Batson River Brewing & Distilling - Biddeford — Restaurant in Biddeford

(This is from a email I sent 9/30/24 but never heard back about my experience so I figured they didn’t care enough about it. So I’ll post it here to let the public know since the company likely doesn’t want to do anything to make this situation right.) Today was my first, and safe to say last, visit at your restaurant in Biddeford. My fiancé and I arrived right before 2pm and waited at the host stand for about 5 minutes without being greeted. I wandered off to wash my hands and when I came back, the host had just begun seating my fiancé. I’d like to point out that at this moment there was only 2 other tables in the establishment and no guests at the bar.

He and I chatted and looked over the menu before we were greeted several minutes later. At this time we each put in a cocktail and an appetizer. I understand these are craft cocktails and they typically take a little time to build but the time it took for them to be made, or perhaps just delivered, was far too long. At this point we put in our entrees. The appetizer took quite a while before it came out. And while it was good (we ordered the poutine) it wasn’t hot and overall lacked pork and cheese. When our entrees arrived (small Caesar, wings, and a smash burger) they were delivered by a different person and our server checked in once during the time we were eating the entrees. Keep in mind she hadn’t been back since dropping our appetizer at our table. It’s frustrating to me when we started eating to find that the wings weren’t hot, which you’d expect from something that one might assume came straight from the fryer. However the fries with his burger weren’t hot either.

Our cocktails were long empty and we were starting to get a little annoyed. My fiancé had wanted a beer and I was hoping to try a second cocktail. We could see our server at the host stand talking with another staff member. She didn’t even glance in our direction. The other 2 tables had since left and the tables sat dirty. I emphasize this small detail because that means she was not actively working or being busy with something that might’ve held her up from checking in on her, now, one and only table.

I needed a box and my fiancé and I just sat at our tables, necks craned back to watch her continue her conversation up front. Another service member walked past us and I stopped her and requested she find our server. Only after this request did our server check back in, due to her being fetched by her coworker. We paid, I tipped 20%, and left.

Her name was Julia R, per the receipt. I am not a person who usually complains about service in a restaurant. I work in a bar myself. But I was so over everything about being at your establishment because the server was so negligent. The cocktails were the best part of our visit. Had our server checked in, we could’ve told her the food wasn’t hot and she could’ve fixed it. Had our server checked in we could have ordered a second drink.

Your restaurant is absolutely beautiful. But this was such a terrible experience that I can’t think of a reason to come back. I can get good cocktails for 1/2 the cost up the road at Run of the Mill. If I want craft cocktails I can go into Portland to some of our favorite spots and receive beautiful drinks and excellent service. If the service had been good, this visit could have been saved. But it was so bad that she sunk the ship.

I don’t know if Julia R is new, but she doesn’t appear to care about her customers. Perhaps if she’s new she needs a lot more training before she should be allowed...

My fiancé and I decided to try this place tonight for dinner because I had heard good things about the atmosphere and the food. We have previously dined here at the Kennebunk location and we enjoyed it. We go out to a new restaurant at least once a week. The atmosphere and decorum is exquisite. A really nice vibe. Or so we thought upon entrance. However the caliber of service and food did not meet expectations. We ordered drinks and buffalo wings and that was great but Our server whom had one table (us) at the time took so long in between visits that my fiancée decided to go to the bar for a drink where he saw our server sitting at the bar watching TV waiting for drinks for her new table. She made eye contact with him but didn’t ask what it was he needed. His steak 42$ came out lukewarm and undercooked. We had to wait a good while before she came walking by for us to grab her attention to let her know and she took the steak back to the kitchen without any apologies or words really at all. She brought the steak back and it was covered in gravy again which ruined the steak for him. My pizza was tasty and cooked well. He decided he didn’t want to finish the steak because it was underwhelming for the price and caliber of the restaurant. Not to mention the mishandling of a potentially great tip. We always tip 30% or more for good service. With an open concept dining area. We had no idea where she kept disappearing to? I work as a server myself at a similar caliber restaurant and I was baffled by the service or lack thereof we received. My fiancée was asked by the bartender how our experience was going and he told him it wasn’t going great so he involved a manager and they decided to comp the steak, which wasn’t the intention we really just felt like we wanted to be waited on with a smile and friendliness you’d expect at a place like this. Spending 160$ on dinner for a Monday night should not have gone the way it did. All in all we probably won’t be back simply because of the service alone and it’s unfortunate that was the takeaway but so it goes I guess?...

Although the hotel and restaurant are beautifully decorated, the Batson River restaurant in Biddeford failed miserably on food, service and drinks during our first visit there! We went early at opening to have a late lunch / dinner, sat down at 4:00 pm, ordered drinks, once they came (20 minutes later) both drink orders were wrong. Asked for Manhattan on rocks, came strait up. Ordered a Margarita type drink, no salt - came with salt, waitress returned with a drink they merely dumped into a new glass with no salt, but all the salt was still in the drink. My wife went to the bar to see if they could make a new one because our waitress was nowhere to be found, bartender said no and turned his back on my wife and said the waitress has to put a new order in. The rigid rules and inflexibility to fix a mistake was extremely disappointing. Well we finally got the drinks the way we ordered (well not really - I just accepted ice on the side) Then the food came, muscle appetizer was good after waiting nearly an hour for it. Now main course showed up, set a pizza on a less than stable pizza holder, it fell over and spilled into the booth, quickly reacted to not get pizza sauce our coats and clothes. Pizza was scooped up and put back on the tray and left on the table, pizza was so cold it was horrible, I ordered steak fritte and it came to me cold, could not be eaten and the cut of meat was fatty and not even close to being a $52 ribeye! Needless to say we had to speak to the manager- this was a complete disaster. Manager charged us for the muscles and removed all other items from the bill. ( I would have charged nothing). The manager also told us we should have mentioned something to her sooner? Really - how were we to know it was going to be this bad. Such a disappointment on...