Atwater Brewery & Tap House — Restaurant in Detroit

Overall, this is a pretty cool place. The atmosphere is nice and clean, fenced in parking, craft brews, good food, nice Detroit aesthetics, televisions for news/sports, a separate area for corn hole, and a friendly wait staff. I love Atwater brews, that was the main purpose for this visit (it did not disappoint in that category).

Here is where it did disappoint: (at the time of our visit the place was not empty, but not packed - appeared to be a slow night)

We ordered two food items at the same time, a barbecue chicken nacho and an order of pretzels, along with our drink order (two pints of craft brew).

The bbq chicken nachos were asked to come without scallions, but they arrived with them. Not a deal breaker since we don’t have any food allergies, just not a fan of them. We ate around them. The nachos were okay, the taste of the sauce was not our cup of tea. We prefer savory bbq sauce over tart and tangy (just a preference issue, nothing negative against the establishment). The pretzels did not arrive with the nachos, our server asked if we received them yet a few minutes after we received the nachos in which we replied “not yet”. He said he would go check on them in which another server stopped by a few minutes later and stated “Sorry we forgot about the pretzels, they are making them fresh for you right now”. We were not on a time constraint so it wasn’t the biggest deal, I could see how that would be a negative to most though.

We finished our first round of drinks and waited a solid 20-25 minutes before another check-up. We placed our order for the second round in which the first drink came out timely while the second “not so much”. By the time the second drink came out the first pint was almost finished. Again I wouldn’t find that to be a huge deal but the other person was left waiting the entire time without anything to drink. I offered my drink to them but they respectfully declined stating they would just wait until their drink arrived. When the alternate server came back he said “sorry we forgot about this one!” I will note he was polite and honest. In fact I applaud his honesty for saying they forgot, but I would be a liar if I didn’t tell you how disheartening it was to be forgotten about twice.

Even with the above issues noted the main takeaway from this review is that I would still recommend checking this place out, especially if you've never been. Maybe it was just an "off" night for them? I'll give them the benefit...

We were here today after visting Belle Isle for a family trip (we also saw many families who came from Belle Isle while we were dinning). The food and beer were Awesome! Unfortunately the place was understaffed and there was one woman one man working the bar and about 40 patrons.. Our family of four came for lunch and one of our meals was entered incorrect. The only waitress (also bartender) working the floor was very appoligentic and professional when she delivered the incorrect meal, but the man on staff was very rude when my husband was checking us out. Initially the reciept had both the incorrect meal and the correct meal but also a 25% tip included on the bill (we were leaving a 30% tip in cash and we try to always tip cash..) When my husband asked him why is the bill so much and to correct the order the man took the recept for our "miss order" and tossed it in the trash after saying "keep this reciept and the extra charge will drop off". My husband then asked how will I know what the amount is and he said "you dont need that reciept" . Then this man started speaking aggressively about my husband when he was walking away after paying... WOW..is that how he treats all your customers who have a mix up with their order?? We had a great family time..we played games and enjoyed our afternoon. Again, great atmosphere, food and beer..I was leaving unaware of the situation at checkout and I was walking over to purchase two 6 packs of the favorites I sampled in my flight and merchandise when my husband informed me of his experience with this man...,so I did not buy anything additional..I would have more than doubled our tab....TO THE OWNERS "Please help support your staff".. Unfortunately you lost repeat patrons who love craft beer, great food and we tip well. You should be able to review the cameras and see all of this. Hopefully this helps your business in the future.. Thank you if you take the time to read our review. When you are...

Pros: Food and drinks were great. They were able to fit our entire party of 12 and even set up a table when we called ahead so we were seated immediately. One of our party has celiacs and they were able to accommodate his gluten free needs.

Cons: Our server was not very knowledgeable about parts of the menu for our celiac family member (such as if the burger cheese is cut from a block or comes in precut). Instead of offering to find out, she just said she didn’t know.

This is where it gets bad. There was a printing issue in the kitchen and only one half of the tables order went through. So 5 people received their food and were close to finishing it before we were even told of the issue. So by the time everyone else got their food, almost half of our party was completely done eating.

I did ask for just one check to save the server the stress of having to split it and asked if the manager could do anything because of the long wait on food. She checked and told me that he took 10% off all food items. Ok great, that was really appreciated.

After paying (and not seeing an actual receipt because they use handheld sale units), I checked my texted receipt to see that 10% was only taken off of five items for a whole $6.30 off. There was an additional $131 of food items on the bill at full price.

Just overall felt that it was very disrespectful to have a kitchen issue and not immediately offer anything as an apology and then when a discount is given, not even be given what we were told was going to be...