Johnson's Restaurant and Dairy Bar — Restaurant in Groton

Just commenting on a recent review. I've never been to this establishment so I cannot comment on service or quality. However as a cook in a (small business) Seafood restaurant customers should be made aware that most owners will not close early unless it is extremely justified. Here are 3 recent examples of us closing earlier than posted during my 10+ hr. shift. 1.) A few wks. ago we had some severe weather conditions. The owner was in constant contact w/ our manager & playing it on an hr. by hr. basis. We had not sat a customer for dine in nor received any take out or take out service orders in over 2 hrs. The snow was piling up & driving conditions for our staff were a concern. We closed @7p.m. vs. 8p.m.posted. 2.) Last wk. we started our shift under staffed. Then around 2:30 one of our cooks had a family emergency & had to leave. Our 20yr. old manager called 2 of the older veteran managers & asked if we should close @ 7:30 vs. the 8p.m. posted time. The owner was notified & the decision was made @ 6:45p.m. to close down @7:30p.m. I should also tell you that our under staffed shift to start was our full time dishwasher. Loosing 1 more person @ 2:30p.m. just put us even more behind. 3.) Christmas eve we were open until 5p.m. a customer called around 2-3p.m. to confirm our hrs. They were told we are closing promptly @ 5p.m. This customer a family of 4 (2 small children) showed up @ 4:47p.m. They were told they were more than welcome to order take out. Mind you the fryers ovens and grills are thee last things to get shut down in most restaurants. However the entire kitchen was cleaned/sanitized for the night. The husband was outraged (Maybe more than us) that he would not be allowed to dine in. Although this last example was not a last min. change of closing hrs. I felt it worth mentioning. I am in FULL agreement that when people who choose to enjoy a night out w/ family and friends and spend their hard earned money @ your establishment/entertainment etc. they deserve the best quality and service available because they chose YOU out of all the others. However... it's disheartening to be on the other end of the stick when customers take on this sultan like royalty persona. Have some empathy, compassion, and a touch of kindness to...

Ahh Johnsons, you used to be so great. My how times have changed. I used to stop here for lunch often. I was in the area, and wanted to stop for a cheeseburger special today to reminisce, and it was a lot of disappointment. I pulled up just before 1 pm. Someone was out pulling down the open flag from the street. I asked if they were closed. He replied "no", then mumbled something. I did notice the hours are open until 2 pm. I should have plenty of time. I went in, looking to the specials board and it was wiped clean. I had to interrupt the workers behind the counter from their bickering to learn what the specials were today. They eventually found a paper and read them off. 2 Hot dogs and fries. I'm in. It was $13+ for 2 hot dogs, fries well done and a medium drink. I looked at my receipt, and it said that I would have saved $.50 if I paid cash. Hmm. That's interesting.. there are no signs telling of the credit card fee. I sat down to wait for my lunch. Someone put up the "closed" sign in the sitting area while I waited for food. It was 1:08 pm. Nevermind the people sitting in the corner... seems like an awful long time to prep to close. My hot dogs and fries were delivered. The hot dogs looked cooked nicely, scored and nicely browned. The fries were well done with plenty of salt. I asked the gal in cleaning tables about the credit card fee. She replied that it was something they cannot control, the machine just adds it. I replied it was not allowed.. and she shrugged then walked away. The dogs were terrible. Cheap, skinless franks that were flavorless. The buns were toasted, and they were cooked nicely, but no crunch of the natural casing, no flavor. All this for $13+!

My advice, drive on. The burgers here used to be great, but the hidden fees, wonky closing times/closing practices are not worth the hassle. The workers general disinterest in anything except their gossip and themselves also make it unpleasant. The signs all over telling me that it is hard to find workers, so please be kind to the ones that show up should have...

I VERY rarely eat out and this used to be my favorite place to do so, in a world where I'm usually disappointed at other places. I always get the chicken strip plate and as a bonafide chicken finger lover, I rave about it to people that I know. The chicken strips have always been delicious and large in size. However, over the last year or so they've definitely been made smaller but I chalked that up to what everyone else is doing now and the fact that it seemed like some teens were being trained. Besides, they still tasted just as delicious so I didn't bother updating my review. But here's why I am updating my review now: on Saturday 1/13/24 I needed to grab a late dinner and since it's winter I thought their hours were reduced so I checked Google and it said they were open until 8pm. I then checked their Facebook page just to be sure and it said the same thing (no posts or announcements saying that day was a special case, either). So I headed out (I always need to call the restaurant from the road because the food is ready faster than I can get there from my house) around 6:30pm. When I called the restaurant as I was getting off the highway, it just kept ringing. I tried a couple more times before I arrived there and I just received the busy tone. When I did arrive, it was 6:55pm; 1 hour and 5 minutes before they closed. I checked the sign on the door before entering, and it said new hours and that they are open until 8pm on Saturdays. I go inside and it was just a bunch of teens in there, cleaning up. When I asked if I could place an order I was told that the fryers were already turned off and that they were closing at 7pm that night. Um, why? I triple checked the hours before going. If this place is now just going to be run by a bunch of teens that decide they're done working an hour early, then there's no point in going...