The West End — Restaurant in Richland Township

I know COVID's devastated the restaurant industry and many sacrifices need to be made. However, service should never be one of those sacrifices.

Masks are required unless you're seated at your table. Masks are worn by the staff at all times. This may make it a little difficult to understand what your server is saying as the rooms in the building are very open with wooden floors and walls and nothing to dampen the sound or echos.

My wife and I have been to The West End before and had some good meals and good service. But yesterday, the service was very sub-par. The food was so-so.

We were greeted right away by the hostess because the restaurant was not busy at all. The hostess, though, assumed we were part of a larger group (which we weren't) and tried to seat us. As she started walking toward a table in the bar section, she then asked if we were part of the group of 10. She apologized for the assumption and took us back to the hostess station where she was directed by the main hostess to a table in the dining room area.

Once seated, we looked over the menu. It took the waiter about 2-3 minutes to introduce himself and get our drink order. I had no idea what his name was as I didn't hear his name (my wife didn't either and he was standing right next to her). Afterward, it took another 5 minutes to get our drinks: a water and an iced tea.

After another 5 minutes, he came back to get our meal orders and my wife ordered a frozen strawberry daiquiri which took about 10 minutes to get. Our meals came out in about 10-15 minutes of ordering. I had the Fire on the Mountain Burger and my wife had the Jacked Up Burrito. It was good, but she never received her side salad and my side of kettle chips (delicious) was a skimpy portion.

We would have requested more had our server checked on us. But he was then busy with a large birthday party (along with two other servers) that came in after us. A bus boy checked to make sure everything came out ok and then our server returned to us once we were finished. After deciding against dessert because we were full and weren't sure when we were going to make it home (it was date night after all), it took the server another 10-15 minutes to bring our check and process the payment.

All in all, it was an average visit to a restaurant. The food was tasty, but the service wasn't that great; we felt as though we were forgotten about due to the larger party. I haven't included any pictures but if you go their website, you'll see better pictures than I could have taken.

As I always mention, my wife and I were both servers and understand how restaurants work, so we have a critical eye when it...

I’ll start off by saying The West End has a very fun and lively atmosphere. All of the staff we interacted with while there were very nice and friendly. There was a live band and full production crew, but we left during the sound check before they got all the audio levels set properly.

Unfortunately, this is where the good stuff stopped for me. The service was painfully slow. Our waitress was nice, but appeared to have tables scattered all over the place, with us on the opposite end of where most of hers were. Refills only came once requested and there was quite a wait for them still after.

The sidewinder fries are good, but everything else I’ve had was disappointing. This was my second time visiting The West End. On my first visit, I ordered the spicy chicken sandwich. The chicken itself tasted like a frozen, processed, low quality patty. It wasn’t spicy at all either. The roll it came on was good, but that was about it. On today’s visit I has the pretzel sticks for an appetizer and tried the West End Beef Sandwich for my meal. The pretzels tasted like they were frozen, but weren’t too bad considering. The sandwich however was overloaded with cheese on one side and came out on a soggy roll from the au jus spilling on the plate before being served. The cheese overwhelmed the overall taste of the sandwich. The meat itself wasn’t bad, but that was not enough for me, so I returned it for something else. I tried the chicken fingers and fries and although the sidewinder fries are good, the chicken fingers were also frozen. They weren’t decent frozen chicken fingers either, like the patty from the spicy chicken sandwich, they were also clearly processed and low quality.

It’s disappointing because it feels like the restaurant has so much untapped potential. I think if they adjust their staffing a bit and maybe use a different food vendor, they could really up their game and do...

This FIVE STAR REVIEW is a long time coming. West End ownership and staff, I apologize that I haven't posted this sooner. The West End handled an incredible evening for my family and friends, for one of the hardest and most difficult days of our lives.

We chose The West End to assist us with planning the Celebration of Life for my beloved Mother In Law. She was the favorite person in our family, and had so many friends who loved her like family. She was known for putting on the most incredible dinner parties, for being the best entertainer, and always had a yummy recipe in the oven for dinner. She asked that instead of a funeral, we throw her a Celebration worthy of her. No pressure, right? ;)

We worked closely with the owners and management to put on a night to remember, for a woman we will never forget. A full menu, butlered hors d'oeuvers, and a charcuterie board that spanned her 10 seater dining table handled the food. Their staff and team of bartenders served a custom-made drinks menu to teary-eyed friends and family. We all agreed, it was absolutely a celebration she would have loved.

When it was all said and done, all cleaning was done efficiently and without bothering guests as they left. Food that was leftover was professionally packed up and neatly stacked. For a family grieving a loss such as we were, to have all the details taken care of to this degree was beyond our expectations.

If I could give a million stars, I would. THANK...