On The Corner Grill — Restaurant in Derry

As someone in the restaurant industry, after 25 years, this is the first derogatory review I have ever left for a restaurant. We had seen this restaurant many times but have never had the opportunity to stop here. When arriving home after a trying day at work, I asked my husband to take me there as it seemed to be the perfect way to end this day. To state the positive: the menu is eclectic and every item ordered was prepared perfectly; the environment was busy and inviting; small and charming. Unfortunately, we sat at the bar. There were two bartenders, one was a male with tattoos and a younger female. He took our initial drink order. After that, we were left to sit there as he continuously walked by and looked quite displeased to be there, he never looked up to ask if we were ready to order or to see how our drinks were or if we needed additional drinks. The young female was kind, and once I stopped her to order drinks, she was sweet and accommodating. She asked my husband if he wanted an additional drink and then asked us about our food order. We happily gave her our order. She then asked if I needed another drink, which I ordered. As we were waiting for our food, we watched as the disgruntled looking male continuously walked by. He looked like he was busying himself to close the restaurant. When we received the food, we ate it and was never checked on to see if everything was satisfactory or if we needed anything else. My husband and I ate our meal while we watched the male bartender continuously walk by without an ounce of acknowledgement. Honestly, after having a hard day and going out of my way to ask my husband to take me there, I felt uncomfortable and disappointed! My husband and I were ready to leave. I felt the restaurant must be closing soon since the male bartender was more focused on putting things away than the customers! I stopped the young female bartender and asked to pay our check. I was quite verbal about our discomfort - honestly, to my husband’s embarrassment because he has never seen me so verbal. She was, again, sweet and tried to assure us that they were not closing and that we were welcome to stay as there were still customers waiting for their dinners. I thanked her but explained how uncomfortable we were made to feel being ignored and completely disregarded by the other bartender. Again, I have never in my life been so openly and publicly honest about my feelings of poor service. The blatant disrespect by the male bartender was a breaking point for me. Honestly, if she had been the only bartender, I would be leaving a five-star review. Sadly, if we could have directed our tip to her, it would have been well beyond the customary 20%! My words to him… SMILE and treat your customers as if they are the ones that are important in the moment; because they ARE!!! They are the ones who tip and the hour or two they may spend at your bar may be what they need to get away from their day; even if for a moment or two. Tattoos are nice; smiles and a welcoming demeanor mean so much more!!! We will never go back as long as that bartender works there - unless we happen to be in the area and starving and can...

A couple friends and I decided on a girls night out for dinner about a month ago and we chose On The Corner Grill. I’ve been before as have my two friends and had good experiences. This time? Not so much. When we were being seated we were told we have an hour and a half to sit, order, dine, pay and leave. That was literally within 1 minute of walking in the door. Non of us were told that in any previous visits, and I was there in March. Our server came with less than a smile for us (oh well, maybe a bad night) ordered drinks and apps, she tried to push us to order our meals but weren’t quite ready. She came back and took our entree orders and never picked up a single dish, glass or anything. One busser did come by and took a plate with bread on it and we weren’t even finished. The food came rather quickly which would explain one of my friends dish being cold. Potatoes were hard, veggies were hard and cold, it wasn’t good at all. I ordered the butternut squash ravioli, they were good if you like a ton of pasta. Very thick and chewy. One friend ordered the baked fish, it was swimming in butter. We finally saw the server and she did ask how things were, my friend told her her meal was cold, that’s all. She turned on her heal and left with not one word spoken. We asked another server for the manager, she explained they are busy, apologized for the cold meal and mess we had with ALL the plates and glasses left on our table, she gave us a free dessert, a compted meal would have been better. She also explained that one of the bussers was not only new to the restaurant, he was new to the country and had apparently just flew in that morning. After speaking with the mgr, we got our checks which were all messed up, we had to wait to get new checks, put our cards down to pay, the server came by as she was talking to another table next to us and snatched the checks from the corner of the table. She didn’t even drop off the receipts. She completely ignored our table almost the entire time we were there. This is a short version of the 2 hours and 20 minutes we were there, and speaking to your server three in that time frame isn’t good. We did notice during our visit that our server was very chatty and giggling with every table that had a man seated, those tables were cleaned up to. We are not above anyone and don’t ever expect any entitlement or special treatment, but when you see such clear ignorance like that? It’s obvious we were not important to her. It is a small place, but putting a limit on how long you can stay and that included the bar is ridiculous. Even their website asks for courtesy regarding their terms for dining there. I can honestly say I will never go back. I was a server for several years and I always made sure, even if I’d never seen them before, that their dining experience was a very good one. My good...

reservation made for a birthday celebration , upon arrival told we will have 90 minutes at the table as we were being seated, we’ve never eaten here before, but found it odd considering no one else around is doing this and most nice places a 2 hour seating is the norm. We were rushed from the get-go, put appetizers in that took some time to get to our table, those were tasty. Put our dinner order in, when that arrived, we began to eat, and the food was good, while we are still picking the waitress came over and asked if she can box everything up we told her we’re not ready yet. I would say she gave us about five minutes, then came back with boxes and said that people are waiting for our table and that she gave us extra time (we were 20 minutes over the ridiculous “90 minute” rule), I guess lucky us? Lol. It was a birthday celebration so we asked to see the dessert menu (as our waitress didn’t offer us dessert, especially being a birthday celebration) where we were told you can order a dessert, but we’re gonna have to move you to the bar. Can you imagine going to a restaurant for a birthday celebration, them rushing your entire meal, not asking if we want dessert and then telling us if we want to have a piece of cake with a candle on top we have to move seats, I’ve never heard anything like this in my life. Service was atrocious. The waitress could not stop rushing us and I feel bad for anyone who goes here expecting to enjoy a nice meal and again if they’re going to put a time limit, perhaps they should make it 2 hours so people can actually eat as half the time is wasted, waiting for food to come out of the kitchen. I do not recommend this place if you’re planning on having a nice relaxing dinner. There are so many other places that would love your...