Hub and Spoke Diner

Reviews 4

MI

Michelle May Ledezma

Whoever writes copy for Hub and Spoke should get a raise. Everything sounded so delicious, before we ate we were already planning what we would get on our next visit. All of the food was very one-note. We ate family style so we tried the Kentucky Hot Brown, Shrimp and Grits, Crab Salad Eggs Benedict, and the Pound Cake French Toast. There wasnt excitement to any of the dishes, each had one tone and when you get so little food for the price, you expect to have more of those special ingredients and spices that would make each dish special. The pictures online were also deceiving, none of our dishes had that much avocado. We had maybe two slices on the dishes that came with avocado. The Kentucky Hot Brown was actually my favorite of what we tried. It tasted homey and was definitely what I would call comfort food. It just also tasted like something I could get the same quality and better portion of at a diner (and almost the same presentation). The Shrimp and Grits were tasty, but there wasnt enough sausage and shrimp to share, and the grits themselves were underwhelming and a little boring. With the Crab Salad Eggs Benedict I didnt get enough of it to write much of a review. It was awkward to eat on the pancake. I would have preferred a nicely toasted english muffin. The potatoes were good, there wasnt anything really special about them. The Pound Cake French Toast was yummy, but it does say its lemon pound cake and there was not enough lemon to really bring the brightness it needed. I enjoyed the texture of the pound cake as french toast, though. We got a Dirty Chai milkshake, which while the flavor was really great, it felt like the drink to whipped cream ratio was way off, it seemed to be about 1/3 whipped cream, in a fairly small glass, and it wasnt very cold so $6 for maybe a cup and a half of milkshake is not ideal. Finally the service was not great, if you dont know what other reviewer I went with, you will now, the waitress brought the hot sauce after my husband was done with his meal, she brought us our extra straw after we were done with the milkshake, and at the end with the check, there was definitely some unappreciated sass. At the end of the meal we all agreed we would not be visiting a second time, theres so much to try in SLC, and with the price points, the forgettable food, and the unfriendly service, Hub and Spoke isnt somewhere Id try again. Quality: 3/5 stars Quantity: 2/5 stars Service: 3/5 stars

TY

Tyler Whited

I came for the Sunday brunch with my girlfriend and some of our friends. The wait was long (30 minutes, which is what the Host told us), but that is normal for Brunch in the SLC area. What isnt normal is for it to happen when a restaurant is fully-staffed and not busy. The menu was difficult to read. It was crowded and the subtext was in a cursive font that may look nice on a postcard but has no place on something that conveys information. The food titles and descriptions overflowed into the price column making it hard to tell the cost of each item. Reading the brunch menu felt like a chore and made my eyes sore. The decor was confused and inconsistent. On the back wall was a photo wallpaper of deer in a meadow and spread about the restaurant were small taxidermied mammals and detached buck-horns. However the light fixtures, furniture, and wall decorations were trendy and modern. A barstool counter straddled the kitchen and red/yellow ketchup/mustard containers decorated each table. I couldnt figure out if I was in a podunk honky tonk bar, upscale hipster restaurant, or a tacky ditch diner in the midwest. The ambiance was average. The space was large, open, and well-lit. The restaurant reached high levels of conversational loudness. I ordered the Kentucky Hot Brown, Bloody Mary, and coffee. The coffee was good. The Bloody Marys were meager and watery. They tasted strongly of tomato base and were otherwise spiceless and bland. Two of my dining mates had them and gave up after a taste. After (thankfully) finishing my companions cocktails our food arrived. We waited half an hour; rare among other brunch experiences in the area. As soon as our waiter seated us he asked if we wanted any hot sauce, for which I was grateful. The Kentucky Hot Brown was bland. The only flavor was bacon with a subtle hint of boiled turkey. The swiss cheese, béchamel sauce, avocado, and sourdough had no flavor. I had to drown the dish in Cholula for it to be palatable. My girlfriend got the curry soup, which she took two spoonfuls of before handing it to me to finish. While the soup tasted strongly of cumin I dont think it contained any curry powder. There was no spice and the dish was bland and flavorless. This restaurant caters to the creamy, bland palate common to the average Utahn. If youre looking for a crafted, flavorful food experience (or an above-average breakfast), look elsewhere.

BR

Bridget T

I chose 3 stars because I have strongly opposed opinions of my experience at Hub & Spoke.In short, the food is delicious and the service borders on terrible. The staff seem to be untrained and unsupervised by anyone with an understanding of how to run the front of the house. I went twice and had similar experiences each time. I went for lunch on a Saturday by myself and was seated after 5 minutes of waiting for at the unattended hostess booth. The restaurant was nearly empty, so its unclear why a hostess was absent. Once I was seated the waitress came and handed me the menu and quite literally immediately asked me if I knew what I wanted to eat before I had even opened the menu. I did know what I wanted (from looking at the menu online beforehand) and so I ordered the hub burger with fries as well as a side house salad. I asked what came on the burger and the waitress incorrectly told me it came with tomatoes and onion. The food arrived within a half hour and it was amazingly delicious. The side house salad was fresh and generous with blueberries. The burger was divine, and the fries were a perfect range of crispy to soft. The burger however did not have tomatoes and onions (it is not supposed to, as I learned later) and I waited for maybe 15 minutes for my server to come back so I could ask her about it. She never came to check on me once, until long after I had given in and finished my meal. She didnt even ask if the food was good, simply handed me the check and walked away. When she collected the check I mentioned it to her and she brushed it off as having remembered the burger wrong. The second time I went in around 8pm for some fries and a shake, this time with a friend. We were seated quickly and it was quite busy this time. Again our server asked us almost immediately what we would order, and we asked for more time. After placing our order and waiting a half hour the fries and salad and beer came. The milkshake never arrived and after another half hour our waiter did check on us and asked if the milkshake had come. After that it took another 15 minutes for the milkshake. It was supremely delicious (the grasshopper, non-alcoholic) and perfect with the fries.

ED

Edwin May

Felt a little let down. The food tastes good, but I feel like for the price:portion ratio the food deserved a little more time spent in preparation. The Kentucky Brown sounded delicious, with smoked turkey and bacon and avocado... And it tasted good. But the turkey was underneath the bechamel and it was soaked and lost. Aside from the meatiness of the bacon, the rest of the dish was just kind of a mush. Tasty, but it deserved better. The Crab Benedict was another tough one. It was served on a flapjack, which seems creative at first but while eating it feels more like an improvisation. Just dont feel like it worked all that well. The biggest disappointment was the shake. Got a dirty chai boozy shake. It wasnt even really cold, let alone a shake. There was no remaining icyness -- it was just a super thick drink. It felt like theyd left it out for a half hour before bringing it to the table. For a $9 shake I was pretty disappointed. The Mimosa was good. The place gets 3 stars because it tasted good, but for the cost thats probably still being a bit generous. Finally, felt let down by the service. She offered hot sauce, then didnt bring it til we were nearly done with our food. Couple shared a shake, it came out with one straw. She said shed bring a second straw, and it came out after theyd finished the shake. But the biggest disappointment was at the end when going over the check. My shake was listed twice on the receipt, so we asked her if we were charged twice. Her response? "I didnt charge you twice. If I had, I would have brought you two." Um, ok, snark much? Mistakes happen, not like we were accusing her of double charging us intentionally. Ive attached a pic of my plate (went with a group and ate family style, so dont take this as an example of their presentation).