Hive — Restaurant in Bloomington

I went there on the afternoon of Sep. 8, 2024.

The dough in the chicken pot pie was raw.

The pies are about the size of those little frozen ones you can buy in the store, and they are in a paper "pan". I can't say if Hive buys them premade (and the fact that I can't say that ought to give you an idea of their quality), but the texture of the veggies and chicken in the filling do seem to indicate that they are frozen before cooking.

As for the crust being uncooked, I ate the first quarter of the pie, and I noticed something was off when I got to the side crust. I ate the second quarter of the filling, and when I got to the side crust, it was visible it wasn't cooked through. I then told the staff member at the counter, and she said, "It's not raw; it's just because of the crust being next to the filling," as though I'd never had a pie before. I told her I used to make chicken pot pie with my grandmother, and this dough is raw. She tried to re-explain the same thing as before, so I took the quarter of the side crust I had open and showed her I could ball it up and stretch it. (Uncooked dough can stretch, but cooked crust cannot.) Rather than offer some sort of solution, she said, "I'll look into it," and promptly sat there and did not do that. Instead, she kept talking with her coworker about personal matters. She even watched me throw out half of it + that quarter of the side crust.

I used to work in restaurants, so I know customers can be really awful. I am always polite, friendly, and kind, and this time was no different. And I understand accidents happen; what matters is making good on then. The fact that she dismissed this was enough to make me not want to come here again. But even if I had not had this experience, the chicken pot pie was bland and, like I said, did not seem made fresh, and the reuben was sopping in oil, had so little corn beef and cheese that there were sections if the sandwich that we just sauerkraut, and there was barely and 1000 Island dressing. And each of these items cost around $15, not to mention the 20% tip I left. For that price, I expect the food to not be bland and the kitchen to not skimp on ingredients. (I'm not asking for inch-thick corned beef or two slices of cheese, just full coverage, which I think is a normal expectation.) And, of course, I also expect dough to be cooked or, if it is isn't, the staff to make good on the problem.

There are far better, far more professional options in town for the same...

I would probably give this 4.5 stars if I could because OVERALL, it was super great, but I have a few very minor qualms.

Pros: -Lovely, sunny open space inside with lots of little tables that make the seating very flexible. The food and drinks were extremely delicious. I got the ramen and a cardamom cream soda, both of which were delicious (especially the soda, which is different than anything else I've had). -They source a lot of stuff locally and make a conscientious effort to do things like composting.

Cons (this part is longer, but each thing is very minor... the pros definitely outweigh the cons): It was difficult to hear at the cash registers. I imagine that's partially because it was both busy with lots of people/conversation and it opens up to the kitchen right behind it. This isn't a huge deal except that I'm pretty sure I was given a different pie than I ordered (I ordered Hive Pie, which my friend also ordered and she was given something like a cream pie. I was given the pie pictured below which is maybe fudge pie. I didn't say anything because it also looked delicious, but I'm pretty sure the noise was an issue there). It's expensive. I paid over $20 for my lunch of a ramen, a soda, and a piece of pie. I ended up taking half my ramen home, but if I had been a bit hungrier, I definitely would have eaten the whole thing there. It doesn't have unreasonable prices to get things locally sourced and for them to pay their staff a living wage, but it does mean I won't be able to go often. -I saw a few things both in the restaurant and on their website that talked about ordering online, but saw no easy way to actually do that. Hopefully that's something that's just still in the works. I would love to order online partially as a way to avoid the issue of noise at the register. The lids on the larger circular to-go containers do...

FALSE ADVERTSIDEMENT with their menu. Be careful in ordering food from here. It may not be there if you try to order an hour later! Honestly? I’m upset on behalf of my friend who wanted to order $50+ worth of food from this place. She had it all in the cart. We had to do something first. Come back, ten minutes later, and lost everything in our cart. Though, okay, fine, it needed to refresh. Suddenly the menu items are missing that we wanted to order. Entire items suddenly gone. it's like 50% of the menu vanished from 7-8 PM. So, for the first time since ever ordering from a restaurant, their online menu changed from hour to hour. That's ridiculous. To have something on your menu that is suddenly not available with an hour to go at your restaurant? WHAT??? So, since they magically don't have what she wanted as a main dish, all the other things she wanted from there is not being ordered. You may have even lost a customer for life because of this. She wanted to try it out, and then... Nope. Whoever is behind the website decided to delete a lot of items at the last minute. I'm disappointed and with all the other options in Bloomington, I'm going to suggest people go somewhere else for consistency in being able to order what you wanted every time without concern that it...