When a restaurant experience goes bad a wide range of emotions can ensue. In my case it is generally anger or in some cases simply resignation. Rarely though have I felt the sense of sadness or loss as I did last night at the Darlington Inn in Ligonier. It was almost painful, akin to the loss of a lover. The Darlington Inn is one of those restaurants that has the reputation of being obscure and special. It is owned by a expatriate who serves the food of her native Hungary and nearby Transylvania, cuisine rarely seen in a restaurant setting in this day and age.
The Darlington Inn, Ligonier PA
The restaurant is in a quirky, Italian villa like building on a quiet road behind Idlewild Park. It’s not easy to find, but at least the online map services were accurate in their directions. I entered the restaurant and took a seat at the bar between a large television playing “soft rock” and two rolls of toilet paper sitting on the bar. The toilet paper was bad enough, but George Michael and Wham! Is not my idea of “setting the mood” for a dining experience. It appeared there was no bartender on duty and the two servers (who were also manning the bar ) were running around in a frenzy, leading to a 15 minute wait before I was even recognized. When I say it “appeared” there was no bartender on duty I meant there was no one stationed there. There was one bozo in shorts and tee shirt who several times went behind the bar and got drinks for himself or other patrons, but since he spent all of his time schmoozing I couldn’t tell if he was an employee or not. The Darlington serves a buffet on Saturday nights, so when I finally received service I went with that option in order to sample several of the dishes which also appeared on the regular menu. The chafing dishes at the buffet were nearly empty, but for the most part the food looked good and I managed to scrounge enough to fill a plate. When I say “for the most part”, there were a few exceptions. The salad was nothing but browned iceberg lettuce with one unlabeled squeeze bottle of what I assumed to be dressing beside it. In addition, the vegetables were clearly a frozen commercial “blend”, a shortcut that surprised me given the “home made” character of the rest of the meal. I returned to my seat to find the server had never brought me any silverware, so I waited another 5 minutes or so until I managed to flag her down to rectify that issue. As I had passed on the brown iceberg, I started my meal with a beet-sauerkraut salad. This version appeared to have been prepared with shredded beets, although I’m not sure as it was a bit dark in my corner of the bar. Regardless, it was quite good although it would been more refreshing if served a bit colder. I next sampled a roast pork loin with sauerkraut. Personally, I wouldn’t have used a loin for this dish as it’s too lean, but the chef timed this roast perfectly which avoided the dryness a loin usually exhibits. Töltött Káposzta, or stuffed cabbage in sauerkraut, was next and it was also well prepared. My only complaint with the three dish I had tried so far was that I felt the kraut could have been a bit sharper, a result I suppose of not using a fresh product. The Hungarian Beef stew I sampled next had that great flavor of a good paprika, but like the pork, the cut of beef used was not the best choice. It was much too lean and as a result, the beef was dry. Csirke Paprikás, or Chicken Paprikas, was the only dish I was disappointed in. Although the sauce was flavorful, the chicken was improperly browned, leading to a flabby, undercooked skin.
My companions at the bar
The side dishes for these entrees were mashed potatoes and spätzle, both of which were excellent. The potatoes were clearly made from scratch and were flavorful and of the proper consistency (i.e. Not over whipped). I’m not certain the Hungarians use the term spätzle as do the Swabians, but these little dumplings were prepared and cooked to perfection. This was an absolutely great meal, especially considering the price of $12.95, but it was completely ruined by the incompetence of the front of the house management. The sadness I referred to comes from this contradiction. To have the hard work of a talented chef go to waste is truly sad. It’s a lot like being in love with a woman you simply cannot get along with. At some point you simply have to walk away, which is exactly what I’ve done with this restaurant, leaving the two rolls of toilet paper still sitting on the bar.
