Olde Jaol Steakhouse and Tavern — Restaurant in Wooster

The Olde Jaol is a very nice local tavern. The tavern food is very good, which is quite impressive considering the limitations of the small kitchen. The atmosphere is charming. The wait staff and bartenders are all very cordial, and work hard to provide excellent service. They are good, friendly people, who do their best.

The problem in this tavern, for the past year or so, has been in the management. The bar is routinely, frequently, out of stock. I don't mean out of a few unusual, oddball, specialty liqueurs. No, this tavern is often—and lately, even more frequently—out of standard, ordinary, basic tavern staples. Things like, oh, let's just say for example, bourbon. A tavern that is out of bourbon. How perplexing. OK, I said, downshifting: I will have scotch. How about a Glenfiddich (which for many years was a standard on their shelf)? No, out. OK then, I will pay for Glenlivet. No, got none of that either. OK, how about Johnnie Walker, any color label? Nope. Very well. Notice, I was willing to pay higher prices, for good, standard, name-brand liquor. But no, ain't got none. OK, I will just take Dewar's, any color label. Nope, got none of that either. So here we are in the absurd situation of a tavern, in Ohio, in the Heart Of It All, with a very conspicuous absence of basic, common, brand-name bourbon and scotch. If you're saying "Huh?!!!" then welcome to the club.

It seems that the person currently responsible for ordering and stocking the bar, is utterly and entirely inexperienced and unqualified for the job. Now, this is not a job requiring an advanced degree in engineering or mathematics: just check the bottles, and order what you're out of, or about to run out of. Counting bottles is not a difficult concept. Just count. It's pretty well covered in the third grade. But the person in charge of this at the Olde Jaol Tavern, for the past year or more, is obviously befuddled and flummoxed by this simple task. I cannot say where her head might have been when she was applying for the job, or where her head might be when she is trying to impress her boss, and I'm guessing the boss really enjoys where her head is at those times, but when it comes to doing her job, her head is absent. Count bottles. Order the ones that are empty or running out. Seems like a simple job anybody could do. But apparently not the person who is supposed to be doing it at the Olde Jaol Tavern. And customers are noticing. A bar that is frequently, routinely, consistently out of standard, basic liquor, is getting noticed. And it isn't the kind of notice any business owner wants. Not unless he's only interested in his personal business, while ignoring the paying customers at his...

Hello, I wanted to tell you about the poor service and attitude of the manager tonight, we had at the olde jail tavern. We arrived at 620. There was a large birthday party beside us. We waited 10 minutes to get drink and appetizers ordered. Three tables came in after us. We ordered. At 715 i asked our waitress about our food, because 2 out of the three tables had gotten their food. The waitress apologize and blamed our wait on the big birthday party that had gotten their food 20 minutes earlier. She stated that our food was up and would be right out. 15 minutes later when we still didnt have out food and the third table had gotten theirs, i asked to talk to thr manager, who came out, told me that our food was coming up. Everytime i tried to talk he would talk over me. I tried to explain we had been waiting for an hour for our food. He told me i was wrong. I stated three tables came in after us already had their food. He told me they ordered burgers our order took longer. WE CAME IN FOR 1/2 BURGER NIGHT. WE ordered 3 burgers, and order of potato skins for our meal. He told us it was just coming up. No this now 20 minutes after the waitress had already told us it was up. He said what do you want me to do. And continued to talk over me. He walked away and the lady behind me (who came in after us, had gotten her food, ate and gotten her check said you havent gotten your food yet. You were here before us. I explained what the manager said and she just shook her head. We were 20 minutes late for a meeting because we were waiting on food. It will be a long time before we go back. We stopped going to jakes because the food and the service was bad. We could never ger good food and good service in the same night there. It looks like we will have to stop patronageing and jail for the same reason. Then i go to email this to Dave off the web site. And it comes back invalid email. ...

I never come on this platform to share bad reviews, but this was just a terrible experience all around. We made reservations...we were a table of 11 and they put us in a room with other tables (when there clearly was not enough room). As we sit down, the server asked us to review the menu & we advised that there was only 1 menu at the table (I believe her manager was right there) and said they would get that for us. The server took our drink orders; so when she came back 10 minutes later with that and no menu's she seemed a bit flustered and defeated already. No worries on the slow start, but was worry some that her manager was so concerned about flipping a table in an already crowded room and not attend to this simple task for guests. As stated this was a tight fit; so the server had to pass our drinks down. I'm sorry, but calling this establishment "fine dining" & passing drinks down is not an option. Now, lets get to the food. Unfortunately, the food was just bland. Everyone had different menu items and everyone was very let down and disappointed. For us to pay over $30 each and the food to be bland and some items that were served a bit cold/luke warm is unacceptable. We never got a table touch from the manager...which again, if it's "fine dining" too many people touch your table and you never once go without something. It took forever just to get a refill on water. Again, this is no fault to our server because she had multiple tables to attend to. I believe that whoever is managing or running your operations, literally have no clue on how to successfully run a restaurant. How this restaurant has an average rating of 4 stars is beyond me. We also all had stomach issues later into the night; which makes me concerned of the cross contamination or refrigeration you might have in your kitchen. What an absolute...