Wellsboro House — Restaurant in Wellsboro

Update 12/2024-we ate here on 12/7/2024. Seated promptly after arriving around 5:30 pm. Was busy but not full. We ordered a bowl of clam chowder (which was excellent), their signature steak sandwich and a hot ham & cheese sandwich. All of the food was very good. However, the disturbing thing was that I first noticed that their ketchup bottles (Heinz, made of glass) seemed to be "off." The labels looked distressed, like they were either washed or just old. My wife first used the ketchup, which was full. I unscrewed the cap and started pouring it when the top part broke (glass) over top of my sandwich. I cut off that portion of the sandwich and put it with the broken bottle.

When our server, Zoey, finally came back around I asked her if they refilled the bottles. She said no. No offer to comp the sandwich, replace it, or even offer another bottle of ketchup. Very poor service. My wife spoke later to the owner who was very apologetic and offered to comp our check, but we had already paid and just wanted to let me know about his server's lack of caring in that she just threw the bottle away, didn't inform anyone about it. When we were leaving I checked the ketchup bottles on two other tables, all had the same distressed label. Not sure what was going on.

Contacted them in September, 2021 about a reservation for Friday, December 3rd. They didn't respond until almost 3 weeks later but someone with the initials of "CK" replied that they don't do reservations for groups under 6 but we should be "good" for that date (just two of us).

We arrived around 5:30 pm to find out that they wait was greater than 30 minutes with no place to wait inside. I guess there definition of "good" is yeah, we are open and take your chances. We left and had a good meal at George's, outside of town, with no wait.

When I commented back to them on FB, their response included "sorry if it jammed ya up." Still trying to figure out...

There’s so much to say about this place! We got to sit and chat with Chris - the owner - for a bit who told us all about the locations history and their story of turning it into the welcoming place that it is today.

The 1862 building that is now the restaurant was once known as “Hotel Roosevelt” - named after US President Theodore Roosevelt who used to frequent the area. The barstool area at the tavern is the original and the back of the bar was built in the 1930s.

Chris and his wife Laura renovated and opened the Wellsboro House back in July 2008 and to this day remains family owned and operated.

Getting to know Chris was one of the highlights of our trip, and we enjoyed hearing stories from their renovation as well as their goals for the future.

Located across the street from the Wellsboro House Restaurant is the Wellsboro House Brewery. Also owned by restaurant owners Chris and Laura, the brewery has found its home in the historic 1914 train depot in Wellsboro.

Their motto is "limited quantity, high variety, and consistently awesome." They currently have 16 of their beers on tap in the restaurant, and to my surprise they had an excellent selection of dark beers to choose from…so of course I tried them all!

Between the two of us, we tried: 🍺 Dan Smith’s Chocolate Stout 🍺 Rail Boss Coffee Ale 🍺 South of the Border Porter 🍺 Wynken, Blynken and Nod Out IPA 🍺 Juicy Lucy IPA 🍺 Quadzilla Triple Belgian

So many good brews that it’s hard to pick a favorite…although it was a pretty close call between the Chocolate Stout and Quadzilla

Our only regret about going to the Wellsboro House on the last night of our vacation is that we didn’t go sooner! It is without a doubt a place that we would have loved to enjoy at least one more time before leaving.

Excellent food. Excellent beers....

My wife and I like to drive around PA and find different breweries. Our visit here was not a positive one.

When we arrived we were asked for a drink order and after 13 minutes waiting for a drink I proclaimed at twenty minutes we would leave. The server told us several times that she didn't forget about us and right as we were preparing to leave the drinks came.

Near our table at the bar they had no bartender so the servers just sit old drinks on the bar and the stench of old beer is all you smell.(pic included)

The beer is actually very good and I wish this was a place I could return to. As others have stated our food then took over one hour to arrive. They were not busy either with an entire room not even open.

My wife's salmon salad cost over fifteen dollars and came with a over cooked piece of fish the size of a platinum card and thin. For comparison champs in state college is twice as big/good and cheaper. The house balsamic was good. My cheesesteak was fine but also not worth the price, most surprisingly the upgrade to fries from chips is three dollars and I got less than twenty fries (Pic included). This "signature dish" was average at best.

Each step we held back from complaining but finally we waited forever to try and pay. After trying to flag down our server several times I proclaimed to another server that in two minutes I will leave whether only or not, I had been waiting an additional 17 minutes just to pay and had finally lost it. The other servers finally jumped to and we promptly left.

The owner and servers were friendly and nice but I left feeling I pod forty dollars to leave frustrated and unsatisfied.

TLDR: understaffed, overpriced, mediocre food, good...