Sportsman's Public House — Restaurant in Ridgefield

My mother and I went to the Sportsman Restaurant, and I shouldn't of been surprised by the lack of patrons. The restaurant is currently under new ownership and I really hope they put some serious work into the menu, the staff and the general atmosphere of the place.

Let's go into some details.

First off let's begin with the waiting staff: the older woman we had the pleasure to meet decided it was more worth her while to cater to the party of 3 that later became 7 by spending a fair amount of time wasted away into talking them while mom and I waited ever so patiently for her to even notice our presence. Then when while in the process of ordering my meal, my first two items were non existent. Don't try to order the Iced Tea or Apple Cider that's on the menu, it won't happen.

Next the food, while the fries were a saving grace of the meal, everything else looked like a train wreck hit our plates. Bacon is not supposed to taste like one is biting into wood and definitely shouldn't be as hard as it either and I was surprised I didn't crack a tooth biting into the dry overly bland bread of my club sandwich, the cheese is clearly what you can find in a general convenient store, and overall definitely not worth the 15 dollar asking price. Now I understand that some people like greasy burgers but when the burger itself looks like it just came out of a swimming pool of grease and clearly didn't take the time to dry off? I watched my mother fight her way through half the burger before her face showed complete distaste and like she wanted to vomit.

After fifteen minutes of us sitting before a half eaten burger, overly iced orange juice, and hard crisped fries we recieved our check, and then had to wait an additional twenty minutes before another waitress noticed our discomfort and finished up our ticket where we left no tip, a note with the word "Slow!" on it and a disgusting feeling in our mouths and stomachs.

In short I've never had the experience that food makes someone unhappy until today, and it was the first time in a long time I have left a plate with enough food to have a...

I'm giving this review after having been in the restaurant on three separate occasions. I'm not sure where the five star ratings are coming from, but for anyone visiting, I can assure you that this is not a five star restaurant by ANY stretch of the imagination. I don't want to drag out the review; as you read forward, assume that all three of my visits amounted to the same general experience...

To begin, the restaurant is actually quite stunning from the outside. A great effort has been made to improve it from its original appearance. Not so once you step inside. The establishment is cramped and the dining area is hugged right against the bar. It is loud, and its employees look sloppy and completely uninterested in being at work that day.

As the visit presses on, you are made to wait unbearably long (especially if you're hungry,) in order to get attention, not only to get your drinks, but to order and eventually, get your food. I understand it is a bar/grill, but the waitresses are informal to the point of being inappropriate, especially after having made you wait. When you finally get your food, it is sub par; the dishes and flatware are often dirty, and the order is in some way, wrong. Mind you, I mentioned this being the experience all THREE times I visited here. After having to have waited so long to get food (longer than an hour,) and realizing the order is wrong, you will not receive a waitress for any acceptable amount of time, and if you look around you notice they are nowhere to be found. And it goes on and on.

Upon complaint, you are apologized to curtly, and if you are really in for it, the waitress will argue with you about your complaint. You are finally out of there a couple hours after you walked in, less full, and less happy.

Ridgefield is an AMAZING town with good, hardworking people; however, if this restaurant was your first Ridgefield experience, you would be cheated, and I can't imagine why one would...

This is a straight Americana tavern. I wouldn't call this place a public house. When I think of public house I think of a tap room. Although they had some craft it just isn't the same vibe. I'm from the country and this is a small, hometown tavern just like the few we have back home. Which is fine, my rating has nothing to do with the vibe.

Beer selection was better than an average Bud/Bud Light bar but nothing to rouse your curiosity. Staff was what you'd expect from your local country tavern, friendly and stretched thin for the capacity.

The food was good. The kitchen staff can cook some goodness. We ordered a burger, steak tips and wings. The burger was delicious! But it wasn't the burger we had ordered. The steak tips were tender, well worth the price, and gone too fast. Full of flavor but also was brought out with Bleu cheese and "candied" jalapeños. I didn't ask for Bleu cheese, in fact, I hate Bleu cheese but the quality of the meat was so great it didn't matter. The "candied" jalapeños seemed to be just pickled jalapeños from a jar. And last, the wings. We ordered the habenero berry wings. The sauce was tasty but the odd taste of the chicken just overwhelmed the sweet heat. I attempted to eat a few of them but they just weren't good. The staff threw us a little bone but not enough to make up for the disappointment. We still payed for half the wings even though they were awful after I hadn't even consumed...