Service Bar at Middle West Spirits Distillery — Restaurant in Columbus

Service bar is beautiful and the food is creative but it is neither innovative nor humble - some of the dishes are in danger of moving into kitsch. My group and I, on more than one occasion said to each other, concerning multiple dishes, that while the flavors were enjoyable we had all tasted the same thing straight out of a bottle. The attempt to heighten fast food cuisine was a failure, and an expensive one at that. Oh, and the cheesecake brûlée with basil was hands down the worst dessert any of us had tasted in recent memory. The noodles were excellent reminding my friend of the food he experienced while living in China. The chef is obviously talented, but the menu seems to be reaching desperately for some sort of identity that it has yet to discover.

Our service was technically very good, personally stale, and not at all welcoming, or warm. There was an air about the place, which as stated previously, reeked of everything but humility. When you walk into a restaurant the aesthetics, visually, are the first impression, and with Service Bar all of the details are addressed right down to the coffee service and silverware, and that bar!! You can't talk about this place visually without mentioning their beautiful bar. It is the center piece of the dining room.

The issue with placing such a heavy amount of effort on this aesthetic is that it has a tendency to elevate the guest's expectations, which was the case for our group (not to mention the massive word-of-mouth praise that had been circulating). This elevated expectation is great as long as the food shines the brightest. You never want to leave a restaurant with the visual aesthetics serving as the greatest memory of your experience.

Before the food hit the table we were as excited as we could remember for a meal in Columbus, and while the meal was by no means terrible, there was a sense of disappointment among all of us.

On a side note: Our group spent quite a bit of money to dine there and we felt as if there was a rush to get us to exit after our dinner had finished. My friend asked for a digestif just to round out the meal as we prepared to pay the bill and leave. Our server informed us that they had called last call and we were not able to order anything more, which would have been fine, except for a few points. First, no one informed us of a last call. Second, who does a last call in a dining room? Third, we had just spent several hundred dollars and had simply asked for an end of dinner digestif for one guest. This type of request should always, always, always be accommodated. You are in the service industry, act like it. To add to this, there were several other tables still seated in the dining room seeing as it was only 10:15, and their hours clearly state that they are open until 11pm on Sundays. It was off putting and made us uncomfortable. This alone would have kept us from returning. It was special night for all of us and Service Bar was, to be completely honest, a pretty big and expensive disappointment.

Lastly, stop making guests like you on instagram in order to access the specials, it's pretentious and assuming. We will decide to like you if we enjoy our experience. Offer alternatives to access your "secret...

We loved Service bar before. Came for a distillery tour before the restaurant opened and then came back for dinner once it was finally open and had an amazing time. Last night's dinner (or lack of) fell completely on it's face.

-Reserving a table: I was able to book dinner at the time I wanted online without issue. I wish I could select between community table or private table. I get the concept of the community table, but when I want to take my wife on a date night, I don't want to be seated between a big group of 8 friends and a family with two young kids.

--Menu: When were being seated, we were asked if we needed a vegetarian or GF menu, we said no. I'm not sure what menu we were given, but it was not the menu we had last time and certainly not the one listed online. The menu was double sided, and almost, but not quite, identical on both sides. Wife wanted something light and was hoping to order the scallops. Those were not on the menu, in fact, there was no seafood option. I noticed the short ribs I got last time were also not on the menu.

-Water: The host who sat asked if we preferred sparkling or flat water, we both requested sparkling. We got flat water.

-Drinks: I ordered a seasonal cocktail off the menu, it was the best part of the whole night. My wife wanted a gin drink, there was only one on the menu, so she opted to asked for an Aviation instead(a somewhat uncommon request, but the waitress knew what it was and knew the bar staff could make it. The waitress returned a few moments later to let us know the bar was out of luxardo. Disappointed to say the least, my wife settled for a gin an tonic. The tonic was FLAT.

-Food: By this time, we were not very impressed with our night so far and we hadn't even been there 10 minutes! Since the dinner menu was lacking, we decided to split an appetizer and then go somewhere else for dinner. We ordered the pork rinds, we got them last time and LOVED them. That was the last we saw of our waitress for about 20 minutes. She wasn't working any other tables, she never checked in to see if we wanted to order dinner, make sure we were good on drinks or anything. Our appetizer never came. We had a show to catch later and needed to leave so we could get dinner somewhere else, and finally our waitress came out and we asked to cancel the appetizer and bring our check. One of the bar staff delivering another tables drinks actually took and ran my card since our waitress was now busy serving a big group. To add insult to injury, as soon as we passed off our credit card we saw a waitress bringing out an order of pork rinds, I looked at my wife thinking maybe we were being over dramatic, but that order actually went to another table that sat and ordered after us! I don't think our food order was ever placed.

We ended up paying about $25 for a seasonal cocktail and a gin and tonic. I'm giving 2 stars because we've had a fantastic time there before, but it seemed like nothing was quite...

Lots to say about this dining experience, overall it was good.

The good: -The atmosphere was nice, good lighting and okay space between the tables. Nice decor and accents. -Our drinks were very good and the perfect strength, well balanced, nice aesthetic. -The whipped cream on creme brulee was perfectly sweetened. -The Caesar salad dressing is some of the best I've ever had and the cheese is so fresh.

The bad: -The marrow appetizer was overpriced for what it was, we (maybe) got 1.5 tablespoons out of both bones combined. They were prepared well and the sourdough was very good and charred perfectly. -We asked to share a Caesar salad, the kitchen did not plate it onto 2 plates. We were given the dish and had to wait for plates. -Not bad, but surprised to receive regular heinz ketchup with the duck fat fries, anticipated something housemade. -Shocked to hear our server did not know what an Irish coffee was, and never gave us an answer if we could order one or not. -My pappardelle pasta was so salty I almost sent it back, the size and texture of the noodles was great. -My spouse's mussels seemed over cooked but everything else was fine he said.

What should be fixed: -The front of house is undeniably understaffed, we saw 2 servers the entire time we were there on a Friday night. The bartender and 2 other support staff were there helping to run food and clear our table. -Retraining the FOH staff is a must...examples missing from our service include; replacing silver ware when you take dirty ones from the table (we went without a few utensils), boxing up food away from the table should be standard practice for a restaurant of this caliber, checking in on the meal at least twice (we were only checked on once we were done eating).

All-in-all I will go back, but it seems like a 50-50 experience, some stuff is good and some stuff is bad and it's a mix of the food and service. For $141 before tip, it's overpriced for what it is right now. Small, consistent improvements will make this...