Deschutes Brewery Bend Public House — Restaurant in Bend

Pretty bummed about the service tonight. Now this was only my second time going here, I live in Eugene and don’t come out here often. But the first time I had been I had a great experience with great staff and great food. This time around I’m here with a friend who lives in Boise and has never been to bend before or done much in Oregon at all, but she knew the name Deschutes and asked if it was here. So I brought up that. This place existed and how great it was and how great the food was so we went. And I regret it. Upon arrival it isn’t very clear if you seat yourself or if the ladies at the “host stand” seat you, again not sure if it’s a host stand or a merch booth?? It would have helped if one of the three employees behind the counter did something other than stare at us, potentially ask how we’re doing, welcome us to the establishment, ask how many are in our party. Nope. Just stared blankly. We had to ask if we should seat ourselves. The one who ended up helping us had darker blond ish hair and is probably early mid 20s, nobody here has a name tag, I’d use the name if I could. But when she did she mumbled and didn’t seem to care if we ate there or not. Seemed to be an inconvenience to her to check the wait time. She said it was about 15 minutes. alright cool sounds good, waited maybe 10-15 and then we were seated in the bar. Next to people so drunk they couldn’t control the volume of their voice. I could barely talk to my friend after not seeing her for almost 2 years. Where I was confused is the table we were at was DIRECTLY next to a table that is open seating. So we had people coming in and out the whole time we were there being obnoxious just bar hopping. So I hope that sort of sets the scene for you, loud as hell, can’t talk to people due to others being inconsiderate, and we’re seated in the dingey dark bar. We sat maybe 10-15 min before our server(maybe 30s darker blonde hair, I think short beard, not a super tall guy, kinda seems nice) came over to take our order, he wanted to take food and drinks at once. That’s not what we wanted, we wanted to get drinks and appetizers then food, I don’t think that that’s asking too much. My friend ordered hers and I was between 3 beers so I asked the servers opinion and before I even finished saying what the second one was he was interrupting me and just kept saying yeah the first one yah that one yeah and didn’t really give any reason. Kinda ick honestly. We get our drinks after a bit, not too long of a wait, my friend got a Aperol spritz that was almost clear and had to ask for more aperol. Beer was good no complaints, just don’t interrupt people, I feel like that’s a pretty basic thing to do. Then we got our appetizer, buffalo wings. They brought us those and it was just a runner who brought em but they just brought that, no small plates, no napkins, no “is there anything else I can get you” just drop and run. I feel like if you have buffalo wings in one hand you have napkins in the other. You eatin em? You have a napkin. You making dinner and serving wings? Ya got napkins. So if you’re serving wings. Bring napkins. We had 1 wing left before our server came over and we were able to ask for napkins and a refill on our very empty drinks. So we just sat there for a few minutes with dirty hands waiting for him to bring us napkins like we were his baby birds waiting for their mom. Then dinner. DUN DUN DUNNNNN! I got the steak sandwich and I would have rather eaten dinty Moore. Before writing this I have the same thing to say as everyone else. Too much sauce, roll sucks, steak sucks. Fries were also undercooked in a rush to get them out. I used to work in a kitchen, they needed another like 45 seconds. The corners were. Starting to crisp but the rest was soggy. After accepting my poor life choices I realized I hadn’t seen our elusive waiter in a while. Turns out he had been talking to another table for a bit, and had thru the evening and I hadn’t seen because I had my back to him but the whole night when I was questioning where he was he was just...

They ID-ed us, a group of 6 people age 41-56. The 41 y.o. didn’t have her ID with her but had a picture of it on her phone. They refused to serve her alcohol saying, “it’s Oregon law to card ppl and you must have your physical ID with you”. The law states if a person appears 26 or younger than they must have their ID on them to be served alcohol. Otherwise you don’t need your ID to be served alcohol nowhere in Oregon except apparently in this restaurant. The manager was unwilling to hear that she was being rigid, our 41 y.o. friend does look younger than her age but not that much younger…. it was clear the manager did not understand the law.

Also- HIGHLY Disorganized staff. The hostess ignored us several times as we were walking around trying to find the right size table for our group to sit. When we found a table -without anyone’s assistance- a waitress came to tell us we are in the wrong area, the area that is for ppl who have reservations. We left that area and went to the bar area, deciding to squeeze in at a regular 4ppl table by the bar as there were plenty of those tables there (and we stopped by just for a beer). But, they needed to clean ONE table in the middle of that area so they asked us to step back and wait in their waiting area by their hostess who still did not bother to acknowledge us -other than seeming annoyed by us (it made us wonder whether it was her personality, or the culture of the whole staff, or it was our age or our accents that she didn’t find worthy of spending her time and energy) …whatever that is was not what we consider “customer service”

And then after that we were carded so we left. Which is a bummer because our friends were visiting from the east coast and wanted to taste the beers. Instead they got the taste of ridiculous, pointless, rigid Bend...

For years I’ve wanted to visit the home of the Fresh Squeezed IPA and the Black Butte Porter. I’d heard tales high and low about the infamous Deschutes Brewery. But alas, the tall tales and the urban legends did not live up to the hype.

Sometimes quality gets lost in the pursuit of expansion. I’m going off of a first impression here, mind you… and I’m approaching this review as if I hadn’t heard the name of the brewery before. Had I stumbled into this establishment without knowing who/what they were, I would’ve left the same review; its a rundown and somewhat dirty bar with a lackluster kitchen serving up an uninspired and stale menu. My steak sandwich was tolerable at best, overwhelmed by the horseradish, and embarrassed by that sorry excuse for a “house-baked hoagie.” Each successive bite was worst than the last as I attempted to save face in this brewery of my dreams. “Disappointed” doesn’t have enough syllables to sum up my disappointment. The steak was cut thin but it was chewy and cold, and there certainly wasn’t enough of it to justify the $21 price tag. I doubt the $3 bacon surcharge would’ve helped. And the fries? HEAVILY over salted/peppered. Like… my god, what did I do to offend you?

The only saving grace here was our server at the bar. The snooty staff at the front desk can shove right off. The overpriced merchandise, well, is overpriced. And the place could use a little maintenance given the national success Deschutes has seen.

I thought this would be a trip to craft beer mecca. I even saved it for the last day of my work trip, hoping it would be a highlight. It ended up being the same feeling as that feeling when I realized that my three decades as a Mormon was a complete...