A contemporary West Coast restaurant in a magificent Heritage Mansion, overlooking Deer Lake in Burnaby. Since opening as a restaurant and wedding venue for 30 years, it has been the location of unforgettable ceremonies & receptions. Hart House Restaurant is close to Burnaby Village Museum. Vancouver International Airport is half an hour away from the venue.
Facilities and capacity
The main restaurant accommodates 80 guests seated, and 100 guests reception-style. An exclusive booking of the restaurant can be combined with an outdoor ceremony (rainy day ceremony option: our Rosedale Room located on the 2nd floor).
Starting in mid-May of each year, the marquee tent can accommodate up to 250 guests with a seated reception. Wedding ceremonies are performed on the lawn overlooking Deer Lake. The tent features crystal chandeliers, a draped ceiling, a dance floor and stunning views of the grounds and water.
Evening bookings start at 5:00pm and conclude at 12:00am. Tented daytime bookings start at 10:30am and conclude at 3:30pm. Extensions of bookings are available but are subject to additional rental fees or minimums.
Couples that want to book a ceremony only (without food and beverage reception) can do so on Saturdays between 10:30am and 12pm.
Deer Lake Park offers a wide variety of beautiful backdrops for wedding photography. Enjoy a photo session in the park while your guests mingle by the lake with cocktails and delicious canapés.
Services offered
The experienced event planners will help couples in planning their entire event. The event manager of Hart House Restaurant will take care of every detail to ensure your celebration is flawless and enjoyable. In addition, venue is happy to provide couples with a list of vendor referrals for decorators, wedding commissioners, DJ, and more. Services provided by the venue include the following:
Round Tables and white chairs
White square linens, including cloth napkins (floor length linens available with extra charge)
China, flatware, and stemware
Set up
Guest book table, cake table, Ceremony chairs and signing table
Complimentary bride’s room for tented and restaurant weddings
Cuisine
Their Executive Chef creates menus that are sustainable and sourced locally. He believes that quality ingredients are essential in creating a fantastic dining experience. Their menu features Pacific Northwest Cuisine with a focus on the freshest regional and seasonal produce. Hart House Restaurant is a proud member of Oceanwise.
Hart House Restaurant provides all food and beverages, with the exception of wedding cakes. A fee will be charged for the cutting and plating of wedding cakes. No charge will apply to cupcakes or faux cakes. Food and beverage minimums apply to all bookings.
All menu details are finalized one month prior to the event. If a plated menu is chosen, main course choices must be pre-ordered and submitted to Hart House no later than 10 days prior to the event. They recommend scheduling at least one face to face meeting with one of their planners before invitations are printed and mailed. Menu prices are subject to change; the availability of menu items can vary depending on the season. In lieu of menu tastings, they offer a complimentary a la carte dinner for the bride and groom in their restaurant, once the wedding is confirmed. This offer is subject to a minimum size of the planned event, and applies to food only.
History
New Westminster businessman Frederick Hart purchased the 13-acre estate in 1906, and leading architect Frank Macey designed the Tudor revival building. The Montague Moore family purchased the estate in 1916 and developed the garden. Standard Oil executive Ralph Baker purchased the property in 1950 and started the process of modernizing and improving the facility. The modernization process was continued by the Charles Riley family after they purchased the estate in the mid-1950s. In 1979, the Corporation of the District of Burnaby purchased the property, and it was occasionally used as a film set for productions starring personalities such as Bette Davis and James Brolin. The District approached Paul Smolen, Hart House's current owner, about considering the prospect of opening a restaurant at the estate. Paul Smolen, along with his partners, opened Hart House in 1988.
Hart House Restaurant was the perfect place to host our wedding ceremony and reception. While the entire staff was extremely helpful, Sonja went above and beyond to make it the perfect day for us. From discussing options with us more than two years in advance to coordinating every detail day-of, we couldn't have had a better experience. The food and drinks were phenomenal - all our guests still talk about dinner. They were extremely flexible with our requests and made changes accordingly. The "fancy" lemonade was a hit. Overall, we had a fantastic experience at Hart House.
Sent on 21/11/2018
Donna
· Married on 15/07/2018
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Beautiful venue, great food, great value, excellent staff
Our experience working with Sonja and her team has set the benchmark high. They are on time, on point, and know how to make their clients feel cared for.
