Thirty5 Bar & Grille

Closed. And just 2 days after ROTD!

Apparently this is the place to go when all the restaurants in both WHC and BBS have ridiculously long waiting lists. Now I know why. This place is super meh and belongs in Corbins Corner instead; the home of everything generic…
The menu reminded me of a Ruby Tuesday’s except they offered matzoh ball soup for $ 5. Jason M. and I shared a hummus appetizer, which unfortunately was the highlight of the visit. Yeah, a bowl of hummus. He ordered the pumpkin risotto. The portion was perfect for skinny girl celebrity Bethenny Frankel, but for normal appetite, it was bare bones NOTHING. Literally, a cup of risotto was spread on a flat plate for $ 13.
I made of the mistake of getting a Reuben with hand cut fries instead of an arugula salad with goat cheese. Considering I normally eat EVERYTHING on my plate, but I barely touched it and only completed the pickle.
Despite the food being ordinary, both the host and Adam Levine look-​a-​like-​sans-​tattoos waiter were very nice. I felt bad about writing a bad review on Thirty5 Bar & Grille because they were a relatively new business.
Jason and I planned on heading to Vinted for after dinner drinks. If we had known that we were going to have a mediocre time at Thirty5 Bar & Grille, we would have ordered small plates at Vinted instead.

One thing kept this from being a two-​star review… my entrée. Indeed, the Pumkpin and Squash Risotto was a very tasty dish. But even when it’s right, it’s a little bit wrong. The portion was no more than a cup of food total, made to look large by placing it on a long thin plate… I wasn’t fooled.
And everything is sadly downhill from there. While overtly bad food was never served, the rest of our meal was very average — boring fries, uninspired hummus, a decent-​enough Reuben sandwich… these ain’t gonna cut it when you’re smack in the middle of a major Connecticut restaurant scene.
Biggest criticism goes to the menu, which would probably be diagnosed with ADD if it went to see a psychiatrist. It’s a limited one, yet includes Matzoh Ball Soup, 10-​Veggie Lo Mein, Fried Chicken, the aforementioned Risotto, and tacos. Not trying to say that a menu must adhere to some sort of logical theme, but this one is just so discordant, it makes one wonder if they can actually make all of these things really well…
Given our experience, my guess is no.
Honorable mention to the owner and waiter, both of whom were very nice, and clearly worked hard to foster a good restaurant experience. But the product is just so run-​of-​the-​mill, I doubt we’ll be returning here soon. Jack of all trades, master of none.

Stopped in on a recent Saturday afternoon for a late lunch and had a very enjoyable meal in the bar area.
Unfortunately we were too late for the unlimited mimosa brunch — Boo! (10−2pm on Saturdays) but we were still able to order from the breakfast/​lunch menu. We were there between peak meal times but the restaurant still had a fair number of diners when we arrived.
The breakfast/​lunch menu is not very inspired but it has solid breakfast and lunch options available. Eggs, pancakes, sandwiches and salads line the menu. One item that stood out was the «build your own salad» option, which gives the diner the option to customize their salad. For someone (like myself) that always likes to add and subtract items from their salad, this was right up my alley. The size of the salad was generous and it was comfortably split between my dining partner and myself.
In addition to the salad, my husband ordered the pastrami sandwich and I ordered the shaved roast beef with peppers and onions. Both come with chips or house made coleslaw or the option of sweet potato fries for a bit extra. The turn around time for our food was relatively quick and as we waited we enjoyed a couple of the local brews on tap. I was impressed that of the 10 or so taps at least half of them were Connecticut brews — a definite plus in my book! I will say that for the price of our sandwiches — the portion size could have been a bit bigger, but our sandwiches flavorful although a bit messy to eat. We struggled through however! We also loved the sweet potato fries, which were hand cut, a rarity. They a unique flavoring which we were later told was Cinnamon — Yum!
All in all an enjoyable meal (3 stars for the food and 1 star for the brews) — we will definitely be back to try their dinner menu and some more of their brews on tap!

