[Edit: Be sure to read all the comments - not just the review!]
Apologies for the noise in the photo, but the lighting was terrible for food photography and the sensor on an iPhone can only do so much. What you see here is an entire head of iceberg lettuce with fried leeks on top and a steak knife driven through the “salad.”
There’s a new restaurant in Derry, New Hampshire; Halligan Tavern. It’s a nice looking place with just the right amount of lighting and great windows. It’s an Irish pub that plays Irish music and has Guiness and Magner’s Hard Cider on tap. So far, so good, right? We each ordered the iceberg salad to start, and that’s where things started to go down hill.
It’s a full head of lettuce. Seriously… an entire head of lettuce. I’ve had iceberg salads that had a quarter head of iceberg as the base, but this thing was bigger than a cantaloupe. We both ordered one, and it was enough salad for two families. I literally laughed out loud when our server brought them out. It was too bad, too. The bacon, fried leeks, Gorgonzola cheese, and buttermilk dressing were delicious, but the sheer size of the salad is ridiculous. How much of these salads does this restaurant throw away? My guess is quite a lot.
For dinner, I ordered the chili cheeseburger, advertised as including pepper jack cheese and chipotle sour cream drizzled over jalapeño peppers and home made chili. Best of all, they say they grind a rib eye steak to make the burger. I ordered mine medium-rare.
What I got was medium well, almost well done. Dark gray on the outside, light gray on the inside. I can attest that the chili is home made on the premises, because the pinto beans were not well cooked. Softer than pebbles, but not soft. I found them to be very distracting.
Claire ordered the rib eye, medium rare, and it was so charred on the outside that she couldn’t eat it.
Service was so-so. When we finished eating, we waited about ten minutes for our server. We explained that we didn’t want to take the steak home because it was burnt. Claire told her it didn’t taste good. The server still billed us for the plate of uneaten food.
The manager took the steak off the bill when I asked, but it seems to me that if your customer sends food back and says it’s inedible, the server should know to do something about it.
All in all, it’s too bad. I really wanted to like Halligan Tavern, but I see no reason to go back.
I wish the iphone had an option so that we can change the ISO settings which helps drastically in reducing the noise
I know I am asking too much from a mobile phone, but sometimes we are left with the phone and just a great decisive moment appears in front of us. We can only say “Shoot I dont have my SLR with me 
” Did you try the night mode option found on almost all mobile phones. I have heard it helps a lot (not much), in taking pics @ low light situations?
Melvin@Rental Properties Auckland´s last blog ..Otahuhu, Auckland City
Melvin, Unfortunately, my phone doesn’t have any low light settings.
Cool article. Sounds like you had a real trip at the Halligan Tavern. The salad in the picture does look huge (and delicious) and I’ve never heard of a resturant serving a full head of lettuce as a salad. I guess if I ever may my way up there, I’ll know to slipt the beast.
IMO…. a) once I started eating romaine, red leaf, etc, iceberg is just nasty…. b) I have seen 1/4 head with bleu cheese, same opinion as a)….. c) shame about the rest of the food & service, you could have been a loyal customer… d) but I would have loved to be there just to hear your laugh…
Twitpic, James, you look like you’re 12!
I agree that iceberg is on the nasty side compared to other lovelies like romaine, red leaf (my favorite), butter/boston/bibb (another fav) and mache/lambs ears (pricey but so delicious with a delicate vinegar dressing and avocado). BUT, I was so tempted by the sound of fried leeks with bacon and gorgonzola I had to order it. Who can blame me when bacon is a food group? When our server strained out of the kitchen and I first laid my eyes on these babies I said out loud (oops!),”You’ve got to be kidding! What would Gordon Ramsey say if he saw these portions?”
