Lord Hardwicke’s

One of my dad’s favorites from childhood, I’ve eaten a few times at Lord Hardwicke’s so that he can relive younger days. The inside looks like it hasn’t changed since the 1970s, but I actually kind of appreciate that. They’re going for the pub vibe, and honestly, having lived in England, most pubs over there don’t look any more updated. From what I’ve experienced, it’s typically pretty empty.
The food itself is okay – nothing to write home about. It’s basically diner food. Like any American «pub» they serve food well beyond traditional pub food. Everything I’ve eaten there has been fine. In a town with such amazing restaurants, however, it might be wise to skip over Lord Hardwicke’s and go somewhere else. That being said, it is a Charlottesville institution.

This is one of my family’s go-​to restaurants when we all go out to eat, and there are only a few places that please my grandparents, so that is really saying something. Last time I went there, the fries were cooked to perfection, each one perfectly crunchy. All of their fried food is the best, and they have onion rings, mozzarella sticks, fried mushrooms, etc. This is the place to go if you want a nice variety of good, cheap food.
Between myself and my family and girlfriend, we have to have tried pretty much everything on the menu, and for the most part, this is food that we enjoy so much that we come back (and take the food to-​go). This is the reason why this restaurant has four stars in my mind, because although the service is a little unsettling, the food comes out in an incredibly timely manner, and it is worth it to eat it all. This is what you are paying for, after all.
The one thing that I should note that is always a little odd is the service. They all seem out of it in their own way, and if they are not out of it, they are definitely a different crowd. It almost makes you feel uncertain as to whether or not your meal will go alright, but in the end everything works out. I have heard former employees (who I now work with) say that the kitchen is disgusting, and I would like to leave those rumors as rumors and not find out for myself.

I can’t say much good about this place — and I really wanted to. One member of our party had heard their corn fritters were great so we tried. The appetizers were tasty and the salads were good. The service was horrible, unfriendly and took several smoke breaks — smelled after each. We also were told «we’re under staffed» as an excuse for waiting 13 minutes upon arrival to have the drink order taken. It’s diner like food in a dusty setting that just feels like it needs a good scrubbing down. Our entrees were cold upon arrival after dying in the window waiting to be brought to the table. The well done burger was served rare — had it been a steak I get it, but ground beef rare is just gross. After we made several attempts to let staff know we began getting sneers and comments from all servers as they walked past.
The bartender was good — I can say that. But the wait staff which doubles as front of house were sloppy and not personable.
There’s too many good places to eat in this town that don’t taste like a greasy spoon to have to suffer at this location.

The restaurant was pretty empty and we had a group of about 10. They told us 30 minutes with no explanation. After waiting and asking a number of times they finally said they were short staffed and we should probably go somewhere else. I understand that people don’t show up for work sometimes but they handled the whole thing very poorly.

I have eaten here many times, always excellent food! Everything is homemade, try their cheesecake better than Cheesecake Factory! All their fried chicken is freshly battered and fried and their prices are cheap. Cheaper than Burger King! Try the chicken BLT croissant, the croissant is homemade and chicken is amazing big servings just amazing. I even tried their chicken nuggets pieces of chicken breast or tenders that were freshly fried.

I’m not understanding the hate for this location — I mean the food isn’t terribly good and the menu is confusing, but it’s still a neat diner-​ish place in Charlottesville.
My girlfriend and I came here because, honestly, the name made us laugh. We arrived for dinner and found that the place was mostly empty. We were promptly seated and began looking through the menu. The menu is all over the place — it has British food (Fish and Chips), along with more American fare (burgers and fries), and some others (Po’ boys, Gyros, Rachel). Ignoring the fact this place markets itself as British, we ordered the Po’ Boy and a pitcher of a light British sounding beer (that was dirt cheap). The Po’ boys were unremarkable — a little bland, with the lettuce and tomato tasting a bit old. The worst part was the bread, which was flakey and a bit chewy. The beer was good (tasted like Miller Lite) and arrived in a glass pitcher.
The food wasn’t terrible, and the prices were cheap. The service was prompt and I have no major complaints. It was just okay, and I wouldn’t mind going back at some point to see if it has gotten any better.

Great restaurant with a variety of items on the menu! Very rustic interior and the staff is very nice and polite. Great service !!!

Actually, contrary to other reviews, we enjoyed the food/​service on a recent visit.
In search of an early dinner (around 4:00 p.m.), we were waited on promptly. The fried clam dinner was quite good — served piping hot.
The home style meatloaf dinner was as good as any — extremely well-​seasoned with lots of chopped onions which a meatloaf needs so as not to be bland.
Maybe other diners weren’t in search of «comfort» food. Ours definitely was delicious and well-​priced.

Although it was dinner time, i thought it was closed. Went in expecting a pub. What I found was an empty restaurant except for two people at the bar. The bartender had her infant in her arms and the bassinet on a counter behind the bar. I was immediately off put but wanted to be fair (wish I had looked at the reviews first). Ordered some onion rings to go. They tasted ok, but had the consistency of fried items that were «re-​warmed» by putting them in the cooker again. Worst pub experience ever. How is this place even making enough to keep the lights on? We need a zero stars options for places like this. Actually I tink they owe ME stars for dinning there.

Interesting place. Looks like it might be expensive from the outside, but has good prices and low end décor. Confused by the 50’s music… Wait staff nice, appetizer (corn fritters) were not great, but had a Reuben which was pretty good. All good came out piping hot. Would come back again maybe, but not overly impressed overall.

