Fagin's Pub — Restaurant in Berlin

If you like old-school dive bars with curmudgeonly patrons, rust belt ambiance, and really good food, this is the place for you. There's not a lot happening economically in Berlin, New Hampshire--the mills and loggers are long-gone, the biomass plant is probably headed out the door, and tourism seems to focus about 10 miles south--but the town isn't dead and, no matter what, people need to eat. This is a good place to do that!

The exterior will not make you think "good food". In fact, it might bring some "oh God, what are we doing here" vibes. Ignore those. The interior...ok, let's just focus on food, here. This is a working class bar in a community without a lot of work. The simple fact is that this is the best breakfast place in Berlin, and not by a little. Nothing compares to it in the immediate area.

Being from the Rocky Mountain West, I'm accustomed to hash browns. People in New England do not understand hash browns. They do understand home fries, though, and Fagin's makes the best. Every omelet I've had there has been delicious. They don't hold back on the coffee. And they are friendly.

Some of the bar flies might be a touch uncouth. I'd not recommend the place to my dwindling group of conservative Christian friends (I mostly don't like them enough anymore anyway) because they will definitely hear some salty language. Whatever.

It's the food...

I don't even know where to start with this review. Our party of 7 walked in for breakfast at 9:45 (showed they serve breakfast til 10:45) we were seated and then ignored for the next 30 minutes. No one ever even acknowledged us. At 10:20 a waitress finally brought over a stack of menus, but didn't ask for our drink order or even offer us any coffee. Finally the waitress came over at 10:25 and informed us that the cook needed to clean the grill to get ready for lunch, so we were told we could not get breakfast any longer (what happened to 10:45???) She then informed us we could order lunch if we liked, but the cook wouldn't start making it until 11. So they basically refused to let us have breakfast and then wanted us to wait another 30 minutes before we could even order lunch and then who knows how long it would've taken us to get it?? We chose this place to have a birthday breakfast for our friends daughter who was celebrating her 16th birthday and wanted crepes. We had looked at their menu online and because they offered crepes, she wanted to go there. What a disappointment to say the least. Never in my life have I experienced something like this. Worst restaurant experience ever! I read all the reviews that said their food was fabulous, but I guess we will never know and don't ever plan to, since we will never come back...

Today I ordered two chicken Parm subs and a chef salad as a take out order. I get there, grab the food, and I'm assured that everything is in the bag. I then proceed to drive 30 minutes, arrive home , and realize that I received no dressing for my salad. What a bummer! So I call and explain that I don't want to come back for the dressing because I live thirty minutes away and the best they can do is refund me 50 cents for the dressing cup. This was the manager working on 3/6 at about 5:30 pm. At the end of the day I wasn't expecting a full refund, just for maybe a coupon and a sincere apology. Instead I got a very rude woman who only offered me a fifty cent refund on my card. I order here a couple times a month, I absolutely love their chicken tenders subs, but as a customer, to be treated like this sucks. I won't be coming back anytime...