Mt. Rushmore Brewing Company — Restaurant in Custer

I really wanted to love this place, but it just didn't happen.

We walked in, sat down, and waited for a server. When he came over after 5 minutes, he was very nice but told us we couldn't sit up front because our kids (15 &17) were not 21. They have no signage showing this from where we walked in.

We were pointed in a direction to a place in the back where kids could be served. It was another full bar. Now I was confused.

A lady that I suspect was the owner seated us. I asked about the weird deal not letting kids eat at the front. She explained how it is a small town and people want to go out after work and not hear kids. Makes sense for screaming toddlers but not almost adult kids. Either way, that's fine, but post signs about this. Also, this is a major tourist town, and the Brewery is named Mt Rusmore brewing. It 100% a gimmick to bring in tourists so I didn't understand the pitch, really lol.

A very nice server takes our drink order and promptly gets us drinks. I ordered a barrel aged beer. The beer was not cold. I am used to crafts served under 40 degrees. I asked the waitress, and she had no idea about temps. A brewery with uneducated staff about beer, this is super weird! I told her the beer didn't have the taste of barrel aged. She said they do not have the barrel aged version in the back bar, so she gave me a different version. That is like ordering a tuna fish sandwich and receiving PB&J, lol! So weird!

The food had a fantastic presentation but was not good. Pizza tasted frozen. The sauce had a good zing, but that was it. Chicken wings were rubbery. The burger was good! The hot burger plate was so salty and not cooked right. It was on the verge of leathery texture.

The reason we went to this establishment was for their trash can nachos. It's a fitting name for them. We ate them because we were extremely hungry after a long trip. The chips were good. The chicken was cubed to the size of croutons and didn't seem like real chicken. Hardly any tomatoes, onions or other topping you normally find. Lastly, they used canned nacho cheese like you get on nachos in a gas station. For a $15 price point appetizer, we were not happy with these. The gimmick is great, and the reality was not.

My kids said the food reminded them of the school cafeteria. I agree. It looked a lot better, but the taste was not.

The staff in the back restaurant was super awesome and made us welcome. That's my best takeaway. We will be trying other restaurants while we are in the area going forward. I really wanted to love e this place it just...

There is so much potential here, and it's more of a 3.5/5 stars.

Upsides bison burgers had a nice flavor, chips were good 21+ only section was nice although it's a bit odd / confusing to have 3 different establishments with 3 different menus all housed in one building open garage doors was nice for fresh air (our friends didn't care for the loud motorcycles going by, but it didn't bother me)

Downsides Incorrect menu. There is NOTHING on the menu that states a gluten free bun costs an extra $2. Usually, I just order without a bun at all because I hate paying extra for dietary restrictions. It was so incredibly dry and stale tasting. It overpowered the burger and ruined the flavor, so I took the bun off anyway. Only when I received the bill did I see the extra charge. Service was terrible. They told us to sit anywhere, which we did, and then we sat and sat and sat. The server took an extremely long time to bring us menus. We just sat there awkwardly with nothing to look at or do. We could see he wasn't busy - he was just standing there. This happened a lot throughout the meal. We weren't checked on and we felt like a bother, which is never good. My husband ordered a flatbread. He said the meat was good, but there was nothing to hold it together - like no cheese or sauce, so it fell apart and he basically ended up with a charcuterie board of sorts eating it as individual components. He was disappointed. They have a selection of beers, but they were out of the sour, which is the only type I will try. Those in our party who ordered beers liked them. There is a full bar, but I'm just not good at thinking of a drink, so I just had water. If there was a seasonal cocktail menu along with the beer menu, I probably would have ordered a drink.

We visit Custer annually, so we might try here again but we'll adjust our orders and...

Headed to this place with a large party because someone recommended them due to large space and tasty food. Service was a little slow which we expect sometimes with so many of us together on vacation. Our waitress was very sweet. Buffalo pizza was good flavor but came out warm and not hot. Rest of food was okay. The kicker was when we were waiting for our check, and we watched another waitress get berated by a guy on the patio near where we were sitting . Seriously fussing at her for several minutes. We thought it was another patron who was unhappy with service because he kept saying "frustrated" loudly and something about a language barrier not being acceptable. We brought it to the attention of our waitress thinking maybe a manager needed to get involved- to find out it WAS the Manager!!! What a horrible unprofessional experience to witness after eating a mediocre dinner and I hope that waitress walked out the door after that. No one deserves to be yelled at, and esp in front of other patrons. We asked if there were someone above him but the owner is currently out of town for personal reasons. I cannot imagine this place keeping a staff for long with someone like that running the place and it was a disappointing experience on the last night of an amazing 4th of...