Hilltop Park Alehouse — Restaurant in New York

As a usual patron of this bar I'm disappointed to share that the service this weekend was horrible. I visited on Friday 1/3 evening with my boyfriend who also is a big fan of Hilltop, we love the pretzel & the artichoke dip, literally they are the best. Also visit Saturday 1/4 with a friend.

Food & Drinks: Before I go into the negatives, I'll say if it wasn't for this weekend, I would have given this place 4.5 stars. The food, for a bar has been historically great. The burgers are good, fries, apps, and drinks. Love the pretzel and artichoke dip as mentioned. I love the cinnamon mule and my bf enjoys the Pilsners. We've brought numerous friends here from across the city and even Westchester as I've been so excited to have a good local spot.

Service: This weekend, Friday, we started off good. Aaron our waiter took our drink and food order, got our pretzel and drinks. Then as the night progressed his stops at our table became less frequent and took longer to get any service. We wanted to order the artichoke dip after our pretzel and literally had to wait 30-40m for him to come back, granted we were working on our drinks so we just chatted as we waited but once the drinks were done we were still trying to flag him down, he just stood in front of the computer for what seemed like forever. Not sure if he was new and didn't know what he was doing so we have him the benefit of the doubt. When he finally came and we ordered our dip he tells us the menu has changed because it was now midnight and our order would be more expensive, it was only a $1 more but it's funny that now we get charged more for being after midnight when we were trying to get his attention since 1130p so the fact that no one ever came back cost us more on the menu. Our order comes out but it's then incorrect, we get hummus dip instead of artichoke and have to wait another 20m or so for the new order. At this point we're at almost an hour between waiting to get served again, got the wrong order, and were still waiting at 1a. We were already tired and wanted to leave but again figured he was new and were just being chill about it. The artichoke dip was great so we figured its worth it. We then again are waiting 10-20m for him to come back to get the check that we just walked up to him to ask for it because he had been staring at the computer screen forever again.

The check: we get the checkheck for $58 but when we got our two receipts they were for over $30, more than half of an even split with with $1.50 service fee each. Now I've never noticed this before here and don't know if it's new but it's ridiculous that after the horrible service we received: slow and incorrect orders we're then forced to pay extra for the service? Sorry to say that's definitely going to make us tip less. This isn't a hotel that charges a service fee so to have a bar (especially in this area) do this is ridiculous. Other nearby and great places like Harlem Public and At the Wallace, Fort Tryon Public House don't do this.

I returned Saturday with another friend thinking Friday was a fluke and this would be better. The service again was slow when the bar wasn't even that busy! My friend also asked the waitress this time if the grilled cheese had onions because she didn't want onions so the order was for a grilled cheese with no onions, the order came out and to our surprise it's a grilled cheese FILLED with onions! Why does a grilled cheese have onions? We called her over to tell her the issue and she says "the grilled cheese order comes with onions"?!? Didn't bat an eyelash, ask to change our order or redo, nothing, just walked away.

Is there something lacking here with the staff that they don't like to service their tables or take the correct order?

Not sure if it's new management or a new wait staff or something but the service definitely needs to be fixed if you're going to charge us a fee, it better be worth it! Hopefully on my next few visits this is resolved and hope management reads these reviews because if not I'll just...

Food is consistently good. Generous portions and well seasoned, I've not regretted anything I've ordered so far in the few times I've visited.

Unfortunately, the wait staff is consistently bad during brunch on the weekend. I went in around 3pm to get brunch, which they serve until 4pm.

I was greeted and seated quickly at the communal table, but then was ignored for 10 minutes until a server introduced herself. I placed my order, and never saw her again. My water ran out, and no one bothered to check if my food was good after it was delivered by a food runner. When I finished my food, I piled my plates and silverware and pushed them out of my way, where they stayed for 15-20 minutes.

During that time, several wait staff looked me in the eye and just walked past without saying a word or picking up the plates. Once brunch was done and the restaurant started turning people away because the kitchen was closed, I finally saw my server, who looked at me while she packed her stuff and walked out the door. It took another 10 minutes before I was able to flag down another server for my check, who seemed put out by my request. I felt generous giving a $1 tip.

The restaurant needs to do better by making managers more obvious with slightly different uniforms. They should be wandering the floor checking on all the tables to see how the food is, and they need to make sure the staff is doing their job. They also need to come up with a better way to bridge the gap between brunch and dinner service. I saw two different groups of people come in and walk out because they couldn't get food.

Bad service like this is the reason I stopped going to Crazy Annie's (now closed) and is also the reason I won't be back to HPA until changes are made. I hope for their sake that they're able to before...

Went here with a group of friends - Hilltop Park Ale House was mostly a fail from start to finish:

The high point - their draft beers are all actual pints. I get tired of paying expensive beer prices and receiving an 8 or 12oz pour - so kudos to them for that.

We sat at the table, but I went to the bar to taste one of the beers - waitress chased me down and told me I needed to order from her. Yea, thanks, I know how this works. She's protecting her turf, I get it, but the exchange felt a little coarse.

Waitress asked many times if we wanted to order food. Like most of the tables, we were just there for drinks. Fine to ask, we appreciate you checking in. Every time was a polite 'no' Last time we said it she took the one menu we had and we got an 'eye roll'... really, really!?

TBH - the menu looked to be solely mostly pre-pared frozen/ 'microwave chef' type stuff - pub grub.

Lastly, she after she dropped the bill and we paid, I went to sign (and tip), then I noticed a 20% gratuity already charged to us. I asked why she said it was for a group of six or more - I pointed out there were five of us. She just grabbed it and walked away. Came back with a refund bill and a new bill with the mandatory tip removed. I left her $0 - that's what I do to people who try to steal from me.

So you don't think I'm a total monster - I actually called back after we left to see if I could leave her something - just charge it over the phone since I know she's paying rent with those tips and maybe just had a few people stiff her or had bad training. It was too late however.

Avoid Hilltop Ale House - I would avoid this...