We just got back from an amazing 4 course valentines meal that I could list as definitely in my top 5 best meals of all time. I started off with the grilled romaine lettuce with white bean puree, duck bacon, and tomato vinaigrette and it was amazing, my dinner dates had the shrimp and the goat cheese tart and all of these appetizers were made perfectly. Our entrees lived up to the bar set by our appetizers. The salmon was delicious and fresh tasting, the tenderloin and pepper jack grits were incredible as well. I had the buttermilk fried chicken with red pepper glaze and this incredible asparagus and let me tell you this was the best fried chicken I have ever had. One of us got the limoncello cheesecake and this was so light and fresh and just amazing. Two of us ended our meal with a dark chocolate cherry brownie and buttermilk ice cream. You have not experienced ice cream until you have had this perfectly balanced buttermilk frozen heaven. This ice cream was like no ice cream I ever had before, I could've eaten a quart of this mind blowing ice cream, which went so perfectly with that dark chocolate brownie. The staff was so nice and attentive this was a fantastic dining experience that I highly recommend. read more

I planned a surprise for my husband at Prestons for our anniversary. We had never been there before that. I was impressed by its location but forgot to look at their menu. When we arrived at the place, it was really great and well decorated. Ambience was too cool. Drinks were nice. But when we finally had to order our food, god!!! it was a nightmare. Their menu was very limited. We ordered sirloin and potatoes, they were super salty. We couldn't eat the food. Had to leave but bill was big!!!!! Will never go there again. However, we went to another restaurant for our dinner later. That was was first anniversary and my husband still makes fun of me for taking him there !!!! read more

Good dinner buffet but nothing fancy. I am spoiled from huge buffets in the NovA area but I thought the selection was small. But that's not to say that you will not find any tasty items. (: I loved the bread pudding! read more

Excellent dinner last night. My steak was excellent and the coconut shrimp was wonderful. The service was super. Always enjoy dinner here.

Pretty good restaurant Located at the Inn at Virginia Tech. We stayed at the Inn on a recent trip, and we were impressed with the hotel as a whole. We ate at Prestons the morning after St. Patrick's Day to try and absorb some of the previous day's festivities. Brunch is a little expensive ($20pp), but well worth it. The food was of a good quality, and there was lots of it. This is the third time I've been to Preston's, the first for brunch. I was impressed with the biscuits and gravy, and the omelete station, as well as the crab and corn fritters, and the chicken ravioli in the lunch area. Other items on the menu included french toast, fresh fruit, bagels and breakfast breads, cereal, a full salad bar, prime rib, and several assorted sauteed vegetable trays. My date had the bread pudding for dessert, which she said was great (I opted for the cheesecake, also good). There were two downsides: - We had a 10:30 reservation, so we showed up at 10:24, there were a few people inside eating. We were told by the hostess that they weren't open until 10, but we were welcome to sit in the bar area. A few minutes later she called us in and sat us. A waitress came out to take our drink order, and then we got food. The thing is, some of the items were already cold. An example: the homestyle potatoes were rock solid. It turns out that there was a private reunion breakfast there that morning, and the people we saw were the stragglers, but the food had been sitting out for hours (I was told that 10:30 was the earliest reservation, so we went thinking everything would be fresh). - The waitress wasn't very good. The restaurant wasn't very crowded, only our table and 3-4 others, but she seemed to struggle keeping drink orders straight and keeping plates cleared. Would have liked at least one other. Overall, based on this, and my previous visits there, I would recommend the restaurant, and will go there again when I am in town next. read more

The meal was excellently prepared, but the portions were ridiculously small. I ordered seared scallops in a creme sauce with peas...and some sort of crunchy thing sprinkled on top. Very tasty - but 3, yes only 3 scallops is kind of skimpy for $18. The creme brûlée (done in an unusual chocolate) was especially delicious and the risotto small plate was very good too. Nothing is included- all ala carte. read more

Was very disappointed at the treatment of my wife by the staff. We had purchased the breakfast package at the hotel. The package includes breakfast buffet at Preston's Restaurant. We were in town for a sports event for my college age child and stayed here as it was convenient had an option for breakfast and had vacancies. The hotel was great. The breakfast at Preston's was good as far as the food went. The problem was that I had to leave the property for about 20 minutes and my wife headed down to the restaurant for breakfast before I got back. My wife is partially Vietnamese. The hostess seated her quickly at a table for two. She was never approached by the wait staff to offer her drinks until, after a 10-15 minute wait, she finally asked the hostess how she was supposed to get coffee when the hostess was seating another party. When I finally returned after 20 minutes, our table was approached by our waiter almost immediately when I (a white male) sat down. This was the first time the waiter had approached the table. All of the other tables, had constant service (probably because all of the other customers in the place were also white). I have never seen my wife so upset, but anyone who did not know her would never know. I wanted to immediately complain, but she would not let me make a scene in the restaurant. So I am now going on every place I can think of to post my review of this racist restaurant, to warn others of how they treat people. read more

A new chef has changed this place. The food is outstanding, the atmosphere is really nice and the service we had was great.

