The Chocolatier — Restaurant in Derry Township

Sometimes reviews just write themselves as an experience unfolds. This was one of those times.

We planned a fun weekend with our girls at Hersheypark and decided to make reservations at The Chocolatier with two specific dishes in mind… the Appetizer Sampler and the Fun-Due.

When we arrived we were seated rather quickly (we had a 9:15pm reservation) and the atmosphere was nice. It’s a nice setting with unique touches, such as a few rounded/circular booths that seem to imitate balloons. Unfortunately we did not get seated there, but our table was comfortable enough.

Our waitress came in a reasonable amount of time and took our drink order. Both of our daughters tried the mock-tails… with the cotton candy fizz being the most interesting by far! After she brought out drinks, we ordered. We told her we wanted to start with the sampler, then one daughter orders the kids pasta and my husband and I ordered the club sandwich to share. And then we waited… and waited… we could see them building appetizer samplers at the counter (obviously one of the most popular dishes there), but none of them came to our table. Finally our ENTREES came out. Still no sampler. We tried to find out waitress to ask but we couldn’t find her. We didn’t want to start on our meal because we were for try the sampler and were worried we’d be full. Finally our waitress came over and told us she didn’t know why our sampler was taking so long that she had thought one of the several that came out was ours but they told her no. I explained to her that we were in a tough situation now because our meal was getting cold while we waited for our sampler and we didn’t want to eat out meal first and waste the sampler. She just kept explaining how she didn’t know what eas going on. And not once did she offer to try to make it right. Finally a full 10 minutes after our entrees came out, we got our sampler.

And boy what a letdown! $38.75 for pretty much nothing. The mozzarella sticks were good and the chicken tenders and pretzels were okay. The corn dip was just weird (in taste and texture) and the corn chips came out plated with the honey mustard as the dipping sauce… which she explained to us was actually for the chicken tenders… Huh?!

We picked our way through it… feeling duped and disappointed (but hey it’s a learning experience). The suddenly she brings us our check. I just looked at her confused and said “well we wanted to order dessert” to which she replied “oh I thought you asked for your check, it just have been another table.”

So we ordered the Fun-Due and that, at least was yummy. The items for dipping were plentiful and the dipping chocolate was plentiful. My only critique would be that they out a layer of melted marshmallow on top of the chocolate so you have to dig to get to the actual chocolate. We just ended up spooning all of ours out.

So overall we left mostly unsatisfied and bummed that we had paid a decent sum for an underwhelming meal and experience. I wouldn’t really recommend wasting your time … you can get better food for a better price inside the park. But if you simply just try it, I would recommend that you SKIP the smaller and just try the entrees. The club sandwich was actually a decent size and pretty good. But the Fun-due is worth going. And even worth the price for how much you get. It would easily feed 4 adults. Which isn’t...

We ate here 2 times and both were outstanding! If it's your first time, order the ferris wheel appetizer. There are fresh hand dipped chicken tenders, amazing mozzarella triangles, so tasty wings in a Hershey bbq sauce, pretzel bites with a honey mystard sauce, and a slightly spicy cheesy corn served with tortilla chips. This is a signature dish and is completely worth the price. We also had the full order of bbq wings and these go into my top 5 best wings. They don't sell the sauce, and although you may think weird with Hershey sauce, it's amazing!!!! For entrees we had the cuban sandwich, the grilled shrimp tacos, the Reese grilled chicken sandwich and the short ribs. All were good portions and each had been cooked with some sort of chocolate, cocoa or nibs. Nothing over the top chocolaty but prepared well and all very tasty. This place is kid friendly with a robust kids menu and mocktails. We had the pasta and mac-n-cheese bith well prepared and pirtions are large. The drinks are fire! Oaxaca old fashioned was spot on, and perfectly made. We also had the Reese's old fashioned. Wow, wow, wow, this drink is unique, not super sweet but definitely tastes of Reeses peanut butter cups and I loved the mini cup in the glass with the cherry and orange peel. The Trailblazer is a light, refreshing drink with a little spritz and fresh blackberries. The tequila is very masked so get this if you want alcohol without the taste of it. The Orange Creamsicle martini is absolutely fantastic, fresh orange zest sprinkled on top makes it authentic orangey, not the typical fake orange flavoring most restaurants use. The frozen banana split drink could've been a dessert! It was dangerously tasty! Now for the shakes!!!! We tried 3 of the 4 signature shakes: Reese's, Cookies-n-Cream, and the Classic Hershey. These shakes are too, too much! They all come with a 1.5-inch rim of frozen frosting and Reeses, cookie crumbs, and mini chocolate chips, respectively. The reeses had a pretzel dipped in chocolate and rolled in reeses pieces, a slice of reeses cheesecake, and the shake itself had chunks of reeses peanut butter cups. The shake was Devine! Honestly, the best shake anyone at the table had ever had. The cookies and cream came with a pretzel rod, dipped in white chocolate and covered in cookies bits. There's also a large slice of moist chocolate cake. The shake itself was delicious. The original hershey shake had a large chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate chip brownie on top. This shake tastes like frozen chocolate milk. Soooo good! All shakes come with lots of homemade whipped cream, not too sweet but rich and fluffy. Service was great. We had Meghan. We requested her the 2nd time she was so good on our first trip. She's attentive, doesn't rush the table, and is extremely personable. This restaurant is next to Hersheypark and Chocolate World, make a...

It was abysmal at best. Had a 8:45 reservation, and we were late (couldn't find the place, not their fault) and when we go there at 8:55, the host was not very friendly or welcoming. Told to "Wait till we were texted". When we got sat, server Heather came up to our table promptly and we thought it would be a good experience given she was with us within 2 minutes, despite having other tables. We order the Loaded Fries, which honestly was the only good part of our meal. The pulled pork on the fries mixed with the cheese cause was great! I ordered a martini, very very very sweet, almost to the point I couldn't drink it, but for $16.50, I just dealt with it. The bartender brought over my drink after it had sat on the service well for about 7 minutes, so that's not too great either. By the time I got the drink, the marshmallow that was toasted for the stores martini was soggy from sitting in the alcohol. Let me be clear that I don't blame the bartender for it, because it is not their fault that my drink sat in the service well for however long. We got our entrees, we both ordered chicken Alfredo with extra sauce. While the meals tasted good, they were not hot, and my portion of pasta was significantly bigger than the portion my sister got, and each plate was $25. Heather did not come to check on us once. We both had empty water glasses for the majority of the meal, and had to ask a busser for silverware since my sister's silverware was taken with the appetizer plates. We finished our food, but saved room for desserts. We ordered the Chocolatier Cake and the Reese's Peanut Butter Cheesecake. The cheesecake was super sweet, but was tolerable once we got water refills. The Chocolatier Cake was on the dry side. Presentation of everything was immaculate, the concept of everything is good. But my main issue was that our server was no where to be found for most of the meal, didn't check on us, we had cold food, and overly sweet and dry desserts. the only good parts of the meal were the appetizer and the atmosphere. I will say that the atmosphere is super cool, although very loud, but not anyone's fault. My issue is with the lack of service we received, cold food, and just genuinely nothing special about it. Save your money and...