Lambertville House — Restaurant in Lambertville

2 1/2 stars

This was one of the strangest meals I've experienced in recent memory. My top tier chums and I came here for dinner this past Saturday night around 6:30pm. I'd been here before once years ago, and recall having a pretty positive lunchtime experience in the cozy front room with a charcuterie board. This was unfortunately not as good.

We ordered two apps to split - the grilled octopus and charcuterie. The octopus was very divisive at our table. I liked it better than anyone else did (mostly because of the sauce or seasoning that it was cooked in), but even with that flavoring the texture was very rubbery. One chum actually spit out her one bite into a napkin, which I've never seen her do before. The charcuterie was okay; you can see from the accompanying picture that everything had a bit of a greasy shine to it, which wasn't particularly appetizing (the cheese closest to the camera was massively sweating), but I can't say the taste of it was bad. There were a few items I wasn't interested in consuming, notably the mustard and pickles, but that's a personal palate issue more than anything else.

I went with the short ribs entrée, which was underwhelming. A big part of it for me was the texture - top-tier short ribs should be tender and flaky, but this just wasn't. It didn't fall apart easily and required a lot of extra work with my knife. It was also on the bland side, and I didn't finish it. The garlic mashed potatoes that accompanied it were probably the highlight for me, and I'd argue that if your side is overshadowing the main course on the plate, that's a problem.

I want to be as charitable as I can here, but our waitress was very awkward and there seemed to be a huge disconnect with her throughout the evening. She WAS nice as far as it goes, but if you had told me it was her first or second day on the job, I wouldn't have had trouble believing that. There were two significant issues that cropped up during the meal with her. The first was when my friend ordered the shrimp tacos as her entrée. Literally half an hour after she ordered them, the waitress told her they had run out of tacos. Okay, things happen. My friend then pivoted and ordered a chicken-based entrée. When the entrees all came out, guess what showed up? The shrimp tacos. Everyone was confused, especially when the waitress offered to bring the chicken out too. We still have no idea what happened, other than an assumption that the waitress was initially incorrect about the lack of taco inventory. And you can make the argument that ultimately that's a happy ending for my chum who ended up getting what she wanted, but it did speak to the serious communication issues that went on throughout this meal.

The last problem was worse though. We gave her our credit cards to split equally three ways. She came back apologetically and said she wasn't able to do that. Instead, she ended up charging me for 66% of it, one friend 33%, and the other friend got off scot-free. If she was unsure how to process the credit cards correctly, there were two obvious, superior options - she should have sought assistance from another employee in the restaurant (I assume Lambertville House employs at least one staffer who can split a bill three ways), or come back to the table to let us know the issue so we could make an updated decision on how to handle it. If you can't do it, the answer shouldn't be to do it incorrectly and just drop the cards back off with us to sort it out. Very unprofessional and shouldn't have happened.

We made some very pleasant memories in Lambertville/New Hope this past weekend, but overall the general impression of the establishments we frequented was overrated with mediocre food. This was the...

