The Rarebit — Restaurant in Charleston

With in the past month I went to Rarebit by myself, arriving at 5pm on a Weekday. I was the only customer so I chose to sit up at the bar. After a couple of minutes the bartender asked if I would be just having drinks or if I would be eating as well. I them "I haven't been here before and I came in to have a glass of wine and something small to eat, like maybe just an appetizer." They said 'ok', and got me a menu. I ordered a glass of wine and was told they didn't have it, then showed me a bottle on the counter intended to replace it. I declined, looked at the menu again, selected another wine which I was also told they did not have. Mind you, when I sat down I said I'd be having wine and at no point was I told their wine options on the menu were not current and that I'd have to play a game of 'guess what's available'. I finally selected a glass of their most tolerable wine and it was brought to me in a small glass, the size of a juice glass yet in the shape of a stemless wine glass. The wine tasted like it was opened the day before so needless to say, at $14 for what was for sure less than 4oz, I was disappointed. I ordered a burger then went back to minding my own business, watching the news on the TV in front of me, still the only customer in the place. My food was served and I began to eat and continue to watch TV. A few bites into my meal, still the only customer, the bartender comes over and changes the channel on the TV, putting it on a basketball game, paying no mind to the fact I was watching it. I didn't say a word, I should not have had to. Half way thru my meal, 3 people came in and sat at the end of the bar, closest to the door and began chatting. I hear one of them say something about happy hour, pointing at a green dusty board sitting on the bar, leaning against the wall. In that moment I could only see a corner of it. The bartender came over and asked if I wanted another drink, to which I asked "Is that a happy hour menu down there?" And she responded "Yep", to which I said "I'll take my bill". That bartender never told me they had a happy hour & that there was food on the HH menu that wasn't on the one and only menu I was offered, even though I said I was looking for an appetizer...their regular menu doesn't have appetizers, just side items like French fries. The burger I ordered was small, somewhere between what would be considered a 'regular' size burger and a slider. I won't be back to Rarebit because, in spite of telling the bartender I had not been there before, my sister and I had in fact walked in there last year, on a day they might have had maybe 5 customers, stood at the bar while multiple people walked past us and even looked at us but said nothing, and walked out after 15 minutes of zero acknowledgement. I included a picture of my glass of wine next to my vehicles key fob, for perspective on the size of the glass, and a picture of the wine glass near the burger. The size of the burger & glass of wine, in conjunction with very poor customer service and underwhelming atmosphere makes this place not remotely close to being...

I was here on November 9, 2023. I ordered from a paper menu, which had prices for its items retouched with a marker. I asked the waiter-bartender if the prices were up to date, and he assured me that they were. I ordered the ribeye steak, and I consulted the staff as to what temperature they recommended for that cut of beef. Relying on their recommendation, I ordered it medium. The staff and I both used the term "ribeye" explicitly in this discussion.

A steak arrived cooked as ordered, and I did enjoy eating it. Then the bill came. It was for a NY strip and for $6 more than the menu had indicated for my steak. I brought this to the attention of the waitstaff and asked them to correct the bill as to the price. They then informed me that the ribeye was actually no longer served at the restaurant and that I had been served a sirloin. I actually enjoy sirloins very much (and did also enjoy the side spinach dish), but this bait-and-switch move is unacceptable. Attempting to charge me more than what was indicated by the staff as the accurate price for the steak is additionally unacceptable. Thus, the staff tried to defraud me in two different ways. When I politely asked after paying my bill whether and when I could expect to return to the restaurant (which I did generally enjoy) to use an accurate physical menu, I was met with insults by the staff that it is unreasonable to expect a restaurant to go to the expense of having a physical menu, whether on a wall or for patrons to hold in their hands, rather than a simple shrug and a statement that there was no known plan or expectation to have such menus available.

Thus, for the duplicity and rudeness of the staff, I must give no more than one star to this disgraceful trap of a restaurant, and I...

We went on a saturday night which may have been our downfall. We gave our name for a table and then sat at the bar. We had some drinks and noticed that while we were at the bar, people coming in after us were being seated before us which was very displeasing. So we went back up and asked when our table would be ready to which we got the next available table. So we waited roughly 30 minutes to get a table, no big deal. Then once we were seated, we waited another 15 minutes for our server. When we went to put in our orders, everything we requested was not in stock. So it took another 15 minutes for our serve to make her way back, to tell us that one of the options we wanted to order was out. So another 15 minutes went by and we finally placed our order. So and hour and 15 minutes later, our order was in. It took about 30 minutes to get our food. 1 of the 3 meals were amazing! But with one of the meals they forget the side. And the other meal, they didn't provided any sauce that came with the sandwich. So here we are 2 hours later, amd we finally got our food but only 1 of the 3 meals was the way it was suppose to be. Not to mention the drinks were...