The Worst Reviews of Hartford’s Top-Rated Restaurants

I have so much fun reading bad reviews on reader-sourced websites. It seems even a missing ice cube will get you a 1 star review. I went onto TripAdvisor and started searching for the '"Best" poor reviews of some of Hartford's overall top-rated restaurants, and here are some of my favorites.

Salute -  TripAdvisor's top-rated overall restaurant in Hartford. But, if you dig into the reviews, you'll find gems like: "On ordering Chicken Parmesan - the waitress handed back the menu and said "unt-aha try again” meaning you have picked a meal we can't do very well. So we selected Spaghetti and Meatballs, "unt-aha try again"  -  "I am full Italian and grew up on Italian food so I know good Italian food and this place is not that."

Bear's Smokehouse - "My wife had the 1/2 chicken. It was mediocre at best. Not much indication of any smokehouse here. Costco's cooked chicken has more flavor"  -  "The only thing colder than the food was the attitude and indifference of the staff."

Max Downtown -  "Very strange bar scene. Great if you're some sort of local legend, but bad if you're from out of town"  -  "The bartender spent our entire visit pandering across the bar to a bunch of dudes who were all standing around the grand piano. They were really yukking it up and slapping each other on the back, like some scene out of The Godfather. The bartender was totally captivated, like he was some sort of groupie to these guys, and that left everyone else nearby (including us) without any service whatsoever"

The Capital Grille - "I truly have not had a less appetizing hamburger."  -  "Price is very expensive to be serving a total inferior product."  -  " I ordered the Strip medium rare. It came out well done. Hot and brown all the way through. Not even close to medium rare. I showed our server who agreed and then returned with it two minutes later saying that the chef said it was medium rare"

Black Eyed Sally's - " I am sure I would have received better pork in a Turkish restaurant and better beef in an Indian restaurant!!"  -  "the collegiate doorman was cocky, abrasive and overly concerned about us not staying for the music after dinner if we did not pay the full additional cover, regardless of how much was spent on dinner or the fact that the place was all but empty save for what seemed to be a mostly geriatric crowd"  -  "My cousin and friend had the mac and cheese, which Sally should have gotten a black eye for that."

Even the top dogs have bad days now and again, I guess.

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