with breadcrumbs. I found this out because the menu said «ask your server about the vegetable of the day» on the ONLY vegetarian option. She told me in a very exasperated tone that «every dish has the same side vegetables» at first. Then when I pointed out what dish I was referring to she also was at a loss for words, saying she didn’t really know what was in it, and if I «REALLY» wanted to know she’d go check with the chef.
So.. . my husband got the pork loin, my mother in law got the chicken and I got the veggie plate. Aside from the above mentioned «side veggies» the veggie plate had: spinach, undercooked eggplant, a ¼ of a roasted red pepper, and a 3 inch portabello mushroom cap. To be fair, my mother in law loved her meal, my husband’s pork was pretty tasty, and the remainder of my vegetables were decently cooked and seasoned.
If you feel like going, be forewarned. You will be paying for a quaint historic inn meal that will be good but not amazing or overly imaginative. It will be heavy. If you have a food allergy or are vegetarian I would NOT wander in here lightly, you are incredibly limited. If you have someone who just wants to eat «well» and is fine with this type of menu, it’s not a bad choice. Obviously, I’m not headed back here any time voluntarily.

I was compelled to write a review after reading some of the misleading bad reviews. I’ve lived in the area and have eaten at just about every establishment over the past two years. This is one of the best, hands down.
The food here is excellent. It’s real French dining. The only thing comparable is Brian’s in Lambertville. The ambiance here cannot be beat. Small, intimate feel in this small Inn gives it real charm. It is a perfect date location.
In response to the few bad reviews I read here, on behalf of the real foodies who rely on Unilocal,I must tell you ladies that the Inn at Phillips Mill IS NOT the Olive Garden. If you are looking for a place to accommodate a large party and politely tip toe around while you chuckle with your middle-​age gal pals over some White Zinfandel, this is not it.