Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Molly's in Hanover not worth the wait

Located in the Upper Valley close to the Vermont border, Hanover is home to Dartmouth College, the smallest of the Ivy League schools. The green is in the heart of the campus which is truly a beautiful setting for the lucky students who call this community home.


It had been a long while since our last trip to Hanover and my wife and I had been meaning to visit again but life seemed to get in the way each time we planned to venture there. However, we decided on a whim to go this past weekend. So, as we excited off route 89, my wife notices much traffic - more so than one would think would be heading into this small town. As we approach the downtown area, we see people milling about much more than a typical Friday night. Instead of looking for on-street parking we found a public parking lot and headed to find a place to eat dinner.

Once we hit Main Street, we knew this was probably not the best time to visit as we quickly learned that it was homecoming weekend at Dartmouth! Have no fear - the irony was not lost on us . Since we made the hour drive from home, we decided that we would join in the madness that was this annual event and headed to a restaurant named Molly’s.

We normally would’ve walked around and looked at a variety of menu options to make the best decision on where to eat dinner. However, seeing the lines that had formed at the restaurants, we decided to give Molly's a try. When I checked in with the hostess I was told 30-40 minutes. Knowing that my wife wasn’t blessed with much patience, I decided that was a fair wait given how busy they were. We headed for the bar and had a couple of libations to people watch and pass the time. I knew I was in trouble when my wife started getting antsy. At the hour mark of our arrival, I thought her head was going to spin off her shoulders. She tried to make nice with the hostess but to no avail. Another 25 minutes passed before our table was ready. In hindsight, we should’ve eaten at the bar but truly thought we’d be seated before long.

It took a few minutes before our waiter arrived to take our drink order and to bring some bread and butter which was tasty. We settled on an appetizer of boneless Buffalo wings which were pretty good. Since we had so much time to sit around and observe the multitude of menu offerings being brought past us in the bar, we knew what we wanted to order. I chose the meatloaf:



The combination of grilled meatloaf, Guinness gravy and onion rings went well together. This was served with roasted red potatoes.

My wife selected the fish tacos.


She wasn’t a fan of the tacos. With two very small pieces of fried haddock in the flour tortillas it wasn’t anything spectacular. Even after adding the chipotle cream sauce they were just ok.


Prior to us being seated, I noticed the manager walking around and helping out the wait staff. I must admit that I was a bit annoyed that he suddenly disappeared and wasn’t to be found. It’s probably a good thing he hid as I know my beloved was about to give him an earful! We completely understand that this must be one of their busiest nights of the year. What we can’t understand is how 30-40 minutes turned into almost 3 times the wait. While the food was average, I cannot say that I would wait even 10 minutes in the future. The whole experience soured us on the restaurant. Molly's Restaurant & Bar on Urbanspoon