Six of us dined at this restaurant this evening. Upon arriving and being led to our seats, it was 10 – 15 minutes before the waitress came over to the table. She apologized for the delay, and took our drink order. She delivered our drinks promptly enough, and took our food order.
It was approximately 30 minutes before we received our appetizers. My wife’s salad was delivered at this time, despite her having requested it as an entrée. Additionally, it had the wrong dressing.
It then took approximately another 15 – 20 minutes until we received our entrées. No explanation or apology was offered for the delay.
Even after waiting all that time, we still had to remind the waitress to bring several previously-​requested items, such as tarter sauce.
Given the delay in receiving our food, it was unsurprising to find that my steak sandwich and fries were not hot. Although I probably would not have bothered mentioning it to the waitress, I never had the chance: she never followed up to see if everything was okay.
My steak was cooked medium, as I requested it, and it was a decent portion. Other than that, it was uninspired and somewhat bland.
My wife’s shrimp was tasty and plentiful, and she described her salad as «fine.» Our dining companions seemed to enjoy their entrées, but the corn fritter appetizer got mixed reviews.
Even if the food quality had been substantially better, it would not have provided sufficient incentive to offset the abysmal service to get any of us to consider returning.

My family ate at Lord Hardwicks on a Sunday at 6pm. I was nervous because there were only a couple other people there, but we tried it anyway. We ordered a 12″ cheese pizza for my 3 toddlers to share. My husband got a burger and I got a crabcake sandwich. The crabcake was pretty good, although I suspect it was from frozen. They have a very large menu so I assume with so many choices to offer that a lot is frozen. I would prefer a smaller menu with all fresh items. My husband enjoyed his burger ok but he did say it was rather greasy. My kids enjoyed their pizza, it was very cheesy and I took a bite, it was tasty albeit a bit on the greasy side itself. Overall we had an ok experience as the food wasn’t terrible (it wasn’t particularly good either) and the waitress couldn’t have been more sweet. We are new to the area so I wanted to check it out, and am glad I did just for the sake of it, but we will never go back. The prices were on the high side for what wasn’t good food. Also the atmosphere left a lot to be desired. It was very dark with weird, very outdated decorations, including a window of plants which just looked dirty, and they played annoying oldies music that didn’t go with the «ambiance» at all. It just seemed dirty inside, too. I would hate to see the kitchen. I wonder what Gordon Ramsey would do with that place on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares! Oh I almost forgot, when we sat down, there was a (live) stinkbug on the table, gross! We ending up spending $ 38 (not including tip) and like I said, that is a lot for what wasn’t very good food. Won’t be back and I won’t be recommending it to anyone. The «Cook-​Out» restaurant next door was stopping traffic with an endless line of drive-​through customers though, we should have gone there!
P. S. I checked that this was not good for kids only because the kids menu was REALLY expensive!!! A grilled cheese sandwich was SIX dollars! It was cheaper to buy them a pizza to share (which gave me leftovers for my lunch tomorrow) than it was to get them all a kids meal.
Edited to add: If I had read the previous review from the person stating the manager from Lord Hardwicks almost towed their car, I would NOT have gone there and gave them my hard earned money. I did notice the TONS of pink signs everywhere in the parking lot about the towing, however I just assumed it was for anyone who was a customer at either of those restaurants (which seemingly do share a lot) and that they were targeting UVA students/​visitos or people going to the arena down the street who may sometimes use lots they shouldn’t. Now I know that the manager of LH probably has put all those signs up in anger and jealousy because Cook-​Out customers are taking over the place because their food is out of this world! I ate there once and have wanted to take my husband back. Its VERY cheap and the food is outstanding and sounds like they have a great manager too.

First things first: this is not a British pub and the beer selection sucks! The food is mediocre at best and my table was sticky and gross. The service did not make up for my experience. I could hear the staff yelling and cursing at each other as I ate. I am thoroughly unimpressed.

Went in expecting at least an attempt at a British-​style pub, was sadly let down. One look at the miserable draft beer selection and I was back out the door.

This is another place that gives you huge portions to make up for the mediocre taste. The place to go to feed hungry people on a budget, but not if they have a discerning palate.

Food is awesome, wait staff is a little inept…

Absolutley horrible. If this place goes under, it’s because the restaurant is not really trying to make good food for its customers. The beer and wine selection is fine, but it shows that the effort is not there.

I went to Lord Hardwickes thinking it would be the same as the Ruckersville location. WRONG!!! The Reuben sandwich was a blob of fatty grease, and the French Onion Soup was mostly stale croutons and salt. Maybe the other menu items are stellar. I’m not going to find out.

No, it is not authentic British food… but WHO CARES, THEY HAVE CORN NUGGETS! They make them fresh in their kitchen and they are amazing. My best bud and I have been known to call in an order just because we know we are driving by. The rest of the food is great too… free wifi (good connection too)…just a nice and comfortable place to be.

What a joke of a place. From the outside you’d think that Lord Hardwicke’s was an authentic British Pub. As soon as I saw the sign I thought for sure I could get some savory shepherd’s pie. Sadly though, the only dish they had to live up to their British name and exterior was fish and chips. I seem to recall them having a semi-​decent/​unique beer list but the food was pretty much akin to typical american chain-​restaurants. Nothing special at all. Corn-​fritters were pretty tasty though!