Englewood Hershey — Restaurant in Derry Township

A miserable failure of an experience.

It breaks my heart to report this, but The Englewood failed us badly. As we began going out to restaurants again post-COVID, we had two previous dining experiences at The Englewood that we enjoyed greatly. The location and ambience is excellent, the service was top notch, and the food was a little uneven but mostly good. We were anticipating nothing less than a continuation of this on our third visit for their Sunday jazz brunch in the Listening Room.

We made reservations for our party of four and arrived early. The maître d' told us that they would check to see whether our table was ready, and we were shown in shortly after that. We were taken to a high-top table on the perimeter of the room, where the booth and chair seating is barstool height. My mother-in-law pointed to the booth and asked "how am I supposed to get up there?" The server replied that she could sit on on of the stools, oblivious to the fact that my mother-in-law is 5'3", and, as I told the server, 89 years old.

When I pointed out that this seating option would not work and that we needed a lower table and seating, our server informed me that they were fully booked and expecting a large party, but she would check with the maître d'. Back at the front desk, our server unapologetically informed us that they had nothing for us. It should be noted that nothing on the website notes that some seating is high-top and there were no options on the reservation portal to choose high-top or low-top seating. If you've never been to the Listening Room, apparently you are supposed to have ESP. Not only was our reservation not honored, but the suggestion that an 89-year-old clamber up onto the higher seating was clearly ageist and a liability issue for the establishment.

Did the Englewood take our reservation? Yes. Did they honor it? No. Did they offer us alternate seating in the requested Listening Room? No. Did they offer to seat us elsewhere in the restaurant? No. They offered nothing, no apology, no attempt to make things right. Complete failure. So we informed the maître d' that we would be dining elsewhere. Again, no apology, no "we hope you will join us again sometime," nothing.

I should note that business for the Englewood appears to be very, very good. The parking lot is generally full on the weekends, and this success seems to have translated to a mindset that, frankly, they just don't need our business. End of Rant, Part I.

Rant, Part II.

I messaged The Englewood to let them know that we had a problem with our reservation. Did The Englewood management ask what our problem was? They did not. Their reply? "Hi James! Thanks for the feedback. I see that you were marked as a no show in the system. If you're going to be more than 15 minutes late, we ask that you call to let the hosts know and they will hold your reservation a bit longer as long as they know that you're still planning on coming."

Again, we were not a no show, we were turned away without accommodation. So I explained what happened and was told that my comments would be shared with the restaurant managers, and that if we made reservations in the future we could specify that we did not want high-top seating. And at the sake of being repetitive, there was no apology, no sort of offer to make things right, no sense of empathy for our frustration. Just a lame "now you know" for making reservations.

There is a plethora of local dining establishments to support. The Englewood had its chances to make things right and didn't seem concerned...

IMITATION CRAB IS USED IN THEIR CRAB DIP

I had been seeing ads for Englewood Brewery so I decided to finally give it a shot. We decided to go there prior to a Hershey Bears game as the menu looked good and I enjoy trying new breweries. I will say, their Bam Ba Lam American Red was delicious. This beer alone would have me returning again under normal circumstances. I also had their East Shore IPA and it is okay but nothing I would remember.

As for the overall dining experience, it was incredibly dissatisfying. Our server was kind and seemed to want to do a good job so I was happy with that. I would actually speak highly of him if it hadn’t taken him well over 10 minutes to take our card/cash and return to the receipt. He seems like an honest fella but because of how long it took, this would normally cause me to flag my card for concern of fraud.

The food was incredibly disappointing. We ordered the crab bites as an appetizer which was priced at $18.25. The description is: Pretzel Nuggets, Crab Dip, Colby-Jack Cheese and although the price point was a tad high, I recognize the price of real crab has increased so I thought it was acceptable. When the order came, the first few bites were delicious thanks to the cheese; however, upon closer review, it was clear the crab dip was made with imitation crab meat (surimi). Well, surimi is not crab meat, it is fish meat processed to appear as imitation crab. When I asked our server, he said he would check with the chef. The server informed us the chef uses a mixture of imitation and real crab because “no one will notice”. I’m not sure about you, but if I’m going to spend nearly $20 for crab dip it should contain any imitation crab. The chef thinking “no one will notice” is disgrace and a deceitful practice. Our dip had more imitation crab and than real crab meat. In hindsight, we should have gone to Aroogas where we could have gotten a crab pretzel for cheaper but...

We went for the music only, did not try the food. I read the website, the notes on our tickets to understand the process. I was aware of the possibility of having to stand and had no desire to stand for 4 hours. Bar opens at 6, doors at 7, music at 8 per everything documented. We arrived at 6:45, the doors were already open and every chair was taken with at least 50% being saved by coats and since there were no lines or movement, doors opened long before 7. The bartender told us they open the doors as soon as they are done with soundcheck. Everyone else must have been repeat customers and knew this. Many left belongings saving their spot, went down to eat before arriving for the show at 8. We did manage to score the last seats in the bar and could see into the venue from where we were and thought we were good. Once the concert started we couldn't hear anything, there were no speakers in the bar area and the sound system was not very good so that was disappointing. To add to this, everyone in the bar was talking, which was odd, you could go to the bar downstairs if you wanted to hang out and drink, but paid money to see a concert yet they weren't even listening. Obviously, the venue can't control that. If we return we know to arrive at 6 to be ready to go in when doors open likely long before 7 and bring something to save our seats. I'm just not interested in sitting for 2 hours before the music begins for a 3 hour concert. I will add even if you got a seat, it's standing room only and everyone fills in around the tables so you can't really see well. Most of the staff was very nice and friendly. I'd consider returning knowing we need a...