Raven's Den Steakhouse and Taproom — Restaurant in Manchester

We just tried the Raven's Den Steakhouse and Taproom today, for the first time. For appetizers, we had the nachos that we're very tasty. The cheese was real (not the liquid variety) and the diced chicken was flavorful and remained moist through the oven bake. I can definitely see these nachos as a hit after enjoying a few cocktails at the bar. We also ordered the Fish Tacos as an appetizer, and I can't say enough about these. They are light sole filet's served on crispy fried tortillas with a wonderful white sauce with lettuce and diced tomatoes. My wife ordered fish and chips and it was serviceable. The fish was fresh battered and the fries were cooked perfectly. My son ordered a bacon cheeseburger and it was very good. It was juicy and the roll was delicious. My daughter had the Green Curry Noodle Bowl and although I didn't try it, my daughter is a big fan of Thai and Indian and she loved it. I had the Steak Sandwich and it was surprising. For some reason, I was expecting a chopped steak and it was an entire strip on this amazing bread, with a very mild horseradish sauce on the side, which was a perfect sauce. The horseradish could have been slightly more prevalent, but that's personal taste. The fries once again were perfectly cooked, crispy but not burned. My meal was also served with a small side of beef gravy that was sent down from heaven. I have no idea if it's made fresh there but it's DELICIOUS gravy, with a hint of Sherry or something along those lines. The place is decorated in a beautiful lodge type theme and you definitely get a sense of identity between the restaurant itself and the menu. The chef and owner seems to know his direction. The dress is casual and unpretentious. This was a lunch meal by the way. I did look at the dinner menu and it offers A LOT more options, along with what appear to be, more refined dishes than the offerings on the lunch menu. If I had to point to any negatives, I ordered my steak temperature at medium rare and it came at more toward medium well, but that seems to be par for the course at many restaurants these days. The steak was STILL very juicy and I would DEFINITELY order this again. Also, our server was wonderfully polite and knowledgeable, but terribly overwhelmed. He was by himself on a Sunday afternoon and we counted at one point, 10 tables that he was serving at once, inside and outside dining areas. I get the impression this was an anomaly and it certainly didn't affect the quality of the food. The prices are competitive for the surrounding area of Manchester and seem appropriate for the amount of fresh components used in the dishes. Overall, I will definitely be eating here again and I will be highly recommending this...

I honestly do not even know where to start with my experience...I called a week in advance to make reservations and requested at that time one order for beef wellington (online noted they needed 24 hours notice). A day prior to my reservation, I received text to confirm my reservation, which I did and then I received another take 30 minutes prior to our reservation reminding me of out reservation; we arrive a little early to our set time, a gentleman gave us a tour and stated we could still anywhere we would like, the waitress came over and asked us for our drink order, which we placed and after brining our drinks the waitress than told us they did not receive their shipment and would not be able to fulfill the request for the beef wellington and noted the chef stated the12oz steak would be a great alternative. Why did they not reach out to us by phone? They knew at least a day prior they would not be able to fulfill request? Why did they not tell us prior to seating us?!?! The way they handled this was very poor, but I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, as shipment issues are a true thing. I attempted to order the 8oz steak and was told they only had the 12 oz and my husband order the special pork veal chop, we also ordered additional drinks and appetizers trying to save our anniversary dinner for ourselves..We should have left from the start, all the food was not ripe, overcooked or poorly cooked and had little to no flavor. I later learned after placing our meal order that this steakhouse only had 12oz steak, no other steak options....The atmosphere/space is nice and the staff tried to be kind when sharing their struggles that is why I am giving two stars, but that is were the positives end, the way they choose to handle the situation was poor and not direct or honest, which is just not a good standard in any business/relationship and the food was very expensive and lacked taste, it was a very expensive and disappointing experience! They did comp a drink, but again that did very little to repair the level of disappointment experienced during our anniversary dinner. While I do not reside in Manchester, I do believe based on my brief time there that there are several wonderful restaurants in the area that are able to provide great service and food, so I would encourage you to go elsewhere other than this restaurant, as I feel that the experience I had echoes several others that others have experienced recently and do not wish anyone else to spend their hard earned money at this establishment until this business is able to hear and take the feedback to heart and take action to create change at several levels for...

Never More? (with apologies to Edgar Allen Poe)

My wife and I had dinner on a recent Friday night. We had a 5pm reservation and arrived a few minutes early but right after a very large group had arrived who were seated in the main dining room. We were asked by the front desk if we had a reservation and I said yes which the greeter verified on the list. We requested a quiet table (to avoid the large and noisy group) and were nicely shown to a corner table in the beautiful bar/lounge area which was largely empty at the time and mostly stayed that way all during our dinner. Empty bar at 5pm on a Friday night probably should have been a warning sign to us.

We had our salads which were pretty good especially the dressing. Shortly after finishing the salads, my cell phone rang and the caller ID said the restaurant was calling. The caller was our server who asked if we were intending to keep our 5pm reservation. I replied we were already in the restaurant and eating. Obviously she did not realize we were the people she had brought drinks and salads to just minutes before. We all laughed it off as the front desk had forgotten to cross our name off when we arrived. Unfortunately that was the end of our good experience. It may also reflect how desperate this place is for business.

Our entrees later arrived -- 8oz strip steak and house burger with blue cheese topping. We were really disappointed with both dishes. The steak was not very hot , not very tender, the au poivre sauce much too spicy and the burger was cold. We chose to send just the burger back. We had asked for it medium rare but it was cooked beyond that but yet cold. The served offered to make us a new one and we agreed but we were truly shocked when she returned with the original burger with the bite marks clearly visible( we had asked for the burger originally to be split into two so we each had taken a bite). At this point the server comped us for the burger and we left what should have been a nice wedding anniversary dinner very disappointed with the food though the staff are very nice. We think this place may be really suffering from a downturn in business as we heard a staff member saying that business is down compared to last year to a different customer. Also I think our food suffered from being lost in the shuffle of the larger party. In any event, the prices are high enough that this restaurant needs to do...