Tom Quick Inn — Hotel in Milford

I am not often compelled to write reviews but wanted to do so today. My husband and I stayed at the loveliest boutique hotel, Tom Quick Inn, this weekend while traveling to pick up our daughter from sleepaway camp nearby. We live in NYC and have both worked in the hospitality industry, him as a Mixologist in one of NYC's top cocktail bars and I as a co-owner of a restaurant in NYC (called Sexy Taco.) I have also worked as a strategic advisor and consultant to numerous large and small hospitality businesses/brands for 20+ years so my standards are high when it comes to the customer experience provided when visiting a hotel, restaurant, or other service enterprise in this industry. Commitment to an incredible customer experience is dictated by the standards and corporate culture that a company dictates in their mission statement and in the expectations communicated to their staff from the Executive Management to the General Manager to the Service staff in the hotel and onsite dining facility to Housekeeping to the person who answers the phone when you call from the road enroute from NYC. This was our experience as we drove to Tom Quick Inn last night from Manhattan, having left later than anticipated which meant we would arrive after the shift for the person managing check-in and potentially after the kitchen staff would be shutting down dinner service. I called the hotel to let them know we were on our way and inquire if dinner service would be available when we arrived. I was greeted warmly and informed that arrangements would be made for us to dine at the restaurant when we arrived and that our room key would be retrieved and check-in completed so that we could sit down to eat right away. This began the customer experience at Tom Quick Inn and the exceptional service was consistent at every point of the journey. The restaurant hostess and staff were wonderful and shared with us the history of the area and engaged us with great conversation throughout our meal. Dinner was delicious and the hotel room was spotless, charming and beautifully styled with a mix of vintage and modern in keeping with the historic charm of the area. The next morning we enjoyed the continental brunch which was much more than the traditional continental brunch with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, potatoes along with the pastries, fruit and coffee/tea service one would have expected. The Brunch Manager was gracious as we came down to eat a bit later than planned after a late night arrival. She allowed us to eat without rushing and we enjoyed another great conversation, learning more about the area. At one point I visited the bathroom downstairs and was happy to see their high standards of cleanliness extended there as well with every inch of the bathroom spotless. A sign above the sinks reiterated how seriously the company upholds its standards for cleanliness with a message encouraging guests to use their papertowels to open the door after drying their hands. This is a practice I use in all public bathrooms and have taught my daughter to do the same but have never seen a company include this suggestion in their messaging. This only reinforced my impression of the company which was already strong. That said, during check out I had to share with the office staff the amazing experience we had and how I impressed I was with the consistency in the quality of our customer experience from start to finish. Shortly after we got on the road, we received a call alerting us that housekeeping had found my husband's wedding ring mistakenly left in the room as we rushed to check out before 11 am so we could pick up our daughter at summer camp by 11:30 am. So grateful for this call and only further impressed us. We will definitely be returning and spreading the word to our friends in NYC about this lovely venue & their sister hotel Hotel Fauchere along with the restaurants Tom Quick Inn and The Domenico Room, all on the same block. ...

I’ve overnighted many times in Milford on my way from here to there but had never stopped at the Tom Quick Inn. There appeared to be plenty of space on their front porch this evening, so I stopped and got a table. The rest was history, or at least will be as soon as I write it.||Service was quick and accommodating and I got a seat at a small table on the porch. I ordered a Manhattan, which was prompt in its arrival, above average, using Luxardo cherries, and clearly a double, at minimum.||There were too many attractive items on the menu, but I settled on spaghetti Puttanesca with shrimp and a glass of the house Chardonnay. The meal arrived long before I could think about finishing the cocktail, seriously hot and impressive in size. Half a dozen large shrimp were surrounded by a gigantic mass of searing-hot spaghetti, olives, capers, cherry tomatoes and a massive load of minced garlic in oil.||If I were forced at gunpoint to find a complaint, it would be the size: they could easily offer an Old Fat Guy portion half the size for the same price and I think I’d have plenty of company in jumping at it. As it is, there was one size and I endeavored to please my Mom’s memory and eat (almost) all of it. I’ll likely pay the price about two-thirty tomorrow morning but at the time it was magnificent! ||Inside has a dark, secluded gentlemens’ club ambience, which would be pretty fine in December. Outside, the deck - even though bordering on chilly on a breezy, late May evening, was a genuine delight. ||Dinner, the Manhattan and the wine just skimmed fifty bucks before the tip. Far from the cheapest place in town but, as is so often said, you get what you pay for. I’ve paid and I still have a big grin on my face.||If you’re in Milford, please do yourself a favor and try these...

A disappointing disaster. For what seemed to be an acclaimed place and presented itself as more an upscale restaurant in the Milford area, my husband and I (along with every other table of guests in the room) were very disappointed. They had one inexperienced new waitress covering the whole floor on a busy Saturday night(who apparently was from Apple Valley down the road) and was overwhelmed with no help. But she was clearly not as overwhelmed as the bar and kitchen because we along with other tables didn’t get drinks for 40 minutes. There was no bread brought out as should be in any nice place until after our salads and soup. Initially she brought the wrong dish to my husband and said it was what the kitchen handed her. His chowder soup was cold and had to be sent back. He had to even ask for a spoon. I had to ask for salt n pepper shakers at the table. When our meals came I had asked for a specific pasta and it was the wrong one. So then we had to wait for that. My meal was nothing special at all- the eggplant wasn’t even peeled or fried as a rollatini should be. The kitchen staff was coming out every so often handing plates of food to tables they had no idea went where and even the waitress didn’t know what plates went to what table. I suggested they have numbers on the tables. So many little things that a fine dining restaurant should be on top of, they were not. Every table around us experienced the same unprofessionalism and quality and made it known. Really sad because the place itself is lovely and has so much potential to be great. If I were the owners I would be embarrassed. Our meals could’ve been better at the diner down the road. No plans...