Karl Strauss Brewing Company — Restaurant in Carlsbad

If you still love a full on Covid protocol dining experience this is your place. When you arrive you get to follow little yellow safety footprints into the restaurant. There are no unsafe hostesses on duty (at least when I went) to see you to a table. You can apparently select a table on your own but don't expect a visit from any wait staff. If you elect to search out a wait staff member to inquire about menus or ordering you could be instructed to use the QR code conveniently laminated to the end of your table and order yourself, presumably answering yourself, any questions you may have. You may also be instructed to order from the bartender after standing in line, assuming there is one, much like you would at McDonalds or Taco Bell. The difference being that at Micky D's or Taco Bell there is a large menu board that everyone can see and use to order from, presumably saving some time in making selections. At Karl's, there is also a menu, but it's laminated to the bar. I suppose if you brought a large group...everyone could just crowd around and do their best to order that way...one group at a time. I dunno, I must be old school because when I go to a restaurant I expect to have someone to take care of me besides well...me. Oh! one of my favorites about the QR menu app is that it will helpfully choose for you a 20% tip that you may leave if you like for the service you've not had and the food you have yet to taste! I like that part. I may try this place again once its Covid mania has subsided but for now I think I'll just go to places that can operate in a more traditional manner. Finding one shouldn't...

Okay, allow me to break it down for you. Let's talk about location first. This place is situated in a place that is accessible to the freeway. Near Lego Land and the Outlet. There's also strawberry picking nearby, lagoon and the dealership.

So either you are here for business or leisure, this place is right in the middle of everything so this is perfect.

Now let's talk about the food, that for a brewery it's really good. However I must say that there's a missing x factor in it though. I can't tell what it is but there's something missing in it. I am not saying it's bad but for a restaurant in Carlsbad there's something that I can't identify. Either it's too much flavor or something. You know that feeling when someone asks you how's your food... When the food is really good, you go and say it with your pressing eyes and say "Bro... It's really good." However with the food here, when someone asks me, it'll be just "it's good!!"

Again not saying it's bad and I am also not saying it's average. It's better than average.... I am not saying it's super delicious. It's between good and super delicious, if that makes sense. Therefore I will give it a 4. If there is 4.8 here in Google that's what I'd put it, because I don't want everyone in Karl Strauss to think that I do not appreciate the yumminess of their delicacies here.

Now, if we are talking about purely service like people that work here. I am gonna give 120% that these people are amazing. They are great! They make you feel welcome and cared for. They even tend to my Dog.. This is his favorite restaurant by far.

We will...

Waits, lines, find your own table, wait in line for another round. Guard your seltzer.

Had to wait outside with a pager from the start. When we were paged after waiting for 15 minutes, we were then allowed inside where you have to wait in line to order your food and drinks. That line took about 10 minutes, then we had to wait for our drinks to be poured and to be cashed out, which took another couple of minutes. Easily 30 minutes into the experience by now for the 6 of us.

Once we were handed a number, we had to find a table that was free. It was busy, and there were only 2 tables left available in the restaurant. They were outside under heaters that did not work. No wonder they were available.

The staff was nice and quickly put together a table for us after another 5 minutes or so, unfortunately, it was next to a door to the outside patio that was propped open. It was 42 degrees tonight.

Food was good, 1 dish wasn't hot, but it came in a reasonable amount of time. I went to buy another round of drinks, that took another 10 minutes of me standing in line while my party laughed and told stories.

Staff came to clear the old plates, and accidentally took one of the seltzers that I paid for thinking it was an extra water glass. He apologized, then replaced it with a sample sized drink instead of another full sized drink.

We were tired of waiting in lines so we left.

Food was good, experience of a very busy and higher priced Rubios.

If this was my first time visiting, I might give it a better rating, however, I was used to having servers and assigned tables. I miss that...