Hard Hat Cafe

Another nice trip to Hardhat yesterday. We tried the wings and nachos this trip and thought both were very good. (Sliders lost a wing customer) They were GREAT! The nachos weren’t all soggy and greasy like they so often can be, also good stuff.
The burgers and fries were wonderful as usual and the service was excellent (better than last time).

One star is to much for this dump!!! Worst service. Worst atmosphere. Orders came out wrong brunt. Hard earned money wasted.

Hard Hat has the best wings in Wallingford. It’s the sister to a smaller restaurant that is based in North Haven. The Wallingford location is newer and brighter, but the cooks in North Haven are better.
It’s a great place to watch football on Sunday. There are a ton of TVs and its not overly packed with rambunctious fans.
When it comes to the wings, they have tons of flavors to choose from but I highly recommend trying the Doob Wings extra crispy.
Definitely check this place out!

The absolute best wings I have ever had. Just regular buffalo wings, they were better than J Tims (which was my favorite before)

Now, I’ve never been to the original Hard Hat location in North Haven, but I had heard enough to look forward to them moving into the old Sabbatical’s in Wallingford. They’ve got a better parking situation than Los Mariachis, the next block over, so I anticipate they’ll get a lot of traffic just from people frustrated by trying to find street parking.
I went on a Saturday night and was surprised at how dead it was. Granted, it was a beautiful mid-​summer night, so people were probably out having bonfires and such. However, this benefited me and my group, since this meant we had fewer people to compete with for service from our bartenders! We were able to chat them up and ask what the crowds are usually like and their opinions on the food and drink specials. Some people in my group had wings, one had a burger and fries, so I got to try both. I’m not really into wings, but my group gave them very positive reviews, and the burger was delicious.
Let’s hope they can find a way to get more people in to support the business and keep it around for a long time.

Went for beers and wings with a few old friends tonight. The beer flowed cheap and cold from the tap and their famous Doob wings were exceptional. Also had a philly cheese steak egg roll which was great as well. The bartendress was cute and efficient. The ball game was on and we all had great conversation due to music played at the perfect volume. Go here to imbibe and feast. Great Wallyworld joint.

Went there during their soft opening and the service was poor. Their menu was smaller than expected. My wife and I decided to give it another shot last night since they would have had time to work out the kinks. No such luck. The girls behind the bar were oblivious to us being there after we were served our beers. We had menus and were going to eat. We were done with our beers by the time they came back and asked if we were eating. Nope.

Absolutely just as good, if not better than the North Haven location. This location is brighter, feels cleaner (not that the originally isn’t, but it’s a bar shack at best) — and is really inviting more for food in comparison to its counterpart which invites you to drink more than eat.
Welcome addition to Wallingford, they seem to be holding their own to some local wing and beer Kings. Don’t come here looking for anything aside from incredibly well crafted wings, strong drinks and pub food. Their specials are surprisingly unique and I’m always pleasantly surprised by them.
My only gripe was the pricing in North Haven is different, and when I called for a pickup order and went to pick up I only brought in X amount of cash because that’s what the website said. My fault for not getting a total. I didn’t mention it when I was paying because it was only a few bucks more, but I did have to embarrassingly walk back to my car to get more money.
Overall — eat here, have some drinks, stay for the trivia they do and enjoy.

Third time there and we have had nothing but a great experience each time. OPENING week was not the smoothest but we had good apps (Doob, buffalo, spring rolls etc and drinks were timely and good size.
The second time was a great lunch of salads (Cobb, and chix ceasar and a Hard hat)
Tonight was two orders if wings one Honey and Doob… both excellent! A Hard hat burger and a American both cooked the way we wanted and were delush. Friends ordered the special which was filet and stuffed shrimp and looked great and tasted amazing. Great beer selections and guy playing guitar gives it great ambience. Have also ordered wings for take out. Always hot and tasty and plenty of celery and dips.
The bartenders should not chew (chomp) gum. Looks unprofessional behind the bar. And they need to wear clothes that fit them.

Staff gave me attitude because my order was took too long and I had too many questions. They were short staffed and she had her hands full I understand that but I was new and so was the rest of my party who most likely won’t be returning. The food was decent but compared to their other location it was awful. I’ll give it one more shot but my friends weren’t impressed after I hyped it up.

I live right behind this restaurant and was very excited about them having wings as I order every week. The first time I ordered the doobs and garlic parm wings. Doobs weren’t anything special but i loved the garlic parm wings. Since then I have ordered different types of wings quite a few different times and it’s always inconsistent. The garlic parm were nasty the next time we ordered and I also got wings that weren’t fully cooked! I was furious for wasting my money. And like the other Unilocaler, i ordered 2 dozen wings and all i got was 2 short sticks of celery. That’s right, 2! The staff wasn’t too helpful either so I have stopped going. I am really hoping the owner realizes these mistakes and I would give it another try.

Disappointing. We have been to the North Haven location several times and it was always good. The Wallingford location is new and needs to work out some bugs. The sever was run off her feet as they needed more staff. We ordered wings and entrees. For some reason, all of the food came out together. The wings were burned. A dozen wings came with only 2 pieces of celery and a small portion of blue cheese. My steak and cheese wrap was burned on the outside. The French fries are some kind of seasoned version. I would have preferred the plain, old type. The pickle that was supposed to come with the wrap and fries was missing. The Yuengling drafts were $ 5 each, a bit more than I expected. At Farrell’s Restaurant in Portland, CT they only charge $ 3. We may be willing to give the wallingford location another try, but only because we had enjoyed the North Haven location so much. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t return.
P. s. — the pictures of the wings (doobs) and fries posted for the North Haven location are much different from those we got in Wallingford. If my food looked like that I would have been happy.