Spaulding Steak Ale - Rochester

Very cool little bar in a cool building. The grounds are really nice too. Great service at the bar, cold beer, and good food.

This is such a hard review to write as the Spaulding Steak and Ale holds a special place in my heart growing up and as a place I used to work. However, now I feel like I am forced to write Dear John letter due to my most recent experience . Both myself and my husband came in at 4:30 on a Sunday (date of this review) and already the staff were not set up for success with the bar tender being the only server there as well as having an outdated POS system, that we were sitting in front of and witnessed the struggle, that glitched and made it difficult to put correct orders on correct tickets that slowed down production. The bartender, whose name I think is Cora, was a rockstar who did her best to keep it together and was the saving grace to our dining experience (that and an amazing espresso martini). However, what was the real nail in the coffin was the food quality we received in our dishes. Out of the two dishes we ordered the best part was the corn side dish I got on the side to my cold and anemic tacos (which were wrong as I ask for no cilantro but didn’t have the heart to add to the already stressful situation I was witnessing). My husband’s Spaulding Sampler was probably the most disappointing as we could have gotten a better sampling of dishes , for the same price, at the frozen section of the local grocery store. I would like to say this was our first negative experience here but then I would be a liar.In all honesty, the upper management and owners should be embarrassed by what they are producing and either need to really reconsider their business model or shut their doors. This truly feels like a death knell to a once great business and a place they once brought me so much joy. I do not think I will return and will no longer recommend it as a place to go in Rochester. It breaks my heart.

Ordered the steak tips and tacos. They were delicious. They had a friendly staff as well.

We went here before going to the Rochester Opera House to see the Christmas Carol. It was our first time eating here. The food was excellent. The service was very slow because there was a party going on in their function room and it took a while before we got our dinners. I would highly recommend but be sure there aren't any functions going on before you make reservations. Plenty of parking in the back and handicap accessible.

The worst dining experience we've ever had. Food was pretty good but still won't be going back. We had a reservation, it took 30 minutes before anyone came to our table so we put in food order at the same time as drinks. It took another 15 minutes for a few of the drinks to arrive, and 10 more minutes for the rest. It was literally an hour and a half before any food came out, and two meals were missing. These two meals arrived 20 minutes later as we packed up to go because we had tickets to an event. We had to take them to go in styrofoam, not the best way to eat a steak dinner. Several sides never arrived, the bill was screwed up, noting items we never ordered. The manager didn't seem to care at all when we asked why the long delays. No apology. I would have sworn we were on some TV show that punks people.