Trail House Kitchen & Bar — Restaurant in North Adams

My wife and I decided to checkout Trail House based on the welcoming outside appearance of the place: seasonal, warm, and festive. We were welcomed by friendly serving staff and our orders were taken quickly. That is about where the positives end.

My club soda came served with two slices of "lime" that reminded me of the Limes of Christmas Past.

Our appetizer, the bacon wrapped scallops, was clearly frozen and tasted eerily similar to fish sticks. These were not fresh scallops, and I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't scallops at all, but rather some blended frozen fish.

For entrees, I ordered the Berkshire burger with caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese on a brioche bun. The bun was clearly a few days old, and even slightly stale, the onions were closer to raw than caramelized, and the burger was cold and undercooked. My wife ordered the buffalo mac and cheese, and this is about when we decided we were going to leave a negative review, so others could get a sense of the quality of food: the mac and cheese was Velveeta (or the store brand equivalent) and the chicken was the same fried chicken you get at Chinese restaurants (chicken fingers) with just a little bit of added hot sauce.

When we paid, I was asked to handle the server's payment machine to leave a tip and sign my name. I am not sure how anyone is being asked to touch one of these machines during COVID era. Not ok.

From start to finish, the atmosphere was cozy, the server was great, and our food arrived promptly. The food, however, was not even close to worth the price (we paid $62 for dinner and tip with no alcohol). Truly disappointed with the quality of the food, and too bad that they have decided to just fry and warmup food instead of cook food.

I am left confused as to how there are so many 4/5 star ratings (one of the reasons we chose the place), but we would not recommend this place to anyone unless they can't be bothered making their own Velveeta mac and cheese covered with Chinese food.

Response to owner's response as of 12/18/20: you name the ingredients in that cheese sauce, and I'll delete...

I was visiting the area and was looking forward to trying Trail House based on the atmosphere. Outside of the atmosphere everything else was a disappointment: the food, the service, the wait time and chaos from the fire alarm going off. Services was slow to take orders and then once we did order it took forever (over 35 minutes for our food to arrive) as we watched most of the guest who arrived after us get served their meals. When the food finally arrived only half of our party was serviced while the other half wait additional time (10-15 minutes) for their food. Once the food arrived it (cauliflower steaks) was charred on the top and undercooked in the inside. Too hungry to wait most people eat. On a positive note the Mac and Cheese was enjoyed by the younger guests.

Once we tracked down our waitress she tried to help us find a replacement to the cauliflower steaks but with really no vegan options I was left with having something that I am pretty sure was not vegan and had egg in it (cauliflower bits). The waitress also did comp my meal. Thank you for that gesture.

While I understand a lot was going on with the fire alarm going off, the service was slow before the alarm went off, being serviced after others who arrived later and then being serviced charred and undercook food has little to do with the alarm issues.

Like many other reviewers mentioned, please do not waste time...

While in the past I have had good experiences here, after tonight’s meal I cannot in good conscience recommend this restaurant to friends, family, or members of our community. I am not a picky customer—prior to tonight I have never sent a dish back to the kitchen—but I cannot ignore violations of basic food safety.

Tonight I was served a completely raw burger (pictures included). Needless to say, this was unacceptable, and I appreciate our server Savannah quickly resolving this by offering me a different entree (a steak sandwich). While this entree was safely cooked to the temperature I specified (medium rare), it generally exhibited little care from the kitchen. For one, I could tell it was poorly seasoned (unsure if too lightly seasoned with salt/pepper or entirely unseasoned), and not well rested prior to serving. This resulted in juices pouring out of the steak, which should be retained after proper resting. My friend’s meal (fish and chips) was similarly poorly seasoned.

I appreciated being comped for desert (fried oreos were delicious), but this doesn’t outweigh the rest of the meal. While I personally will not be back, I encourage ownership/management to implement systems to keep customers safe. Poor seasoning is one thing—raw meats are...