Bob L.
Yelp
Go for the great beer, but the food, eh. Was looking forward for awhile to try the food at this place, having had only their beers in the past. The menu looks good on paper but with the 3 food items we ordered, I can't vouch for what your experience may be, but it's worth a try. If our experience isn't something that concerns you at a restaurant, that's ok, but I'll review it as it was.
I'll begin with the starter, the pickle dip. To accompany the dip, the waitress offered kettle chips, pita bread or tortilla chips. We chose the kettle chips, and being that many items are made in-house, looked forward to that as our "dipper". When the pickle dip arrived, it was surrounded with commercially-produced ruffle-cut chips. After reminding our server that we chose the "kettle chips" with the order, she replied that "maybe" they were out of those, and just substituted the sub-par ruffles if that's all they good get. I have a couple problems with this. One, with an owner seemingly hands-on and according to other reviews always present, how do you just downgrade one of your starters that way, and at a minimum not make sure that servers are aware of this option so they can advise customers? Secondly, how does a server take an order where "kettle" chips were specified, then pick up that order from the kitchen which obviously doesn't have kettle chips, and you don't ask why? Next, instead of offering a replacement to the customer, just delivers it, and when questioned, just guesses why?
One of our entrees was a daily feature, Shepherd's Pie. It was described as having as its first ingredient bacon-wrapped leg of lamb. I didn't detect any bacon in the bottom of the crock-style bowl where the shredded meat was, and based on the kitchen having casually swapped an important element of the pickle dip starter prior, I can't even be sure that the shredded meat was in fact leg of lamb, and not beef. Also, having had Shepherd's Pie many times at other eateries, the ratio of the mashed potatoes on top was a little too generous.
The other item we ordered as an entree was the boneless chicken wings. They seemed to be as described, and were good.
Another personal peeve of mine that I've seen in other restaurants, raised its head here. When the check was delivered, printed on the bottom were calculated tip amounts, for your choice of 15%, 20%, 25%. The calculated amounts they chose to use were based on the check total, INCLUDING the sales tax. Tipping guidelines consistently state that whatever percentage you choose to tip, you traditionally calculate it on the subtotal, prior to sales tax. In the age of computers, it's very easy to program it the correct way, but intentionally or not, a fair number of establishments get that wrong.
I feel for what the restaurant business has gone through the past year, however I don't believe the missteps by management and waitstaff we experienced can be charged to today's climate for the industry.