Brick Walk Tavern — Restaurant in Fairfield

I am so sad to have to come back after years of being a loyal customer and having to remove a previously five star review. Our family came Saturday evening to dine out for my birthday. We chose brick walk because our kids love it and it's always reliable, not getting a Michelin Star Anytime soon, but reliable for suburban strip mall restaurant. However, it's not even that anymore. Saturday service for a 6 PM reservation, was horrific.

We can't even explain what happened. Our waitress was a young Asian woman who we explained, as soon as she greeted us, that it was a family dinner and we know sometimes the food comes out a different paces. BUT because we were with our young kids, and because it was a birthday dinner, we specifically asked to not NOT - again we said it five times- to please not pace the food. We literal asked three times as we were ordering to just bring it all out the food at once. We had ordered one appetizer, Some mushrooms , which we know usually comes first, but we wanted it as a side and just wanted to eat with our kids, so again we just asked to bring all the food out together. As you can see, I am writing that request multiple times in the review. You might think this lady is crazy for keep saying to have the food come out altogether. I'm just trying to reiterate what we said to this woman and how she couldn't get right.

This waitress took our order and brought our drinks, and we never saw her again. The kids food came out with the appetizer quickly, and the rest of the food never came, and the waitress never came back.

We had to ask three times, yes, three times for this woman to come back to our table to tell us where the rest of the food was. Even if this kitchen couldn't get the appetizer and entrées together, why would you leave mushrooms On the table for 15 minutes and never come back to check if it was time to bring an entrée.

The woman said to our faces she didn't know that's what we asked for. I don't know if she is stupid or hard Hearing. We had now been at the table for 50 minutes, and our entrées had not even been started. We absolutely understand in a fine dining situation that a chef might want to space courses, but let's not kit ourselves that this is not Noma or 11 Madison, or someplace of high-quality.

Our two young children had long finished eating and really we're not interested in waiting another however long it would take food to come. At this point, we've already had this long talk with our waitress who somewhat apologize that she screw up, so we decided to just take the food to go. One would assume after this long talk with the waitress that she would've gone back to the kitchen and made sure the food had been at least started.., but she didn't go to the kitchen..: She just walked away from us then kinda turned around and was like well. Do you want more drinks? Obviously, we did not want to sit there and just be annoyed or have more drinks. The night was already ruined.

So we finally just got up from our table, asked the teenagers running the front desk to get our food from the kitchen and put it in to go boxes, Well, that took about 20 minutes because the food still hadn't been put in to be cooked. We always root for local establishments, but honestly, if this place goes out of business tomorrow, I won't be surprised. It's a shame because it...

hos·pi·tal·i·ty /ˌhäspəˈtalədē/

the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.

Just wanted to leave that here for the owner, Ted Vincent, who somehow doesn’t know what it means. Don’t be dismissive and rude to patrons when you are clearly in the wrong and then not even have the decency to apologize.

We had an 8pm reservation and by 8:40pm when we were still standing at the bar as we were told to do, clearly in the way of other patrons and the servers, I asked to speak with the manager and instead got the owner. He was dismissive, rude and unapologetic. Not kidding, the word sorry never even left his mouth. At 9pm I asked if the empty table I was staring at could be adjusted to accommodate my 6 person party, which thankfully the servers were able to do, no thanks to the owner who wouldn’t even lift his head up to speak with us. He didn’t even have the decency to come over to our table once we were seated to apologize. We remained polite throughout the whole ordeal, never raised our voices or caused a scene to disrupt others as to be respectful (take notes, Ted). When we received the nearly $400 bill, we were sure the owner would have done the right thing and maybe comped one of the appetizers or at least a soda, but instead there was nothing. I asked to speak with him again and was told that he left for the night. Thankfully, another manager came over, APOLOGIZED (again, take notes Ted) and comped us our drinks.

I don’t support businesses who don’t have respect for their patrons and therefore would not return nor recommend this place. Just do the right thing and when you’re wrong, apologize, it goes a long way.

Update: After reading my review, the other owner called me to apologize and invite me back for another try, giving me his number to contact him personally if I decide to visit again. I greatly respect and appreciate him reaching out and could tell immediately that he is passionate about what he does and was truly sorry about what happened. As I said, both the food and the service were good, which I can guarantee is because of him and how much he cares about his business and patrons,...

My family and I recently dined at Brick Walk Tavern for a birthday celebration and our experience was nothing short of a nightmare. If you are contemplating dining here please keep in mind that your order will not be taken until all party members have decided on both appetizers and entrees, making it incredibly difficult to dine for people who have children. To make matters worse, we ordered the most expensive item on the menu, a porterhouse steak, which was not cooked to our specifications. We sent it back to the kitchen, and the chef refused to prepare a new one for us, despite the fact that it did not meet our expectations. But that wasn't the worst of it. The manager actually had the audacity to blame the lighting in the restaurant for the steak's "appearance," as if we were being unreasonable for expecting a properly cooked meal. This was a blatant insult to us as paying customers, and we were extremely disappointed by the lack of accountability from the restaurant's staff. However, the waitress who served us was lovely and very helpful, despite the complete disregard by the restaurant's management and chef. She did her best to make up for the poor service we received, but unfortunately, the incompetence and rudeness of the chef and manager overshadowed her efforts. Upon exiting the restaurant the manager then proceeded to tell us we were no longer welcome at the restaurant, despite the fact that we had already paid our bill. Had it been such an inconvenience to have us in the testament, we shouldn’t have had to pay for our meal at all. Overall, our experience at Brick Walk Tavern restaurant was a complete disaster. The poor quality of the food, terrible service from the chef and manager, and overall uninviting atmosphere made for a truly unpleasant dining experience. We strongly advise against dining at Brick Walk Tavern restaurant and suggest finding another establishment that values their customers.

P.s. the photo shows their...