1812 Tavern — Restaurant in Town of Hamburg

I had the pleasure of attending the opening night of this new local restaurant. I was lucky to find parking in their main parking lot, but if you can't find parking there, there is also another lot across the street.

The atmosphere was absolutely buzzing with energy—friends and families filled the space, laughter echoed throughout, and live music played just outside, adding a fun vibe to the whole evening.

From the moment we arrived, the host staff made us feel incredibly welcome. Even though the place was packed, they greeted everyone with smiles and patience. We opted to grab drinks at the bar while waiting for our table, and despite the bar being shoulder-to-shoulder, the bartenders were genuinely kind and attentive, never letting the chaos dull their warmth.

We did end up waiting a bit longer than expected for our table, but honestly, it’s completely understandable given the turnout—it was opening night. Once seated, there was a noticeable delay in getting a server to our table, but what happened next was a perfect example of great service: MaKayla, a server who I don’t think was even assigned to us, noticed we hadn't been helped and stepped in without hesitation. Her attentiveness and professionalism didn’t go unnoticed and made a big difference in our experience.

As for the food—delicious! My mom ordered the cheeseburger, which was perfectly cooked to her request and flavorful, and I had the “Workout” (a standout dish from what I saw on the menu). If you like ahi tuna steaks and a kick of spice, this dish is for you. The menu itself is diverse and thoughtfully crafted—I genuinely had a hard time choosing because everything looked so good. I’ve included a copy of the menu because I think it has something for just about every palate.

My mom and I split the butter cake for dessert. It is absolutely a "feel-good" dessert served warm with a chilled whip cream topping.

Thank you to the entire team for creating such a great night for me and my mom. Looking forward to many return visits as the restaurant...

We have watched this location become several different restaurants and fail and we were so excited this time around. We really thought it would be a different story…. Like others have said. Some of the nicest and bubbliest staff ever! Congrats to that. Our waitress was amazing. Super attentive, friendly, big smile, helpful with the menu and anything we needed. But the food just wasn’t there. Especially for the price. The French onion my wife couldn’t eat because it had no flavor and was luke warm. Only 7 of her ten wings were edible. The other 3 were so hard and dry u couldn’t bite into them. The other 7 were dry and overcooked. She ate 3 and stopped. The nacho plate had half a teaspoon of sauce on it with a few pieces of onion and corn. Almost every chip was just a plain chip. The gumbo was Luke warm at best and lacked flavor. Gumbo is my favorite and I was so excited to find a place offering it till I tried it. The sausage sandwich was very dry and needed ketchup to get through eating it. The kids barely touched their chicken fingers.

They also offered a seafood night which I only knew about because of the website. They didn’t have lobster danties even though that was listed. They don’t give you a specials menu so how do you know what to order? We were going to order some clams but had no clue what was offered (clams casino, raw, etc) or the cost so we skipped it.

I don’t like writing reviews but hoping this can help the owners figure out some kinks before...

I usually start with the good things about a restaurant first, but I honestly have nothing to start with here. If I could leave a negative 5 star review, I would. The service was slow, our appetizer was brought to the wrong table and it took 20 minutes just to get that. The wings were luke warm, soggy, and flavorless when they finally came out. I had to choke down 3 of them only because I was starving at this point. The carrots were WHITE, and the celery was nearly limp and had no crunch at all. The Bleu cheese portion was the smallest I have ever seen in WNY. My daughter's chicken tenders were also terrible. I could see and taste chunks of uncooked corn meal in the breading. The fries were OK, but nothing more than frozen fries from a bag. As for cleanliness, we had flies all over our table and food the entire time we were there. It's probably from the condensation from the A/C that was dripping on us the whole time and literally causing the floor beneath us to mold. When we told the waitress about it, she said "yeah, that's an issue at this table". She never once asked us how the food was, even after taking away full plates of uneaten food and us telling her we didn't want a take out box. Even if we wanted to tell her, we only saw her once about 15 minutes after we got our food. This is seriously the worst experience I have ever had at any restaurant ever. We actually had to stop at Taco Bell on the way home just so we weren't hungry for the rest...