Youngstown Eats: The Welshfield Inn

The Welshfield Inn has been in Burton, Ohio, for a long time. For those of you who rely on the Ohio Turnpike to get from Youngstown to Cleveland, you probably don’t know this place. But for those of us who take Route 422 to Cleveland, this is a “you are almost there” landmark located a short 30 miles west of Warren. The building has been there since the 1840’s, and has served as an overnight rest stop for travelers, then a restaurant facility, since it was built. It also served as a stop on the Underground Railroad. It reeks of history.

It has had many owners over the years, and as recently as 2 years ago was operating as an Italian restaurant. Then in 2007, it was purchased by the Gamekeepers Hospitality Group, which operates several facilities in Eastern Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, most notably The Gamekeepers Taverne in Chagrin Falls. For awhile, I was a Gamekeepers Taverne fan. It was one of our favorite Chagrin places to go. It was always pricey, but the food was unusual and well prepared. Then we had some bad experiences there, not so much with the food, but with the service and the attitude of the people running the place, and we stopped going.

But we were attracted to the Welshfield Inn facility simply because it is visually impressive. We stopped in there during its test run two years ago, and were impressed. Gamekeepers did an outstanding job in redoing the place, with a rustic main dining room, and medium sized bar in the back, and a visually stunning glass walled terrace type room off to the side surrounded by a garden, reminiscent of Tavern on the Green in New York. In full bloom, it is gorgeous. We wanted to go back, so we gave it a go last night. To be blunt, that will be seventy bucks I will never see again. It was a disappointment.

Let’s start with the check in. We had made reservations through Open Table Reservation Service, which is a nationwide computer reservation service serving just about all of the major white table cloth restaurants in the country. The Welshfield website links you to Open Table for online reservations. When we walked in, there was a shabbily dressed couple in front of us who were “walk ins”, and they were treated terrific, being offered several different places to sit. We were next, and the lady went through the computer bit, and then ushered us into a side dining room, with no one in it but us. I took a bath and everything. And there we sat. Not that it was an unattractive space, just the opposite. Very pretty… done in various shades of chocolate brown. But it was just, plain weird. Finally, another couple was brought into the room, and there we were. I should have asked to move, but this was the very same thing that drove us away from their other restaurant in Chagrin. They ought not to isolate patrons in what was spill over room, especially when there were empty tables in the main dining room and the bar.

But more disturbing was the food. The hook to this place is “Comfort Food”. Among its menu offerings were items like Mac and Cheese, Turkey dinner, Pot Roast…you get the picture. It also offers more sophisticated fare something akin to what it serves in its other establishments. But if you are a comfort food fan, like me, you will tend to try it. Big mistake. This place is not cheap. My turkey dinner was about $17.00, same for my wife’s Mac and Cheese, and the salads had to be ordered separately…in the $4.50 each range.

Let’s start with the salad. We ordered the small house chopped salad, consisting of chopped greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, served with a vinaigrette dressing. It was pretty bad. In fact, if there was some dressing on it, I didn’t taste it. Rolls were served with the salad. Word of advice to the restaurant…if you are going to feign serving sticky buns, make them good sticky buns. Better to serve some plain rolls than the dried up things that we got there last night. Not good at all.

Now for the entrees! If I am going to pay 17 bucks for a turkey dinner, I should get something more than what I can get at Perkins for $7.50. It was box stuffing, canned gravy, and not good. The plate came out very, very hot and steaming, with the center of the food room temp. That tells me it was placed on a plate and microwaved. My wife’s Mac and Cheese with chicken, also in the $17.00 range, looked good, but was dry. I mean really dry, and several pieces of the chicken were inedible. She had to take them out of her mouth and put them on the plate partially chewed.

In fairness to the place, the food that was not comfort food served to the other couple in the room looked very good. I think the guy had fillet medallions and the woman ordered shrimp scampi. But you know what? For the money and the effort to get there, I can name any number of places that are preferable to this place.

This is a beautiful facility. Too bad the experience didn’t match the setting.
My rating: 2 ½ meatballs.