Gordon would say that whomever is in charge of the portions is responsible for bankrupting the establishment…
LET ME TELL YOU THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HALLIGAN TAVERN. I HAVE HAD THE HONOR OF WORKING AT MANY GREAT RESTAURANTS IN NH. THE HALLIGAN HAS GOT ALL BUT ONE OF THOSE RESTUARANT BLOWN AWAY. JAN. 22TH I STARTED MY EMPLOYMENT A MOST LIKELY THE LAST RESTAURANT BEFORE I OPEN MY OWN. I CAN NOT TELL YOU ALL THE GREAT THINGS THIS RESTAURANT/TAVERN HAS TO OFFER, THE TOWN OF DERRY AND EVERYONE WHO TAKES THE TIME TO VISIT. CHEF TAKES GREAT PRIDE IN MAKING GREAT FOOD, FOOD THAT LEAVES PEOPLE ONLY WANTING MORE. SORRY MR. LEE AND CLAIRE YOUR VISIT WASN’T THE BEST, I ONLY HOPE YOU FIND THE TIME TO TRY THE HALLIGAN AGAIN. YES THE PORTIONS ARE VERY LARGE BUT TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH I RARELY SEE LARGE AMOUNTS OF FOOD THROWN AWAY, NO MORE THAN ANY OTHER RESTAURANT. WHAT I DO SEE IS MOST EVERYBODY BRINGING HOME FOOD WHICH IS NICE KNOWING TO ONLY SPENT EQUAL TO ANY OTHER PLACE BUT YOUR GETTING DOUBLE THE PORTIONS.THE MANAGEMENT JUST AS OF THE PAST FEW WEEKS, STARTED BOOKING AND HOSTING BANDS ON WEEKEND NIGHTS. THERE ARE MANY GREAT PLATES BEING ADDED TO THE NEW MENU COMING SOON. ALL AROUND ITS A GREAT RESTAURANT TO TAKE THE FAMILY OR COME BY FOR A DRINK.
TAKE THE GOOD WITH THE BAD AND YOU DECIDE IF YOU WISH TO EXPERIENCE NH’S BEST GASTRO PUB.
p.s James, whomever is in charge of the portions is responsible for bankrupting the establishment. That only counts when a establishment doesnt do the amount of business as this restaurant. I can asure you they will be around for years to come.
Thank you all, hope to see you there.
Zac
Zac,
I’m glad to hear the restaurant is doing well. I wish we had a better experience.
My little blog here started as an experiment. I want to be known as a place to look at pictures, not restaurant reviews. Unfortunately, this single page on my blog now accounts for almost 10% of my site’s overall traffic. I think that’s because your restaurant is so new, there’s just not a lot of information out there, so for anyone who searches for “Halligan Tavern,” I’m on the front page.
Before I posted this image, I looked for your web site to see if I could have a conversation with the ownership, but I couldn’t find it. I can find it now… maybe it wasn’t there a couple weeks ago, or maybe I looked right at it and didn’t see it.
Anyways – to the topic at hand. I had several legitimate food and service issues:
1) Serving an entire, uncut head of lettuce and calling it a salad. It’s wasteful. Sure, we took our leftover salad home, but we didn’t end up eating it. By the time it sat in the refrigerator overnight, the leeks were soggy and unappetizing. Regardless, if I’m willing to pay $8 for a salad (all the while expecting much less lettuce), and I get four times as much lettuce and twice as much leeks, bacon, Gorgonzola, and dressing as I would be able to eat in a normal situation, you’ve spent more money on food than you need to. I have never been given a head of lettuce on a plate at any other restaurant in my entire life. My feedback to the chef: this salad has fantastic flavors. I found myself thinking wistfully of the leeks on several occasions. Just dial it down so you’re not serving four for the price of one.
2) The beans in the chili must be cooked. They were hard; crunchy even. When you let food like that leave your kitchen, it tells me you did not sample it… or if you did sample it, you didn’t care that you were serving crunchy beans.
3) Medium rare is not gray. All of the meat we ordered was very overcooked. I know some people like their meat this way, but that’s not what we ordered.
My wife didn’t eat her steak. She had three or four bites before giving up on it. When our server noticed that we were no longer eating (again, a ten minute wait with empty glasses on the table), we explained that the meat was ruined. She blinked, and took it away. No apology. No offer to replace the food. No offer to remove it from our bill.
For anyone reading this – this is just one incident. Your experience will vary. I love this part of the world we live in, and there are not that many good restaurants. Zac is clearly passionate about the restaurant, and that’s a very positive sign (Zac – tell your boss about the site so he/she can drop us a line, here, too). I’d love to hear from them.
I, too, encourage any NH residents to go check out Halligan Tavern, then post here about your experience. I’d be willing to bet you have a better experience than we did.
Bon Appetit!
