The Gables at Chadds Ford — Restaurant in Pennsbury Township

I try to refrain from writing negative reviews, especially during Covid, but my experience tonight pushed me over the edge. I ordered takeout for my wife and I. Two entrees and two appetizers. I was told it would be ready in 30-45 minutes. I arrived 45 minutes later to pick up the order, and was informed after much investigation involving several servers that it would be ready "in just a few minutes." I sat there in the entryway for another 40 minutes with no further updates. Finally, my food was ready, an hour and 25 minutes after I had placed the order. The server who brought out the food assured me that it was "hot and fresh" from the kitchen. Now I understand that sometimes things happen, but don't B.S. your customers. If you forgot to fire my order, let me know so that I can decide if I want to wait around or go somewhere else. Don't tell me "a few minutes" if it's going to be 40 minutes. In any case, this is not the reason I am leaving this review.

Five minutes down the road and halfway home, I reached into the bag to sneak a few french fries. To my disbelief, they were ice cold, soggy, and completely unseasoned. I immediately pulled over and realized this was the case for ALL the items we had ordered. The food looked like it had been sitting around for at least 45 minutes; room temperature and soggy with grease (why did I wait so long for food that had clearly been prepared ages ago?). I immediately attempted to call the restaurant back four times with no answer. I decided since it was already quite late, with my wife wondering where the heck I was, and not having another hour to wait around for them to remake the food, I would just make the best of it and reheat it at home.

So I get home and apologize to my wife for the long wait, and warn her that the food was going to be below our expectations. Boy were we shocked how true that was! Hate to say it, but this was among the worst meals we have ever attempted to eat. None of the dishes were seasoned. Everything was bland. Everything fried was soggy with grease. The grilled calamari was obviously from generic frozen squid rings and smelled fishy. The vegetables were clearly frozen or canned. Mashed potatoes were like glue. We tried a few bites and everything went straight into the garbage. I had to take the trash out because the fishy smell from the calamari was so strong. I called the restaurant back and they finally answered and agreed to refund the charges since the food was inedible. We then went out for fast food since it was the only thing still open at this point in the evening, and the sad thing was that the fast food was five times better than the food we received here.

This establishment really needs to get their house in order. Get a real chef who won't use frozen vegetables and knows how to properly season dishes. And certainly one who won't be satisfied with passing off hour-old, room temperature food as "hot and fresh." Get a modern POS system that will let you enter and track takeout orders properly. All the people that work here are super nice, and the location is very cute. But the food was terrible and the wait was unacceptable. We will look for big changes being made in the back of house before we will consider coming back for another try. Sorry for being harsh, but this is not acceptable cuisine for the premium...

Executive summary: The only reason for 2 stars was the food, otherwise it would have been 1 star. If you have 2 1/2 hours to spare to have a 2-course meal without any beverages for the most part, this is the perfect place to go for you. Otherwise, go somewhere else.

Detailed experience: we had a reservation at 6:15 for 3 people, for outside seating. We were all present at that time, in fact we were there early and had a drink at the bar. Checked in with host and he told that he'll have to see what's available. A few minutes later, he came back and said that nothing is available and that we could stay at the bar and eat there, or get a table inside. We chose the inside table. We got seated at 6:35. I went outside to have a cigarette and noticed 2 open 4-tops in the outside area. Also saw a group of 3 and a group of 4 walking towards the entrance at that time. Both parties got seated outside, within minutes. Mind you, our reservation was for 20 minutes earlier, and we were told nothing is available outside. That is truly messed up.

Now, we were at the table inside. Waitress showed up eventually, let's say 10 minutes after we sat down (which might be generous actually) and we ordered some drinks, water, and 2 appetizers. 2 of 3 drinks showed up 25 minutes later, 1 of 2 appetizers about 5 minutes after that, water never materialized. We asked again for water, and inquired where the other drink and appetizers were. The last appetizer showed up 50 minutes after we sat down, the drink did not, but water became available now thankfully. I went to the bar and ordered my missing drink there. Nobody showed up at the table for the next 30 minutes. Drinks empty. Servers / waitresses are infrequent visitors to the dining area, and nowhere near us. Eventually we flagged her down, got a chance to order our main courses, and water somehow also appeared. The food showed up about 30 minutes later, and it was very good, although one of the side dishes we ordered did not make it. When we asked the waitress about it, she seemed surprised and did not recall that we ordered it. We told her to forget about it. The food was actually quite good, but that's truly the only good thing i can say about this establishment.

Service is about the worst I've ever seen in any restaurant, in any country I've been at (and that's more than 20).

The host essentially lied to us and did not seat us outside when we asked for that but instead told us that nothing is available when I saw it with my own eyes that they had open tables. The waitress was overwhelmed and certainly not focused on her job; basically forgot about a drink order, a side dish order, and didn't bring water to the table - despite asking for it 3 times - for almost an hour.

I heard that they are understaffed right now, lots of college kids went back to school, and while i understand that, this does not explain the majority of my issues with...

Such a bummer - my husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary here. Mainly cause we got married at "the Gables" back in March of 2014. We went for the nostalgia which was somewhat there :) Our server Cheyenne was great - couldn't have asked for better & the rest of the review is no reflection on her.

From the moment we walked in, it was eye opening that the pandemic has impacted the place - we were shocked that they were still opened. We walked in & we were greeted by a nice host; after he was done with his conversation with the FOH manager, which by the way was wearing sweats & a tShirt...if that doesn't tell you the direction of the place..not sure what would. I am pretty sure it was the owner Ann, which was eye opening cause she was so kind & polite to us during our wedding event. We have no idea what is going on in the lady's life so do not want to judge but when dropping $200 on an overpriced meal you would expect a higher level of appearance (this is why we shouldnt expect things..LOL).

The meal... the apps were delicious and the best part of our meal (the only reason I am giving 2 stars). We got the brushetta and calamari - it was on point & great! My husband and I ordered steaks... if you are going to take anything out of this review, do NOT order the steaks. They were sub-par $50 steaks that I could have easily gotten better at outback for the fraction of the price. Additionally, my husband and I do not like to complain about our food but we look back & learned a lesson to do so in the future. His steak smelled rancid (he shared after the fact) but fortunately, didn't get sick. My steak on the other hand was so fatty that I had spit it out and hid it in the mashed potatoes so the server didn't see it (I was embarassed). Every piece had fatty tissue & it was such a bummer. The drinks were on par with other places & I got wine so you cant really mess that up LOL. Lastly, we ended with creme brulee which was small & overpriced - it was good, but we believe due to our negative experience with the main - we were probably looking for more negative feedback. Our assumption is the location makes all the money on events & probably loses money in the restaurant part; we are ignorant to that but it was dead on a Friday night!

We spent $200 on the memory/lesson learn to not come back in 10 years unless it's a new restaurant or new ownership or if we want the nostalgia again to not get the steaks LOL. Its tough feedback but hoping the place can turn around or it won't last too much longer. Also, if another local restaurant is reading this - someone hire Cheyenne, she...