The Place 2 Be — Restaurant in Hartford

The place 2 be is always on point. From the amazing design work to the excellent customer service and the young energetic vibe in the air, you can always be guaranteed a great time just being in the atmosphere. If you've never been before, you're probably going to want to grab some pictures in almost every corner of the room, from neon signs, to furniture covering greenery, It really is quite a sight compared to your average run-of-the-mill little mom and pop brunch shop. They even have these adorable little rubber ducks that come with many of the menu items which you can then take home. We have a bunch lying around the house, they're adorable! And don't forget to check their schedule cuz they have live DJs all the time which just add even more fun and excitement to your visit.

Now let's talk food. This whole restaurant is what the term "Instagram worthy" was made for, and it certainly doesn't stop at the food. Literally every single dish and drink you can possibly order from this establishment will have you wanting to take your phone out and capture the moment. They take so much care to make sure everything is so appetizing, beautiful, elegant and fun. From the vibrant colors, to the detailed placement of every little ingredient on the plate, it's hard not to want to get everything on the menu, and what an extensive menu it is. From all sorts of colorful drinks, to brunch foods galore, to main dishes that please just about anyone walking in the door, they don't skimp on options. So the food looks great... How does it taste?

One thing I really love about the menu is the innovation. While you'll see many familiar dishes here, almost all of them have some sort of a twist or unexpected ingredient to make every dish pop with a refreshing punch to the pallet. From purple pickled onions on your chicken sandwich, to a coffee spice on your mac and cheese, there's never a dull flavor combination, which keeps this ever growing menu constantly exciting. But does the flavor match the excitement of what's on paper here? Yes and no, let me explain.

The food here is what I would call pretty good. You do have some dishes that you'll walk away remembering for weeks, some that might be more forgettable and everything in between. I guess expectations were high because of the visuals but I certainly had a few dishes that were just okay at best. There are other restaurants I've been to that have this amazing consistency in the flavors of every dish, this isn't one of those restaurants. Don't get me wrong, some of the dishes here were excellent, but I would say the aesthetics of the food here would be a 10 / 10 while the overall flavor would be more of a 7 / 10. This is of course very subjective, as my wife finds the food to be excellent across the board here, so don't take my word for it fully. I just wish there weren't dishes that came off as a little bland when everything else here was so awesome.

That being said, we've gone here many times, as well as the other locations. This location is by far our favorite, it's beautiful and spacious and currently doesn't have as long of a wait time as the one in West Hartford. This place never disappoints and we will continue going here and taking all our friends and family for years to come!

P.S. I completely forgot to mention one of my other favorite things about this place, which is the ordering process. You just scan a barcode at the table and you can order whatever you want right from your phone. Everyone can pay their own separate bills, finalize their orders on their own time and just keep adding orders throughout the meal as needed. It's great to be able to do everything right on your phone, easily and organized, and I don't understand why every single restaurant in the world doesn't have the same exact system! It really is a game changer if you haven't experienced it yet in the past at another restaurant and I look forward to the day where this becomes the new norm for a more streamlined eating...

