Mad Chef Craft Brewing — Restaurant in East Petersburg

Where do I even start? My wife and I hadn't been here before our anniversary date and it was packed when we walked in. Be forewarned that it is a true Pub-style atmosphere where you order at the bar and then they bring your food out...which is really fun, especially with that kitchen staff they have. We had one of their craft brews and waited maybe 10 or 15 minutes before a table opened up. Which was just fine. I honestly couldn't believe a) how quickly our food was prepared with a packed house and b) given that efficiency, how the presentation was just an extra wow. My wife had the crispy brussel sprouts shareable and I had the cajun crawfish fritters. I had to take pictures of both...they're just beautiful. She loved the CBS's and, having lived in Louisiana for close to 20 years of my life, I believe all my friends would love those crawfish fritters as much as I did. AMAZING. She loved her fish tacos and my French Dip sandwich was, as the great philosopher Robert Palmer once said...simply irresistible. lol Yes, maybe I'm going overboard here, but just imagine going to a restaurant for the first time not really knowing what to expect, then waiting for a table that you have to claim for yourself (that's just how a true pub works), and then being blown away by the quality of the food, the staff and - the exclamation point on the end of a great experience - their "Mama Said Gluten is the Devil!" brew with boysenberries. We've never worried about gluten...we just love us some boysenberries and you've never had anything quite like it. Delish! To top it off, they have live music...and I'm hoping to be singing there sometime because this is our kind of place. Thank you Mad Chef for showing how it's done with a truly...

Tried out the Mad Chef a couple weeks back for the first time with a buddy. We like checking out local breweries and trying the different beers and food.

The beer and food were good and had no negative comments about them. I feel like the place overall missed the mark or as a consumer I wasn’t informed enough of how the place operates.

We got there and had a wait the place was packed, which for me is fine tells me that it’s an in demand type of place for people to go to. So we wait like 30 minutes and are seated outside and were told about scanning the QR code for the menu. We check it out the menus for food and drinks and sit and chat for a little. It dawns on us we have been sitting there for a little while and had not been asked about drinks or food. We see people getting food dropped off at their tables and aren’t sure what’s going on. So my buddy takes a walk around and see that you have to go to the register to order all your stuff.

We went up ordered our food and drinks. Sitting there waiting on our food a waiter comes and asks for last calls on food. So we let him know we are still waiting on our order.

Our food comes and we get another beer and like I said earlier no complaints, nachos were awesome and a nice size. The sandwiches both were really tasty.

To wrap up the night I went to go to the bathroom and found that they have only two of them available to customers or I missed others. Having to wait for a bathroom isn’t the worst thing but with a place that size I would expect more.

All in all I would and will try it again and update my review off...

Overall, the expectations versus reality were painstakingly different. The pictures on their Facebook suggest you're in for a pleasant surprise, however, the surprise is that the food is a farcry from delicious. The portobello mushrooms were dirty, like literal dirt flavored. The meatball grinder special tasted on par with a Wawa sandwich. The beer was decent, minus the Nitro F-18 being COMPLETELY flat, with zero carbonation whatsoever.

The atmosphere was great if you enjoy your breweries to be equivalent to a Chucke Cheese. Screaming children, running around while their oblivious parents ignore them in pursuit of enebriation to drown out their incessant shrieks. Customers outside spit around the dining area with zero recourse from staff members, so enjoy your food with a side of spit from your table next door!

When asked how my meal was, I asked if she wanted honesty or a lie, she asked for the honest answer. I gave her just that, I was asked if I wanted a manager, which I replied no. She immediately was asked by a superior what was wrong, she explained, he asked "did he want to speak with a manager?" in which she replied no, he shrugged and said "ok". I'm not upset he didn't speak to me, but that non-chalant, uncaring attitude that a customer just dropped $100+ and reported such concerning issues, and he walked away shrugging speaks volumes of this...