First, I want to apologize that you did not have a good experience. We have been in business for 15 years and as with any business you have good and bad days unfortunately on July 15th when you visited the restaurant we had 93 dinners within 3 hours which was an extremely busy night for us and we were actually running out of food but we were in the process of cooking to fill up the buffet. All the food is homecooked from scratch but the vegetables
are not they are steamed vegetables we do not claim they are. The chicken paprikas is never browned because it cooks with the onions from the start for about 2 hours then the chicken is removed and the sauce is finished at which time it goes in the oven to stay warm. It does not have a crispy skin. We are not a fast food chain and do not employ lots of people we are family owned and operated restaurant and we only have 3 or 4 of us at any given time so unfortunately you sometimes have to wait a bit. In 15 years you are our 2nd not so favorable review and we have people travel for hours to come eat at our restaurant.
The toilet paper is unfortunate a customer said the men’s room was out and just give it to him and he will put it in but only took 1 roll and left the other two on bar and as we were extremely busy it stayed there. Very unfortunate!
I wish you wouldn’t write us off and I invite you to come back. As I stated we are family owned and operated we do not hire people we do not have front house management we are not a chain restaurant and we are not a fast food place so when you come eat on a busy Saturday night buffet it is a given that you will have a wait. Again I apologize for your unhappiness and hope you will give us another try.
Thank you for responding to this review of your restaurant. It is always positive for the reader to hear both sides of the story. I would encourage every restaurant to take this approach rather than threatening the writer with legal action as some have done. As I have over 35 years experience in the restaurant business, I am well aware restaurants occasionally have bad days. However, it is the job of a reviewer to accurately report his experience and not to gloss over negative facts and pass them off as just “a bad day”. I know you are not a “fast food” restaurant and I did not expect to be served immediately, however there is no excuse for ignoring a customer for over 15 minutes. There were two servers who were behind the bar at various times along with two other people who were helping themselves to drinks and not once was I acknowledged during this time. Customers are usually patient when they are at least recognized and you get “something” in front of them, such as a drink or a menu. How long does it take for a server to say “Good evening, I’ll be right with you”? Regarding the Chicken Paprikas, I never said the skin should be crisp. The point of browning the chicken is to rend excess fat from the skin so that it doesn’t end up flabby and gelatinous as yours did. I have cooked and eaten this dish many times and the chicken was always browned first. In fact, a quick Google search brought up a dozen recipes where the first step is browning the chicken and none where it wasn’t. Also, the fact that you didn’t claim your vegetables were fresh does not excuse you from serving them. Again, it is my job to report on what I ate, and those vegetables were not worthy to be served with the rest of the excellent home-style food offered. Finally, although I appreciate you responding to my review, I found the subtext of your reply disappointing. What I read suggested that because you were busy I should accept being ignored and having toilet paper sitting on the bar beside me. In other words it was my lack of understanding rather than your poor service that was the problem. What you should take away from this review is that you have service issues which are bound to affect your business in the future.
First, I appreciate your feedback. I would never threaten anyone or sue over what you are entitled to which is your opinion. I am again very sorry for the unfortunate events that inspired on your visit. After reading your review I printed it our and gave a copy to all parties involved and I can assure you this will not happen in the future. Our reputation is based on customer feedback and word of mouth and with bad reviews what we built in 15 years can be destroyed. So I assure you that in the future we will take a little extra time to acknowledge everyone no matter how busy we are and do our best to take care of all our customers in a timely fashion. Second, I was not making excuses for the poor quality of service you received I was just trying to give you a perspective of what was happening that evening and to let you know this is not how it is on a normal basis as outlined in the numerous reviews on TripAdvisor and Urbanspoon and several other sites. None of us experienced that amount of people at one time and unfortunately it showed. There is absolutely no excuse for the quality of service you received and I did not in any way suggest that you should have accepted being ignored. I value your opinion and again I sincerely apologize. As far as the food what you think is worthy or not to put on our buffet is again your valued opinion. Our buffet is made up of not what we want to put on it but what our customers request and come back for week after week most of the dishes are the customer favorites and they unfortunately like the unworthy vegetables.
Again my sincere apologies.