Background – We thought of Hart House because it’s one of the first Western restaurants my mom took me to. I have fond memories there as a child.
Why we chose Hart House – We spoke to a number of other venues, but in our first meeting with Sonja, we knew that this was the place for us. Besides the obviously gorgeous physical setting (the hardware), Sonja was organized, had answers to all our questions, and gave us fantastic recommendations for other vendors (the software that makes the hardware sing). All of whom were of similar quality and professional standard.
Location-wise it was also perfect as it’s right off the highway for easy access from the Metro Vancouver region, yet is nestled between the restaurant and the lake for a serene and intimate experience.
A commitment to service – I’ve seen endless television commercials and blog posts about the haphazard disasters that strike on one’s wedding day and always rolled my eyes in exasperation. “Yeah right …” I would think to myself. Low and behold, on my multi Google-doc’d / “you are the most organized bride I’ve ever worked with” / calm and mindful wedding day, I realized I forgot how to pin the back of my wedding dress which would make it difficult for me to dance (an important part of the evening for me personally). With one ring to the restaurant from upstairs on my cell phone, Sonja’s team sent one of her team members straight away and she helped me figure it out (after me and three other people tried).
A small anecdote perhaps but it’s one that I feel represents the Hart House’s commitment to service: they showed up and they followed through.
Food, venue, servers – The food was excellent and the menu was thoughtfully designed. For example, the steak was perfectly cooked, moist, tender and was actually warm when it reached my lips: a key mark of a good kitchen. The atmosphere was absolutely spectacular with the golden sun setting on the lawn and lake. I had three different servers checking in on me who looked me in the eye to made sure I ate. And while it might sound incredible, my husband and I actually enjoyed ourselves.
Thank you Sonja and your team for making this a five-star experience for us. You helped make this important day feel special, we’ll never forget it.
Sent on 04/12/2018
Rachel
· Married on 05/08/2018
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Our beautiful August long wedding!
My husband and I could not be happier that we chose to celebrate our love at the Hart House in August. The venue itself is exquisite, the HH staff was extremely professional and attentive and the food was so delicious! We worked closely with Sonja who helped us bring our vision to life. She is so calm, attentive, responsive, helpful and all around absolutely wonderful. Her expertise took away all the stress and my husband and I can happily say that because of her and our wedding planner, we had the most fun and stress free wedding!!
Sent on 30/01/2019
Amanda Ross
· Married on 13/05/2018
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Wedding Day Perfection
We couldn't have picked a more perfect venue and team to work with for our wedding day. Hart House exceeded all of our expectations and were part of creating the most perfect day we could have asked for.
Sonja's professional options and suggestions guided us in the right direction and she ensured our wedding day was flawless. The service staff on site were extremely professional and made sure all of our guests were well taken care of.
The food at Hart House is outstanding, everyone was blown away by everything they were served. The venue in itself is absolutely gorgeous, with an amazing backdrop of a sparkling lake surrounded by lush forest.
We would absolutely look at hosting future events with Sonja and the Hart House team. Nonetheless, we will be back for many meal!
Sent on 06/09/2018
Edgar Serapio
· Married on 04/06/2016
5.0
Quality of service:
5.0
Responsiveness:
5.0
Value:
5.0
Flexibility:
5.0
Professionalism:
5.0
Hart House is & was our dream venue, and I can actually say that my pinterest wedding dream I had, came true. Sonja and her staff was absolutely amazing during our wedding reception. Their top-notch service and proffesionalism and service, I cannot rave enough about. All our guests cannot stop raving about how delicious the food they served was that some of them are actually planning to hold their anniversary renewal weddings are hart house, just to be able to taste their food again. We couldn`t have had the perfect wedding. As one of our guests described everything, a picture perfect day for our picture perfect wedding and love story. So once again, thank you to hart house for completing our wedding dream venue come true.
I grew up in Africa and Germany, and moved to Canada in 2001. I got my first taste of the hospitality industry working at restaurants and hotels in Germany while attending university. I later became a flight attendant for Lufthansa airlines. I was a front of house instructor at Vancouver’s Dubrulle... Read more
Businesses who collaborate with Hart House Restaurant
