I have to admit I had high hopes for Hurley’s American Grille in Horsham, PA. I was hoping for it to become the new hot spot in town and possibly a new place to become “regulars” at. With a casual atmosphere and being close to our home, it would have been perfect for that. Sadly, when my husband and I went out to eat there recently, it fell very short of our expectations.
I’m a very positive person and I hate to give a bad review, but I wouldn’t be doing my readers any justice if I wasn’t honest. As you may know from some of my previous posts, Food Network Chef Robert Irvine brought his TV show Restaurant Impossible to Horsham, PA back in May for a restaurant makeover and to give them a fresh new start. While you can change decor, you can’t change inherent personalities and behaviors. No matter how much advice you give, it is up to the owners and the staff to really make a difference if they want to be successful.
Patrick and I went out to eat at Hurley’s American Grille on a Friday night in July. It was two days before the Restaurant Impossible episode aired on TV. We figured we would beat some of the crowds by going before the restaurant got highly publicized. We didn’t have to wait for a table and we were seated immediately. However, we sat at our table for a good 10 minutes before someone even asked us what we wanted to drink!!!
Overall, service was slow and the food was average. Pat ordered a BBQ Chicken Wrap and I got the Chicken Florentine Pasta. There was nothing special about the food and I found myself wishing I had just cooked dinner at home that night. The restaurant should have taken Chef Robert Irvine’s advice and scaled down their menu to focus on making a few dishes really great. Instead, their menu was still pages long. To top it off, once we finished our meal and our table was cleared by a busboy, our waitress was nowhere to be seen! We waited another 10 minutes before we could even flag her down to ask for our check!
While the interior of the restaurant got a facelift by the Restaurant Impossible team, the dining room still seemed very dark and could use additional lighting. Another thing I noticed is that Hurley’s American Grille now has a website (which I don’t believe they had before). I initially thought that was a positive move (the main landing page of the site has a beautiful picture of a burger). However, jump on over to the page labeled “Random Pictures” and the food featured there looks downright scary!! Talk about turning people away! I’m not a professional photographer, but I could take better pictures than this!
Save yourself some time and disappointment and just keep on driving by this restaurant.
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