Hideaway Restaurant & wood fire 🔥 pizza — Restaurant in Old Lyme

While The Hideaway is a long-standing restaurant in online the food in the past has been quite good. However the problem was not so much the food the problem was the waitress. We had a 17-year-old inexperienced waitress who was not a very good listener and communicator. I would not recommend the salmon salad. It came with a dressing that was not very good and also the salmon was undercooked. I sent the whole thing back and ordered something different and when the waitress came back there was no salmon. Because she was not listening and she did not understand because she has such a lack of experience and was a very nice person but wasn't a good waitress. Out of courtesy we still left her a tip but they need to train their. I spoke with a supervisor and told her about it and she was taken aback because evidently she was supposed to be the person doing the training. For an exclusive restaurant like The hideaway you would think that they would have waitresses that are trained but this one was not and for that reason we had a terrible experience. Like I said, normally the food is good as I have been there in the past. The shrimp cocktail was terrific. The second round of blackened salmon was also delicious. The problem is that the waitress ignored us let my and let my friend continue to eating her half of the meal while we waited for mine and she was all done with hers by the time. They should have comped to the whole meal but now I am writing this so maybe the owner will read this and start training the servers better. Being 17 years old is not an excuse but being a supervisor and not training properly there is no excuse for that. The server alone made our experience not a very good one. When I do go back I will be requesting a waitress that has experience and I don't want to be the one training the next employee unless they want to hire me as a consultant to train their inexperienced untrained help. As a veteran to the restaurant industry for years I do have high standards but you don't leave somebody sitting there eating their meal for as long as that while a second guess is waiting on a redo. Then when the redo is wrong because the waitress didn't understand that is her fault for not communicating clearly. She was not listening and she should have been forthright enough to clarify what it was that we wanted if she wasn't sure. There were no discounts or apologies for this experience and we walked away spending about $70 for a lunch that we did not enjoy. Also since I have a very sensitive sense of smell I could smell the carpet which to the eyes looked clean but to the nose it was not. I know that many restaurants have had a hard time surviving during covid but the way we were treated by this unknowing waitress was unacceptable for the prices that we were paying in this restaurant. She was lucky to get any tip at all from us. And we did leave upwards of 20%. But not because she was a good waitress and not because our dinner was good it's because we felt sorry for her. But I will think twice before I go back to this place because I'm not going to be dropping any big bucks on meals going out for a relaxing experience because I feel sorry for someone. It was not relaxing because of the...

Totally disappointed, once we were in the waiter seems very disinterested, he took our order, set up the table and brought drinks, than came back with appetizers, right there the disaster began, we order buffalo wings, calamari, popcorn/Cajun shrimp, everything was extremely low on salt so we keep adding salt to everything, the wings were raw, the shrimp was good, the calamari was chewy and overcooked (very small portion) we want to let the waiter know about the wings being raw but he was no where to be find, he wasn’t doing rounds to check on us, (place was empty) than we finally see him and try to wave on him for at least 15 minutes, than finale he came and we let him know about the wings, didn’t say much or what he was going to do with them, he took them to the kitchen, than all the main dishes came to the table, the burger patty was a decent size but over cooked the bread was huge, the meat between the bread was ridiculous small because the bread was so BIG a and fluffy, the fries were good but there were only a handful of them, the chicken and shrimp a la Vodka was just ok ONLY 3 shrimps on this plate (we count them) and the last dish I can’t even remember what it was, it was something with chicken, they brought to the table the wings back half way into our main dish, the deserts… lava cake was great, sundae was ok, and mudslide something was a joke, no flavor at all, the only good thing about this visit was the 2nd waitress (first waiter left) she was very kind and sweet, I definitely don’t recommend this place, portions are very small compared to the prices, the service wasn’t great for the most part, this place don’t have quality and quantity, I do not recommend this...

Have been coming here for decades, my mother's 80th birthday celebration was held here, and that was 25 years ago. So it pains me a bit to give this review.

The Hideaway was always known for its large and well executed menu. Their chowders were, (and IMHO) still are, one of the stars of the menu.

We'd made reservations for Saturday lunch. The bar seating was pleasant and ready when we arrived at noon.

We didn't order appetizers or alcoholic beverages, but got plenty of water - pitchers supplied on request - thank you! The rest of the meal was very (politely) undistinguished. They were out of a few items on their Saturday lunch specials. What we were served was adequate, but not much more. My scallops were awful. The waitstaff?kitchen? forgot the order of one of our party (seven people) and he had to wait nearly 30 mins. for his entre.

I understand a tiny bit of the nature of restaurant operations today, however, we had just had a truly excellent - food and service - meal three days before. Again, IMHO, the Hideaway today felt like a restaurant that was just going through the motions, and had little to offer - other than its chowder. The tip was a gift extremely unmerited by the service.

I don't think I'll be back. However, if I may suggest, the owners/operators of this restaurant should realistically examine their standards and levels of engagement. I dislike giving poor reviews, however, this one...