Macallans Public House — Restaurant in Brea

TL;DR If you're coming with a printed Groupon, don't bother.

I received this Groupon for Christmas because my in-laws enjoyed their experience here. We made reservations for today (2/5/23) and when we arrived we were seated promptly. We put the printed Groupon on the table to make things easier for our server to know we were there for the brunch special. We were greeted by our server Bernie who politely suggested we put in our order right away because a large party arrived right after us. The moment he saw the printed Groupon is when everything changed.

His attitude changed to passive aggressive and said that they had been experiencing a lot of fraud with Groupon. He proceeded to tell us that the printed Groupon was insufficient and that we had to have the Groupon redeemed in the app. I proceeded to ask him what he wanted us to do since we drove an hour here and it wasn't feasible to have my in-laws come there to show him. This apparently triggered him and he became defensive claiming that he never said that and that you should call or text them to send you a screenshot from the app. This didn't make any sense to me, but I agreed to his request and said we would do so. We obtained a screenshot from the app, which contained the exact same bar code and set of numbers for redemption.

My wife and I were both pretty upset about the whole situation at this point and asked to speak with the manager to a passing waiter. Bernie returns and reiterates what he said previously. Shortly after JT arrives, apparently the manager now, saying that he would get us sorted out. So now with a printed Groupon and the screenshot on my wife's phone, he asks if he can take them both to go "sort it out".

He eventually brings them both back and reassures us that he'll sort it out once we're done. We are at this point assigned a new waitress, Faith. She asked how everything was and my wife mentioned that her protein bowl did not have sausage or bacon in it. Faith said that it doesn't come with that, but the menu clearly says otherwise. We were finished with our brunch and mimosas, so she takes the Groupon and writes down the number and asks what name it was purchased under like it was no big deal. We were just about to leave when JT returns with a ripped in half printed Groupon and informs me that in the future we can only accept Groupon from the app. He just had to get the last word in to make us feel like we did something wrong.

I have no idea what your issue is with Groupon but you most certainly can't take it out on your customers. The way my wife and I were treated today was absolutely...

Came to Macallahans after a brunch at Cha Chas, me and my 3 sister in laws and niece decided to walk down to MacCallans for some drinks. It was about 3 pm, we called our husbands to join us. We order some Palomas and beers, they had some love karaoke and we were dancing and singing. When our husbands showed up we wanted to order some drinks. We were told they made a decision to cut us off and wouldn't let us order more drinks for liability reasons. We were just dancing with the live music we were not being loud or disrespectful. I was shocked but it felt like we were racially profiled because we're dancing, we are latinas and we were surprised. Many around us where being served but we were cut off. I am 51 and my family are all in our late 40's and have never been cut off. We were told " they made a decision" to cut us off. Mind you we were minority Latinos at this bar. My husband is white and they told him they would serve him but not us. If you are Latino be prepared to be treated differently and cut off arbitrarily for no reason. Racially profiled at this bar, we were made to feel unwelcome. Be prepared to be on best behavior and treated differently if you come here if a person of color would not recommend.

Update*We were not bothering any guests that is false. We were literally dancing to live music. Also they charged my husband for the entire bill, even though he got there last. When we arrived we asked for separate bills. My husband and I have been here several times and never have I felt unwelcome. In the bathroom we were having a pleasant conversation with two other females who were complimenting us. If anything we were cheering on the singers and singing along as were others. If having a good time and dancing is discouraged then perhaps they should post a sign. It's a bar but just sit quietly, don't dance and don't sing. Just because you deny it, it's still my personal experience and my perspective that we were only people in the bar targeted. Instead of taking any accountability for our experience you want to shift blame to your customers who were patronizing your bar, buying food and alcohol. Our bill was $100 for over 7 people at your restaurant not enough for all 7 of us to be intoxicated, about 1 drink per person. Calling me a thorn for voicing my experience is shameful on you as a business. If you like a fun environment don't come here, be prepared to sit quietly or if you appear to be enjoying yourself be prepared to be judged and cut off. Not...

Review

I’ve been going back and forth about whether I should review this bar and decided after giving them our hard earned money the manager should know how horrible our visit was. I came with 2 friends this past wednesday for dinner and drinks. Firstly upon entry, it was not clear whether we were supposed to seat ourselves or wait for a hostess. We wondered around and decided to sit at a dirty table. A few minutes later a man who apparently was wait staff came over and told us the table was reserved but we could sit on the table next to us. What was off putting was that he was not in any sort of uniform name tag or anything else that would identify him as someone who works there. I find that very tacky. We were then given menus and had our order taken. We inquired about vegetarian options which the waitress was helpful with however the options for vegetarians are really bad. It seems there was on old menu on google maps which might have suggested vegetarian options previously. Okay no problem, we can have appetizers for dinner we were just looking forward to a pint of Guinness. The waitress informs us that the bar is out of Guinness. Excuse me? At an Irish bar? That was extremely disappointing but we were open to try another stout beer. Turns out they do not even carry a beer similar to Guinness and we were stuck ordering lighter beers. By now our experience was pretty downhill but we didn’t realize it would only get worse. It was a music night and they had a jazz band sort of preformer playing and wow, the music was way too loud. My party was yelling at each other and could barely hear each other making socializing extremely difficult. By this time we were flat up miserable and couldn’t even talk to each other without yelling. I received my nachos which I ordered and to my surprise it was not what was advertised on the menu, which said it should come with pinto beans. What I received was nachos with queso cheese guacamole and cherry tomatoes. I’m sorry but who puts cherry tomatoes on nachos? Odd. The real cherry on top was getting our bill. Fries aren’t included with a chicken sandwich so we were surprised to see that upcharge as well as a 3% “service fee” surcharge. All in all, it was our first time here and everyone in my party had a bad experience and as someone who is exploring new places to eat around here I can say I will never...