rack & helens bar and grill

rack and helen’s is a family owned bar/restaurant in new haven with upscalebarfood and one of the nicer dining establishments in the town, which is probably why it is a good idea to get reservations if you plan on going as it can fill up and have long wait times. if you prefer more of a dining experience than abarone, best to go before 8 pm as the lights get dimmer and they start to set up for any promotional events, like karaoke on thursdays after 9 pm and sometimes bands on the weekends.

they also catered food and it was a huge hit at the event i attended with the star being the pulled pork sandwiches. they have banquet room upstairs that can be rented.

the menu and look is a little like an applebee’s, but on steriods when it comes to televisions as there were over a dozen. it has hardwoord and sort of an l shaped layout with thebarand kitchen on the out edge of the l shape. they have a full servicebarand serve appetizers, burgers, grinders, pizza, sandwiches, sausage rolls, some dinner offerings, and a few salad and soup offerings. one thing not on the menu though is dessert.

not worth the price. used to be a little hole in the wall where you could get a good meal at a decent price. then they built a new, expanded place and went all upscale. that is fine, but they jacked up the prices to make the mortgage payments. i ordered a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a coke and it cost me over $12! the waiter explained that the bacon was extra, the cheese was extra, the tomatoes were extra..... this isbarfood, not fine dining. wow! never went back.

not your averagebarfood. nachos, tater tots, french fries, wings, and everything else we tried were excellent.

...it is morebarthan restaurant and is smoking establishment and the smell of stale cigarettes permeated the air. we were told it would be a 20 mintue wait for a table, but as had trouble breathing shortly after entering we decide to leave.

nice facility, good service.. we arrived early afternoon for a saturday lunch. we were greated immediately and were seated in the spaciousbararea. there only a few other patrons in the bar. there were five in our group with four of us ordering the pizza roll while the fifth member of our group ordered the stromboli. the portions were large and generous with high quality ingredients. our server, along with the apparent owner, ensured our glasses were always full. the facility was clean and tidy. the facility does allow smoking which would be about the only downfall of the establishment. the facility did not have that "stale cigarette smoke" odor which is characteristic of smoking restaurants but this was probably more a function of so few guests at the time of our visit. one fellow guest, a few tables away,did start to chain smoke cigarettes but she eventually left. overall, a nice facility with good food and good service. my only suggestion would be for management to bring the facility up to modern times and to ban smoking.

great food and outstanding servers. we go at lunch to avoid the smoke and they have the best lunch servers in the area. food is always exceptionally good, always hot and fresh. service is the best in town,barnone!!! everybarneeds to adopt their philosophy on waiting tables. you don't know who will take your order, bring your food or refill your drink. it just gets done in a friendly and efficient way. awesome place to eat!