Fort Smith Brewing Company — Restaurant in Fort Smith

Sorry to leave a bad review but here’s what we experienced. The building is one of the old Fort Chaffee structures and is charming but kind of sparse inside. We were first timers. Two couples and we went for Saturday Comedy Night 8-16th. Hoped for a good evening out but was disappointed. We all ordered food. The menu sounded good but the food was not. The ‘pizza’ was a heated piece of flatbread with some sauce, a few pepperoni, some packaged brisket and some peppers. No cheese. The nachos were recommended by the bartender and were slightly better than the pizza but stingy on toppings, poor quality chips, and more like something you would throw together and heat in the microwave at home. The kitchen is evidently stocked at Sam’s Club and lacking anything for cooking but a microwave. And way overpriced. The beer was disappointing too. I had trouble finding a beer that I liked and would have to rate it at best maybe a 3. The comedy was at times entertaining but the chairs were so uncomfortable we were miserable and ready to leave way before the show ended. The show was 45 minutes late starting because it took so long to get a drink at the bar and they didn’t start until everyone was seated. Which meant we were either stuck sitting in hard chairs waiting or standing in line for 20-30 minutes each time we got a drink. The sound system was bad which made it hard to understand the comics. At the end of the evening we all had the same basic opinion. The $200 + that we spent for the four of us was wasted. But, there are a lot of positive reviews so maybe by we just went on a bad night. I hope so because Fort Smith needs more of this...

Atmosphere - The place is kind of rustic- brewery which I’m good with. Is the vibe amazing, no. But it’s a respectable brewery atmosphere. Service - The bartender was very friendly and informative on their selections. Food - We didn’t eat so I really can’t comment, although the gal who we were told was the food preparer did not give me any confidence as she was just sitting around playing darts. Beer - Here’s where it goes south. On a Thursday night at 8pm one would expect the place to be hopping, right? Well, we were the only ones there, strange! But, it did give us the chance to taste almost all of the beers. Sadly, the beers were not good, in fact they were worse than not good. All have a strange metallic taste to them as if there’s something wrong with the water. After researching that area of Arkansas, I discovered that the water needs to be filtered/purified to be drinkable. I am left to believe that they do in fact have a water problem that has not been addressed. I really hope the owners fix the water issue as I believe it could be great, but with bad beer it...

I’ve had bad meals before. I’ve had slow service. But what happened here was not a restaurant experience — it was an endurance test. We came with a party of 8. The restaurant was not busy (and I now understand why). We waited nearly TWO HOURS for half of our meals to show up. Two had to be sent back — and not for minor issues, unless you consider “inedible” a minor issue.

At some point we realized we were less at dinner and more at a hostage situation — except the captors weren’t organized enough to provide food.

Eventually we gave up and left, hungry and bewildered. Surely, we thought, they would at least comp drinks or the disastrous meals? Nope. Full price for this tragic comedy of errors.

I have now banned my family from even uttering the name of this place again. It is a cursed word in our household. If someone slips and mentions it, they must immediately perform penance.

There are many wonderful places to eat in this town. This is not one of them. Visit at your own risk — but maybe pack a snack and a good...