Came here for after work Happy Hour with my coworkers. We are always on the hunt for a place with a late Happy Hour. This one goes from 3:35 — 6:35, which works for us.
Most of the other places in West Hartford Center are absolutely packed during Happy hr, so it was nice to find this little gem of a place.
Ct draft beers were $ 3, there was alist of $ 4 appetizers, house wines and well drinks were ½ off. I have not earned my beer conniseur badge yet, so I was torn between two beers. The waiter was nice enoug to bring me samples of each to try. I ended up ordering both :)
The food was yummm. Our favorite was the loaded fries (handcut fries topped with cheese with salsa, dijon, sour cream and ketchup on the side). We also enjoyed the steak & cheese eggrolls, wood smoked chicken wings, hummus and the stone fried flat bread. (hmmm I guess we had just about everything on the menu lol).
There was only 1 waiter in the bar area, so the manager stepped in to lend a hand.
They were also very gracuious when it came time to pay and we asked to split the check on all 4 of our cards.
All in all a great experience. We will definitely be back!

This is a very nice place to sit and relax with a beer! I didn’t eat any of their food but DAMN did it look outstanding. I was eyeing a quesadilla to my right and a reuben to my left. The owner is super nice and gave a few people at the bar some samples of an IPA that he had a bottle of. He also gave us cherry lollypops, just like they do at the bank for little kids. Big plus.
Additionally, they have a few specials that I’d like to let everyone know about, because I got so excited when I read this:
1) $ 35 brunch for two on Saturdays. UNLIMITED MIMOSAS 10 – 2 pm. I need to come to this. I was talking yesterday afternoon about how I haven’t heard of any places that do many mimosa brunches in CT (I’ve only indulged myself in NYC…) and then I found out about this place last night! Two entrees, two sides, and unlimited mimosas, for $ 35. That is such a fabulous deal!
2) $ 2 local draft nights (and trivia) on Wednesdays. They have a pretty good selection of local beers (Ten Penny, City Steam, Back East, Hooker are what I remember distinctly). I’m also coming back for this.
The beer is also not expensive! $ 5 for a pint of City Steam Naughty Nurse, not bad! Right next to this place is Mcladdens, which I stopped going to (went only twice) because every time I was outraged at the prices of their pints.
Lollypops, samples of IPAs, unlimited mimosas, cheap-​as-​heck local draft nights! Count me in! Might be my new spot in WH center (also, didn’t get a pretentious vibe at all, which is a huge plus).

This place used to be Rueben’s deli until they had a fire and re-​opened as a bar. I was a little skeptical, but they’ve redone it nicely.
Our group was out celebrating a birthday party and came here after another West Hartford location was just too crowded. It was Friday, around midnight, and I must say I was relieved when we walked in and there was only a small crowd at the bar. It was a welcome sight after coming from a loud bar. We only ordered some basic drinks and beer, but their draft selection is pretty good… contains some local beers from nearby City Steam Brewery.
The mixed drinks are served in pint glasses… another nice change from most west hartford bars where drinks tend to be smaller. The prices were also GREAT. No $ 9 mixed drinks… everything was very reasonably priced. I think this is a much more «chill» type of bar. We ran into other friends that we know… kind of a relaxing, homey feel too it. No loud music, just a nice bar.
The other side of the place is a restaurant, which I will have to go back and try, but it was shut down at that time of night. I will defintely go back and try some of their food. If thats good too, it seems like a nice staple to fall back on if other places are too crowded!

Ah… my beloved Reuben’s is gone and replace with Thirty5. I really miss the old casual atmosphere and simple yummy food.
I get the feel the place is trying to be hip and cool and maybe I’m biased, I just miss the good ol’ comfort atmosphere. I think the décor looks good at first sight but it feels like it’s trying too hard.
We had brunch there today and they burnt my friend’s toast. She ended up just not eating it. We also got home fries with our meal and the home fries were OK at first taste but turned really really salty… none of finished our home fries.
Unfortunately to make matters worse, I had a conversation with the manager about the little drink tokens he gives out to customers… and instead of being nice and casual about it, he was snarky and rude. If you want customers to try your place and come back, you should not be rude to customers, any of them, especially ones that take the initiative to strike up conversations with you. How can I stand to come back after being so disrespected?

