Famous Dave's BBQ Pit Hidden Treasure

In our first review of hidden gems or overdue closures we decided to go to my hometown of New Britain Connecticut, and find out if the town sports anything famous or true to the stomach as I like to say. In our seach we realized that a new and a so called famous Dave's had been in town for a while but we just hadn't had any real interest in the plauged town because of its history. We stepped foot on a Sunday before Labor day and realized that there weren't that many people in the restaurant but the atmosphere was lively. There were cheers in the background and a humming of Happy Birthday sung uniquely to anything I've heard anywherelse. So we sat and began to see how fancy and common the lay out of the restaurant was for our convinience. We saw that the waiter was aware that it was our first time and made us feel like an old friend or neighbor which made us feel at home. A straight *** star for service the food and drinks were on time and the attentiveness of the staff to accomodate us was needed in an area that lacks that type of customer service.

The second observation of Famous Dave's was that in all it was an experience, their legendery fries were brought out and the server explained the three sauces that were on the table and gave a small amusing history to all of them which made the journey both unique and informative. I wasn't falling asleep because the server was too bored with his job nor were my guests. We tasted the fries with the different sauces and each of us picked our favorite and the fun and games began. We ordered the famous feast which was both resonable in price and amazing in its assortment and quality. The Saint Louis Ribs which were a part of the selection we had to wrestle over because of its taste and the award winning sauces that he had picked to add to our personal taste. The taste and quality of this service was a 3 star for its amazing taste and presentation.

We would definately recommend this gem to anyone who would ask which is one of your top rated restaurants in the New Englang area. It is a hidden jewel that needs to be discovered by everyone in the greater Hartford area. Many of my neighbors and friends have asked what is close to home and good to spend for a good quality meal. Ladies and Gents this is it " Famous Dave's is in our top Ten"

Fast Food Review Part 2

In our recent article about fast food establishments we rated fast food five different locations around the state of Connecticut. We determined that the customer service in all of the five areas were lacking efficient and effective customer service. It was a nightmare for some in the Hartford area who dealt with "angry mob-like characters who felt that they owned the establishment and fought with one of our raters. In other establishments in other cities we see that more than one rolled their eyes and even threw packets of condiments at their customers when they were asked politely. " In addition others rated the cleanliness of the establishment as nothing but a disaster. The quality wasn't as bad but wasn't anything to brag about. In my finally estimation i concluded that we get what we pay for and these establishment are in this state because we accept it by going back into them and paying for this type of service.

Since then we have received such a response for more reviews from our readers that we have decided to postpone the more quality based restaurants and again rate another four fast food establishments at five different locations around the state.

This time we picked Subway, Arby's, Taco Bell, and Starbucks. We rated the four from the cities of Enfield, Southington, Newington, and New Haven. We scored on the three star system based on food quality, restaurant cleanliness, and customer service. The results were silmilar in the areas of customer service but uniquely different in food quality.

First we looked at Subway restaurants and saw that all restaurants experienced average to high scores in food quality, "the subs tasted great all had fresh vegetables and very good variety for health minded persons." This restaurant scored a *** star for food quality and cleanliness which at this time tops the rest of of the restaurants that we have rated so far in these categories. The only downfall and maybe we have begun to see a pattern here is how low the score for customer service. In this area the restaurant scored a half of a star. "Very low to non-exsistant eye contact, had to budge her to make sure she was awake. I felt like i was bothering her for being in the restaurant at this hour."Newington,, "The whole time the manager was more intersted in a conversation about his personal life than me as a customer I almost left." New Haven. I was not asked what i wanted i think he said two words the whole time and just looked at me like we could read our minds ? are you kidding me? Enfield."

The second restaurant was Arby's and rated it overall a ** because the quality of the food was better than most. The meat was fresh, sauces were in order, and the food was not cold but points were taken away due the fact that one store almost sunk the rating for the whole chain because of hair in the sandwich. Hair nets maybe ? accidents do happen but lets prevent them. Its no different than a glove for the overall health of your employees and the public. Lets tell these women with long hair that its not acceptable to have it all over the place even if your wearing a cap it still lays on your back through the loop. In regards to clealiness the restaurant was also rated a ** because hair is just not a clean thing to have in your sandwich in your store etc etc. Why hasnt anyone beaten the customer service beast ? well maybe the next restaurant ? This one score a no star. The manager argued with me for the hair being in my sandwich I brought it back after taking two bites of the sandwich and was questioned as to why i brought it back after two bites. Does it matter how many bites ? its disgusting save your franchise the agony and have your company invest in customer service classes. Another restaurant the girl again rolled her eyes ? is this common in this state ? or are we ever going to ask for the manager to fix this massive eye problem in all these stores. Maybe get better eye coverage for your employees ? or maybe a free eye exam ? please tell me that this is not the trend for customer service in Connecticut. The other two stores had unpleasent encounters with our raters in almost the same types of scenarios.

