Terrain Cafe — Restaurant in Concord Township

Went with a friend for dinner. Haven’t been in a long time but now that the weather is getting nice and enjoying being out, thought we’d go to Terrain. I always love their cheese board, homemade whipped butter and their spritzers. I feel I am patient, understanding and know my table isn’t the only table being waited on. Our reservation was 7:00pm…sat right away, took a few minutes for server to come over. (No big deal) gets us water but seems “rushed”, stressed, or just maybe a bad day? I have no clue. The server was kind but lacked in customer service. Water was only poured once. We sat with empty water glasses our whole dinner after we drank the first glass, didn’t seem to want to be bothered as after we put our drink order in…5 minutes later comes to the table and says “so do you know what you want?” Just seemed rushed. Still ok enough and going with the flow….our appetizer comes out but we still don’t have the drinks we ordered or bread. (They always start you off with their cute pot of warm bread and seasonal butter) I had to ask and it finally came out after our app and they just dropped it at the table. They usually explain the butter since it changes. Still no big deal but we just feel kind of like an inconvenience. Food comes out, very tasty…our dirty plates and big cheese board is still sitting on our table though. Never were checked on about how everything came out or how we were doing from our server. Another employee brought our entrees out and was super friendly. As we Are eating our dinner our server walks by quickly (without saying anything) and slides dessert menus on the table. We order dessert but feel we can’t even get full words out before the server is walking away. We weren’t done ordering and they were already walking away. So everything is adding up and we are just bummed out because we are easy going but felt extremely rushed. We ordered delicious after dinner coffees and without being asked…they were given to us in to-go cups. It’s 8:00pm on the dot when I look at my watch. (They close at 8:00) I was always under the impression that when a restaurant has listed hours that whatever time they “close” is the last seating? I never ever pick the late time anyway due to this fear of being rushed or employees being “annoyed”. Maybe Terrain is different? Bottom line…it just was a disappointing experience. The food, drinks, atmosphere , and even employees are friendly enough. Even our server…wasn’t rude per se, but lacking extremely in customer service and dinning etiquette. Maybe it was an off day, new one the job, need better training? i will still come back to Terrain in hopes that the service will be better next time. I have only ever gone for brunch and never had this issue. Even with them slammed and running around…I understand. This was not a busy night and maybe I won’t go for dinner again if it’s an issues of employees trying to leave right at 8:00. Got there at 7:00 and was out the door by 8:15. No one told us we “had to leave” but we can take a hint from the “to-go” cups and cleaning up all around us. I appreciate everyone in customer service and know we are all hopefully trying our best. Maybe it was just a really horrible day...

Went there last week. This was my third time dining there. Clearly, the first two occasions were excellent (my previous review was 5 stars), or I wouldn't have returned. I'm giving two stars instead of one based on those two previous visits—I know terrain is able to provide a good experience.

But if this occasion had been my first visit, it would also have been my last. We arrived very much on the early side, before it got crowded. The service was abysmal. Our server, "C." took our order, and we never saw her again until she asked if we wanted dessert (loooong after we had finished our meals and been sitting, waiting). Thankfully, the food runners were on top of things and eventually cleared empty plates we had to stack on the table, and filled our long-empty water glasses—water was our only beverage, so refilling glasses on the regular would have been appropriate.

My friend enjoyed their tuna dish. I had a bite, and concur that it was good. My scallop dish seemed like it had been sitting under warming lights for a very long time (we did wait an absurd length of time for our main course), the sauce was congealed and lukewarm, and the scallops were cooked in a pan that hadn't been deglazed in a very long time, and came out with foul-tasting, dark crust stuck to them. For what we paid (close to $100 for two people, without any booze or beverages), I would expect a lot better. "Truffle" fries were prepared in a strange way. The truffle taste was mainly confined to the cheese, which was grated and not melted and didn't stick to the fries at all. So you end up eating plain fries as the cheese falls onto the table or your lap, and maybe shoveling grated truffle cheese into your mouth by itself with a fork once the fries are gone. It was weird and disappointing.

Had the server ever come back to our table to check how things were, I could have told her and given her the chance to remedy the situation with the scallops. But she didn't. I can't bring myself to ever stiff someone outright. But 15% tip was painfully generous in this case. 20% or more is our norm.

Because my first two dinners here were excellent (service included), I'll give terrain another chance next time I'm in the area. But only one chance. We traveled a long way for a rare day at Longwood and dinner out. Terrain ended an otherwise lovely day on a sour note.

It seems like such a "1st world problem" to have a bad meal and service at a restaurant, and I hate to leave a bad review anywhere. But life is expensive recently. We don't eat out like we used to, but we still work hard for our money. When we decide to spend it, we hope the server and other employees will work just as hard to provide a great value...

My friend and I had a reservation recently for two for late Sunday brunch. The very young hostess wanted to seat us in the sunny portion of the restaurant. However, my friend is very sensitive to direct sunlight and breaks out in hives when exposed for more than a few minutes. It took a while to get the hostess'attention to make the request to be seated in the covered and darker portion of the restaurant and the hostess seemed to be less than pleased with our simple request when we were finally able to make it. There was a table for two at the very front of the restaurant that had just been vacated. We asked if we could be seated there. We were told yes, but that we would have to wait for it to be cleared. We waited while the bus boy cleared it, but failed to wipe down the table. It would have taken the bus boy, the hostess, or the manager, who was floating about, two minutes to get it wiped down so we could then be seated. We waited 5, then 10, then 15 minutes with no check-in or reasonable accommodation at the cleared table. My friend and I agreed we were no longer interested in waiting and left. I was embarrassed, as I had told my friend what a wonderful restaurant this is. The staff was less than customer-oriented, uninterested in being helpful or accomodating, and bordering on rude. The ambience is great there, but the food is over-priced for what it is and the service was abysmal. We went around the corner to the Outback. In juxtaposition to Terrain, Outback staff was quick to greet us, beyond courteous, asked where we'd like to be seated, and quickly seated us there without issue. The waitress was well-trained, exceptionally engaging, accommodating, professional, and polite. She made helpful menu suggestions. And she was very attentive thoughout our meal. The meal was very good. I had one of the chicken appetizers and one of their salads. It was very tasty and affordable and the portion size was huge. I took almost half my meal home in a box for a second meal the next day. My friend enjoyed the coconut shrimp and a salad and was pleased with her meal as well. We ended up spending about half of what we would have paid at Terrain and had a much better and more comfortable dining experience at Outback. I had planned on buying a few plants after we'd eaten at Terrain. But I was not about to spend my hard-earned money at a business whose staff did not care to be in any way accommodating or helpful to me and my friend. My advice is to skip the upscale ambience at Terrain and enjoy the far better experience at Outback or many of the other fine restaurants in the Brandywine...