The Hound's Tale — Restaurant in Williamsburg

We came to the Hounds Tale on Nov 30 for our 1 year anniversary dinner. It was our first time visiting.

When we arrived it was very busy. They asked if we wanted to sit at the bar, we declined. We were given a table in a really awkward spot. I was bumped by a waitress multiple times during my visit. There was nicer tables in the corner that I would have much preferred and made more sense to me. My date told me maybe they were for reservations. Nope. They stayed empty the entire time. It’s a small space so I understand the need to put tables wherever you can but ours was so awkward and the only one just in the middle of all the foot traffic, right outside the kitchen/heat lamps with a lovely view of the bathrooms opening and closing and made no sense to me.

The Hounds Tale really plays into the dog theming which I personally loved as I am a dog trainer. They give you popcorn in a dog bowl almost as soon as you walk in!

We had the crab dip with naan which was amazingggg. I am super picky about crab dip but this one was delicious. Definitely my favorite thing from the night.

But things kinda went downhill from here.

We didn’t use the small plates from our appetizer, they sat on our table while we ate, talked and even coughed! — to which later before our meals came out the waitress returned them to the clean pile of small plates by the heat lamps. This bothered me a lot. I then watched another waitress pick them up and take them in her hands to another table, for the table say they didn’t need them and then returned to the “clean” pile again. Multiple sets of possibly dirty hands holding “clean” plates to be passed onto someone else later:

Waitresses openly use their phone while leaning up against the bar. As someone who used to work in customer service this bothered me. It comes off rude and unprofessional. This wasn’t just quick glances at a phone it was minutes long scrolls and texting. (This is important later)

Our meals took quite a while, which was fine, we expected it as the place was very busy when we arrived.

We both got the hounds tale burger. It was alright and very messy. The fries were very good. The toppings are super flavorful but the burger alone tasted like just a meat patty. My boyfriend said it had no sear and looked like it had been boiled. There was no seasoning or flavor to it outside of the toppings. It was still a good burger though. The toppings are what makes it.

We were asked if we wanted a refill to our drinks and we both declined and asked for our check. I happened to have glanced at my watch and noticed the time at this point as I was trying to make it to Kilwins before close.

We sat. For quite a few minutes. This entire time the waitress was on her phone at the bar. I checked my phone. 5 minutes. Then 10 minutes. Then she went to sweep and just disappeared. At the 15 minute mark at this point I flagged down the manager. I explained the situation.

I did not like how he handled it. He immediately found the waitress and addressed it, in front of us, much to my horror. It was incredibly uncomfortable to watch and made things incredibly awkward for us. Any type of reprimanding or coaching to staff should never be done in front of customers.

The waitress then came over and defended herself to us claiming she did not hear I wanted the check and I didn’t say that I did and she thought we just wanted to sit and relax for a while. I’m not sure why she would assume what I wanted to do, but I digress. I didn’t appreciate being confronted about this.

Considering we go to Williamsburg fairly often I wanted to love this place, but...

If I could give this place 0 stars I would. First off the service was horrible. There was a big party and it seemed like there was only one server because that server was ours and the big party’s. I understand serving can be busy and hard sometimes but to completely neglect a party of 2 because you have a bigger party isn’t the answer. The food was HORRIBLE. I sent mine back because I couldn’t even eat it. I got the steak Gorgonzola. The menu said that it was steak over fettuccine, tomatoes, mushrooms, red bell peppers, and spinach with a white wine sauce. I’m thinking it’s gonna be a whole steak sliced over fettuccine with these veggies mixed in. The steak was NOT a whole steak. It was about 3 or 4 slices. I asked for medium. It was 100% well done I couldn’t even bite into it and cutting into it was difficult. The mushrooms, bell peppers, and spinach was just placed on top. It wasn’t even mixed in. The spinach was literally boiled spinach. It was not seasoned. The “white wine sauce” was more like a broth than a sauce. This was not steak and fettuccine with sauce, it was basically a soup which is NOT what the menu explained. But we can always say that’s on me and my bad for not understanding BUT that doesn’t take away from the fact that the food was absolutely disgusting. I didn’t take a picture of my food but I did take a picture of my husband’s food. He was not happy with his either. He did end up eating half the burger and some of the fries. He said he was really hungry but it was really nasty. The fries were BURNT. My husband wants to be nice and say they were crispy. No, they’re burnt. They taste and feel burnt. There’s a different between crispy and burnt. The bun was stale and the burger tasted like it was a burger from the freezer and thrown on the grill. Although they didn’t advertise that it was fresh beef and not frozen, doesn’t mean it needs to TATSE frozen. I got two appetizers. Both also disgusting. I got loaded potato skins and alligator bites. The potato skins were nasty. It had this sauce to go with it. That was nasty too. None of the food is seasoned. There’s not even salt. The potato skins just tasted like potato. There was no salt on it at all. The alligator bites were nasty as well. But I’ll give them that. I’ve never had alligator bites and maybe that’s just how they are but they were nasty. The batter around the bites were not seasoned either. My husband and I came here instead of Amber Ox because it was closed. I will never come here again and I advise everyone to not come here either. By the way I paid $60 for two appetizers and one meal because they took mine off. This was not $60 worth of food. McDonald’s would’ve...

To say this was a let down would be an understatement, the Barkery at the Hound's Tale is described as a dog friendly section of the aforementioned restaurant which offers good food and good vibes but in truth, the vibes are mediocre and the food is bland. When I set up on this establishment to eat some food in the walkable part of Williamsburg my hopes were high; I find that good people and tasty food is plentiful in this area so to say that my hopes were dashed would be an accurate descritption of my experience. Upon walking in there was an unruly dog and the bartender had similar mannerisms, it was obvious who the canine's captain was. We asked about food and were grunted at that it was served here and we were handed a single menu for our group of five. We sat and ordered water and waited ten minutes for the beverage, at this point, the dog which claimed the dining room as domicile had been barking at and nagging at us and our own furry friend. After ordering food we waited another thirty minutes for our meals which arrived in a manner befit a grander and greater gourmet experience. We ate our Hound's burgers in silence, relishing the sustenance which was provided. It was halfway through our burgers where I trouble began. The centers, were cold and undercooked and the general flavor tasted as though the patties had been cooked from frozen, the fries were limp and soft without any signs of life in them, their pretzel was of store bought variety with a disgusting excuse for pimento cheese accompanying it. This pimento cheese tasted as though no one in the establishment had eaten pimento cheese and someone in passing has merely described it to them and based on this description, they made some. The server/bartender continued to neglect us and attend to others which were made to seem as "regulars" but how are regulars made other than by providing exemplary service ot those who are new. Once we received our checks, we boxed up our food and left, our arms laden with the disappointments of the kitchen. The animal which has been announcing our arrival, our staying, and our eating, now announced our departure in true small dog screaming fashion. Needless to say, we will...