Melzingah Tap House — Restaurant in City of Beacon

Our server knew basically nothing about the drink menu and had to leave and ask for help every time we had a question, and those were not short trips. She also explained nothing about the food menu or the ordering process. Since (according to her) the kitchen and cooking staff were small, we were not allowed to order our courses separately, but had to submit orders for app/salad/entree/dessert all at once. We were not told this until we’d already tried ordering apps. Then we were only informed that certain items took much longer to cook than others (45 minutes we were told) after trying to order them. This would impact the timing of getting everyone’s food served. None of this information was volunteered, we had to stumble onto it. The server did not make any effort to smooth out this process for us, and we were left confounded by all the quirks that came with what should be a very simple process of ordering dinner at a restaurant.

After ordering, we waited. And waited. And waited. Not just for food–two beers took over 30 minutes to arrive. The server seemed relatively unconcerned. She would occasionally check with the bar (according to her) but then come back with an “oh well haha I guess it’ll be a little longer” response. So far, this is not looking good.

Our appetizers did not arrive. Our salads did not arrive. When our entrees arrived, not only were some lukewarm, they were served at the same time as every single thing we ordered. Charcuterie board, salads, appetizer wings, entrees–all of it at the same time. Within seconds, there was barely room on the table for even our drinks. When I pointed out to one guy delivering the food that we ordered appetizers and they should have come out first, he shrugged and oozed attitude while declaring, “Well, it’s all coming out at once.” As if we didn’t have a choice in the matter and shouldn’t be complaining. It’s at this point that I instructed our server to send the manager over. Mistakes are one thing. Disrespecting us after you screw up is not acceptable.

The manager tried her best. She was very apologetic, comped what came out incorrectly, and looked after us herself from that point on (we saw very little of the unhelpful server after that, so I’m not sure how much was her fault and how much was the kitchen’s, and at this point it didn’t matter).

After all that, we hadn’t even tried the food. Now that it was here, we were hungry and eager. Well, I’m sorry to say that the majority of what we were served was extremely disappointing. As I mentioned, some of it wasn’t even hot, so it had been waiting for a while before being delivered. As for the flavor, most of our food tasted like nothing. There was no seasoning, not even salt, on basically anything. The only dishes that had decent flavor were those that included inherently salty items such as bacon or blue cheese. Everything else was bland, lifeless, and thoroughly underwhelming. Sautéed mushroom pasta? Nothing. Steak and potatoes? Nothing. Burrata salad? Tasted like burrata and leaves. This wasn’t a fluke, it was a problem with almost every dish. If the chef went to some culinary school that tried selling the “let the ingredients speak for themselves” scam, they should get their money back. Food needs seasoning. Don’t serve me a plate of halfhearted effort and try to pretend I’m unreasonable for wanting flavor, especially at the prices you’re charging. This felt like eating pictures of food. The plates looked pretty but the flavor was nonexistent.

On our way out, the manager wished us well and said she hoped to see us again. But I cannot see any possible reason to return. This place needs a major overhaul, not just with the service but with the kitchen. From the staff attitude to the ordering process to the amateur food preparation, Melzingah Tap House needs a rewrite from...

If only there was a 0 star option...worst dining experience ever. Despite the fact that I had made a reservation two weeks prior my party of ten is advised for the first time upon arrival that we will be seated "outdoors". We are led through the restaurant and across a parking lot to a tent area with rows of wooden picnic tables. Rather than seating us in the back of the tent where it is warmer we are seated near the tent flap where it is uncomfortably cold. We have to ask to be moved and are now seated at another picnic table to which a makeshift table was attached so that we could be seated together. It is warmer thanks to some iron piping and a heat lamp, ambiance?!? No table linens, no cutlery, no plates. We are then served water, upon request in plastic cups. Am I out to dinner or on a picnic? Well when our $13 dollar drinks arrive in the same plastic cups I have no choice but to wonder...out loud. We then attempt to order and learn, again for the first time, that they are "out of" half of the rather limited menu. Shouldn't someone have mentioned before we were seated or at least soon thereafter that we would basically have a choice between three dishes? Mind you this is not the end of the night when that might be understandable...it is a 7:30 pm reservation so not sure what prompted the run on short-ribs but they and other items flew off the shelves before we arrived without the staff knowing. We order appetizers which were good but I'm sure would have been better had they arrived warm and had not taken the trip from the kitchen across the parking lot to the tent...at this point not table linens are not even a remote possibility but did I mention still no plates or cutlery??? Not sure why we had to ask as I would have thought that cutlery and dishes was an obvious need ...maybe it goes with the whole picnic theme?!? Then the bill arrives and despite the at best sub-par service a mandatory 20% gratuity was already included. To add insult to injury, when we expressed our dissatisfaction to the server he had the audacity to explain how he was entitled to a gratuity regardless of our feelings about the restaurant...key word "entitled". We had no objection to providing a gratuity commensurate with the service or even the practice of a mandatory 20% gratuity given the size of our party, and probably would have left a larger tip if the service had been at all decent, but I beg the owner to please explain to the staff that a gratuity is given voluntarily or beyond obligation, not a right or an entitlement for showing up. Had heard great things about this place but unfortunately our...

Decent drinks and vibe, friendly wait staff. Can’t say much for anything else. We had a reservation for 11:00 and were seated on the patio when no one else was there yet. Friendly waiter promptly took our orders. We waited about 45 min as the patio filled and then asked for an update on our order. We were told it was being plated. Another 15 min go by and we ask again, happening to catch the manager as she was stopping by. We mentioned we’d been waiting an hour and that we’d seen tables seated after us getting their food. She said she would check on it. Another 20 minutes pass and our toddler has run out of patience and needs to go home for a nap. We complain to the manager and she blames it on a larger than expected reservation from another party which she says was supposed to be about 12 but ended up being about 30 (which doesn’t make a lot of sense — we’ve been turned away at a restaurant before for not having a reservation, so why seat a party of 30 if they didn’t reserve it? And if you do seat them, why not make the party of 30 who didn’t have a reservation wait rather than the other tables? Also we had seen several other tables getting and actually finishing their food before ours came out so that explanation didn’t make a lot of sense.) Finally, after an hour and 20 minutes since sitting down, our food arrives and the shakshuka had a hair embedded in it, deeply inside the food such that it could not have been ours. We sent it back and the manager apologized, offering to comp a dessert. But of course, we had waited nearly 1.5 hours for food that arrived with a hair in it…we do not want dessert. We want to go home and put our 2 year old down for a nap. After we pushed back, she did give us 20% off and remove the dish that had a hair in it. As for the food itself, it’s my second time eating here and the food quality has been pretty mediocre each time. I didn’t even want to come back today, but we hadn’t tried the brunch before and thought it might be different. The prices are too high for the food to be so medium. Anyway, if you’re going for a drink and a nice vibe, go for it. If you want...