Hi to Zac – I wonder if you really meant to YELL ALL THOSE COMMENTS. (of course… you went to lower case for your PS)We’ve visited the area a few times and realize there aren’t a lot of choices when it comes to a nice place to eat out, so I know J&C were looking for a place to frequent.
James was definitely honest in expressing his opinions of his experience, which is usually considered good and potentially helpful feedback….. you might be interested to know he and I discussed it and he had already said he planned to give Halligan’s another try, but maybe not if that shouting, defensive attitude is an indication of the kind reception he might get.
I know this is a photo blog, not (necessarily) social commentary and definitely not restuarant review (altho J&C would be excellent people to do that!)……
But here’s just a thought, suggestion, especially if you’re planning to open your own establishment (which, if you do, I hope is a wonderful success):
Let the food and the service speak louder than you do.
Restaurants reviews are rather a sticky topic with restaurants. I run an online booking website in New Zealand time2dine.co.nz, along with its sister review website forum.time2dine.co.nz. The restaurants really don’t like the reviews. But I say a bad review is an opportunity for owners to apologize, enhance, comment on… and it can create some good publicity for the restaurant if it is properly managed.
Not easy stuff.
Sorry anyone one this website that didnt like how I came across. What you need to relize is that I will say whats on my mind and mean everything I say. Its to bad not everyone can the best time while visiting a restaurant, but its also just as hard reading the comments about that bad visit. The Halligan Tavern is indeed one of NH best restaurants, most of the people leaving have very high reviews and very big smiles. There are a few who would say other wise, like one young lady told me the chicken club as to big and it wasnt lady like to eat it infront of her business partener. We try extra hard to make your visit one to remember
I hope you can understand and be your own judge. Come in we are located at 32 W. Broad Way Derry NH 03038. Live music Friday and Saturday nights most of the time after 9:30pm and to see who is playing check out http://www.livemusicne.com Chris Malloy adds great bands to the restaurant. Executive chef Jr just added to the menu and will continue to add more and more as time goes on. Tuesday Nights is Trivia night with drink specials all night. And please do post your comments as hard as some can be to read they are all valued.
Thank you
Zac Josephs
For more reveiws go check out these sites
http://www.derryinklink.com/2010/03/all-fired-up-at-halligan-tavern.html
http://www.facebook.com/thehalligantavern?ref=ts#!/thehalligantavern
In reading these comments, I am discouraged about a group of older women visiting for luncheon. Please tell me that a luncheon sized portion is also not enormous. Do you have a copy of the menu on line? Not very computer literate.
Shirl – you can find their menu here. I’m sure your server can help you choose an appropriately sized dish for any appetite!
I have to agree with the reviewer. My wife and I both ordered a Halligan’s burger with gorgonzola, medium rare. I expect medium rare to be pink in the center and warm. When the burgers finally came, they were well done and the fries were cold. They could use a new grill man who knows how to cook to order.
I have to say that the Halligan Tavern is one of the most pathetic establishments to work for. The place has gone down hill since they have opened. Out of three of the owners, only one cared while the other two thought it would be appropriate to be drunks all the time and pass out in the upstairs bar. They have also been known to serve under-aged teens alcohol (this usually occurs on Tuesdays when they have their weekly trivia night). They started to hold our paychecks because they couldn’t afford to pay us so we were a complete paycheck behind. When I told them I started to have a hard time paying bills, they didn’t care at all. The quality of food has gone downhill because the Executive Chef stopped caring and is never in the kitchen anymore. He has been quoted to say that all he cares about is if the owners sign his paycheck. Corners are starting to be cut and the food you are expecting is not even close to what we give you. The breads aren’t freshly made in house anymore and the burgers aren’t made with freshly grounded ribeye. In an effort to save money, the laid off ten employees without any notice, mind you they did it over the phone. And in the same sentence they say that they hope we come back to visit. The Halligan Tavern had the potential to be a great NH hotspot in Derry but because the time, love and effort was not put in, the place will surely suffer because of it. There are plenty of other great restaurants in the area you could go for lunch. Please avoid the Halligan Tavern at all costs….
Even worse than illegaly holding paychecks. They overstated our tips! AKA, Stealing from their staff!
Also, when a guest would complain about their food…and the managers were supposed to take it off the bill…they would cash it out to cash so we would be stuck paying for it in the end. They don’t think servers notice these things. I pray to god they get caught.
