Station Craft Brewery + Kitchen — Restaurant in Dana Point

The last thing I want to do is write a poor review because it’s rare when I do these type of things but something must be said. Our Waiter Riley was such a good waiter and treated my friend and I very well!!! Although the menu was much smaller than I remember. That wasn’t the issue. We used to come constantly before and it was our most favorite restaurant. My friend and I both ordered sliders that were like $15-$17; which Is quite a lot for sliders and was a bit out of my range but I didn’t want to assume the food was going to be bad. After taking a small bite out of the sliders, I couldn’t even swallow it. There was so much grease soaked into the meat, and it tasted like shoe leather with fake smoke. This also applied for my friends slider expect his was extremely dry. So of course we kindly asked the manager, Jason, if he could take those off the bill since my appetite was completely ruined by the disgusting food. He politely asked in a well mannered gesture why we didn’t like our sliders. We complied and told him exactly what I said above, and with a smile he said okay and took them to the back. At first I thought he was such a nice manager with a good attitude until I went to the restroom. While I was heading towards the restroom , I could clearly hear him say that my comment was inadequate and stupid. I know working in a restaurant is a hard job to work in because I myself used to work in the food industry, but If this is the type of management being shown to workers and they feel it is acceptable to treat them like that, that is completely unacceptable at all levels. Seriously. After that comment he had the audacity to try and make me pay for the sliders my friend and I didn’t even eat. When we brought it up to our waiter, Riley, he took care of it right away with a smile. I could tell Riley was a nice gentleman, and I just couldn’t imagine working with a horrible manger like that and thinking that he makes fun of his loyal customers behind their backs. This is a bulky behavior and I will not return and I wish for others to understand this and follow my words. Please. Do. not. support. this. business. If you’ve ever returned something, the chances are that you’ve been trash talked behind your back as well by the manager of the store.

Now, To everyone who took time to read this, thank you. And if that manager is reading, “Jason”, You are the most disgraceful and unfit manager I have ever...

IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES DO NOT GO. I went to this restaurant last week and had the absolute worst experience. I asked the waitress if the nachos would be gluten free. She said she was not sure off the top of her head but would go and check with the chef. After a little bit she came back with the tables meals along with the nachos. She handed me the plate and said here are the gluten free nachos. I responded yay I am so glad they are gluten free. About 10 minutes later and me being half way through the meal she comes out to tell me, "I'm sorry so the nachos actually aren't gluten free there is wheat in the meat are you allergic". I told her I had celiac. She then apologized and said "sorry the chef was on a break so I asked some of the staff workers using google translate." She then rudely walked away. When she gave me the bill, I asked if she would please be more careful next time. She was then super rude to me and blamed me for not knowing that it would have gluten in it. I was so applaud! I much would have rather waited or her say she doesn't know and just had ordered another drink instead while waiting for the chef or just not eaten at all. I was at a table of 15 people so she still would have gotten a large tip.

Later that night I called the restaurant to talk to a manager. (I would have done that at the restaurant but I was in with a wedding party and did not want to stress out the Bride as well as wanted to get back home before a rough night ahead.) The manager so happened to be the person to be the one answering the restaurant phone that night. to me it sounded like a hostess that was covering for their server friend and not an actual manager.

I cant stress enough how awful this restaurant and staff is!

For those who think this message is harsh here are the symptoms I have had to deal with this past weak: intense stomach pains, extreme anxiety, inability to sleep due to...

Had dinner and cocktails here tonight with some friends.

Positive: Hostess and support staff(not our waiter) were great, lots of TVs, excellent menu with good variety.

Negatives: minor issue with not enough parking/full street parking near by. Bigger issue was our waiter. I’m not sure if I didn’t hear their name because it was so loud but I don’t remember it. We had a male waiter who honestly didn’t care about our group.

During our 2.5 hr stay, the other staff members checked up on us more than he did; our waiter spoke to us three times (appetizer, dinner order, and bill.) On multiple instances, we would be looking for him/try to flag him down and he would ignore our table, chit chat with other tables, and walk by our table. We had to flag down a different server to check up on our food which didn’t arrive for 45 MINUTES; naturally it was cold and not good after sitting out. Although the restaurant was busy but not packed, our food came out way too late.

I am not sure why our waiter didn’t bother to care about us; optics don’t help though when you are a group of three southeast Asian men with a Caucasian waiter. He happen to pay attention to tables around us that also happen to have patrons who didn’t look like our group. Even while paying the check, between two cards, he walked away to talk with another table; this occurred IN BETWEEN TRANSACTIONS (he couldn’t even stand near our table for more than a minute.)

I would come back to this place but I believe our waiter needs to do a better job at waiting on customers, checking up on them, and at least acting...