Clarksburg Tavern — Restaurant in Clarksburg

4/13/2022 Today I returned to Clarksburg Tavern and what a disaster it was from beginning to end. I apologize to the readers of my reviews because this restaurant has turned itself upside down in front of my eyes. The waiter, Alan, was busy with the few people at the bar, especially one in particular. He was clueless with the only table on the floor, me. We ordered 2 ice teas with lemon and lots of ice. The ice teas came but the lemons were missing. After reminding Alan that we asked for lemons, he brought them after a 10 minute wait. When Alan noticed I needed a refill for my ice tea, this time I got a couple pieces of ice and no lemon. We ended up asking Alan to bring us a glass of ice and lemons. After a several minute wait, the ice and lemon arrived. Now let’s talk about the food. We ordered French Onion Soup and Lobster Bisque Soup to start with and requested that they be piping hot. As soon as I was served the French Onion Soup, there was a horrible smell at our table. I was finally able to get Alan’s attention and asked him to remove the smelly soup. I can still smell that smell. The horrible smell burned itself into my nostril. The chef/owner came to my table to ask me what was wrong with the stinky French Onion Soup and then proceeded to lecture me on how she prepares and stores her soup. This information was of little or no interest to me. I only wanted decent French Onion Soup. The Lobster Bisque soup was lukewarm and lacked the richness and flavor of a true Lobster Bisque. When our salad entrees were brought to us, instead of placing the salads in front of us on the table, they were handed to us at face level indicating that we were to place our entrees on the table ourselves. Was he trying to teach us how to serve ourselves? Really? How rude. From the paper menu, the description for the Steak Salad stated “8 ounces steak…” My steak salad was missing about 4.5 ozs of steak and was a skirt steak. FYI Alan, when a customer orders a meat entree, it is your responsibility to ask how they want it cooked. Since you failed in all aspects of serving our table, my steak was cooked well done. I hate my steaks cooked well done. If only you had asked, my steak salad would have been mediocre instead of shoe leather. When we asked for our check, there was no waiting. There was also no itemized receipt with our charge receipt. Alan was no where to be found so we went up to the bar to request a copy of the itemized receipt. The chef/owner said she could help give us this receipt and noticed that we had been charged for the stinky and inedible French Onion Soup. At that time Alan shows up and the chef/owner mentioned that he should not have charged us for the French Onion Soup that we didn’t eat. Alan’s curt comment was that he didn’t know this. I will definitely never return to this restaurant again. Things seem to have gone downhill and may not be recoverable.

After shopping at the Clarksburg Outlet, we were ravenous for food and drink. There are very limited food options available. But we luckily found the Clarksburg Tavern. This family operated restaurant was so clean and spotless. We felt right at home. Because we had a seafood allergy friend with us, our waiter compassionately took the effort to consult with Chef Jan concerning our issues. The next thing we know, Chef Jan (also the owner) came to our table to put us at ease by directly speaking with us. For our appetizers, we had nachos and a bowl of potato soup for our friend. Both appetizers were fantastic. We ordered a cheeseburger, quesadilla, and a salad with grilled chicken. Our entrees were perfectly executed. The service was exceptional. The concern for our seafood allergy friend was genuine and greatly appreciated. We will definitely be back. Thank you Chef and crew. Before I forget, with the cooler weather coming, they offer patio...

The wife and I used to go to the Bennigan's in Rockville before they closed it down years ago. They had great food at the $10-15 price range and good service. Seeing a new one open up near us again made her really happy this morning and we headed right over to try the food from the past.

The location is right off one of the main roads in a building (or half of a building) that looked nothing like what we were used to. Inside it was a much smaller place than the old one with basic decorations and way too many TVs (five 32" TVs in a row over the bar, making for some weird multiple vision headaches when you try to watch just one).

We were seated immediately and about half the tables were free. The menu was a single double-sided pamphlet with one side dedicated to drinks. The options from the old days had been greatly trimmed down, including my favorite Buffalo chicken sandwich.

It took about ten minutes for our server to get to us for drinks (we were ready to order or full meal and did). It took about 5 minutes for my IBC root beer and wife's water to get to the table. After another 20 minutes o our server brought a basket of chips and salsa and ran off before I could ask for a fresh IBC. It took another 15 minutes to get that IBC. Our appetizers finally arrived about five minutes later.

We got a mic of quesadillas and southwestern egg rolls (named something else now). The egg rolls were burnt and didn't come with the pineapple sauce. The quesadilla was fried oil and tasted very little like a quesadilla. It took another 5-10 minutes to get the pineapple sauce.

Our main meal came about 10 minutes later, though we decided against going too big with the Monte Cristo as I got the Buffalo chicken salad and my wife got a small bowl of patio soup. The meal was okay. The Ranch dressing treated funny and not in s good way, but the rest of the salad was fine but not noteworthy. My wife was okay with her soup, but did not find it of note either.

It took us 20-25 minutes after we finished our food to get our check.

So, overall, the food did nothing to make us feel like we were eating at the Bennigan's we remember let alone a place we would consider going to again in the future. The staff was obviously not well trained and the atmosphere felt lifeless other than the many televisions on the walls (I counted a total of 10 in the very small area we were seated).

It's a bit sad to not have or Bennigan's back, let alone a shadow of is former self, but we won't be returning. As a measure of how long it took us to be seated, take our order, get our food, pay, and leave; we were seated before the kick off of the Seattle vs Atlanta game and left right as it was starting the...

When I worked there for 6+ years, we went though MANY managers... every time a manager was hired, within 6 or so months.. they would be accused of stealing. The owners have NO IDEA OF HOW A RESTAURANT IS RUN WITH NO RESTAURANT EXPERINECE. They are people who have Been born into money, decided opening a Bennigan’s would be easy and would make them money... but have never experienced working with their hands or in a restaurant and accuse people of stealing because they don’t know how to run a business at all, or where money goes for a business... The final straw for me is when they knew everyone who worked there knew how they treated managers and hired the NEWEST SERVER into management... because she was so neieve onto what they do to managers after a Period of time (fire them for “stealing) we warned this woman, but shouldn’t have because she ended up being a crazy b** who decided to get rid of all the people who have been there for 7+ years (basically the whole time they were opened for) these were good people who made the place.... people and regulars came for them... I think this new woman was intimidated by the bond and literally FIRED EVERYONE AND wanted to START NEW!!! She hired unprofessional, sleezy, raunchy , people and her spawn to run the place. I have so many regulars coming up to me that have spent thousands of dollars at that Bennigan’s telling me that they are now BANNED FROM THERE BECAUSE THEY ARENT THE RIGHT TYPE OF CUSTOMERS. Literally people who own their own businesses and good people are BANNED because this woman is Crazy And is wants to get rid of any trace of people before her. SHE IS LITERALLY CRAZY.. DONT GO HERE. You will be treated like a girlfriend of a jabronie.. you will be “broken up from”/banned for no reason. ALSO don’t do any work for the owners. They will promise you pay and then not pay you for your work... they do it to EVERYONE. Don’t be subjected to this abuse and report all of it to the DOL! PS: no one at Bennigan’s is servesafe. They have no idea about any safe food preparation ... they are infested by flys and fruit flys ... which carry DISEASES. I tried to help them get rid of them and they didn’t even CARE. They keep letting it happen and people would have to walk though huge swarms of bugs to get to their tables. Don’t give these people your money... you are likely to get food poisoning, fired or burned from this place. They are horrible people and the “gm” is mentally UNSTABLE.

Pss: She is trying to run this place to the ground so she can open up her junk...