We've been going there occasionally almost since they opened. The service has never been exceptional, often mediocre at best, and more than occasionally it is horrible, like our most recent visit. We were starving, so asked for our appetizer as the waitress was giving us the menus, just to get things rolling quicker since we knew from prior experience that they are often extremely slow before checking back. Good thing, since that was one of those nights. Rather than pick up on our attempt to be proactive, and then rise to the occasion, the waitress was taken aback, and whether the rest of our experience with her was as punishment for not sheepishly accepting her idea of how the process should go, or simply her general lack of customer service skills, I don't know, but does it really matter? Either way the service was horrible even for them, and one of the worst I've ever experienced.
There were three in our party, and she never brought a third set of silverware. I had to ask for it as she set some of our food down and attempted to run away as quickly as possible without even asking if we needed anything else. This happened every time she came back too, or I should say what few times she came back. My sub included peppers that I specifically asked to be left off. They were obvious, and an attentive waitress could have/would have noticed. I did as soon as she set it down, and mentioned it. No apology, not even an apologetic tone. She said that she must have hit the register key which added them by mistake, and that they would make me a new one as quickly as possible. No problem, those things happen, except that when she did bring it back it was with the original fries which were now cold. How nice. I don't know if that shows just gross incompetence or just outright contempt for your customers. Either way it says to me that they just don't care. She did check in once after bringing our food, with the obligatory question if everything was OK. Of course it was way too early and I hadn't even tried my entree yet, but just gave her a polite yes, rather than say what I really wanted to, which was that I don't know yet because you didn't give me enough time to try everything. She never checked back to see if we wanted a second drink, let alone a third. This is a common practice there in our experience. They missed out, because we were ready to order a second round. Her tip would have benefited from the extra charges too, duh, and by then she needed all the help she could get if she had any hope of recovering anything. Then we waited forever for her to come and bring the bill, which she never did. Oh, she was also the bartender, and that was obviously her priority. The place was not overly crowded, and neither has it been at other times when we've gotten inexcusably slow service. I finally ended up staring her down to get her attention when she did finally look over in our direction from the bar, and I hate to be that guy. I was one minute away from actually calling her over, and I really hate doing that. The final step was when she brought the bill. No thank you, no pleasantries of any sort, only instructions which mattered to her, about which receipt was hers and which was mine. She never even took off the charge for the peppers that I asked not to get. It was only a small amount, not even worth the aggravation of challenging it, and I was so pissed at being treated with such contempt that I just wanted get the hell out of there. We were going to order a pizza to take home, but there was no way that I was going to wait there any longer, and I certainly didn't want to reward them with even more business.
The other reviewers who talk about this being a local hang-out are right. Not that there's anything wrong with that, in some cases it can be kind of nice even for outsiders, but I should qualify that it is not just locals, but barfly locals. They actually seem friendlier than the staff, but in some cases that down home culture can be too familiar, and more than once we've had people not understand that certain boundary which separates friends from friendly strangers, and they linger uncomfortably long in the conversation or start to approach topics that are more reserved for those you know better, instead of just sports, weather and other benign small talk, when all you want to do is enjoy a meal with your family.
Those who say that this place has a lot of potential are right, but obviously they've been there long enough to be comfortable in getting by with whatever clientele and business that they have. The unusual game meats are nice. The alligators bites are to die for, kind of pricey for the quantity, but where else can you get alligator in New Hampshire? We often go there just for them. The mac-n-cheese is the best I've ever had too. The steak sub is way too small for the price, but good nonetheless. The pizza is good too. Despite all of that, I'm tired of getting treated like dirt and might not be back.