The third hopefull was the taco bell brand which impressed nobody at all with their cleanliness it score a no star. "lettuce all over the floor, left over meat and garbage on the tables from other customers who also had enough it seemed. the soda machine had but just one working soda and the rest were flat. This was the same type of case in all four locations". The quality of the food was average nothing to brag about and nothing to report on and therefore the score was a one and a hald star.
The customer service portion of this store also scored a blah another no star what a surprise.
Here the customers in front of me were ignored for over 30 minutes, and I was made to wait a good 20. When one rater asked for a manager the representative just informed him that he had to wait and that there was nothing that manager was going to do about his wait. Well i am because i wrote to the corporate offices I hope they dont treat their mail the same way. I must say this forum makes me want to get all the fast food giants together and give them a pep talk on old southern customer service or something maybe a clue.

The fourth restaurant starbucks was a surprise to even me because i spent my days in college hanging out at this place doing my homework. Thats exactly the mistake that this franshise has shown. This is not a bookstore i know that most of these store are now inside of a borders for that reason but what a business mistake that is for someone who doesn't want to spend all day getting his coffee. Quality was ok it scored a ** star because on store did not have cream or milk refilled had to spend another 5 minutes in this annoying store waiting for college Joe to return from his midterm in the back. The cleanliness scored a ** star because there were areas in the set up your coffee area that were not clean in all four stores. The customer service scored a one star because it was annoying to hear stories upon stories of nothing from these reps is this a restuarant or a bar ? " Is he going to give me my coffee or is he going to keep talking to his co-worker about his hard day in class ? are you kidding me ? why me ?
I dont know about anyonelse who wants to feel this way when trying to get that hit of java ? and who wants to see customer upon customer with their labtops and spreedsheets taking a whole table to themselves that only leaves us with having to leave and not enjoy the wonderful pictures on the walls and the light music and give the non-worthy donut franchises another try.

Fast Food Review

Our first look at the area of Connecticut showed some suprising results for some high profiled fast food establishments. The four that we decided on were Mcdonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, and Dunkin Donuts. We will again rate on the basis of quality of the food, cleanliness of the restuarants and customer service of the staff in general.

1) This is a hard one to interpret but we posted reviews for the Mcdonalds restaurants from Norwich, Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, and Enfield. This gave a broad review of the geographic locations in the state to see if any would make a difference in order to be fair to the franchise. The results are as follows for overall quality a one star is issued *. For overall cleanliness a * is issued. For overall Customer Service a * is issued. Reports showed for all that the stores were not as clean as it should be during lunch and dinner hours. a) This indicater shows that all five stores across the state had a poor cleaning process for their restaurant. b) The quality of the food which also scored a one star all had problems with their food items. Two of the five raters had to return their item because more than one or more items were missing from their sandwich or the sandwich was no good in their estimation in regards to freshness. c) The customer service for all restaurants lacked what we would consider great customer service. In all restaurants employees talked to one another about their personal lives and didn't put much attention to the customer placing the order. Another interesting observation was that all the restaurants for this franchise showed this pattern in addition no smile as advertised by them nor what we may consider an attempt at quality customer service.

2) Burger King Franchise were also rated in the same locations to see if there is any difference in geographical location to any of the proposed reviews. a) For cleanliness the store was rated as a **. reports showed that all the stores were reasonably clean and only one in Bridgeport showed some signes of wear and tear. b) The quality of the food rated and amazing *** for all breakfast lunch and dinner. There were no complaints for any area rated and the food was on time. c) The Customer service aspect unfortunately was not up to par and only hit a half of a star. The customer service in each store showed that the cashiers and other personel did not make any eye contact with the customers, did not say thank you or would you like anythingelse with that. They also rolled their eyes in three of the stores when asked for extra condiments. In Hartford one employee refused to give more than one sauce for an order and argued with the customer. In Bridgeport one of the employees threw the ketchup packets on my tray. I was disgusted in Enfield the associate rolled her eyes three times at me when asking for more condiments.

