TRAIL BREAK taps + tacos — Restaurant in Hartford

Two stars - is it a 'twofer?' No, it's a 'Topher,' an oh-so-clever nickname apparently derived from Christopher - this is the manager at Trail Break that ruined our meal - but don't worry - by the time you get here, I'm pretty sure he won't be working here. It's a busy holiday weekend, and my daughters and I went here for dinner after skiing. We made a 7pm reservation, but were not seated until 7:15. All good - but when 8:15 rolled around and our dinner hadn't arrived yet, I felt obligated to say something to the "manager." I got up and asked for the manager, and was told he would come to our table. He did, after about five minutes, and brought us our food. "Is anything wrong? I understand you wanted to speak to me," he said. "Yes," I replied - I understand that you're busy, but we've been waiting for our food for almost an hour." Did he apologize? No. Offer an explanation? No. He simply debated the amount of time we had been waiting, saying that we didn't wait as long as I claimed. Then he abruptly walked away from the table, no apologies, nothing. His rudeness basically spoiled our otherwise tolerable meal. The waitress was lovely - but this guy - even when we walked in, it was a full, awkward five minutes that I stood in front of him while he talked on the phone, checked his phone, and basically went out of his way to completely ignore us. When he finally did acknowledge us, he said it would be a few minutes for our table. The food was okay - have you ever been to a Mexican restaurant that did not offer rice? I hadn't, not before tonight. The decor tried to be fun with slanting walls and ski / ocean themed art, but especially after our awful interaction with Topher which seemed to color our whole experience, it wound up feeling tacky, even gaudy. The menu was only accessible via QR code, but there was no cell service in the place. I had to get up and ask for the WiFi, to allow me to access the barely useable and poorly designed website/menu. We went in here wanting to love the place - and all that clueless Topher had to do was offer a sincere apology or make some gesture of remorse - standard issue even for a college intern working in the service industry - but this bearded curmudgeon is just in the wrong business. Like I said, I'm confident he won't be working here by the time you visit - but just in case - you might ask if "Topher" still works there before making your...

Sorry, but I cannot understand the five-star reviews. We visited yesterday and were quite disappointed, considering the 4.6 average. The place has somewhat of a sterile atmosphere; almost like fast food with a bar. The food was ok, but nothing special, although that comment should be taken relative, meaning that we lived for nine years in Tampa and were exposed to truly good tacos. The melon salsa was inedible, the guacamole ok, but too chunky - not possible to pick up some of the larger avocado pieces with a tortilla chip. While this would have still warranted a slightly better review, what really let us down was the experience we had with the owner! We arrived early, before 6 pm and were told we could chose any table in the restaurant, since the place was pretty much empty. We chose a high table with six sets and the staff assured us that that was fine. About 30 to 40 minutes into our visit, the owner suddenly appeared at our table and told us that we were taken up too much space? (The restaurant was still half empty) Initially I took this for a weird joke, but upon a second inquiry from my side he again stated that we were taken too much space and made my wife and I feel quite uncomfortable. Thus we decided to leave. But it did not stop there - the owner then took it upon himself to collect our credit card and charged us a bill that was not ours - correcting this mistake then added another 15 minutes to our already uncomfortable stay. After he corrected his mistake he let us feel that we had to be extremely thankful that he did that and offered no apology whatsoever. Clearly the last time...

The hours are preposterous. How can you run a restaurant that’s open Monday Wednesday and Thursday? And I don’t buy that you can’t find enough staff. All the other local restaurants in the area are able to. Maybe you’re not paying enough? If tacos y tequila in Hanover can be open every day from lunch until 10 o’clock at night, you can surely find people to work there. Maybe don’t try and hire such entitled, noxious waitstaff?

So I can attest the fact that service there has been atrocious. I have had some decent food, but also have waited 45 minutes for a couple tacos.

Reading some of the owner’s responses to reasonable criticism, nobody should go to this place. The guy is obviously a passive aggressive, thin-skinned, detriment to the UV restaurant scene. This is the type of place that needs to be canceled based on terrible behavior by management.

“my dude” You should definitely look into doing some catering at Mar a Lago with that other notorious thin-skinned cry baby who is unable to accept valid criticism.

"Toph Dog" you the single greatest embarrassment to the service industry I've ever encountered. I suggest you bring your lame, fake-Vermonty decorations back to Brooklyn with the rest of the posers. One thing is certain, I (who you know nothing about though I've heard plenty about you) are in no position to judge. As a parting blow, I'll project to my large network in the UV (where I grew up) of how much of an incredible...