Maggie McFly's | Manchester — Restaurant in Manchester

We celebrated my 12yr olds birthday at Maggie’s, privately. He wouldn’t like the singing that comes with that experience. We explained to him how awesome the menu is and he was excited to try something new. For the most part, everything was good, but after one too many issues from our server, I felt compelled to reach out. Being a retired executive chef, and currently running a central kitchen for a nonprofit with 70 staff under me, I have an expectation of service and quality. Let me sum up what I feel was off about the night and you can let me know if I’m just being too fickle or if there was a real failure of execution. First we ordered the egg roll sampler, and we never received any small plates for the table to share the appetizer, nor did I see my server to ask for any plates or napkins for that matter, so we wind up making a mess cutting the egg rolls on the center plate while trying to share with everyone. My daughter ordered kids grilled chicken, but with broccoli, not green beans. When it arrived, it had quinoa & broccoli Rabe, not a floret, as I was expecting or the mashed potatoes as the menu stated. I asked my server if they had regular broccoli and he had no idea what I was asking… he replied “broccolini” and I said no, just a simple broccoli floret. He went and came back with the same thing, broccoli rabe. He offered French fries and we said thank you, but the fries never came. When it came time to pay, the bill was charged $9.45 for grilled chicken dinner and $0.99 for the broccolini. Not $8.45 as stated on the kids menu. (Yes, it’s $9.95 if you look online, BUT my paper menu said $8.45) what 8yr old eats broccoli Rabe? My wife’s tuna poke bowl had a good 10oz of fried noodles on it, way overkill and she was not satisfied with the minuscule amount of tuna that was hidden under the insane amount of fried strips. We had to request refills on the two diet cokes on the table and he even refilled my kids water which was not empty and was not asked for. He cleared my plate which still had half of my truffle fries on it. I wasn’t asked. But then he did not clear any other empty dirty dish at all. Just left all the empty soda glasses and dirty plates everywhere. So after asking for the check, sitting at a table full of dirty dishes. It took 10 minutes for him to bring it. Another 5 minutes for him to come back and grab the cash and then another 15 minutes for the change. That last 30 minutes of waiting, with an unhappy daughter, now wife and myself growing agitated it was just not the night I expected. The food was awesome. That was the whole reason for visiting. The motto when I was cooking full time, great service can make up for bad food but bad service doesn’t make up for great food. There was a manger touching tables and she did ask how things were, but it’s the fake ask because she wasn’t there long enough to hear my answer. Also. I didn’t want to embarrass the server and make a stink in public. Not my style. I just wanted you to know, because if it was my business, I would want to know.

Edit: after sending this email to corporate, because I didn’t want to embarrass the server or make a big deal on a Saturday night, they simply responded sorry, and the kids food is $9.95 and warrants a $1 up charge for the broccoli substitution. So $11 I paid for food that wasn’t never eaten. It should have been comped off the bill or free desserts offered. Some kind of good faith offer. But nada zip zero. They just said I hope you give us another shot. Ummm hello? That’s why you offer a $20 gift card. So I come back and spend another $200 and use that tiny $20 card. It will be a long time before I decide to eat there just on principle. Food service needs to run like a well oiled machine. If my server is too busy to clean my table then the next server needs to do it. Never return empty handed to the kitchen. But every person for themselves apparently. What ever. No harm no foul. My food was good. My sons food was good. The other three meals, debatable. It’s totally worth a trip if you’re on the fence...

I've been to Maggie McFly's at least a dozen times and this is my first time giving it a review. In my opinion, it's a good place to go regardless of what you're hungry for.

Although I do like Maggie McFly's, the menu is SO ridiculously lengthy (approx. 40 pages). It's impossible to read every item on it before the server comes to you for your order. Other reviews say it's TOO big and I agree. Of course, not every page of the menu highlights food to order. The first few pages tells the history of the place, or the nutritional value of the food, then theres pages dedicated to just the logos of the beers they serve, and another with hard liquors (completely unnecessary on a menu, save this stuff for the website or pictures on the walls).

Hey I get it, they're proud of using food items and alcohol from local businesses, and that's cool (but In my opinion, they can probably streamline the menu by eliminating at least 12 to 14 unnecessary pages).

Whew! I'm exhausted just from describing the menu! Now on to the main entrees...

When we go to Maggie's, I always try order something different every time I'm there.

This visit I ordered the "street tacos" (a combination of any three tacos listed). I had the pulled pork, the Baja Chicken and the Lobster Vera Cruz tacos with a side of yellow rice and Chick Pea Quinoa corn salad. All three tacos had decent flavors, but I think the pulled pork and the Lobster tacos had way too much cilantro. (IMHO, cilantro should be used to highlight the flavors of the meats, not over power them). My wife had the Sizzling Chicken Fajita, a house specialty. This dish had great flavors and a touch of heat. It's one of her favorites, because she knows that she'll always bring home enough leftovers for another meal tomorrow.

Sorry about the long rant about the oversized menu, but it had to be said. Like I stated at the beginning of this review, I've been to Maggie McFly's at least a dozen times, regardless of the size of the menus, I'll recommend this place good food...

I absolutely Love Maggie McFlys, I typically go to the Glastonbury location where I've never had a bad experience or bad meal. Maybe its my fault for going during lunch at a mall. They sat us in the corner near the kitchen, the kitchen door propped open so we could see how the sausage was made. Our waitress was nice but absolutely clueless. She asked if we were ready to order when we first sat down, but when we said we need a second we hadn't even opened the menus she didn't take a drink order then disappeared for 20 minutes. When she came back she took our drink and food order, brought us our drinks then another 20 minutes came back and asked how everything was before realizing she hadn't brought us our food, while my drink was empty. She exclaimed "oh let me go get your food' which i can only assume meant it was on the warmer and she forgot about it, and who knows how long it sat. My rueben was dried out. My drink was empty for half an hour she never brought me another or asked. Another server actually saw it was empty and the ice melted and he brought me one. The waitress never cleared our plates or empty drink cups. After being there over an hour for lunch when she came back I just handed her my credit card to get this experience over with so I wouldn't have to wait 10 minutes to get the check another 10 for her to come get my CC and another 10 to run it. Hoping the bill was accurate, and I would just check when she brought it back to sign, yet she only brought the signature slip and I never was able to look at an itemized list. Again she was nice, but in way over her head, so the service was less than acceptable, food was mid at best, and the atmosphere was disappointing. I will definitely try the other locations again, but...