Spaulding Steak & Ale — Restaurant in Rochester

This is such a hard review to write as the Spaulding Steak and Ale holds a special place in my heart growing up and as a place I used to work. However, now I feel like I am forced to write Dear John letter due to my most recent experience . Both myself and my husband came in at 4:30 on a Sunday (date of this review) and already the staff were not set up for success with the bar tender being the only server there as well as having an outdated POS system, that we were sitting in front of and witnessed the struggle, that glitched and made it difficult to put correct orders on correct tickets that slowed down production. The bartender, whose name I think is Cora, was a rockstar who did her best to keep it together and was the saving grace to our dining experience (that and an amazing espresso martini). However, what was the real nail in the coffin was the food quality we received in our dishes. Out of the two dishes we ordered the best part was the corn side dish I got on the side to my cold and anemic tacos (which were wrong as I ask for no cilantro but didn’t have the heart to add to the already stressful situation I was witnessing). My husband’s Spaulding Sampler was probably the most disappointing as we could have gotten a better sampling of dishes , for the same price, at the frozen section of the local grocery store. I would like to say this was our first negative experience here but then I would be a liar. In all honesty, the upper management and owners should be embarrassed by what they are producing and either need to really reconsider their business model or shut their doors. This truly feels like a death knell to a once great business and a place they once brought me so much joy. I do not think I will return and will no longer recommend it as a place to go in Rochester. It...

Stopped at the Spaulding Steak and Ale inside of the Governors Inn in Rochester NH for dinner with my guy. It was a fun atmosphere with a lot local high school memorabilia. They started us off with a bowl of popcorn (I love popcorn!) that could have been more fresh. We saw a salad on the menu with a Spicy Thai shrimp and we asked if we could just get the shrimp as an appetizer and they happily accommodated the request. I didn’t get a picture but it was very good. I had the honey bbq chicken wrap (no onions) with the sweet potato fries. The bbq sauce was a tangy sauce that was not on the sweet side. I’m thinking it was homemade. It was good. The fries were excellent! Not salted, which I prefer. My guy ordered the Eggplant Parmesan and took half home because it was a large serving. He thought the eggplant could have been cooked more for his liking. I appreciated the William Hill Chardonnay on the wine list and my guy enjoyed the Sam Summer on draft. The server was very attentive and I appreciated that she asked if we were finished with our plate before reaching to take it. We were still working on those yummy fries. After we paid, we decided to sit at the bar and have a dessert cocktail. We had espresso martinis. A little more chocolate than I’d normally expect but it was good. If you are in the area, it’s a place I would recommend...

The worst dining experience we've ever had. Food was pretty good but still won't be going back. We had a reservation, it took 30 minutes before anyone came to our table so we put in food order at the same time as drinks. It took another 15 minutes for a few of the drinks to arrive, and 10 more minutes for the rest. It was literally an hour and a half before any food came out, and two meals were missing. These two meals arrived 20 minutes later as we packed up to go because we had tickets to an event. We had to take them to go in styrofoam, not the best way to eat a steak dinner. Several sides never arrived, the bill was screwed up, noting items we never ordered. The manager didn't seem to care at all when we asked why the long delays. No apology. I would have sworn we were on some TV show that...