The Yardery — Restaurant in Sanford

You have to try a place to know if you will like it or not. Seems like a great idea and atmosphere and maybe we visited on an off day, but we will not be returning. We seated ourselves as the sign stated, only to sit for nearly five minutes and have the waitress pass us to give menus to another table that walked in and was still deciding who would sit in which seat. She then walked back by our table, but returned three minutes later with menus. On to the food…the potato salad is very good, however, the loaded fries description states brisket on top, but it seemed more like crumbled bacon at best. Maybe I am used to Fuel’s brisket, but not what I expected. I ordered the smoked chicken tacos since it was the special for Cinco de Mayo, three tacos with the smallest portion of not only chicken, but other ingredients as well is what I received. Two thin slices of chicken (I’m not over exaggerating - I wish I would have taken a photo) on two of them and one slightly larger slice on the third. The guacamole was no more than a teaspoon and I could count the cilantro leaves. After eating the first taco, I ended up combining the filling of the other two tacos on one tortilla. The hamburger we ordered had very little aioli so we asked for a little more, the waitress brought out a margarita around 10 minutes later and we mentioned the aioli again and pointed to an uneaten hamburger. She apologized and said she would go get it, only to then go wait on two other tables. I understand that you have to wait on everyone, but if you forget something that is preventing a person from eating their food while it is warm, the courteous thing to do would be to run to the kitchen and grab it first. We finished most of our meals and asked for the check, we were a little sticker shocked by a bill just over $81 for loaded fries ($11), a burger ($16), and tacos ($13)…and both meals came with their sides…two waters, and three house margaritas…I suppose we had top shelf tequila, but $40 for three margaritas seemed a bit excessive considering the small plastic cup it came in. The facility is very nice and the waitress was friendly, but overall, not an experience I want...

The food is soooo good! Unfortunately, you can just tell how new this place is. They're still working out some kinks and it shows... we've been there twice since opening. 1st time was good. Our kids love the games and tire swing and our food was great! But our drinks were pretty expensive for the quality. My drink was not made correctly and the tap water was gross. But another bar in Sanford had a similar water problem so I didn't think anything of it.

Our second time there was for Wine Down Wednesday... It's a great concept for $20 wristband of wine and flatbreads. However, as soon as we got there we were greeted with attitude and complete frustration from an employee! We are very patient people and try to understand she was in a frustrating situation with the technology not working right, however she was not easing up nor listening to me try to help her. With my patience running thin, I just stood there and waited but her attitude was enough to make two other employees notice & finally someone came to help her. We talked to a friend who had a similar experience with an employee (not sure if it's the same one). I was very close to just leaving because my business was CLEARLY not being appreciated, but I'm glad I stayed. I try not to let people ruin MY night so I end up giving multiple chances. The wine was good & the flatbreads were even better with a good turnaround time. The only OTHER minor annoyance I noticed is that the employees/owners show favoritism to some. We watched them take entire trays of flatbreads to a particular table and refill their drinks although we were skipped. I'd give this place a shot again, but not for a...

The concept is good, execution leaves a lot to be desired.

Food: The food is okay. It's not great, it's not terrible, but it is overpriced for what you get.

Drinks: The drinks are WAY overpriced. You spend $15 bucks for a small plastic cup with a watered down drink. My first drink, the adult coffee, came out mostly ice. Then I ordered the dirty orange soda, which claimed to be an adult beverage with orange soda, creamer and vanilla syrup. The waiter charged me full price for a cocktail and brought out a CAN of 3 Daughters orange vodka & soda. It wasn't a craft cocktail, it was a premix in a can. My husband ordered disappointing cocktails as well, but I'll only speak for myself.

Service: Our waiter (who said he'd been there four months) was not good. He got my first drink order wrong altogether. I also mentioned the canned premix issue above, and he put our kids meal orders in incorrectly and admitted my husband told him the correct order, he just entered it completely wrong. It was a perfect storm of disappointing food, drink and service with a bill over $160 for just our family of 4.

Atmosphere: like I said, the concept is great but the only thing the kids want to do is play on the tire swing. Which is fine but there's only one. Most kids weren't interested in the blocks (which aren't even so they aren't jenga blocks) or the giant connect four. Outside of that, there's not much for smaller kids to enjoy. Older kids can play cornhole, fusball...