This has to be the absolute WORST dining experience I have ever had. I came here because of the reviews and the pictures and the fact that it was on Phantom Gourmet. Let me tell you the 100% real experience from beginning to end. It must depend on the person and if they feel like actually caring at all for you. Mind you I spent $145 for a birthday lunch with three people. When you first walk into this place nobody is at the hostess table and about half a dozen or more people make eye contact with you but never come over to you or acknowledge you. After 6-7 minutes a kid that busses tables comes over to you and tells you to have a seat somewhere. After another almost 10 minutes no servers come up to you, nobody comes up to you at all. My wife had to go find someone to ask if anyone was ever going to come to the table. After a few more minutes a guy comes to the table hands out some dirty wrinkled menus that have no drinks on them and immediately says do you know what you want? I ask for a drink menu and he says to scan a code on the table sign to see the drinks. He then says to put a flag up when we want someone to come over. With this being the first time here we did not know any of that, and if my wife didn’t go find someone I feel we would have been there for hours before someone cared. We put up the sign and the server came over with warm tiny glasses of water and asked for our order. I ordered the drink I wanted (a cosmo girl) and my wife ordered the drink for her and our daughter (the virgin bathtub drink) . We then said we wanted to order appetizers and seeing that it’s a lengthy period of time before anyone is ever around or comes over to you we decided to order the food as well. We waited for almost 20 more minutes and still had no drinks. Then the main meal for my wife and daughter came…the buffalo Mac and cheese skillet and the California quesadillas. Still we had no appetizers, and no drinks. The food was cold and terrible. The Mac and cheese tasted sour and the noodles were dry and hard. The quesadilla was like rubber and had 2 pieces of chicken. I waited for another 10 minutes with no food for myself. Then someone brought the meal I ordered (the spicy steak melt) which was slimy and the bread was total mush and it was diagusting. Still we had no drinks or appetizers which is a very terrible way to have a meal. After 10 minutes one appetizer came and still we did not receive drinks. Then after another 8 minutes drinks came. The drinks were the most pathetic terrible drinks I have ever seen, not even close to the pictures. I got a cosmo girl that was half full with just juice and warm no garnish no nip, it was a half full wine glass of warm cranberry juice for $14. My wife and daughter got the bathtub drink. It had the straws in the drink at the bottom for them to fish out. No candy no fruit, it was warm juice with smushed half stuck raggedy Cotton candy around it. They were the worst drinks we have ever had. After all this time we are still waiting for the appetizers that have not arrived. After we are almost done with our awful meal and complete joke of drinks we get one appetizer that was the only half decent thing we ate of the French toast fritters. Then 10 minutes later when I am trying to get someone to get the check and just end this awful experience we finally get the other appetizer. This is the most disgusting thing anyone has ever eaten of the fried deviled eggs. This was the most unprofessional half a$$ed terrible dining experience I have ever had. Avoid this place if you value anything about your life and if you want to not waste valuable hours of your day with the most terrible food and dining experience you will ever have. See the posted photos as well for the proof of how awful...

I feel like two stars is being a bit generous… I wanted to try this place so badly because of the hype and positive feedback… This place is definitely waaayyyy overrated.

I came here for my birthday weekend. My boyfriend brought me for a surprise but it definitely was not a good experience. My bf called had made reservations and two other of my family members put In reservations very early as well. So you make reservations but are still told it’s still “first come first serve” so there basically is zero point to the reservation. We were told we would have to wait 20 minutes but ended up waiting over 1 hour and 30 minutes. My parents came and grandparents came and let’s just say it’s not a place for them… my grandparents left after only being inside for a few minutes because the music was so loud it was hurting their head. My parents said if it wasn’t for my birthday they would have just left because of the long wait and the extremely loud music.. so loud you can barely hear the person right next to you if they are screaming at the top of their lungs and the music is basically vibrating through your whole body.

As for customer service… what service? We ordered the food using the scan barcode so there was no waitress taking our order. Only thing the waiter did was plop the food on the table and had no interaction with customers. My brother in law even tried waving at waiters to get their attention and they looked at him and walked by. The only interaction there was with staff was them singing happy birthday which apparently you have to pay extra for. So what would you be paying a tip for because we already had to pay extra for the tiny bit of interaction we did have …it just doesn’t make sense.

As for the food ..yes it was good but it was not anything to rave about, the food had decent flavor and big portion which was good. Unfortunately my mom was the last to get her food and she ordered an avocado toast soo we didn’t understand why there was such a long wait for it. And trying to get a staff member to ask when her food was coming was a nightmare of a task. I ordered the “drink my bath water” drink. It looked cool and tasted good but for two people wasn’t much of a drink since they filled it about halfway. The food was decent but nothing I would wait over 1 and a half hours for again and you can’t enjoy your food because of the insanely loud music, lack of customer service, and furniture. The furniture was outdoor patio furniture and you had to practically get out of your seat to try to eat or drink.. it just doesn’t work. I went here to try it and I experienced it and I think that is enough for me...