Happy Valley LIVE — Restaurant in College Township

We wanted to try this place out on a Monday. There was the “quarter back club” happening downstairs so we happily sat at a high top in the bar area upstairs. Our server, Julia D, was fabulous. She was attentive and friendly. We ordered one Woodford Manhattan on the rocks. She warned us that the party may delay the drink. I watched the ticket come out on the service printer and then I watched Andy, the bartender blatantly ignoring it. He had 4 bar guests. He made the occasional beverage for the folks downstairs: a glass of red wine, a Guinness, a jack and coke. He was certainly not making drinks at a high rate of speed or volume. There wasn’t much business around, despite the full parking lot (assuming the cars belonged to the party downstairs), so I was people watching. I noticed guys seated near us also had their beers delayed. I watched a guy walk up to Andy, who was teaching a blonde server something about a drink, and completely disregard the guy who verbalized he wanted a beer. The guy sat back down at his table without ordering so Julia placed the drink order instead and I watched it pop up at the service ticket station. Andy continued to slowly meander around the bar talking about his music preferences with his guests- ignoring the ticket. Julia frequently stood by the service station awaiting her ticket. Andy never acknowledged her or the ticket. Andy didn’t fill it until the patron actually walked back up again and demanded Andy’s attention. This bartender is going to ruin server’s tips with this behavior. I’ve worked in the service industry for many years, I’ve been a bartender myself so I feel like I have a right to call out Andy’s work ethic here. We eventually got our drink after the Bruschetta came out. I watched Andy muddle a cherry, carefully measure out Woodford with a jigger, and dump a large splash of simple syrup… no bitters though. All that time waiting for one drink (literally the only ticket parked at the service printer for a good 15 minutes) and he had made the wrong drink. We ordered a manhattan. It was overly sweet (obviously). I immediately told Julia I watched Andy make an old fashioned and she apologized and was going to rectify it. We were suspicious that Julia rang it in wrong since she mentioned she was not 21 yet, and we didn’t want to wait 20 more minutes so we declined initially. After checking the itemized receipt, Julia did ring in a manhattan and we were baffled that it was a $16 drink. I’d gladly pay $16 for a good Manhattan that was made promptly. However, this drink was disappointing. We were able to get it comped so ultimately the problem was rectified. I appreciate management doing this, and I told Julia that she could tell them to come talk to me if they wanted to. I would’ve gladly shared my observations. They didn’t come by. I have no other complaints. Atmosphere was nice, Julia was great and food was delicious. We had bruschetta, the Rueben with boardwalk fries, the Mac daddy, a liquor beverage and a modelo draft for $78. Overall, I would dine here again. I think this place has potential. I just think management should have a chat with Andy and/or begin monitoring the bar so they can see for themselves. I was tempted to time how long the ticket sat there without...

We had really high hopes. We went in with a really good vibe. First, it’s confusing when you walk in because there’s like an ice cream shop or something, but easy enough we asked where we should go and the hostess was super cool! Loved her! She asked where we’d like to sit, high top, table, bar or dining room. So far so good. Seated at the table for a little bit, when a male server comes over “I don’t know what happened to your server” and he then takes our drink order and appetizer order, all while proceeding to tell us that he’s ping ponging around because he just got triple sat. Fast forward to our ACTUALY server (guess she somehow found us), brings us our drinks and says she knows our appetizer was put in and that she will be back in a few minutes then. We told her we were ready to order, (ya know while she had only JUST found us we had been there a hot minute). We ordered two meals. But we wanted to share. Again, high hopes. And we are still in a good mood, I’m so excited to try the pear pasta and the lobster and filet mignon. Little disappointed in the very limited side options, but hey, my husband loves French fries, he can have them. Meals came with salads. They came out very quickly. They are very small, which I didn’t mind, what I did mind is that they were served on those really small plates and not in a salad bowl. It went all over the table due to the type of lettuce used. No big deal right? We came here for the main course. Still high hopes. Out comes the mushrooms. I didn’t care for them. But my husband loved them. Said they reminded him of mini pizzas. Super hot though when they first came out, if you order, let them cool a minute. Then came the main course. Nothing special about the steak fries, looked like any other steak fry. The zucchini was a bit mushy for my liking and lacked salt. The pear pasta was good, we chose Alfredo. The $98 filet and lobster was garbage. I cannot stand old bay. It’s repulsive. It’s on the lobster. And there was no butter. Nowhere on the menu does it say they are using old bay. No steak knife provided for the filet, so using my butter knife drained all the juices out of the steak. It lacked seasoning. Was not at all impressed. Not one time did our server ask how things were. She came by and asked if we needed boxes when she realized we weren’t eating the food. Yup one box. I boxed it up and went to the check out area to get my check. We were hungry and wanted to leave so we could get something to eat elsewhere. After leaving we realized we should address our service concerns PRIVATELY with management, even though no one seemed to give a dam while we were there. But there is NO PHONE...

ABSOLUTELY AWFUL!!! The food was below Sheetz quality (which is low to start with.) We waited about 20 minutes for anyone to even look at us. The server had an attitude like a spoiled toddler who needed a nap. Damn, my apologies for you having to do your job. 45 minutes go by and not one single dish or appetizer was brought out to our table. When the food did arrive, it was one by one and not together. Everyone looked visibly disgusted with their food, this is what we waited for? The food seemed like it was from the day before and Chef Mic(rowave) had the honors of preparing our food. I genuinely don’t understand the sudden urge to throw all of the eggs into a new basket whenever the current basket is boomin’. Stick to Philipsburg. State College is going to eat you alive, especially with the overall quality of Happy Valley Live. Also thank you for the food poisoning...