Hygge is a Danish that roughly translated means cozy times ten. I’ve come to Lambertville the town for decades when I seek restorative peace in a town that feels like home. Well, now I finally found the most home of a hotel I’ve ever been in. I’ll return often.||1812 they built this fine boutique hotel of but 26 rooms and it has stood the test of time.||Here are a few of my favorite things:||Incredibly soft and snooze-inducing bed; cozy in room gas-fueled fireplace giving the room a warm toasty glow; a numbingly bliss-inducing jacuzzi hot tub in your room giving you that relaxed lobster cheery red thrush all over; a balcony just outside the indoor hot tub of your suite so as to behold a quiet portico and patio below with one of the hamlet’s numerous over 100 year old spires rising quietly over this artisans’ oasis beside the river - a river that rarely but sadly always floods, submerging the streets but drawing this community even more tightly together. ||Those are some of the rooms’ and this hotel’s attributes and there are many other wondrous touches.||But more than any of these great aspects of the Lambertville House experience, it was the warm and accommodating staff like Michelle and Annabelle and Stacey who are the very spirit of this hotel. Lincoln himself would have felt at home here, as he once did.||It’s not just a hotel nor indeed a house but a home for travelers away from home because of their staff and accoutrements.||After three days’ stay here, I don’t believe a single word I read of another reviewer's entitled bellyaching. I expressed nothing but gracious kindness and beyond helpful hospitality.||Michelle was as patient as a saint walking me through some questions I had about billing, going so far as to kindly write them out on a little note for me in this age of “rote” computerized exchanges. She was the first friendly face to greet me as a straggled in bedraggled and exhausted. As I toyed with extending my stay, she airily declared I should just sleep on because their beds were incredible! She was right.||Both she and another wonderful front desk person, Annabelle (a dopplegänger former Amalie) assisted me in my third-floor suite with safely turning on the gas fireplace. They volunteered - I didn’t demand. Neither made me feel foolish for asking. They were happy to help.||Getting it right allowed me to go to sleep with a roaring fireplace and wake up to one again rather wake up in some celestial other place.||And Stacey. Worried that I’d lose my parking spot, I asked for options. She walked me outside and showed all the different spots - it’s a larger lot than you realize. Then he told me about flow over lots in back of the Acme. Yet again, an incredibly friendly and helpful staff member and I will meet them all again this year without fail. That’s how good they made me feel.”||The clientele here tended to be affable and easy going as well. L House also gives you a $25 credit for the attached restaurant’s lunch or dinner.||I’ve been imagining a cozy hotel for years where I’d have a fireplace and jacuzzi both in the same suite. ||Now at last I’ve found one - but even better I found a place with incredibly pleasant and accomodating souls like Annabelle and Michelle and Stacey. |A home...

This was our first time visiting Lambertville. We booked a queen suite for our wedding anniversary weekend. It was one of the last rooms left, and was extremely expensive but we decided to splurge for the occasion. First let me start with the positives... it’s a very quaint, historic, bed and breakfast feel type “hotel”. They have free valet parking which was nice given the parking lot was very small and probably fills up fast. The jacuzzi tub in the room was very big and nice, and it kind of ends there. The negatives... it’s not at all worth the price. For $400 a night you should be getting all the bells and whistles, especially when they’re aware it’s your wedding anniversary. The front desk was nice and pleasant at check in, but they don’t offer to help with your bags. It’s have a nice weekend, happy anniversary... here’s your key, be on your way. The room... has a very outdated feel to it. Not historic... outdated. The wallpaper is peeling back in the bathroom, and you can see the black mold behind it. Pretty gross. The room had a courtyard balcony... one of the perks of having a suite. It overlooked a parking lot and a dingy old roof. Don’t waste your money on having a room with a balcony. There is no “view”. Prior to arriving I had called the hotel to ask them if they had any recommendations for restaurants. It was our first time visiting the area, and I made that clear when I called. They had very little input so we had to wing it. Our first night we decided to try the restaurant in the hotel. It’s more of a library type room with a bar and a few tables. There was one waitress/hostess for the 8 or 9 tables in the room. Our suite was bigger than the “restaurant/bar”. We couldn’t tell if we should seat ourselves or wait when we walked in because there was no hostess at the desk, so we were glancing at open tables. We were quickly scolded by the waitress that tables with more than 2 seats were reserved for guests of more than 2. We sat at a table for 2 to avoid any further punishment. The waitress eventually came over after quite a while and took our drink order. We had already decided there was no way we were eating dinner here, so we ordered a soup and a shrimp cocktail just to have apps before we searched for a different restaurant. The French onion soup was the worst we had ever had, and the shrimp smelled fishy and was undoubtedly previously frozen. Again, for $400 a night... you’d expect something phenomenal from the restaurant. Not the case at all. The service was atrocious, and the food not much better. The martini was great though, so kudos to the bartender. Long story short... it is not at all worth the price they charge. We didn’t have a terrible time, but it certainly didn’t meet our expectations. The town is cute and it’s just a short walk to New Hope, but don’t count on the Lambertville House to give you any kind of special experience or service. If we were to ever return it would not be to the Lambertville House. It’s not...