Stress Free Moose Pub & Cafe — Restaurant in Greenville

This past Friday my family and I went to the Stress Free Moose for dinner. It always seems lively, so we have been meaning to check it out during one of our visits. The restaurant is conveniently located in downtown Greenville and in warmer weather boasts an adorable rooftop patio with string lights and other outdoor seating. We went at night and during colder weather, so we were seated inside (as expected). The inside of the restaurant is small, which could possibly lead to a wait on cooler weekend nights, but they make very good use of the space. The downstairs has tables for seating and a decent size bar. Our family was seated upstairs in a small dining area, which was perfect, and had its own server. I would not consider SFM family friendly, since it was 7:30 PM, and my kids were the only children there. However, if you are comfortable bringing your children places (like we are), I would not let that be a deterrent. The staff & patrons were friendly, and never once made us feel out of place. We ordered steak tip dinners, the ham & cheese sandwich (for one of the kids) and my personal favorite, the Tortellini Bowl with Arugula (and added Steak). Everything came out fast, hot & tasted great. BUT that pesto sauce on the Tortellinis had me at hello and it was a 10! Lol. If you are visiting or passing through Greenville, I recommend you give this restaurant a shot. It’s is one of the better ones I’ve tried in town. Both the service and food were great & you can even buy some cute “Stress Free” merch, like I did, on your way out! Either way, as long as you have the right expectations about the space & atmosphere (geared towards adults), it won’t disappoint! #EatLocal #HungryTravelerMA #EatStressFree...

Atmosphere is pretty standard for a pub style restaurant. We were seated immediately however it did take our waitress a bit to get to us, she did apologize for the wait however.

We ordered drinks, appetizers and dinners at the same time. — 2 local beers, a coke, 2 appetizers (giant pub pretzel & zesty pickle fries) and our dinners (2 burgers and a garden salad with salmon).

Here’s where the problems started: our appetizers came out with our dinners, despite making sure they were put in as appetizers. -Then the burgers came out completely wrong. The first burger was supposed to be medium (LTO &pickles) with a side of regular fries (I had told the waitress I wanted regular fries not dirty fries before finishing the rest of the tables orders) the second burger was supposed to be well done (LTO) with regular fries. (Waitress also couldn’t remember out of the 3 of us who ordered what) The medium burger came regular fries but no pickles, the well done burger came out with pickles and dirty fries! Also upon getting the check the waitress put our well done burger in as medium well.

When we got the check, we had to look and see why it came to so much. We were charged $1 to add pickles to the burger, we got charged $1 for both sides to the pretzel despite only getting the cheese, and the up charge for the dirty fries we didn’t even want was $8.95!! If you list both sides on a menu why are you charging extra for them??

Only positive part of this experience was that the food tasted great, but the waitress wasn’t that great (every time we saw her and she was gossiping with other staff members) and clearly the kitchen has issues.

Definitely...

Family stopped in here for dinner while we were on vacation. Maybe it was an off day for the kitchen staff, but our food was awful and it was the 'lowlight' of our vacation. Some of us shared nachos to start, and I had fish and chips for dinner. I could have made better nachos in my microwave at home. They were too dry, poorly prepared, and bland. As for fish and chips, I expected better considering we were in Maine (which I thought was known for its quality seafood). The fish itself was dry and bland.

Perhaps the worst oversight was that they served bad clam chowder. One of our party members had food poisoning a few hours after we left - and we know for sure it was the soup. He was completely fine after vomiting it up. Another party member also had stomach issues that night from a different fishy appetizer.

The ONLY redeeming quality of the experience was the staff being very friendly. Other than that, if you ever find yourself vacationing in Maine again, I'm going to suggest you avoid it in case the kitchen staff has another "off day" like they did with us. I'm saddened that this was our experience despite seeing good...