“125: they have been doing a lot more than just holding paychecks….they have been stealn from the staff
take a good look at your paychecks chances are you will find they overstated your tips
and when they were supposed to take something off bcause someone complained they cashed it out to cash so we paid for it….dumb servers they would never notice!!!
I suspected it and started running a report every night I worked and was waiting for my last check to be absolutely positive…but I never got it”
I do encourage anyone to vistit the Tavern for dinner. The food is great as well as the comfortable atmosphere. I encourage James to go back as i am sure that he will have a different opinion the next time around. That being said it sounds like there are several comments on this blog that have nothing to do with the photo or the topic at hand, originally being the dining experience. This appears to me to be a somewhat reputable blog and not the appropriate place for terminated employees to slander their previous employers. With any new restaraunt there are always employees that end up not making the cut for several reasons such as not showing up or that they are unable to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner in front of customers, as i suspect the issue may be here. In any business that directly serves the plublic, Halligan Tavern included, any feedback is helpful mostly the negative as it provides the direction for constant improvement, or the oppertunity to change your mind. Unfortunately for some employees this means that they don’t make the cut in order to improve on service and food. i think that the above comments say more about the vendictive approach of the previous empoyees that the Halligan itself. I also do not this that this blog is the place for it.
It is interesting when employees have such strong opinions after they have been terminated but they never quit due to the issues.
When there is no one else hiring and your managers keep telling you its going to get better its hard to leave. The Halligan Tavern had such great potential to be a great place but people stopped caring in what they were there for: the food and the restaurant culture. The portions were huge and the food was respectable because there was care and passion and excitement in the beginning. Now everyone just cares about themselves and abusing the restaurant until it goes under. When everyone stops caring, nothing good can ever come of it. This may not be the place to discuss this but people need to know what underhanded and illegal things people do and think they can get away with.
I know three people that work there and no one has had the same experience. I really don’t see anything “illegal” happening at all. What it seems like is a couple of laid off employees having there day. None of my friends have ever complained about their checks….. an over cooked burger is one thing but this is just down right ridiculous. Perhaps put this much effort into finding a new job and you’ll keep it.
To everyone on this site I came to you months ago to stand up for the business I enjoyed working for so much. I pressed the fact about the food, and service. I now come back to explain to you the reason I left the Halligan Tavern. I left the bar at the beginning of June, I told management it was because of a new job but the truth is that all in all, I WAS WRONG. The Management team needed to make some big changes and my input was being shut down, Now it is their bar to run however When it comes to laws and security I believe I’m one of the best, and my security experiences are there to stand behind that statement. Some of the problems I saw night after night was owners, managers, employees drinking or being drunk while working. Being the biggest guy I found myself carrying an owner to a cab at least once a week. In NH your are not allowed to drink on the clock, nor in a work shirt or behind the bar. You can not hold pay checks every week until your Sunday or Monday deposits have cleared, pay day is Friday so budget for Friday were not stupid the check company didn’t mess up.
Those of you hiding behind a random name and using words like “slander” grow up. This is the truth at hand an inside view of what abuse these staff members have been going through. It is a blog site and the topic is the Halligan Tavern, Derry, NH feel free to look at the top of the page it says it in big black bold letters.
To all the readers I’m truly sorry I miss lead you, and stuck my neck out for something that can be so cruel to such hard working employees
your friend zac josephs
Any outside opinion reading this blog really has no place to argue with the employees above. I know first hand that the people layed off… were honest, dedicated hardworking individuals and I absolutely understand and agree with their negative feelings to some of the things going on inside of The Halligan Tavern and espically the way the firing was done. Paychecks are always late to the person that said their friend never mentions having a problem. It is hard to want to maintain a steady worth ethic when you are being shown no insentive for your hard work! I know first hand myself because I am still an employee there! The guys do have a great concept and do not deserve to be bashed, but they could really use some major changes in their management techniques and start showing their hard working employees that they really do care and notice everything that they do! Halligans was like a family when we first opened. Obviously something went terribley wrong and I certinitly do not think it was ANY of the employees faults.
I don’t see anything “Irish” in this menu, even if everything was prepared well.
To me, it just looks as bluntly “All American exageration” as any such an eating place could be…
Regards.