Iron Horse Restaurant — Restaurant in Ashland

HOLY COW WORST SERVICE EVER 05/18/14 DINER FROM RICHMOND • allysinger • 1 review This was one if the worst dining experiences we have ever had. The only redeeming quality was that the food was great. My boyfriend has owned and run numerous restaurants and we consider ourselves foodies... I had been here once before with my Dad and had a great meal sitting outside with good service. My boyfriend and I decided to come here for my birthday dinner and made reservations in advance. Even with our reservations, they put us in the smallest shared booth in the place so we politely asked if we could wait for a seat outside. Once we got sat we didn't not see ANYONE for twenty minutes. The service staffed looked swamped and tables were clearly not being served in a timely fashion.My bf actually had to get up and go get someone to help us. When our server arrived he wasn't very apologetic and was pretty awkward with us. Then, a couple ridiculous things happened. Our food arrived rather quickly after we ordered, and was yummy. We ordered appetizers, two salads, two entrees and a bottle of wine. Our sever first asked us if we wanted freshly ground black pepper on our salads. We said yes and he came back 7 minutes later when we were almost done with our salads and yet he ground it anyway on my few bites of lettuce left. Then he asked us - "are the anchovies salty?" We both didn't even know what to say or why he was using us that. Then, simultaneously, he left another table's DIRTY DISHES on our table, and when he realized it later he mumbled to himself "shouldn't have done that", which I found funny. The reason why he had set those dirty dishes on our table in the first place was because he was clearing our places as our entrees were being served and he realized we didn't have any utensils (he had just taken them and stacked our dirty dishes). He said "oh shoot you need fresh utensils" and then he ACTUALLY PULLED OUT OUR DIRTY FORKS FROM THE STACK OF OUR DIRTY DISHES AND HANDED THEM BACK TO US (like held them out for us to grab!). When we just looked at them like are you kidding? We don't even know whose fork is whose, he said "what, you guys scared of cooties?". I couldn't even contain myself. and FINALLY we timed how long it took him to bring the check after we asked. It took him 18 minutes. It was quite literally UNBELIEVABLE. On the other hand, the salads, crab/shrimp tots, my salmon and my bf's veal brisket were WONDERFUL and very tasty. We will not be returning. It did create some great laughs and...

I have honestly never had worse service at a restaurant that is known for fine dining and an upscale atmosphere. Kyle, our waiter, was great at first. We ordered drinks, then when they came we ordered an appetizer and our entrees. We then proceeded to wait thirty minutes with empty drinks as several servers refilled water at the surrounding table and not ours, granted we were off in a corner area but still in the main dining area. We then grabbed the hostess, a super nice young woman who was super accommodating and got us refills and offered to check on our app for us. Five minutes later, and obviously after someone let Kyle know we had sat with empty drinks and weren’t pleased to have to get up and walk up to someone to get water, he brings our appetizer- great! Well no, obviously it had sat in the window because a nice film had developed on top of the cheese. We told Kyle, who didn’t apologize and he grabbed it off the table and turned to take it back and let out an audible sigh. Whatever, we got another one and it was decent and fresh.

Then we proceeded to wait another twenty to twenty five minutes for our entrees. The hostess came over to refill our water and at this point we asked to speak with a manager. We let him know our wait and that we have now watched four two tops and a six top get their meal and finish it while we waited. We were only a table of four. The manager was understanding, got our food out, and got our refills.

The rest of the evening our server proceeded to avoid eye contact, didn’t check on us after we received our meals, did not offer dessert, and did not speak or acknowledge us as we said thank you and left.

I get that everyone has an off night but this was just baaaaaad and obviously reading through the reviews the poor service is a consistent trait of the restaurant. I have worked in the service industry & customer service for my entire career and I have never treated a guest the way our table was treated tonight. When you’re spending $200 on a four person meal, a smile really can help when things seem to go wrong...

We traveled down from NJ for Ashland Train Day two weekends ago. We had been here before while passing through on our way to Florida last summer, so naturally we wanted to eat here again. And once again they did not disappoint for dinner! I was all set to order a burger and then our server mentioned one of the specials was filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and asparagus and I was sold. (And the roasted beet salad that I got was so delicious I've been trying to replicate it ever since we got home!) I also had the strawberry mojito which was deliciously refreshing. Our server was super attentive and polite and made sure we all had what we needed and were happy with everything. The next day was Train Day so of course downtown was packed. We had a choice between food trucks or The Iron Horse for lunch, it was slightly later than normal lunch time so we took our chances and put our name in for our group of 6. They told us 30 minutes which was fine, we watched passing trains and less than 20 minutes later they called us that a table was ready. We noticed a more limited menu for lunch but our server explained that they do that purposely for this particular event so that things can get made and out of the kitchen quickly and efficiently, and it made 100% sense then. And once again everything our party had was delicious. I got the caprese club for lunch, and another strawberry mojito. Even on a super busy day, the kitchen was on point! They were cranking meals out left and right, communicating, in sync, etc. (Our table was near the kitchen so we really did have a front row seat for the action.) We finished up at the tail end of the lunch rush and heard either the head chef or manager in the kitchen praising his staff on a service well done. The Iron Horse will absolutely be our go-to restaurant every time we are in Ashland, which will be frequently either passing through to go to Florida, or coming back again...