This question reminded me to post this shot of an absolutely wonderful dish I had at HH earlier in the week:
Scallion Hoecakes with Country Ham and Crab - this was both fantastically unique and delicious.
Aesthete’s raves for the place are (IMHO) mostly well deserved, if a bit hyperbolic (I don’t find everything great, there are misses to be had) but when they hit one out of the park like this…it flies!
Hey well you can never totally account for taste. I just haven’t had any misses for my personal palate at HH. Every review must be taken with a grain of salt. But I always try to write my true feelings and not embellish if I can help it.
But maybe they are cooking better for me too honestly. At this point I know everyone there and when I walk in they say “welcome home” and hand me a cocktail. And the general manager and/or chef de cuisine pick dishes for me. I don’t necessarily get free food, but I could well be getting a different level than others because I am there so often. I hope that isn’t true but I admit that it could be.
I should’ve used flash on the shot of that dish when I had it as you captured the hoecakes way better haha 
Ok, so based on the high praises herein, we went by HH this past weekend.
Between the four of us we had a fairly good amount of food - as others, we ended up taking some home.
Believe we had the rolls, sliced tomatoes, hoe cakes, mushrooms, hen, ribeye, peas, corn, and potatoes. I might be missing something.
Also tried, between all of us, many of their cocktails. These were all fine, though after having three myself I’m not sure how much actual alcohol goes into them.
Upon leaving, the general consensus seemed to be: Good. Solid. Nothing memorable or exciting, but certainly nothing repulsive or inedible.
I’d say the highlight was the sliced tomatoes. No lowlight, per se, though that places is borderline intolerably loud. And this from someone who very much enjoys bustling nights out.
It was a bit of a letdown, given the high praise here, as well as previous great experiences at Hart & Hunter, back when Dunsmoor was there. I supposed I’d rank it as “I’d go again if someone wanted to, but feel no compulsion to return of my own volition”.
Oh well, c’est la vie, and on to the next one.
Ditto. And I’m a huge fan of that type of cuisine and loved Hart & Hunter.
If you consider Yelp totally worthless… please ignore this post.
I don’t put a whole lot of faith in Yelp overall, and know that it’s pretty generally ignored/panned here, but I took a look at some of the 3-star and lower reviews there of Hatchet Hall and found them interesting. The worst people have to say about the food is that it’s just OK (always a good sign for this kind of site), but the majority of the criticism is about attitude and customer service. Seems like 15-20% or so of the reviews have something negative to say about their treatment by staff and management here. Usually bad service reviews come from people who either just like to complain or were treated really poorly (enough to do a review), so I tend to give more credibility when there are a significant number of commonly themed negatives. That’s the case here.
This is a long topic and doesn’t seem to contain even the slightest hint of the attitude reflected in those Yelp reviews. What’s the take of Hatchet Hall fans on tales of really bad attitude there? One person didn’t like the food and the server’s response was something like 'I guess we’re not for you". Can’t ever be sure of what really transpired without having been there, but I’d think ‘I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy yourself. I’ll pass your thoughts on to the chef. Please try us again.’ would seem to be a more adult and wise response.And that’s one of the milder criticisms. Is this attitude thing real? More importantly, if it is, is it in anyway justifiable?
As I said, I am almost an insider so service is spectacular for me. Any time I have wanted to have something fixed like an overcooked piece of meat it has been rectified. My feeling was always that they would fix anything specific for you. However, they are very sure of themselves. And I can believe that if someone just said “I didn’t like the food” they would just respond the way indicated.
Could be dry Los it or hate it.
Personally it woks for me because they spend their time catering to the people that love what they do and sort of ignore those who don’t to an extent. Since I am on the inside that appeals to me but that’s obviously heavily biased. I am glad they don’t seek to cater to everyone’s tastes but that also means there are people who will hate it. From the type of people that run the place I imagine they are borderline hostile to Yelpers actually.
I personally dine based on food not service. So no big deal for me either way. You can always just opt out of tipping if your server sucks.
