Ninkasi Brewing Tasting Room — Restaurant in Eugene

I really want to love this place, because I enjoy Ninkasi’s beer and I (have in the past) enjoyed the atmosphere at the Better Living Room, but the more I go, the more disappointed I am. Their prices have increased and I have a really hard time paying $16 for a burger when someone doesn’t even take my order… you have to order online! No one even checks on you throughout your meal to see if you need anything or if everything is ok. Last Saturday (Sept 24th I’m the evening) we took my mom here for dinner, she’s from out of town and loved the old Ninkasi so we thought we’d take her to the new one. The host was unfriendly and seemed bothered by us when we came in. We are all friendly people so we did not give this person a reason to be rude to us) We had reservations and took us outside to our table, and sat us as some patio furniture. It was low to the ground and we would’ve had to lean down over the small table to eat. We were all just like, “umm what the heck”. My mom is older and my fiancé has a bad back so there was no way we could comfortably sit there and eat a meal. If we were just having beers then sure it would be just fine! But we came for dinner. Asked the host for a different “real” table that would be easier and more comfortable to eat at and she or he said we couldn’t move even though there were multiple tables open. I guess they were reserved? We asked the person who brought us our beer if we could move to a real table as a third had come open. She said sure no problem at all! Cleaned it for us and brought us to our new table. The host walked back by and questioned why we moved. We explained that another employee was more than willing to let us move. The host said to us, well next time you need to come to the host stand and make sure it’s ok to move. The tone of voice and the way we were spoken down to by an employee was totally unacceptable. And other people were around and in ear shot so it was somewhat embarrassing to be spoken to like that. We were incredibly disappointed and could not believe an employee would speak to patrons like that. With that being said, I just don’t think I will be visiting the not-so-“Better” Living...

We first went here the other day for lunch and had a wonderful meal and wonderful service. Our waiter (young man with red hair) was delightful. He even took our order the old fashioned way without us having to use the QR code thing. The outside area is one of the best in town. Very pleasant! The pastrami perogies were amazing and the cod sandwich was huge and very good. It's was a different visit last night. We took some friends to show them how wonderful it was and when we first walked in, the hostess (woman with curly hair) was very perturbed that we didn't have a reservation and showed her dissatisfaction with us. Maybe she was having a bad day but it didn't start our visit off well. Heather, our waitress, was wonderful and so was the bartender. The food was, again, amazing. We had the mussels and burgers and fries. Funny that for lunch, I asked if they had anything to drink besides beer because I don't care for beer and they said just seltzer. But last night they had wine - is this only offered at night? I was very glad they had wine and at a great price too. I closed out the tab with the QR thing because the hostess who sat us told us we HAD to use that so we slogged out way through registering and ordering . One of our friends decided he wanted another glass of wine so the hostess was near and we asked if we could just pay cash and order the wine the old fashioned way - she said NO you cannot, you have to use the QR thing. So, we didn't get anymore wine. We asked Heather and she apologized and said, of course we can get another glass of wine without using the QR. But, by that time we were ready to go. So what is the story, do you allow ordering the "old fashioned way" or is it just with the QR thing? So all in all we are very pleased and will definitely return but please let people order however they want. You will lose business being SO STRICT about this. It does seem that only the hostess was the strict one though. Maybe you should ask her to not be so strict about it. It was almost like she was reprimanding us for asking. Thank for this beautiful spot to enjoy your wonderful food,...

It can sometimes be hard for me to enjoy a restaurant and the ambiance and the food when the service is just bad. And nine times out of ten, service has very little to do with the actual server and a lot to do with how the restaurant is run and how many people they choose to have working on a busy night. All that being said, with their new space only open for three weeks, I had pretty low expectations.

And I can say that I was very wrong. We enjoyed the absolute best service and kindness from every person who helped us from the very beginning walking in the door, to our truly kind, funny, and whip-smart server Harmony, to the very end, when the manager had to step in with grace and kindness when a gift card went wrong.

And for the food? I can honestly say it was absolutely delicious. Some things need a little more tweaking but ultimately it was all good. Some of the flavor pairings surprised me on the menu and then delighted us when they were served warm on the table. Beer, as always, was delicious. Excited to try more of their limited run options in the near future.

I will be back very soon. I still have a few more dishes on the menu I haven't quite made it through. Well done Ninkasi. I wanted to be smug. I wanted to sneer at the whole concept. I wanted to make fun of the art. I wanted to roll my eyes at the way the bill was presented at the end. But I couldn't. From the dishes, to the people working there, to the truly beautiful...