Red Rooster IceHouse — Restaurant in Hawkins

Hands down one of the worst dining experiences I've ever had. When I arrived I was trying to get a table for 10 people (which I knew would require a wait). I stood there for 5 minutes before the hostess even acknowledged me. I finally approached her and asked about being seated. She said she'd have to ask her manager since it was a bigger group. When she went and got her manager she came back to me and said that it would be a little bit of a wait. I said I understood and asked about a time estimate. She went back to her manager and when she came back to me and she said is going to be "a wait" I said okay. Side note, neither her nor her manager ever took my name down for the table. A few minutes later the rest of my group showed up. They asked me how long of a wait it'd be. I told him I wasn't sure and that the host had not taken down my name and that I'd already been waiting there for 10 minutes. I mentioned I was not impressed with the service being that is already been there 10 minutes, the first 5 the hostess hadn't even acknowledged me, and then her mananager didn't help her much either. The poor hostess was obviously overwhelmed and the manager didn't do a very good job of helping manage like a manager is supposed to from what I observed. After I explained these frustrations to my family, a waitress walked over to the hostess and said "Don't worry about theses people. You're doing a great job." I understand that wait staff make these kinds of comments to each other privately. However, it's extremely unprofessional to say it in front of the customers you're talking about. Especially loud enough where the people you're talking about can hear you. I was off put y the waitresses conduct but was trying to get past it. My family had spoken to the host to give her a name for our group and had been told it would be 15-20 minutes wait time. After 40 minutes, we were finally seated. Michelle, our waitress, was sweet. She took our drink orders. 10 minutes after, we put in our food order. It took 1 hour for our food to arrive. By the time it came out, half of it was cold. I was late to pick up my child, because our food took so long to arrive so immediately upon getting my food I had to ask for a to-go box. The first person I saw happened to be the manager, the same manager that I'd come over to try and help the host earlier when we were trying to check in for a table. I politely asked for a to to box and just quickly explained I was very late. Her response was, "Uhh yeah." She walked away, and a minute later she came back. She gave my sister and I a dirty look, gave my sister the to-go box, but would not hand it to me. She, also, did not give me my ticket that I had asked for so I could pay for my food. Nor had she told our waitress so that our waitress could give me my ticket so I could pay. I boxed up my food, gave my family money for my food, and left. I understand as a Icehouse/bar, it's not for 5 star service. What I do expect, though, is for the staff to be kind and polite, especially when we gave them no reason not to be. I also expect hot food in a timely manner. Not once did anyone come to say it was taking long, to apologize for the long wait, or anything of the sort. Definitely will not be returning and do not recommend it here.

To the owner, Brandon Baker, bullying customers is not a good look for a business. If you have customers posting saying they are scared to leave a review in fear it will get them bullied (specifically see review left by Marina 1 month ago, but this is a pattern if look back through the Google reviews left), as a business owner that should encourage you to reevaluate how you run your business. Instead you responded with "that's not even bullying people just react." If you have to clarify and defend yourself saying it wasn't bullying you weren't doing the right or professional thing, even if you weren't technically bullying by definition. Customers should NEVER be scared to post about a business or...

UPDATE:

To the owner, I appreciate your quick response and your generous offer. I don’t accept offers of free meals because I don’t want it to seem that getting free food was my goal in leaving my review. Also, it is not fair to you or to your staff. I understood the wait because of the Father’s Day crowd adding to your already substantial brunch crowd. It was inconvenient but not my main issue. What really made the experience negative was the lack of communication and coordination. We were left waiting with no communication at all. A manager walking around checking in on tables and letting us know what was going on would have made a huge difference for me personally.

Also, delivering entrees to half of the table while the other half waited another 10 to 15 minutes was simply unprofessional and unacceptable. The coordination on that was absolutely terrible. To make matters worse, the other two entrees were delivered 5+ minutes apart, so we had one person sitting at our table for 20 minutes watching others eat.

First impressions are everything, and I was very disappointed by my first visit to your establishment. I’ve heard nothing but wonderful reviews from friends and family so perhaps my expectations were just too high.

Went there for brunch on 6/20/2021. It was busy for Father’s Day, which is understandable. However, we sat for over 60 minutes before getting food. When food came, they only brought 2 of the four entrees ordered. The other two came out separately, 5 minutes apart. The food was good for the most part but my over easy eggs were mostly raw and inedible. The staff seemed mostly indifferent to customers and customer service. Our server tried hard though it wasn’t her fault, but she was the only one that...

Good place - But don't go there at Sunset!

Went there on a Wednesday late afternoon with several members of my family for an early dinner.

Pro: Friendly casual atmosphere and a reasonable selection of food and beverages, plentiful food and beverages in a laid-back atmosphere. Service, with one waitress, was a tad slow, but not too bad.

Prices were reasonable, and it was a good place to people watch.

It's nice the Hawkins area has this dining, bar and entertainment option.

Con: Floor to wall windows on the entire west wall of the restaurant do not make for a pleasant experience when the sun starts setting, if you can’t score one of the tables that doesn’t expose you to INTENSE almost blinding sunlight and heat, or if you don’t want to sit at the bar that’s pretty much in the shade.

I felt like I needed to have worn sun glasses and should have applied a sun blocker to protect my skin from sunburn.

I understand that you want to be able to raise the huge garage-door-type walls to have easy access to the nice outside patio, and that sun shades may be difficult to install.

But, some sort of shade on the windows at appropriate times (or something else to block the sun, such as maybe applying a window tint that would not have obscured the view) would have been super-nice and would not have spoiled an otherwise pleasant experience for me...