Self declared "Best Restaurant in the New River Valley." We could barely read the menu due to the dim lighting, a phenomenon our server observed previously. She offered to read the menu for us. My wife had corn chowder with smoked duck. The chowder tasted like a corn tortilla and the duck tasted like salt. I had compressed cantaloupe with crab. The cantaloupe was really flavorful. So flavorful that I could not taste the crab. My wife ordered the scallops (reviewed by another alert diner below) with caramelized bacon. The bacon was really candy like. Scallops were good, but only 3 for 18 bucks??? Maybe the bacon was part of the protein course. I had roasted pork belly and it tasted exactly like the hot dogs I used to eat when I was in little league baseball: Oscar Meyer. Dessert: Cheese plate. Not bad. Smoked Gouda, Edam, Appalachian semi soft (from Galax), and a Smokey Man (kinda hard like an aged cheddar). The drink menu offered a flight of bourbons (if you could read the menu, you could select 3 from the list). I quickly set out to build my flight. Each of my selections was unavailable as part of the flight. Well here's an idea, Preston's: Instead of telling me, "You can't have this or that bourbon" how about putting 3 flights on the menu. Only the cheap stuff for $15, the better quality for $25, and the premiums for $35. Or whatever. Let me choose, but don't tell me "no." The server was delightful and we liked her energy. Unfortunately, the uniform was black slacks and a VA TECH polo. A similarly dressed server was wearing a dirty white long sleeved T shirt under her VA TECH polo. There was a huge ROTC ball in the other room with maybe 300 ROTC cadets and their dates. My wife went to the women's room and said it reeked of vomit. While I waited for her, a beautifully dressed young woman came running toward the bathroom and heaved her guts out right into the janitor's garbage bin (thank goodness it, and he, were there). The janitor and I watched and offered her some help and she continued to barf, sometimes hitting the garbage can (55 gallon can) sometimes not. The other women came in and out of the bathroom, looked at her, and just kinda blew it off, like "Tough $hit, girl." C'mon, Preston's (Inn at VIrginia Tech). Have you never hosted a ROTC banquet before? There were no staff to attend to the women's room, and we all had to live with the sights and smells of the glorious ROTC cadets and their beautiful dates. As we left, I wondered how long it would take for the first beautifully dressed woman to slip on the vomit on her way in or out of the women's room. read more

Would have loved to review but we got there for breakfast, at 9:50, on a Sunday, during family weekend, Columbus Day weekend. And the hostess said they closed at 10 and could not seat us. read more

Had dinner here the evening I arrived in Blacksburg. Huge place, not a surprise as it is the place for all of the conferences and large meetings organized by Virginia Tech. Sampled the odd/interestingly named "Fried Green Tomatoes"[?] appetizer which had crab cakes, remoulade, spring mix, radishes. Well prepared and just the right size. Ordered for my main course the Seared Jumbo Scallops (also well done) which was prepared with zucchini & squash ribbons, a warm Yukon Gold potato mashed like and balsamic portobello mushroom vinaigrette. I was delighted to discover they had a red Tuscany (DOCG) Chianti on their wine list, so that was an automatic choice for me. For dessert I chose something which purported to have local flair: their signature "Bread Pudding" - basically a warm House-made Bread Pudding with a Virginia Whiskey Vanilla Sauce - quite good - not too overly sweet and nice compact sized. Finished off with a coffee. read more

Had a wonderful brunch at Preston's this past Sunday! I was so impressed by the selection-many breakfast choices, salad bar, shrimp and mussels, prime rib station, hot foods and a dessert bar (with a chocolate fountain!). Best of all was the affordable price and the free mimosa. Love that this restaurant is partly run by students. Smiling service. I would love to come back and enjoy again in the future! read more

Normally I don't do this kind of thing but I was so disappointed, I had to say something. My daughter graduated from VT this weekend. I told her months in advance to make a reservation at a nice restaurant to celebrate this wonderful event. She and her boyfriend had gone to Preston's, The Inn at Virginia Tech a couple of times and loved it. She called for 7:30 pm Saturday night reservations for the four of us. When we arrived they had our reservation but we were told that the dining room was not open. Instead, they were having a buffet "graduation dinner" set up in one of their conference rooms. What?? There was no mention of "buffet dinner" when she called for the reservation, if there had been she would not have made the reservation. Since we were already there, we decided to try it because we didn't want to wait an hour or more at another restaurant to get a table. I guess 7:30pm is considered a late time to be eating? We were one of if not the last group to be seated. They were already cleaning up most of the tables when we sat down. The buffet was terrible, a couple of cold salads, some peel your own shrimp, roast beef, a pasta dish, a vegetable dish, salmon and Maryland style fried chicken. Nothing was hot or even really warm. As we were eating our waitress was checking in once and awhile. She took our plates but never gave us new silverware? She just took it off the plate and put it on the table. I have never been to a buffet were they did that. When she considered us done, she brought our check which we hadn't asked for and left. The rest of the staff was breaking down all the tables around us, it wasn't even 9pm. My daughter wanted another glass of wine. I had to hunt our waitress down, she said she would be over in a minute and came back close to 15 minutes later. By that time we just wanted to leave. Instead of being a cherry on top, this dinner was such a disappointment on one of the happiest days of my daughter's life. read more