Parkside Taphouse — Restaurant in Chico

Last weekend I had some friends, and future residents, in from out of town and I decided to take them downtown to show them a bit of Chico's nightlife. We started off at a different establishment for dinner and a drink then decided to head over to Parkside Tap House for a few more drinks. As I was pulling out my ID to show the doorman, the doorman in a friendly/joking manner asked us how our night was. I told him that it was a good night so far and we were out for a few drinks. Still, in his joking/friendly manner, he asked me how much we had been drinking that night. Since he seemed to be in a joking mood I responded in kind saying as sarcastically as you can imagine, "oh, we've had a ton tonight". It was a joke since we only had one drink each so far that night, but his tone changed and said he wasn't going to let us in. I then tried to explain that I thought he was just joking around and we've only had one drink each. He then decided to say that one of use had swerved as we walked up to the door, which I highly doubt since it's about 10 steps from coming around the corner to the front door, no one was even slightly tipsy, and he refused to say who of us it was. I have lived in Chico 10 years and have never had any trouble with any form of law enforcement, the bars, restaurants, stores, anything. What my friends and I experienced last weekend at Parkside was embarrassing, felt like a betrayal of trust, and left a stain on our night and on the perception we had of Parkside. We ended up taking our business elsewhere and happily gave other establishments our business and had zero, none, no problem with any of the other bouncers or bartenders that night. I would like to shoutout the other establishments we visited downtown for having a genuinely friendly and welcoming atmosphere, not some deceitful facade of a friendly atmosphere. With so many other options in downtown, I don't see myself returning...

Have been here a few times before last night and have been very happy with food, service has always been average. But last night was a whole different story.... Our server which I won't name because I feel they had to many tables inside and outside to be able to be a good server. Then food game and was cold but could never complain cause our service never came back. When we ordered we did ask for ranch and an extra plate, we got neither. Eventually we got ranch when our meal was half done. Had to ask again for a plate. Then we had to go find our waiter to get boxes and the check. They come to the table and ask how we want to pay and I had a credit card, they wanted to scan my credit card right there and I said I would like to see the bill first and guess what? When I received a copy of the bill we were overcharged for a drink,,,,,,,, Wow! So continued to look at the bill and saw that on the bill was a new 2% service charge that we were told all the restaurants are doing. We asked to talk to a manager and were blessed with Lexi (yes that was sarcasm) she came to our table and one of use said that should be posted somewhere like on the menu not a hidden fee, and she said we aren't taking it off your tab and walked away. Never have I seen that. The funny thing about all of this is on the bottom of the menu it says if you have a complaint please talk to management not yelp. Tried to do that and didn't work, you guys should take that off of the menu if it doesn't mean anything. Will never return to many...

I had wanted to go to Taphouse for so long, and unfortunately this first visit left much to be desired. To be clear, the food was fantastic. No complaints there whatsoever. But, the service was absolutely abhorrent. It was not a particularly busy evening, but our dinner ended up lasting almost 3 hours due to the inattention of the staff. After the hostess seated us and got us waters, it took about 10 minutes for someone to come take our drink orders. After waiting 20-25 minutes for 3 beers and a cocktail, we then waited...and waited...until someone in our party finally had to go track down our waiter so that they would take our order. This was literally an hour after we arrived. After ordering, the food arrived in decent time and was delicious. But, to top off the evening, we had one person in our party who was celebrating a birthday and our server offered a scoop of gelato. We accepted the gelato, and then waited over 20 minutes for a scoop of gelato to arrive. Actually, we were gathering our stuff to go pay the bill at the front and leave before we finally saw our server coming out with the bowl of gelato.

So again, the food was delicious. The beer was OK. The atmosphere was OK, but nothing special. However, the service was some of the worst I've ever experienced. Needless to say, we won't be returning. If we want beers and good food, Sierra Nevada will have...