Perhaps it is to be avoided for those more service oriented diners though. Wish I could say more.
How would the staff know who might be “a Yelper” in advance so they could be “hostile” to them? Are you suggesting that this place is such a divine experience that anyone not genuflecting appropriately is suspect? I live in the OC burbs so the idea of that isn’t something with which I’m familiar.
Nah, but there are certain types of people that make it known they are Yelpers. I used to interact heavily within the Yell community and stopped because of how a lot of people acted in restaurants. I’m just saying those kind of anecdotes sound like the treatment I’ve seen some types of Yelpers get. Some restaurants bend over backwards to those types of people and some places give them the cold shoulder. I prefer places that give them the cold shoulder is all.
If you have specific criticism of the food they would be very happy to fix it. Jack Leahy takes cooking and pleasing customers extremely seriously. And Johnathan Strader would do almost anything to make someone happy if they articulate a sincere problem.
But if someone throws out bland complaints about wholesale hating the food? I can see them responding it saying it isn’t for them.
To me, such a general criticism is indicative of how the Yelpera I used to hang around would try to et discounts… It was slimey and disgusting to me.
But you may feel differently. Personally, I like when places are confident in their vision.
What are you supposed to say to someone that just says they hated everything in general?
FWIW, none of the four us particularly liked our server. A touch of snark and attitude, which seemed unwarranted given we were all eagerly looking froward to the meal, and engaging and curious about the menu.
But then again, maybe s/he was just distracted by visions of creating Artisanally Curated Pokemon Go Searching Expeditions 
I can get more into specifics on the food, if others want. But, think my summation “I’d go if …” sums it up succinctly.
Service was great when I was there.
Food was perfectly fine, it just didn’t live up to the hyperbolic levels of my expectations or in this thread. (Or to Hart & Hunter meals of days long gone)
tomatoes were quite special i thought.
i think aesthete makes a very good point regarding someone saying they didn’t like the food.
for me, that’s a rather odd thing to say to a server, unless it’s in response to the standard, how
are you enjoying your meals, is there anything else you need, check in servers give shortly after giving
you their food. and then, i think the server and restaurant deserves a little bit more information so they can
possibly rectify it. saying, “eh, i didn’t like the food” whilst paying the check could be construed as kinda weird.
unless, i guess, you thought the food was “correctly” prepared but you just didn’t care for it. in that case, the server’s response is accurate.
that said,
does this mean the restaurant only caters to people that love the restaurant? how do they glean this information
from first time diners.?
Oh, as I said, they were definitely the highlight.
I do think I might’ve thought even more highly of them had my wife and I not just received a huge amount of tomatoes (amongst other things) from my MIL’s garden. My point being, I might have been suffering a tinge of “tomato fatigue” - note: that is definitely NOT a real thing - at that point.
I hear you, big time.
My SO grows quite a number of tomatoes - though this has not been a great year for hers. Consequently, it takes a lot to impress her with restaurant tomatoes because she would rather be eating her own - but she loved HH’s plate of them.
They appear to take feedback from regulars mostly.
As often happens this response is based on the assumption that nothing specific was stated about why that Yelper didn’t like the food. I guess I should have offered more but I read many reviews quickly. Going back, the reviewer said his wife told the server that her salad tasted like “dirt” and the chicory in another dish was very bitter. She also said other dishes were “bland”. Lots of specifics there but also lots to get a server’s back up.
well, that’s human nature. makes sense.
sometimes i wonder if running a restaurant is just one of those things i put in the “i don’t know
how they do it” category. the way i’ve seen customers act in restaurants…jeez, i know that line of
work is not for me.
Chef Dunsmoor is trying out a cedar-planked ruby trout with thyme, brown butter and grilled lemon for tomorrow’s service. Who’s gonna go try it? Please report back.
I don’t like trout generally but the trout I’ve eaten at HH has always been absolutely incredible.
Why are you interested in that prep specifically? Just curious. Maybe I will go indulge.
Nothing specific; just a public service announcement for those interested…
