Hudson & Essex — Restaurant in Mansfield

We dined here for our very first time. We are well-travelled and spend a decent amount on quality dining experiences. This was disappointing. To start with, we were seated at a very large, but short-seated booth. We felt like we were sitting on the floor and moved to a regular table right next to the booth. When waited on, the waitress was initially pleasant enough. We decided to try a jalapeño cocktail, which was really tasty. Then for dinner, we each got a different burger so we could try each other's. It was burger night, which included a beer with your burger, which I did like, but just did not end up finishing. My burger was strange. It was the fried walleye burger with Asian slaw. I was assigned in Asia for 4 years and can tell you that the slaw was no way close to Asian. It was almost like cabbage mixed with a ton of sugar with a blob of ketchup thrown on it. Both my husband and I scraped it off our half of the burger and ate the fish by itself, which was actually quite good. The other burger was their house burger, which was quite tasty. The real downer of the night was when we ordered 2 Irish coffees. They were both really hot and really sweet. My husband was almost done with his, but I needed to cool mine down and perhaps thin out the drink with some regular coffee or iced water. We wanted to walk outside after dinner. So, I asked for my drink to go. I was told by the waitress that was not an option because it was alcohol. So, I then asked for a coffee to go. When it was brought to me, it too was boiling hot and filled to the top with no creamers, etc. So, I poured half of the boiling hot coffee into an empty glass and emptied the remainder of the whipped cream part of my Irish coffee and some ice water into the "to go" cup. The minute I set down my cup, the waitress returned, not once, but twice, threatening me, saying things like, "if you try to leave with that, I am taking that cup from you, you know that, right?" She said things like that in a confrontational manner, as if she just wanted to start a physical brawl or something. I just looked at her, and when she was done yelling at me and returned to waiting on others, we left WITH my coffee. If the food had dazzled me and her attitude, I would not even bother with negative commentary. The food was so-so and the waitress was crabby and rather bully-like. I cannot believe I got so much grief over coffee mixed with the last 3 gulps of an Irish coffee in a sealed generic to-go cup, which I paid for and could not drink due to how hot it was. I will stick to places who employ people who know how to please patrons. She totally ruined the meal, even though the burger I had was already lackluster to begin with. Not going back. I told my husband NOT to pay the bill until right before departing because I wanted to rethink her tip. He said he only left 10% but I know that is a lie. He probably left WAY more. The thing is, we ALWAYS give additional tips separately to great wait staff, which I made sure she did not get. I could see a concern about my plastic coffee cup if I had been drinking irresponsibly and appeared to get a liability, but that was not the case. I finished only half of a small glass of beer and half of a cocktail and was on foot. She was really trying to force a physical altercation by her approach and...

Our son-in-law and daughter wanted to gift us a nice evening out for the holidays so they reserved time at Hudson & Essex for a lovely evening out. Hudson & Essex has parking both in front and in back of the facility. The Maitre D' was very pleasant. The waitress (Kylie, I believe was her name) was helpful in answering any questions we had concerning the drinks menu, and dinner menu. No question was left unanswered. We started our meal with Charcuterie bread board with the daily cheese and a tomato type spread, a bottle of Gamay Rose' Wine, a glass of red wine and mixed drink for the son-in-law. The Charcuterie was so delicious with amble amounts of breads and spreads. The bread was served hot which equates to gold in my mind. No, hard to chew cold bread on that board. The Gamay Rose' was so pleasant very pleasing on the palate, such a beautiful blend of softness a savoring of light sweet tropical fruit. My husband not much into wine loved it. 🥂 My daughter and I chose the Japanese Fried Chicken with broccoli topped with a delicious sweet soy, kimchi mayo. We decided to share the beet salad that was a of a red and white beet, buratta cheese, red onions and a beautiful herb vinaigrette dressing. My son-in-law chose a pork tenderloin of which he throughly enjoyed. My husband had the coffee rubbed Ribeye after a shared taste, I must say it was an excellent choice. The Japanese Fried Chicken was to die for.... just delicious as was the beet salad. The evening meal was topped off with Creme Burlee. The Creme Burlee was topped with the crusted syrup, some blueberries, raspberry and that beautiful crunch of the candied orange peels. The manager came to our table and chatted with us. We informed him it was our first visited and we were not disappointed. The dining area is pleasant and quite pretty. At the end of the evening my daughter and I felt we could have shared our Japanese Fried Chicken as we had with the beets salad. We later asked to take our remaining wine to a lower seating area where there was a fireplace and a bar. The bar seemed to be a semi-sports bar and the waiter let us know if we needed anything that he would be more than happy to accommodate. 💯 per cent we were not disappointed. The pricing was acceptable also. Our son-in-law and daughter visited from Northern Virginia and they were impressed with what Mansfield, Ohio had to offer. It is not a country...

The star I did give goes strictly to the chef responsible for the food. It was amazing every time!! However, there is a serious issue here with the service. For a “five star dining experience” I am 100% unimpressed! Our first visit was disheartening as we waited nearly 25 minutes for a server to come to our table after another employee dropped off our menus. To boot, she delivered the wrong cocktails to my wife and I. Drinks that were very far away from our requests. It took an additional 20 mins to correct this. So the first experience continued as such. I told my wife we don’t need to go back again but she insisted that maybe it was just a bad day. Well it seems there are a lot of those because I (somehow) ended up at this establishment twice this month. Once for the in-laws and my boss decided it would be a good place to grab lunch- I didn’t argue. While with my (very senior) in-laws, a server, within earshot, said something that was completely explicit and rude to the senses, I will not indulge, but I’ll say it had to do with a unique stain on her clothing. I was absolutely mortified as was my wife in the presence of very conservative 70 yo’s . When I went with my boss, there was a gnat swarm in the winery that was too much to be considered fancy. They were landing all over our wine glasses and our charcuterie, as well as buzzing in our ears. We could not get away from them. Again with the slow service, it is amazing you can call yourselves fine dining. It is ONLY by the grace of your chefs. Management is piss poor and seemingly unprofessional to allow things to be this bad. Plenty of bad reviews about the service, and yes the servers know what’s on the menu- but so does everyone reading it. You need to do better to survive in Mansfield. My wife, my in laws, my boss, nor myself are at all willing...