Wayland Hotel & Bar — Restaurant in Wayland

Wayland Hotel is extremely mediocre. I am giving it "the benefit of the doubt" by awarding 3 stars. Maybe it should be 2 stars. But, in fairness, we have to judge in comparison to all restaurant/bars that I am familiar with. Not the worst bar/restaurant in the world -- but, I wouldn't recommend to any out-of-town friends.

We re-visited the Hotel for the first time since pre-pandemic days. The owner has done some half-hearted renovation on the interior. The bar area has been re-built and expanded to accommodate more seats. Several booths have been added along the walls. Stage area is gone. Ceiling area at front is new, with corrugated steel. Same old dirty floor. The black walls have missing paint. Minimal "improvements". But, in this era of covid -- you might think that restaurants and stores have improved their cleanliness standards. Not so at Wayland Hotel. It's back to grunge in this place.

The major complaint: the place was filthy. Our booth had several forks, food scraps, napkins under it (which we hadn't noticed before sitting down). We've all, I'm sure, found a misc. French fry or a dinner roll under a restaurant table on occasion. But, this was different: there was practically a whole meal under our table! Obviously, this is not acceptable. It is indicative of an owner who simply does not care. Our table was not unique. I looked around and saw similar stuff under tables and at the bar itself.

We pointed out the mess under our booth before paying our bill. The server's response was even more outrageous than the actual mess: She said that "they" are supposed to clean up under the tables every morning! (We were having dinner.) So, this means that no cleaning of any sort is taking place beyond the morning clean-up. That is disgusting.

As far as the food goes: The menu has expanded from a small laminated menu to a full-page laminated menu. There used to be a chalk board with a daily special or two. That seems to be gone. But, the menu offerings are similar to that of any other bar menu. Nothing special. The Hotel is primarily known for its burgers. They are very thin and very large in diameter. I like them. But, the buns are only mediocre. Why not purchase a high quality bun from Celia's (down the street), and make a really great burger. Also, there are a few unusual toppings that are offered -- which would appeal to very few: peanut butter, jelly, cookie butter! There are many better unique options available at places like Red Robbin. Just copy some of those, and you have a great burger assortment that appeals to a large audience. Why not establish the Hotel as a gourmet burger place? With some improvements, it could be a real destination. As it is now, I would go elsewhere. By the way, the burgers have greatly increased in price. Used to be able to get a burger for roughly $5. Now, they are closer to $8-$10. No longer a "bargain", and not worth putting up with the grunge. They also used to permit a substitution ( sweet potato fries instead of chips, for example) for a nominal upcharge. Now, if you wish to "substitute", this means that you will be charged the exact same price as a side order. One last observation: there are several beers/ciders on tap. But, you have to ask what they are. The server rattled off about 8. There was a chalk board that had 4 beers listed -- but it didn't identify them as being on tap. So, I'm not sure why they were written on the board. It was a mystery. This is another example of management's " I simply don't care" attitude. The exterior is as drab as the interior, and the paint is peeling off the exterior brick. The dreary exterior is a preview of what you will find inside. The exterior certainly needs a make-over, as much as does the interior.

If the owner wanted to, he/she could make this place into something great. It's location is at the very center of town, which is a great location. But, the owner seems to have settled for mediocrity. No pride...

If I could leave zero stars, I would. Should’ve left as soon as it took 15 minutes to even have a waitress greet us. Our server came to take our drink order, brought us our drinks, and took our orders, that’s the extent of our “friendly server” service exchange—which wasn’t even friendly. Our salads missed the dressings (our entree), we had to flag another server down. After we finished our food, I found the need to flag another server down for her to go grab the manager for our table (the server who actually was a help to us, was extremely nice). The manager came out, she notified us that our table had moved servers (even though no new server addressed our table at any point), and told us the original server had went home because she felt ill. I accepted that, but where was the server who was supposed to take over the table? Also, not to mention, the manager must’ve thought we were ignorant enough to give that excuse as the original server came out from the BOH, talking to other tables shortly after. She had bright pink pants on, so it was very obvious. We will never be returning back here again, the service was poor and so were the excuses that were given. Also, not to mention, it was a very SLOW Saturday night. She had two tables in her section. I am a server at another restaurant, and I wouldn’t even imagine how seriously our servers and management would’ve treated the situation with how poor it was, it was completely unacceptable. 0/5 stars. This is the worst restaurant experience my table had collectively had. Do better for...

My husband and I went to this Bar after a concert. It was late…like 11:30 pm, and we were tired and starving. The atmosphere was lively - probably more than what we bargained for (we just wanted food), but the DJ was really good. The bartender, Alex asked for our order, told us only fried foods were available, and we placed an order for French fries, cheese sticks, a Perrin Black and a Bud Light. First - the Perrin Black had no carbonation. It was like a beer/water mix, and it was terrible. The kitchen staff brought out our fries and sticks, and we wanted marina and ketchup. I had to walk to the end of the bar and grab ketchup that someone else had used because we never were helped by Alex again. Alex stayed at the other end of the bar, with 3 guys playing with what looked similiar to a Rubik’s Cube. She literally never looked at us again. We finally got her to rip herself away from the boys and the game long enough to give us our check so we could pay and leave. With customer service like Alex provided, I will eat/drink at home. I don’t think she would have noticed us had we lit ourselves on fire. If I could give her service zero stars - I would. But the DJ was great and the kitchen staff were nice. A bartender should be professional and attentive to their patrons instead of sitting in a corner with the regulars not giving a crap about the...