The Copper Mug — Restaurant in Hanover Township

We were really excited to try the copper mug out even though we had low expectations based on food we had tried previously at an event we attended on the grounds. But a friend asked me to check it out and give him a review since I've worked in restaurants most of my life. I was surprisingly even more disappointed than anticipated. Server was slow, forgetful, moody, and unapologetic. The cocktail I ordered was supposed to have blueberry syrup in it, but considering i couldn't drink it through a straw... I believe they may have just put some of the jam they serve with the bread in a blender with the alcohol. There were so many gooey clumps at the bottom, it was gross. My son ordered the super Shirley temple BC his favorite part is the cherries and it said it had 9000 cherries and a big straw..... It didn't. We wanted to order the burrata bruschetta but they didn't have it or the one from the daily special menu, without the burrata. So, I changed course and asked to start with the French onion soup... Waited quite some time and then told my server if it wasn't going to come out prior to dinner to please cancel it. She forgot to bring out bread and their special jam. The soup did come out eventually, lukewarm, cheese not crispy and lacking any depth. Tasted like they forgot the sherry and boiled some onions in that bouillon that comes in the plastic container from GFS. My daughter ordered the surf and turf and seemed pleased with her meal except that she had asked to switch the asparagus for carrots and was told that wasn't allowed and ended up withsome overcooked, yellowed, broccolini instead. I will say the shrimp was cooked perfectly. My son ordered the short ribs, texture was lovely but the flavor disappointing. We specifically asked the server about the consistency of the mashed potatoes and she said they were creamy and fluffy which is what he likes... They were chunky and had skins in them so that was a no for him. They also were supposed to be boursin mashed potatoes but honestly they lacked any flavor. He asked for a signature salad instead of the asparagus she asked him on three different occasions what he wanted, salad came out after the meal and wasn't the signature salad.... I ordered the tomahawk porkchop, bland and dry. Brining would do this dish a huge favor. Again with the awful broccolini, and then potatoes Au gratin that weren't fully cooked and again lacked any personality. We didn't eat anything but the soup and surf and turf, our server was MIA majority of the evening and the hostess and other server had to make up for her shortcomings. She didn't have anything to say other than ok or offer to fix anything or even an apology when she finally did come by after leaving us sit for far too long. Probably the most disappointing $130 dinner bill I've experienced in quite some time. We love staying at the castle but will eat off grounds from...

Where do I begin? Reservations, we were required to make them. Given the area, and slight trek to get to the Castle, we put our name in, and wondered the grounds while waiting. We showed up promptly at the correct time. We stood at the entry for nearly 20min while seemingly every person working there noticed my three children, wife, and myself standing at the podium. The bartender was close to us but seemed very busy playing her part in their rush. We waited patiently until she came up, and said “you guys have been waiting so long, I’m sorry how can I help? We gave our name, she went in search of a table. Cleaned a very messy non pre-bus table, and brought us to our seats. When we arrived some pathetically lazy server had filled the clean table with trash, and dinner bits, and nearly fought with the kind bartender while we were standing there, menus in hand! In hast, stuff was spilled all over the clean table, forcing us to wait even longer for everything to be moved to another table. We continued to wait unattended for another thirty-forty minutes. We received drinks a little longer than one hour after showing up for our reservations. No one wanted to serve us, we had hiked all day, and definitely had the appearance of walking through the Forrest. But we didn’t observe any dress code, felt like we looked like many other people dining, and couldn’t understand why it seemed like the workers were making an effort to ignore us. A couple servers said they would send someone out. We eventually get a nice enough lady after asking for a manager (although while wearing her Covid mask she still implied plenty of attitude and body language for only seeing her eyes, enough for a 11yr old girl to ponder her candor). We ordered the food we knew we wanted almost two hrs earlier. This was a day trip for us, hiking, dinner, back home for Memorial weekend. We wanted to eat here because we enjoy eating at nice restaurants, and don’t mind the $100 tab when we enjoy the dining experience. Eating Delmonico’s, Beef ribs in a beautiful Forrest, on the grounds of a beautiful Castle seemed like a place my wife, and I didn’t want to pass up. They really butchered the cooking of the meats, asparagus were not fully cooked. The server/manager or whatever she was didn’t charge us for drinks, saved us more than $30 I’m sure, thank you. But it was hopeless at that point. It was an abysmal dining experience especially considering they boast of a Gordon Ramsey designed menu (definitely not a high end place in our experiences). Some part of its on us for endeavoring, however we hoped for things to turn around. Needless to say the rest of our evening was a wash, we didn’t get to venture into a last scenic place because the establishment consumed nearly four hours of our night. Thank you to the bartender that tried, likely this companies...

Update: upgraded to 4 Stars

[If this had been my only visit they would have a solid 5 Star rating]

I decided to try it again. This experience, while not perfect, was done correctly. Food and service were mildly slow, but delivered with a genuinely good attitude. We again had burger problems, but this time they fixed it before we asked and made it right by bringing the kids something to eat while they waited. The meals were excellent with good presentation. The kids really enjoyed the the cauliflower appetizer (they don't usually seek out vegetables or cauliflower in particular but ate it and asked for more).

I've now eaten here 3 times. I hesitate to post anything less than 4 stars because I like supporting local businesses. But dinner with my family tonight was too bad to ignore. A brief history of my experiences here: My first meal outside last summer was pleasant. The food was good as was the service. My next meal was ok. The service was excellent, the food was adequate, while the lack of top shelf or middle shelf liquor was disappointing.

Today's family dinner was below adequate. To make it worse the servers seemed to be abandoned by management while the kitchen was having serious problems. We waited too long for service. We got slow inefficient service. The food was bad. The childrens menu is misleading; It claims "Bottomless Drinks", but charges $5 each for refills for kids Shirley Temples. All the food took too long to arrive including the bread that was forgotten until requested. Both of my children had burgers. Both had buns that were burnt black across 80-100% of the inside faces but still served (I can't imagine how any kitchen could let it out). Their fries and burgers were mildly warmer than room temperature. My dinner had room temperature fish, dirty brussel sprouts and a soup of something covering the entire plate. The appetizer salad, that was served with dinner, was more shredded processed cheese than anything else.

After spending over a decade in food service it's hard for me to give this average review, but this place is overpriced and underwhelming. It appears to have a lack of consistency that is damaging to repeat business. It seems to be related to a lack of proper management and training. I can't recommend it, but for the sake of some of the servers I wish I could. If they can get John Taffer to come fix them I'd consider giving them another chance.

(As an aside, while it's of little consequence overall, the other reviews that mention it are on to something. The decor and layout are visually uncomfortable at best. It feels like it's decorated with things left over after all the good stuff had been sold at...