The Union Tavern — Restaurant in Town of Irondequoit

This is the first negative review I have submitted regarding a business in years. I wasn't going to bother, but my husband and I were so disappointed, and actually shocked by the lack of service and the employees' attitude that I just had to pass this along. We have gone to this business many times, but usually it is for drinks after a nice ride through the park. However, my husband likes a good fish fry so we decided to try it. The first time,, a few weeks ago, after we were seated the waitress informed us they were out of the fish fry. No problem, we decided on fish and chips, which were very good. The next time we went, the kitchen closed early. Apparently a good review on Facebook drove a great deal of business. Of course, this is great news especially for a local owned business, which we make it a point to patronize if possible.

Last night was a disaster! We arrived around 7 pm to be sure we would get his fish fry. They person who greeted us said it would be 45 minutes to an hour. My husband asked if they would have fish available, and she checked and said that it should not be a problem. We left our name, got a couple of drinks, and told them we were going out front. No Problem. My husband even went back in for another glass of wine. After awhile I noticed many people coming out, and others going in so we went and asked about our table. The server said they forgot and were now out of fish. I asked to speak with a manager, and Amy came over. She was very flustered, said they were just very busy and had forgotten about us. I did ask at that point, what was the purpose of taking my name, and how did this process work. No explanation at all; basically that's just how it is. When I screw up, and this was a screw-up, the first think I do is apologize. Nope! That was not happening here. I told her I was not paying for our drinks, and proceeded to the front of the bar to finish our drinks. As we were sitting there discussing the situation, and how disappointed we were I made a joke about maybe Bar Rescue should be called. Another patron, a couple of seats away, who had just walked in, interjected with his comments. I quietly, and politely, told him he did not know the circumstances, and therefore it was really none of his business. At this point the bartender came over, and said we were being disruptive. Absolutely not! I've been there before, and I know what disruption, and rudeness looks and sounds like. You know, I had even taken out a tip for her because of course none of this was her fault. Actually, it isn't anyone's fault. Life happens. Mistakes are made. I get that. But as a service provider, when you have a dissatisfied customer, the first thing is to apologize, and see if there is anything that can rectify the situation. Will we go back? I'm not sure. Maybe we are...

The first problem was that we were seated outside at a large, older picnic table (it needed a good sanding) in the long grass, that had not been cut. Walking to the table was difficult, the ground was very uneven and a trip and fall hazard at the least, which also made the benches not sit evenly on the ground.

Next, our waitress never returned, we were ready to order and made the hike to ask the hostess for a server, still nothing, so someone went inside to the bar (we also all needed drinks) and ordered her food there, asked for a waitress and waited in line for the ladies room. While she was inside the waitress showed up and took the remaining orders. The bar food order came out quickly, another table opened up in the paved area, so we checked in with the hostess and moved over there. We watched all the people who arrived and ordered after us, order and receive their food. Again we went up to the hostess and complained, someone from the kitchen happened to be there and said it would be less than 10 min. That was true and we received the food quickly.

The macaroni and cheese burger was awesome, the only highlight of our night. The artichoke dip skillet, huge disappointment! It was more like a soup, half was spilled on the pavement between the steps and our table. The server said oops, sorry about that and left. I make this type of dip and it's usually very thick and gooey, theirs was not.

The only time we saw our server again was with our bill in hand, nobody ever came back to check on us, ask how the food was or refill our drinks. I walked inside to the bar again to get drinks and also got to go containers while I was there.

We were drawn in by the 93.3 Fickle happy hour, filling out slips for prizes, which didn't happen much either, I did see 2 people get their names called after arriving around 5, then towards the end, Dino just said . . . Does anyone want Doobie Brothers tickets, I've got 2 pair, first people up here get them. This was much different than past happy hours at other establishments. I also ordered the Dino drink of the week, the option of Tito's vodka and fresh lemonade, not much of a special at $9, the lemonade was also very strong.

I might go back for the Mac and cheese burger, it looked very good and my friend said also...

This is the second time that we have visited The Union Tavern. The selection of beers was outstanding. It was nice to have a wide variety of craft beers to choose from, though they were out of a few. The mac and cheese was very tasty!

I will freely admit I did not take the time to address my concerns with the manager at the meal last night.

That was where things took a turn. The service was not good and most of food was not appetizing.

The waitress came back after giving us a few moments to look over the beer menu and took our drink order. We also ordered the Skillet Dip-Asiago artichoke at that time. At this point she asked if we wanted to order our entrée. I am five minutes into my visit....... A server brought the appetizer, told us to be careful as it was very hot. Which it was not, it was luke warm. The skillet was not hot at all. It tasted good, would have been nice to have it hot. I ordered the Mac and Cheese Burger, medium well. After I found it under the full dinner serving size of mac and cheese (which was very good), it was over cooked. This was not a burger I could eat by hand because of the cheese sauce that got under the bun. The piece of lettuce was half the size of the plate. The bun was stale. When we were just about finished with both our meals (food still on our plates), the waitress came over and asked if we were done and could she take our plate. We politely declined. Two minutes later, another employee came over and asked the same thing! About three minutes after that our waitress came back again asked if we were done, then if we wanted desert and left the check when we declined.

We came here for a nice relaxing meal and the entire time we were rushed. It didn't not make for an enjoyable experience.

The when one of the beers my wife ordered was out, the waitress did come back with a comparable selection...