Fern — Restaurant in Salisbury

Family of 6

Went to the Fern for dinner with my two boys their significant other's and my wife on Saturday evening. 530 reservations seated promptly. Placed our beverage order and a pizza for the table. That all arrived about 15 minutes later. At that time the waitress took our dinner order. She comes back about 10 minutes later and asked us if she could get our order once again because she lost the pad that she wrote the order on. At that time we ordered 2nd round of beverages. Should have known then this was going to be interesting. About 15 minutes later we asked another waitress if she would find out about our beverages? Shortly after drinks came to the table which we didn't order along with apps that we didn't order. We have now been here an hour and fifteen minutes with just our empty glasses and water. Asked for the Mgr and within seconds he arrived at our table and he took excellent care of us the rest of the evening. The food. We started off with the margarita pizza which was OK but not worth $20. We shared the meatballs which were very good as well as the ceaser salad which was good but very small for $18. My son and his wife had the I think it's called pappadella pasta and a meat sauce with ricotta cheese which they both enjoyed very much. my other son's girlfriend had the artic char which she said was pretty good except for the greens. My wife and son had the pork shanks with an amazing mushroom sauce, which they both loved. I had the rigatoni with sausage crumble, peas, crushed tomatoes and crushed red pepper. Which I thought was pretty darn good. Sketchy service to start, nice atmosphere, prices for apps were kinda high ($18 for a few romaine leaves and dressing seems a bit much to me). Entrée all at a fair price point. Mgr did fix the problem for the most part. We would...

Nothing special about this dinner. I do though appreciate them taking us as walk-ins on a Tuesday when many other places are closed. The beginning of our dinner seemed to be fine. We were seated quickly and greeted by a server within 5 minutes. However, she didn’t introduce herself and dropped off the menu with specials and asked what kind of water we preferred. By the time she brought the water we were ready to order. Two appetizers, two pastas. Cesar salad lacked the dressing, but it’s whatever. Our server came back when our plates were fully cleaned and she asked how everything was and if she can clear the table which we said “ of course” to. Our pastas were taking some time and then our server came up to us and asked if we wanted dessert?? We said that we didn’t get our pastas yet and she was like - oh, what did you get? And then said that pasta should be coming in two minutes. Pasta did arrive pretty fast. After that it was impossible to get our server. She never checked on us. The table next to us was waiting for a while to be greeted by the same server. And they were even ready to order by the time she came up and that’s when we also asked her to bring us a check. Took another 5-10 minutes for her to stop by our table and ask AGAIN if we wanted a dessert menu after we already asked for a check. As industry people ourselves we are pretty understanding and patient, but it was just not it. Could not wait to get out of...

Completely disinterested bartender. I was the only one at the bar and it took me almost 10 minutes to be acknowledged. She was dressed like a slob. Was not really interested in me as a new, local customer at all... just simply wanted to pour me a of glass of wine, and disappear again. No class. Certainly not a welcoming atmosphere for a new bar. Good enough food and price is ok. Nothing special. Atmosphere is a bit cold.... Trying to be New York City trendy. I really hate it that the waiter interrupted my conversation with my daughters to asked me ... if I needed change.... when I left the pile of money on the table with the check.... Basically, he asked me if he can keep the rest of my money and not bother to have to come back and thank me or offer me to have nice evening! The waiter couldn't bring me back my change, and say thank you.. have a nice evening, and let me LEAVE my tip.....not ASK for it!! That is NYC rude, and will never work in this elegant town. We are all here to get far, far away from New York City rude. I leave a 30 percent tip and I I'm not told thank you, and have a nice evening? This place will not last...