I have been putting off this post for awhile now, but I really need to do it so that I can get on to better things (such as three new games -exciting I know). But I have never felt this way about a restaurant before.
I hate the Hereford House.
Sure there are restaurants that I don't like, but in general I will give them a pass as long as they try. But the Hereford House is different, the dining experience was just plain terrible, and they flaunted it.
We went there on the way back from hockey in St. Louis. I had seen the buildings many-a-times before, and I had wanted to eat there, but it just never worked out. Well this time a remembered before we left St. Louis that it was there, so we made arrangements to eat there on the way through.
At first it seemed like a nice place to eat, it was cowboy-y and had a large fire place, it was nice but nothing spectacular (It was in partial disrepair, there was a horn missing from a piece of art, and a bench on the way in had a thick coating of drywall dust and nails on it, but nothing too bad). Then came the menu. We got there around 3pm so it was too late for lunch, but they did have a small early dinner menu. I looked through everything and, holy crap, nothing was cheaper than $20! Ok, ok there were a few things, but really nothing much.
After a minute the server came to take our drinks. After seeing the prices on the menu and noting that they had Pepsi I ordered a water to drink. And she almost sneered at me for getting a water, as if to say "How dare you just get water?". I have never seen anything like that.
We got calamari for an appetiser, it was fine, not too bad, and was a reasonable $8. For dinner I got a burger (for $9.50 it was one the three items for the early dinner menu) I could choose three toppings for my burger, and after the server listed the options off I got bacon, blue cheese, and mushrooms. Ok. No wait, not ok, I couldn't get both bacon and mushrooms, apparently if you charge $35 for a steak, you can't have too fancy of a burger for $9.50. I told her just mushrooms then. When I got my burger it had both bacon and mushrooms on it, so maybe they had a change of heart. I ate it and it was ok, I've had alot better before, it was as good as any $9 burger. Also Nicole got a quesadilla that was decent for $9. The real problem comes in with the rest of the food.
Jenette got a $12(?) salad, it was a turkey BLT salad or something like that. Anyways it sounded good, but when she got it we were very disappointed. It was just a cobb salad with turkey lunch meat on top. The lettuce was yellow iceberg and the other veggies were ok quality at best. The salad should have cost $6 at most, Chili's makes a better salad, and i don't like Chili's salads.
Nicole's sister Jayme got grilled chicken for around $16. The dinner composed of two breasts of grilled chicken and a side (and a marginal dinner salad before hand.) The chicken was not flavored, and there was nothing to warrant a $16 price tag. Jayme ate about half of the chicken.
Finally Nicole's mom was the only one brave enough to try the $20+ steak. I believe that she got a Flat Iron steak with au gratin potatoes on the side (around $22). Her bold choice landed her right on the bottom of the pile in terms of taste. The potatoes were over flavored and the steak (which had a rosemary rub and a butter garlic cause) flat out tasted bad. She did not even finish her steak which would not had been a hard feat to accomplish considering that it was 8oz.
In short: The Hereford House is one of the worst places that I have eaten at. They do not have good food and the prices are outrageous. Expect to pay $50-60 for two people and even then you will wish that you went next door to On the Border. I can not recommend anyone going to this restaurant.
(I know from my description above it just doesn't seem that bad, but there were just so many little things that I didn't list here. You have to trust me on this one; skip the Hereford House.)
7 comments:
It really was crap. And I'll eat anything.
When this type of thing happens, you need to write just what you wrote here to the management. If the management isn't as crappy as the rest of the place, they usually want to know this type of thing. If all of you had a bad experience, you can bet there are plenty more out there who think it's crap and are spreading the word. You might be a big hero to them to write as nice a letter as you can to them so they know what people think. If you end up getting free dinners out of the deal, tell them you will redeem the free dinners when they get their act cleaned up and then write them a new review detailing the improvements.
The Hereford House used to be really good. I haven't been for over 5 years, but when I went it was quite tasty. Perhaps a bad management change...
There must be something up. They have multiple restaurants, so they must have done good in the past (I believed Pickle is the one who said it was good and that is why I wanted to go there.)
Another thing, everyone eating there was look very very depressed, maybe they thought it would be better too...
I have eaten at the Hereford House numerous times and it has all ways been excellent. It is my experience that if you order inexpensive items and hope that they will taste like expensive items...then you are in for disappointment every time. In a restaurant, as with anything in life, better, more quality things are more costly. If you order a flat steak with the thought that it will have the taste and texture of a filet...then you are in for disappointment! Also, you might find it more effective to address any service or food problems while in the restaurant so that a manager can address them right then and there.
A $20+ steak is not cheap. Just because it is the cheapest thing on the menu does not mean it should taste bad. It should, at the very least, taste as good as other restaurants $20 steaks.
Hereford Houses' steaks are overpriced, if they don't want to be judged on the quality of their $20 steak I suggest that they not serve it.
Again, if the steak was that bad, your group should have addresses the problem right then and there with management so that you would have been able to leave happy and any problems that were present could have been resolved. You have to compare apples with apples when it comes to menu pricing...the Outback Steakhouse isn't on the same level as the Hereford House, so a price comparison between two restaurants should be done in a fair arena.
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