The Yardery — Restaurant in Mount Dora

We are always happy to see new restaurants open in our hometown of Mount Dora. I'll admit, with overall prices being what they are, we normally opt for going to Tavares or somewhere along 441. But we wanted to give them a go. So we went today at lunchtime. The stars must have been aligned because we found a place to park. Thinking this was a good sign, we walked over to the Yardery and went upstairs. As others have said, the ambiance was lovely, and fortunately we found ourselves a table right away, but our lunch experience was pretty awful.

We started with what turned out to be the high point of our meal-the ginormous pretzel with delicious cheese sauce for dipping. It was soft, hot and fabulous. The young man that delivered it was delightful. That's where the disappointment set in.

We ordered our lunch and settled in with a beer, a cocktail and a sweet tea. Even the cocktail was a challenge, because you can't salt the rim on a plastic cup for a margarita. My husband's burger was delivered, along with his sweet potato fries. The burger looked appetizing, but the onion strings and bacon were cold. The burger was warm, and tasted pretty good with their sauce. The fries were nothing special, for the extra amount charged for them.

And then I waited for my chicker caesar wrap...and waited...and waited. When hubby was nearly done with his meal, my lunch was delivered. The cole slaw tasted basically like cabbage and vinegar, not sweet like it had been described to me. And my chicken caesar wrap tasted like a bacon lettuce and tomato wrap with mostly lettuce and little bits of tomato. I did find small amounts of chicken in it. But overall it was so bad I left over half of it. Our waitress was nice enough to ask if I wanted a box, but of course I declined. So off she went with our trays.

It was somewhat encouraging for her to come back and say that my lunch was comped. And yet our bill was still $72, which included the suggested 22% tip. When my husband questioned the total, he was shown an itemized receipt. Seems like its normal to be given that up front, not just given the handheld device with a suggested total. He was ultimately given a printed itemized receipt showing our meal. And yes, they did take off my $16 wrap. Good thing too, or we would have spent nearly $100 on lunch for 2 people.

And at the risk of sounding petty, with prices like these it would have been nice to have had something other than plastic drinkware and flatware.

Its good to have more restaurant options. And we always like to give new places the benefit of the doubt by trying them twice. But I'm not sure we want to risk the big bucks to see if they get things worked out. It was such an expensive disappointment the first time. I do hope they get things worked out and find success. But I don't think they will be on our...

My bartender (don't know her name she didn't tell me) argued with me about the beer list. While I was handed a menu that listed the beers, I could clearly see taps that were not on that menu. I asked her to explain and she just kept pointing at the taps and saying "these are our opening taps". After asking three different times three different ways and having her Vanna White the drafts I could clearly see in front of me that did not match what was on the menu, I just gave up and pointed at one and said give me that.

There were a small handful of other people upstairs at "Mount Dora's Only Rooftop Bar" - I'm not entirely sure they understand the meaning of the word "roof". The upstairs bar is on the second story. The roof is one story above that. Nobody was sitting on the roof, because there are no seats or tables up there. Perhaps the people sitting on the first story are in the "basement"?

After that her and some employee from downstairs, no idea if they were wait staff or kitchen staff sat off to the side and basically complained about stuff about their day/jobs within earshot of me.

Neither of them seemed particularly happy about their job. So I was really surprised after reading review after review after review saying the same thing over and over again. "So and so was fantastic" "So and so was great"

Really strange. I have never seen a restaurant have 30+ reviews in a row all sounding EXACTLY the same. All of those reviews did not match my experience at all. I found a lackluster staff in an empty bar complaining about their jobs. And not knowing what they actually have on draft.

I can't speak to the food because I didn't eat anything.

After reading all of the glowing reviews over the last couple of weeks I expected the best service I have ever experienced. Nope. Not sure who all these people are who are reviewing this restaurant, if you look 90% of them have never reviewed anything before. Not sure what that means. Wish my experience was better. I left after one beer and went to a better bar...

This was our first time visiting the yardery and we were absolutely blown away. My teenage son and my 2 and a half year old daughter and I were looking for a place for lunch when we walked past the yardery. I was immediately drawn to it bc of the tire swing and all the fun outdoor games...especially bc my daughter has Williams Syndrom and sitting through lunches at restaurants can be hard for her. I took a video of the restaurant and sent it to my friend, she saw it was dog friendly and was immediately on the way. First of all the food was absolutely incredible. I got the pretzel and beer cheese. I dont even eat bread...hardly ever...I got it for my kids and then proceeded to eat at least half of it. It was the best darn pretzel ive ever had in my whole life. My son and I split the chicken Ceasars salad wrap and the street corn...now we both love us a chicken Ceasar salad so we've had quite a few. I dont know what they put in this wrap to make it taste so good...but it was, again, the best chicken Ceasars salad wra0 ive ever had. My daughter loved the street corn so much I only got one small bite...but that bite I got...it was just the best! My best friend got tge margarita pizza and she also shared it with my daughter and she said it was fantastic....my 2 year old is non verbal but from the amount of pizza she was cramming down her throat...no words were needed lol Now about the service, phenomenal. Absolutely fantastic. Our server was so kind and attentive and just an absolute gem. All of the games were FREE...I actually beat my teenager in foozball...which was a shining moment in my life And no one said anything about my special needs daughter, who was SO excited to be there running around. They were also SUPER dog friendly and brought my friends dog out a water bowl. I honestly really cant say enough good things about this place. We will def be back and if you are in the area,...