Haywire Burger Bar — Restaurant in Westbrook

My wife, daughter and I went to Haywire Burger Bar for the first time this evening 8/15. Parking was ample and we were seated quickly. Water was brought to our table and the waitress followed shortly thereafter. She took both cocktail and food orders. My wife and daughter both ordered cocktails; I went with water as a beverage. The appearance of the restaurant appeared clean but rather dated. I asked the waitress about whether she would recommend the blackened salmon burger. She told me it was one of her favorites, everything was made fresh, and I went with that. Both my wife and daughter ordered burgers, my wife's with a gluten-free bun. The cocktails arrived. My daughter at first, made a face so I proceeded to sample each of theirs. Both tasted rather watered down and overall, were far below average from what I'm accustomed to. The food was delivered promptly. My wife and daughter did enjoy their burgers. However, my sandwich was an entirely different story. The salmon burger was literally impossible to eat. The bread was dry, tasteless, bordering on stale. In addition, mayo was layered on extremely heavy. When I picked up the burger, it literally fell apart, and my hands were covered in mayo. The avocado and onions rolled right out across the plate. The entire experience was neither tasty nor enjoyable. I ended up just eating the salmon, which was not blackened, overcooked, but edible, the avocado and a couple of thin slices of tomato. The waitress never returned to ask us how our food was. When she returned to pick up our plates and see if anyone desired dessert, I explained to her politely about the issues I had with the salmon burger. I told her the bread tasted stale and the entire affair was unacceptable. She advised me that I should have ordered it with a different bun. I responded, this was my first time there, I had no idea what the correct bun was to order and went with what was recommended on the menu. As we were discussing this, she periodically poked the broken pieces of bun on my plate, I guess verifying that it truly was stale. She said she would let the manager know. My daughter ordered dessert. It arrived promptly. She mentioned it was OK but very sweet. Quite a while passed, we were finished and the waitress never returned with our check. I finally asked another employee if we could have our check. The waitress finally appeared with the check. At that point she told me that she notified the kitchen about my concerns. After we paid, another individual showed up and apologized. I presume she was the manager, but she did not identify herself. She advised me that the multigrain bun that's served with the salmon burger is dry, and that I should have chosen a different bun. I reiterated that this was my first time visiting and that I had no idea what was appropriate to order. I went with what the menu advised. She again persisted that the bun that came with my sandwich is dry and that I should have chosen something different. I felt, she was putting the onus on me for the poor quality of the product that was served to me. She did absolutely nothing to try to resolve the complaint. Finally, I politely thanked her for her time, told her I will not be returning and that I was going to leave a review describing my experience. I do not recommend Haywire Burger Bar. There are so many other competitors in the field to choose from that offer a solid product along with good service. My experience tonight, unfortunately,...

Last night I decided to take a ride to Westbrook and eat at the Haywire. I was impressed by all the 5 star reviews. But this morning, I must say – I cannot rate this restaurant 5 stars.

My first impression occurred when I arrived in the parking lot. It was packed. There were only 2-3 spaces available. I thought to myself, this place must be outstanding since so many cars are here.

The entrance is the door with the 5 little windows as you can see in the photo. I thought it was a side fire exit door – but no, it was the main entrance. You could have fooled me.

When I walked in – the first thing that I noticed was how dark and noisy it was. I was seated very quickly, not at a table – but a bar stool and wobbling table adjacent to the bar. Instead of facing a bleak partition, I got up and moved myself to the other side of the wobble table so at least I was facing people sitting at the bar …and a television…..not a wall partition.

I waited several minutes before my waitress identified herself. Once we met and talked I found her to be charming and she did her job well the few times I actually had to interact with her.

I decided to order the basic hamburger with a topping of mushrooms. My waitress said it best when she brought it to me. “Somewhere on this hamburger are the mushrooms – I promise you.” LOL. As I ate the hamburger not a single mushroom fell out of the bun. The cook definitely knows the least amount of mushrooms to top a burger with for $1 extra. Would have been lovely to find a few loose mushrooms on the plate.

I asked for it to be well done. The center of the burger was pink and moist. It was close to well done and therefore acceptable.

By the time I got to the fries – they were cold, yet still edible. I salted them– and they seemed to taste much better.

I paid my $13+ tab and added a $4 tip.

If you look carefully at the photo – you can see that the burger was significantly smaller than the bun. I can understand now why most negative comments mention it was overpriced.

Would I go back? No.

I am sure HayWire will continue to be a popular place along the shoreline for a burger and a great place to socialize. Sorry Haywire ..it just did not work for me….I must be getting old.

I would check it out if you have never been there …at least once. It might...

A special lunch was planned for my daughters and I today, Haywire was her first choice of restaurants. We put our order in, I ordered the blackened tilapia sandwich with a gluten free bun. (an additional $2.50!!!) Once our order was delivered to our table I noticed that the bun was moldy! I immediately flagged down the waitress, when she came over, she apologized and brought my sandwich back to the kitchen, I specifically asked for no bun this time. my girls ate while I waited patiently, the owner came out with my sandwich on a bun, he apologize and showed me how the buns were single wrapped...(that doesn't make a difference to me, food left the kitchen that was not eadible and went unnoticed. I thought I would try the bun, it did not taste right at all. So I didn't eat the remainder of it, but was so hungry I ate the tiny piece of fish which didn't taste very good at all. We have been yo this restaurant many times and always left happy. When the waitress came over, she asked how things were, I told her the bun didn't taste right, she said I told the owner, but apparently he didn't want to listen. Once the bill came, I was not happy that they had charged me for the bun (I eat gluten free and have for years, what a ripoff to charge $2.50 for a flippin bun!!!). My stomach felt quiesy just thinking about what came out of the kitchen the first time. I asked the waitress to take the bun off of our bill, and also asked her to take off the fish as well, it was the principle and it pissed me off, because he wanted to give me another bun when I didn't want it he thought it was ok to charge me for it. She said I will talk to the owner. The waitress came back to the table, sat down and said that he wouldn't take anything off the bill. She was profusely apologetic, and said that she would take it off, but she wasn't allowed. I told her it wasn't her fault, but to make sure to let the owner know that I WILL NEVER EVER STEP FOOT IN HAYWIRE AGAIN!!! I grew up in the restaurant business and to do what he did wasn't right. A suggestion to all, make sure you look at your food carefully when it comes out of the kitchen! You never know what will end up...