I am originally from Buffalo but had never been to Anchor Bar. After a long day showing my family around, we discussed where to eat. My cousin gave some suggestions and then I said we had been talking about trying Anchor Bar. We all met there around 9:45 and sat down and ordered some appetizers. We got the Buffalo chicken dip, queso and chips, and fried mac and cheese balls. The amount of queso and Buffalo chicken dip for the price was pretty crazy, but it tasted good. The chicken dip had very little chicken in it. It was more like Buffalo cream cheese dip. We put our order in right before the apps came and the wait began. We waited and waited and waited. It was over an hour since we arrived until we got our food. The place was not busy, but our server was too busy cleaning to check on us and make sure we didn't need drink refills or have any issues.
When the food came out, it was pretty silent. I didn't hear anyone say "This looks good!" or any other positive remarks. I looked over at my cousin's plate and the chicken tenders were big masses of something and were burnt, crispy, and hard. The chicken inside was dry and way overcooked. My grandson got the kid's tenders and his were the same way. My daughter got the beef on 'weck and boneless wings. Both were inedible. She passed the sandwich around to see if it was just her or not, and everyone confirmed it was terrible. My mom's fish dry was downright disgusting. It was hard and she tried to get some of the fish out but there wasn't anything inside the breading. The boneless wings my son and his finance got were also inedible. This whole time we never saw our server and our drinks remained empty.
We asked for a manager and told her we wanted every except the apps, one order of wings, and drinks taken off. She explained that they're trying something new with the tenders and boneless wings and making them in-house. They need to practice on non-paying customers! She seemed unsurprised about the complaints we had and said she would redo the check.
She came back and handed us the check. It was over $130 for three apps, 10 wings, and a couple sodas. We then looked at it further and saw they charged $34 for a mandatory tip of 18% that was figured off the bill before the food was taken off. We protested it and wanted it removed but she refused.
My son went and got his wallet and paid cash for the cost of the food and what he thought was a tip that was commensurate with the service received. We walked out and were chased down by a different manager threatening us with calling the police and yelling at us, calling us scumbags. We went to our car after she went back in and then she returned and was saying she's doing her due diligence and started taking pictures of our license plate. My husband demanded she remove the pictures off her phone and she refused until we paid the rest of the bill. He went inside and paid the remaining tip of 20-something bucks and we left.
After the food and service we received and being called derogatory names and being chased out of the restaurant, we were all in disbelief. We have never been treated like this at a restaurant and the upper management needs to take a look at what's going on there. The first manager's breath smelled like alcohol. We all smelled it across the whole table. The server barely came to our table. We had no refills on our drinks. We had no utensils, plates, or napkins. The wait was unacceptable for the amount of patrons in the place, and the food was godawful with small portions for the overinflated prices. I now wish I would've taken my cousin's suggestion. This whole thing was very upsetting and had my 72-year-old mother shaking!! read more