3) Wendy's was suprisingly the best of the three in all three catergories but not what we consider the best. a) Cleanliness showed to be the best for this franchise and it scored a *** because as we noticed they have their own employee out there cleaning the tables and the floors constantly. Like the old days when the fast food industry picked up their own garbage they continue this practice and it shows how effective it is. Instead of having a tray and garbage with the words thank you like we are employees in these restaurants. You even get dirty looks from other customers when you don't decide to throw out their garbage. The fact of the matter is do you throw our your own garbage at any other establishment like chillis, hops, or well you get my point. They have us cleaning up their mess because they want to cut cost ? No bring back the employee who takes your tray when your down and throws out their garbage. Bravo Wendys.

b) quality- score * the food was ok although all of the stores and locations had problems with their sandwiches. One store added enough pickles on a sandwich to make relish, another location added a whole onion it seemed to my sandwich, and one store added barely enough condiments to my sandwich. I dont think that all these stores were having a bad day maybe some retraining or more support from supervisory staff would make this work right for this franchise.

c) Customer service scored a ** everyone looked at you and they werent into other conversations during service but nobody smiled but at least 4 of the stores gave a thank you at the end of the ordering process.

4)The dunkin donuts stores scored horribly in all three categories which made me write to corporate offices in regards to two incidents at their Hartford, and Norwich locations. Foroverall rating for this franchise is half of a star because 1) Cleanliness score half of a star because of stains on all tables napkins on the floors, bathrooms were very badly kept. In two of the stores the employees had powder on their shirts and stains. 2) quality half of a star 4 of the five stores donuts were not fresh. The coffee given in two of the stores tasted burnt and during an order of ice coffee about one cube of ice was added to the coffee. 3) There was no score for customer service since it did not score on this category. In Hartford one employee fought with one of our raters by giving dirty looks to the customer, whimpered profane words to the customer and got into a debate on how he could do whatever he wanted in his store. wow. This person is no longer employed thanks to us and in our efforts to strive for good quality customer service. This was an unfair indicator in rating all the locations so we tried another store in Hartford and saw the same affect take place so we concluded that certain areas in the geography of these establishments do have a considerable impact on customer service.

Our next rating will be more upscale and in five different locations in and around the state of Connecticut. We will examine again customer service, cleanliness, quality of food and see if they are any different than the fast food establishment and we will do a follow up and rate five more fast food establishments to see if anything has changed in this area.

Restaurant Rater: New England Restaurant Rater

Restaurant Rater: New England Restaurant Rater

New England Restaurant Rater

This page has been created because i feel that its important for all of us to know which restaurants are up to par and the ones who are excellent in their own right. We will use the three star method to evaluate and compare each restaurant respectively. It is important that companies in the food service industry comply with customer satisfaction, cleanliness, and great food quality. For someone of you the old burger is the new way of getting your quick urge to satisfy your hunger or maybe the diet freak inside you who wants to let others know what really is healthy or even the fancy taste that many of us might be able to afford every so often. In addition to my review "comments from those who read this blog are welcome" because we all experience different outcomes in our trips to this multi-billion dollar industry. Although I fear that we treat it like a dollar menu at times without interest or fan fare. I say lets stop this method of madness and increase our awareness for those who live in my state to those who live in other states with great eating establishment who are known or who may not be known for their signature dish or style.


The first portion of this blog will show fast food and the differences in taste, quality, and customer service. I personally will have 5-10 people venturing out and reporting on their experiences in these areas. This will allow both a demographic and culturally diverse playing field for our rating. This will show that maybe it doesnt matter where that burger establishment is located? or that it does make an impact on quality, service, and cleanliness depending on the locale or even the time of year. Stats will be posted as much as possible and new restaurants will be reviewed upon request from readers like you for us to establish a concensus on a new craze or a re-discovered famous place.

The second portion of this edition will include fancy to famous branded restaurants in the New England area. From highs to lows we will visit each and compare and contrast between what pizza might be like in New Haven vs New York city. Or maybe just visit a place because its talked about but not advertised as much. Lets give credit where its supposed to be given and let me be your free guide to a better meal.

A message to all establishments in the area good luck and let the games begin.

Stay tuned for our real world look and our first edition of this innovative new Raters Guide to Restaurants by yours truly Emiliano Arroyo Jr World renown Chef and writer.