Bay Street Biergarten — Restaurant in Charleston

I went to this place some months ago and had a great burger and service. Based on that experience I decided to take my wife by this place on a much needed date away from the 2 year old. However this second experience was pretty bad and is likely the last. We were greeted by a distracted hostess staff of three who wanted us to sit at the “community tables”. We declined as we were out for a night just the two of us. With frustration the hostesses debated where to sit us, with one speaking up just seat them at table X. Keep in mind, no one was in front of us waiting, and there were 11 private tables open, in addition to about half of the community and bar seats vacant. We wanted one of the many open booths, but complied with their wishes. We were seated alone up in the elevated section by a window, which attracted the flies in the restaurant. We waited about 15 minutes before our waitress noticed we were sitting up there and put down her phone to come by to see if we needed anything. Soon after the flies got so bad we had to move one table over to keep them out of our drinks (counted between 10-15 flies). The food was lackluster and despite a larger beer selection they had hardly any local brews, at all. Their beer list was an embarrassment for a place called the Biergarten.. The mussels tasted and smelled like baitfish, the pretzel balls had all the cheese cooked out of them, the wings were overcooked and hard with minimal sauce drizzled over them, the collards were cooked to mush and tasted like old carpet, and the lime in my wife’s drink was so old the rind was brown and the pith was yellowed. It became obvious we were seated in the “family” section as others filed in and were seated in nice tables below with attentive wait staff we were paired soon with neighbors of board kids and the air soon filled with sounds of ipad games. With great effort we finally were able to get our check, and with even more effort we were able to get someone to take our card, and then with even greater effort it was finally returned to us. As such, it was with great pleasure that we left this place with a great idea: Go somewhere else for more drinks, better service, and food. This was found at...

Our experience was not the best in the beginning. When seated the hostess took us all the way to the back of the restaurant when clearly there were tables open. (Side notes we clearly saw empty tables for two and other two parties customers sitting at bigger tables near wear we were sitting at, clearly I felt some type of way for the small table, also the quickest thing about coming in was how fast they sat us). But I am here to write about the food.

We ordered a few things that the waitress said, "oh we don't have that we ran out. Then I am thinking to myself why she didn't tell us this before we ordered. But again I say, I am here to write about food. I will try in the next paragraph.

I ordered an appetizer to share Smoke Wings the wings came I definitely was not impressed with them (look at pictures), wait time long and for the main meal the Lamb Gyro without tomatoes, another long wait, I clearly got some tomatoes see pictures and fries that look like the fries from the bottom of leftovers fries. I explained I clearly asked for no tomatoes. She explained she was not at the window when the order came up, so that's the reason I got tomatoes. So, I politely asked her to take it back and I ordered Cheese Steak. While my other person with me continues to eat Kielbasa Polished Boy. It clearly looked okay see pictures. Finally, (much later) my food came, it looked eye appealing and my French Fries look like it came from the top and not left over and also my stomach was growling. When I took my first bite of my sandwich after sharing it with a friend, because I didn't want to eat by myself. It was delicious, yeah! (Plus points for the waitress said she took the other wrong order off my tab)

I would try one more time to come again and pray for better service. (I do believe in second chances and I feel anyone could have an off day. Was I impressed today with the service clearly not? I felt some type of way about all of our services including waiting a while for our drink order before we ordered our food. That should have told me...

I was visiting Charleston this weekend for the bridge run with my brothers and I’ve always loved this beer garden.

I met my brothers here after a long day separated and was looking forward to kind of a relaxed night. The beer garden was mostly empty and we were having a good time. I went outside to order five Gatorade mixers (Gatorade mixed with seltzer). I could tell the bartender had had a few, not a problem, but when he asked if I wanted an extra shot of tequila in each, I happily obliged thinking it didn’t cost me much. I quickly got a bill for $120. Shocked, I showed the bartender to verify if this was correct. He walked me through the bill and stated each drink was $10 Each. Additional shot was another $10 with fees/taxes added on making it around 100+ dollars. Not wanting to make a scene, I accepted it and just wrote out the check. Knowing I paid that much for five drinks, I did not tip.

Within the next 30 minutes, I’m with my brothers at the bar watching the game and randomly felt someone wrap their arm around me. The bartender that I did not tip, brought me the receipt I signed and said, “rude of you to not tip me but I get it.” He proceeded to shake my hand and try to act as if it was cool.

I did not appreciate this blatant show of dismissal towards a patron in public display of frustration by the staff. It’s inappropriate, it’s rude, and it’s uncalled for. I was at a table of about 10 other people and everyone seemed perplexed… By barking or doing this put me in a situation that made it awkward for everyone involved.

When this was addressed by the bartender, I forced him to address how this was contradicting (he told me how my lack of tip was inappropriate, but he was clearly cool with me carrying on). Not expecting to be confronted, the bartender pointed out how he was under film (Camera) and tdidn’t wanna start anything. Given it was 10 PM nor did I. I am poor base beer garden to do better and to not give any patron shit if they choose not to tip on a $120 bill for...