The Hawthorn Bistro & Bakery — Restaurant in Tallahassee

1/25/18 It’s sad that almost every reply from the owner to a less than positive review is to blame the customer. I’ve eaten all over the globe at everything from Michelin starred restaurants, to mom and pop, to fast food. And I’ve loved places across the continuum and disliked others. Don’t insult me by implying that I don’t understand the cost of locally sourced or speciality items, or the work involved in producing more complicated dishes. I get all of that. And I felt your restaurant offering mediocre dishes at too high a price. This is not a misconception. It’s the reality I experienced. Maybe trying to determine why I and others felt that way would be more helpful than trying to convince me that my opinion is wrong. ————

I hate to say it, but the Hawthorn represents overpriced mediocrity. They are owned by the same group that owns Liberty Bar, so expectations were high. The Liberty is a solid 5 star gastropub with consistently fantastic food (be it dinner, brunch or lunch), great prices, excellent service, but a bit lacking in ambiance. The Hawthorn, by contrast, has great ambiance and tremendous visual appeal. But the food was mediocre, the prices unnecessarily (and unreasonably) high, and the service mixed at best. What a shame.

We sat at the bar for a drink before dinner, and it took almost 10 minutes for the bartender to even acknowledge us (when there were only 6 other people eating at the bar). When your first statement to a customer is an apology for taking so long, it’s an inauspicious start. Then we looked at the prices. Wow. A simple, unadorned, Old Fashioned was $12. Even more amazing: a classic Manhattan with Michters Rye was a whopping $17. That’s insane.

We then were seated for dinner and had a chance to look at the menu. The menu has some interesting items, but the prices are definitely on the high end with pasta costing $23-$26 and entrees $29-$35. And a simple vegetarian entree of just root veggies was an incredible $22.

We started with the butternut squash toast which was just meh. I had the rabbit ragout pasta which boasted homemade black pepper pappardelle. While I could see black spots in the pasta, any taste of pepper was absent. And I’m not sure why, but the overwhelming flavor in the dish was citrus, perhaps from the pesto? The portion was quite small for the price ($28 for a small plate. Take a look at the picture) and the dish was mediocre. My wife had the duck confit gnocchi and both of our first impressions was that it totally lacked salt. A friend had fall veggie entree and while the plating was nice, it was an embarrassingly small portion of way overpriced vegetables ($22!).

Service was also inconsistent. The squash app was dropped off by a runner who said nothing about the dish. I couldn’t tell you how the squash was prepared in 3 ways as the runner never told us, and I couldn’t tell by taste. A busser then took away only 2 of our 4 bread plates mid meal (I have no idea why) with bread left in the basket and the server bringing another basket of bread (she then got us 2 more plates). Then the first runner who brought half the entrees took away a different 2 bread plates despite there still being a basket on the table. Bizarre.

By dessert we’d had enough. Instead, we decided to walk around the corner to The Liberty where a huge crowd was enjoying the food and drink. And the dessert selection there was far more interesting and at a lower price. And it was amazing.

There are many better fine dining places in Tallahassee. And the Liberty, around the corner, while not fine dining, is outstanding dining. What a shame given the fantastic pedigree of...

Update from June 2025: we ordered pizzas from here a day or two ahead of time for our Saturday dinner. They called about an hour before we were supposed to pick it up and said it would be a little late. Okay, fine i understand. Then they called back a while later and said that they had run out of dough. I can understand miscalculations, but to me if I order a day or two ahead of time then you do not give away my pizzas to walk-ins. And their solution for screwing us in that way, which to me warranted at least a free pizza or two, was to say that we could buy other food from them or at another place they own. As in zero recompense for their screwup.

Update November 2024: This is a very different place now than it was six years ago, being more sortof a bakery/breakfast/lunch type of place. I had a Caesar salad yesterday. Overall it was very good, although needed lemon, and the bacon was a great touch but the croutons were rock hard; I'd definitely get it again sans croutons or, bettter yet, with some if they'd make them properly next time. Service here has always been good to excellent and that's the only thing keeping this at four instead of three.

They did away with offering the best oysters I've ever had and don't seem to be making their wood-fired pizzas that we enjoyed and I wish they'd bring back those and the higher end dishes I reviewed below. The regular baked goods I've had have mostly been cooked perfectly with very good crust but were very bland and/or didn't have enough filling although an apple pie was excellent and some of their galettes are good too; hand pies look great and great crust texture but the fillings had zero seasoning. Same with their breads of seeming textbook but mostly somehow bland.

2018ish original review: Overall this was expensive, but worth the price and I'll definitely go back for a special occasion. I have never had oysters that were anywhere near as good as this place. Ribeye was absolutely perfect as far as cooking and flavor, although tougher than I would expect a ribeye to be. Root veggies with it were great. The lacquered duck was excellent, although I'd suggest a different name for it; cuz paint doesn't evoke positive expectations. :) The slaw that came with it was tasty and vinegary in a great way, but spicy enough that there should've been a warning. Lamb crepe was good, but a little gamy and missing something. The squash toast was unique and very tasty. Apple upside down cake was great. I would expect a pepper grinder to be offered at a restaurant like this, rather than the dust in a shaker. Service was adequate. The only bad note was that we didn't realize that we hadn't grabbed our packaged-up leftovers until we were pulling out of the parking lot and even though it was only a few minutes, when we called, they'd already...

Oddly, I've never eaten here, even tho I live only a couple of miles from the restaurant. My wife and I gave it a try at about 11:45 am on a busy Monday. My wife had a club sandwich, which was excellent. I had the medianoche. I've had this sandwich many times in MIA, and the pork and ham at the Hawthorne were the best that I've ever had. The bread was only so-so--I think. I'm not really sure because one side of my sandwich came out black. After I removed the charred layer, the bread was hard to evaluate. The scant service provided by one overworked guy taking orders and running cards at the counter and one overworked young woman running food to tables was such that I had no chance to bring my problems to anyone's attention.

Problems? Well, yes. My sandwich was a mishap in another respect. My wife got her sandwich, and the server said mine was coming. Yes, it came--precisely 30 mins after my wife got hers (and after I'd eaten 1/4 of my wife's club). When it came, the server hurriedly mentioned something about a printer not working.

Another problem was the unsweetened iced tea. The empty (self-serve) dispenser emptied a little before 12:30 PM and never reappeared by the time that we left the restaurant at about 1 pm.

B/L, great meats, great bread on the club sandwich, avoid the medianoche (even if it's served unburned bread), and, unless you're ok paying $3 for one iced tea, stick with water. Actually, the price of the tea reminds me that I need to mention that, under the circumstances, I wasn't great with paying over $50 for our order (including a 25% tip paid when we ordered at the counter). Sure, the sandwiches are huge, but it seems that, at this price point, the Hawthorne could afford more than one overworked guy at the counter and one overworked girl running food from the kitchen...