I want to like this place– i really do. Unfortunately, it’s not gonna happen.
I returned to this restaurant per the urging of the owner to give them another try. Most graciously, he wanted to treat me– that’s incredibly generous and i appreciated the offer. To keep it real, however, as well as objective and anonymous, i decided to 1) change my profile pic so i couldn’t be recognized, and 2) pay my own way.
As a girl on a budget, i was pleased to find myself there during happy hour. CT beers are $ 3, while the rest are discounted, as well as half price wines and well drinks. This is an incredible value. I got a tall (read: pint glass) vodka, soda, splash of cran for $ 3.50– probably the cheapest drink in all of wh center. If you come here just to do happy hour drinks, you are in good hands.
Now, let’s discuss the food:
Part of my strategy was to order the same items, to see if they improved. I ordered the ‘roasted’ hummus first. The texture was better than last time, not at all runny, but i didn’t detect any ‘roasted-‘ness. That said, it tasted freshly made, and the feta, red onion, tomato, and cucumber added oodles of flavor. Thank goodness because, without the toppings, there wasn’t much going on with the hummus itself. Pita chips were still good, but different than last time.
I also ordered the pretzel & pastrami smoked salmon. While the salmon was aggressively spiced with pastrami seasonings, the smoke was rather delicate. The trio of mustards (dijon, whole grain, and some sort of creamy mustard hybrid) were complimentary, but. where was the pretzel? I mean, this was smoked salmon on micro greens, served with 3 different mustards and a citrus butter (?). No pretzel here, friends. Unfortunately, the citrus ‘butter’ (butter? cream cheese? I really have no idea) was wayyy too rich to be paired with the salmon. The bed of micro greens was naked, but would have been much more successful if they were dressed with even just oil and vinegar. They definitely needed seasoning.
Next i got the ‘sticks, twigs, and jars.’ This appetizer is billed as artisan bread and everything breadsticks, served with eggplant, burratta, and tomato. Let me break it down for you: this appetizer is actually served with strips of marble rye and sourdough slices, and plain breadsticks, accompanied by too-​sweet-​tomatoes, NOT eggplant, and the best burratta ever. I was truly confused when i received this plate and tasted the accompaniments. I have no idea what replaced my eggplant, but i know others received a blueberry compote of sorts. In fact, it was only after my fellow patron’s comment that i realized i wasn’t crazy, and had not been eating eggplant. Like everything else, i wanted to like this app, but it doesn’t deliver what’s promised. The breadsticks were served in a shotglass of olive oil, clearly infused with mustard, which had a great bite. Here’s the problem: no balance. The cheese was amazing, but the tomatoes and… whatever the other spread was, were far too sweet to be rescued by the assertion of the olive oil. That other patron? She got toast with hers. Her friend requested bagel chips, which she got in spades. They looked great, but were not offered to me as an option. I’m sorry, but 3 different customers who order the same dish should not receive 3 different variations, unless its billed as something seasonal, or the chef’s offering. At least that way you’re not expecting something specific.
I also ordered wings, in the interest of checking up on what I’d had before. The good news is that i could actually taste the smoke this time. The bad news? They were improperly trimmed (restaurant felony) and still served with bleu cheese. As previously stated, the menu says the wings are served with ranch. To have not corrected this in a month’s time is a little puzzling. In fact, not only were these wings (which took about 20 min, i might add– pretty sure my bartender forgot to ring them in) served with bleu cheese dressing, they were also served with a small wedge of one of the (apparently) top 5 bleu cheeses in the world… a bleu cheese aged in ash in a cave in Vermont. Now, forgive me, but– why would anyone garnish a $ 4 app, with a (probably) $ 4 piece of cheese, that isn’t even on the menu?
I’m sorry, Thirty5, like i said– i want to like you. But the consistent discrepancy between menu and food, as well as the lack of execution with the food itself, is just too much for me. In the Center, my money is better spent elsewhere.
P. s. the lock on the women’s restroom? Fixed. At least you can take comfort in that…