The Mallet

I was meeting friends on a Saturday evening for music, dancing and dinner.  I ordered the  BBQ ribs.  The waitress said she served lots of them and had never had a complaint.  The ribs were a small half rack with BBQ sauce poured down the middle of the meat.  The sauce tasted like Old Bay and I am not a fan of Old Bay.  The potato was barely done but the salad was nice.  My friend sampled the BBQ sauce, and she also could taste Old Bay in the BBQ sauce.  I returned the ribs, since they were not to my liking, and I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich.  The chicken was a small piece, but it was cooked correctly and did not taste like Old Bay.

The Tiki Bar where the band played was very warm and the band was SO LOUD that you could not ever scream and hear the person next to you or the waitress when she came to the table.  The band did turn it down a bit, but it was still to loud.  The dance floor was wood, but it was very sticky.  Not a good floor if you love to dance.  

I rate the service with 5 stars!  Our server was very pleasant and accommodating and took good care of our table.  The food was not the best, but not the worst.  I have never tasted Old Bay BBQ ribs and was certainly NOT impressed with their BBQ that tasted like Old Bay.  It is really to bad since the meat was tender.  The chicken was OK, but not the best.  I have had much better bar food and this was a restaurant.  I expected it to be much better.  Sadly, I don't believe this will be a place that I frequent.  It is to bad since it is very close to where I live.

Very slow weekday lunch service.   Food was ok but they were out of tarter sauce.

I just got off the phone with Tony Ashe, Owner and General Manager of The Mallet.   He apologized the mess we all had to experience last Saturday night at the restaurant, and attributed the problem to a much larger than normal crowd that night.  He said their previous record was just over 500 diners on a Saturday night; on January 28, 2012 they had over 700.   He said they are taking two important actions to prevent a recurrance:  capacity control so they max out at less than 600 diners on a given evening, and (more importantly), a simplification of the downstairs menu.   Both should help, I believe.   He also offered to send a $50 certificate, but I suggested he give it to our beleagered waitress that evening.  He told me that at the end of that night, he gave the wait staff that had troubled tables a $25 bonus, but that he would tell our waitress that we made the offer.  I think we'll give them another chance, BUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK!!!!