Murphy's Taproom — Restaurant in Manchester

Holy cow on this one, where do I begin. We visited on a Wednesday at 6pm for dinner. I moved to Manchester about a year ago and have been trying to hit all the restaurants in the area, if you can even call this a restaurant.

When we walked in we were originally going to sit a the bar but my dad and boyfriend both have some back issues at the moment so we moved to a booth. We were told we had to come up to the bar to order, I asked "even for food?" she said yes. Not really sure what they do when someone sits in the restaurant during dinner hours..

There were about 10 people in the place, 6 of them seemed like staff based on when I was trying to order they were giving her directions on things they had or were out of, or where to find them.

I went to the bar to order drinks. I think I went through about 5 drinks before they actually had something in stock. 3 different ciders on the beer list OOS, I moved onto a "spring margarita" from the cocktail menu (it's October) OOS, asked what they had for wine.. just an open bottle of merlot. Finally landed on a Downeast. Some of the pricing on the beer menu is way off. Being from the restaurant industry I can tell you the price of the keg is price gouging at $10 a beer (what you would expect in Boston, not a Manchester dive bar).

We ordered two fish and chips, and a chicken wrap. Fried Pickles and Steak "springrolls" (which were not springrolls but eggrolls). They came out just sitting in a half inch of grease. Fried pickles were fine enough. The fish and chips didn't come with any of the add ons it said on the menu, and fish was so burnt, there was barely any fish left inside the breading. Just not edible. My dad said he wrap was ok, the chips that he ordered with it were burnt, not edible. The food took a long time, which seemed weird since we were the only ones in the place eating.

I guess I expected it to be a restaurant and wouldn't have gone from dinner service if I knew it was a dive bar. I'd say if dinner isn't really their thing just switch to easy quick bar snacks food.. scrap the dinner menu all together.

Careful with their parking lot, driving a truck we got really stuck in there it took us 20 minutes to wiggle out. There aren't any lines that I could tell so people just park however with no...

The basics are this: The wait staff is polite The bathrooms are fairly clean You may get your food order in quickly But you will wait 1-2 hours before you get it and it will be overcooked and improperly prepared

This was my first time eating at Murphy's Taproom and is definitely my last.

While the wait staff was very friendly and very kind, it took nearly if not more than 2 hours before the food came out - and not all at once.

There were nine of us, four of them got theirs first, followed by two more a few minutes after that, and the last three didn't get theirs for another 15+ minutes. I was the last one to get mine.

I ordered the honey mustard chicken wrap with lettuce and tomatoes which came with fries. I chose the sweet potato fries. The chicken was way overdone and very, very dry, and there was nothing in the wrap that hinted that it was a "honey mustard" chicken wrap - never mind that there was plenty of lettuce but only one small cube of tomato in it.

This might be a good place for drinkers, but it is definitely not a good place for eating.

Edit to respond to Keith: Kudos for your quick response.

My friends and I (9 in total) visited a bit after the pride parade on Saturday, June 15, 2024. We arrived and were seated at about 1:30 p.m. We were the only ones seated outside other than a couple at the bar. I don't believe busyness was the issue. None of us understood what the delay was.

You should also know that most of the group ordered appetizers but I ordered my meal immediately while the appetizer orders were taken. I wasn't interested in appetizers because having not eaten breakfast I was starving. The appetizers came out but my meal did not. I heard my friends complaining how overdone they were, too.

In my opinion the meals took too long to come out after the appetizers -- especially coming out so randomized as they did -- and mine being significantly last even though I was the first to order a meal.

I also must reiterate that the wait staff was polite and kind through and through. They brought a dish of honey mustard sauce for me which greatly helped with the chicken wrap as I used it for dipping. The sweet potato fries came out warm but they were the best part...

Place has been declining throughout the pandemic. I hate leaving this review because I used to love this place but after my experience tonight I feel compelled.

I first noticed the decline when I went to the diner a little while back and was served chunky coffee creamer and given dirty silverware. I'd been back a few times since where I've noticed similar small hygiene issues. Tonight though was by and far the worst.

Girlfriend and I went here tonight for our 1 year anniversary (our first date was here). No hostess was at the front to seat me so after a few min of awkwardly standing there I just sat myself. Girlfriend arrives and we ordered pretzel bites that we couldn't dip into the cheese because the cheese was so curdled the pretzel just pressed the cheese down with no cheese getting on the pretzel. Both the bud and coors drafts I tried tasted tart meaning the kegs were either about out or changed improperly. I should've said something about all that but I didn't hoping the entrees would be better. Unfortunately, my Reuben was cooked so badly I physically could not chew through the meat. I told the waitress who did nothing but offer to have the kitchen me another (why would I want a second sandwich when the first one was so bad?).

Its sad to say but this place just gives the vibe of a bar that was once great but is now close to going out of business. Not all that surprising with the pandemic and worker shortage but I also suspect the owner knows he's close to done and has stopped caring. I seriously question their hygiene practices from my past few visits. Most places would've taken the Reuben off the bill but I suspect they didn't because they need whatever money they can get. I hope I'm wrong about them being close to done and I hope they turn things around because I did like this bar before the pandemic but as of now I won't be back.

I was stubborn with the pretzel cheese and ate some anyway so crossing my fingers I don't wake up sick tomorrow. No reason to come...