The Vanguard Brewpub & Distillery — Restaurant in Hampton

I rarely ever leave bad reviews, I'm someone who will try a place that missed the mark 2-3 times to give the benefit of the doubt & today was my last time trying Vanguard. The attitude & blatant disrespect we received today by our server/bartender is an embarrassment to this business.

We showed up today for a retirement celebration of someone in my old unit, most of us are active duty military, GS or veterans who have been to Vanguard before (mostly for drinks). The last two times, my food took well over an hour and we had to get it to go which wasn't an issue at the time since we weren't in much of a rush and I didn't make a big deal about it.

Today's visit was absolutely brutal, I made sure to place my order as soon as I got there to prevent history from repeating itself on the time it takes to get my food. However, it seems no matter what I do I find myself with everyone at my table eating while my food is no where to be seen. This time our CMSgt who just got back from deployment was with me & she didn't get her food or appetizers either despite us asking if it would be much longer. Everyone finished their meals & when it came time for us to have to leave & get back to our unit we walked up to the bar and spoke with the lady with long brown hair and a baseball cap.

Our goal wasn't to get a discount or ditch out, we actually were just wondering if we could get it to go so that we could eat it after our meeting in our office. We asked her if she could check to see if that was possible and she came back up and let us know our food wasn't ready and it would be another wait (it had been now an hour and 15 minutes since we placed our order).

We expressed to her that we had to get back to the office & couldn't wait so we would need to cancel our order. She looked up at us rolled her eyes and said yep. When our Chief tried to tell her what her order was she interrupted her and said "I know!" Then completely dismissed her. No apology, no anything. If this is the standards for how customers are treated I will gladly go elsewhere. We are taking Vanguard off our unit outing list after this experience, we truly love the area, and space but it isn't worth the headache & leaving without the food you ordered. I'm not sure what time limit the server thought was appropriate for us to wait but an 1hr 15 mins wasn't it.

I really had high hopes for this, but it...

Terrible experience. They prioritized a corn hole game over honoring a confirmed reservation for 25 people… avoid like the plague if you are with a big group. Terrible management. Booked a reservation for 23-28 people in advance after coordinating with their event planner. The event planner informed me they couldn’t support a group size over 30 people after 5 pm but worked with me and confirmed they could host a group size of about 25 people downstairs and had us reserved. Our group showed up confident that we had a reservation and waited for a place to sit and eat. 15 minutes after our reservation time passed I went up to the check in desk and the girl said she didn’t know when a table would be available and would let me know. With a group our size I figured it makes more sense to be patient. Another 15 minutes later I follow-up with her as I have not seen any movement or attempt to even make a table available. Another 15 minutes later I go up to the hostess and ask if we should leave as it doesn’t seem like they can fit us, she doesn’t have an answer and a waitress attempts to help us by moving one single round standing table for the group of 24 people and says we can eat there and at the bar which had at most 8-10 seats available. At this point most of my group is hungry and have been waiting at this venue for almost an hour or more. To not waste anyone else’s time I coordinated with my group and told them the restaurant didn’t honor our reservation and their only attempt to make it right was to provide a single round table for our group of 24-25. Luckily we were able to walk in to the county grill down the street at 8:00 pm and find a table for 22 people… note: not once did the management come to try and fix this situation the hostess told me she talked to them twice but not once did they talk to me or my companions as I was the one coordinating and everyone was looking to me to try and figure out what was going on. Terrible service, terrible management and I have never been to a restaurant that didn’t honor a reservation would have been best if they told us they couldn’t sit us outright and we show up at our own risk vs reserving a...

On 17 January 2020 we had a going away for multiple people at my work.We had roughly 20-25 people. I actually called two days in advance to make reservations and was informed they did not take them due to in the past people not showing up and them losing out on having to turn people away. (Which made since to me). I asked them how busy they typically where at Friday at 5:00pm they said it’s hard to say and it could be difficult seating everyone due to a concert Friday night. ( I asked what time the concert was and they told me 8:00pm) if I hadn’t already informed everyone the location I would have changed it because the manager was giving the vibe that he cared less for our business. On Friday I arrived at 4:40 to make sure I could find seating and was told by the host that we wouldn’t be able to seat that many people together and asked if I had made reservations? I said reservations!?!? I was told I couldn’t! ( if you have been to the Vaneguard you know there is a lot of seating and let me tell you at 4:45pm I’d say about 75% of it was unoccupied) I asked for the manager and he also informed me they didn’t have the seating for the amount of people I was requesting, I asked if we could have seating broken up and he again said he did not have the seating to support that. In my view I could see several empty seats specifically 4 low top tables and 4 high top table with no one sitting there and asked him why those wouldn’t work? He ended up talking with a coworker and put the tables together. Though I was frustrated, I approached the manager and thanked him for getting it done. He responded “We don’t like using these tables because our waitresses bring food out of the kitchen and the aisles must remain clear” very snappy. Multiple times throughout the night he yelled to not block the aisle. In all our party easily spent over $1000. If you’re reading this and planning to bring a large party here I would look elsewhere. Hopefully the owner reads over this and has a conversation with his manager. In the future we will be using a different venue. Lastly, I wanted to say thank you to the waitress who was very friendly and...