Angry Minnow Brewery — Restaurant in Hayward

Would love to write a good review, I think their food and beers are some of the best in the area, but service and costumer appreciation is a zero.

If you go here with a group of one or two, usually no problem with getting seated and served, or you just settle and eat at the bar. Any larger and there are long waits inconsistent seating processes and servers who ignore you. Our visit this past weekend solidified my resolve as well as my other family in the area that we will not be going back anytime soon. Got to the restaurant told a 30min wait, during that 30 minutes two groups of 4 and 5 before us remained unseated. Over heard one groups' members decide to leave as they had been waiting for 40min. The remaining group must have dispersed before that as they were no where to be found 30min later when we though we might get seated. Instead we watched a group of 5 get seated 3 min after arriving at a round table for 5-6. When I asked the server she said only groups of 5 and larger could sit at the round table. Leaving our group high and dry with our 4 members even though we had been waiting 10times as long. Just before deciding to leave heard the server tell another group that come in with 6 at 8:30 that they stop serving food at 9p and could not get them seated or served before that so turned them away. At that point we called it went to Anglers on main street got seated in less then a minute. The beers and food might not be quite as fancy, but the service is great. This is not the only time this has happened to members of my family or myself, so for now we are calling it a loss and will take our business elsewhere when we visit for the weekend.

Over all my thought is that Angry Minnow has the space for more seating and they put in a gift shop instead, they also have lounge chairs where they could have tables for small groups, but don't. Over all feeling is that costumer service for people who want to eat and drink here is a secondary consideration...

I am so baffled by the negative reviews for Angry Minnow...My husband and I live north of Hayward and pass through there often on our way to visit family in MN. We purposely time our trips through Hayward according to the Minnow's hours so that we can eat there. We always sit at the bar– to expedite things a little, since we're always in a little bit of a hurry to get back on the road–and have found the bartenders to be extremely polite, charming and attentive every single time we've been there.

The menu has something for everyone and everything on it is made with fresh and often local ingredients. The chef has a knack for putting a unique spin on well-known American favorites, like pulled pork sandwiches (my personal favorite). We have always been very impressed by the quality and value (great prices!) that the Minnow delivers. Their beers and craft root-beer are also top notch.

I have eaten all over the country and world and can honestly say that this place is a gem and we're lucky to have it all the way up here in the rural Northwoods. In fact, when my husband and I returned home from a trip to Italy last spring, we were really craving some American food and beer, and the Minnow was our first stop when we got back to the States....boy did their food and beer go down easy!! As awesome as Italy is, it felt great to be home.

I have no idea why this place gets negative reviews. Perhaps the out-of-towners come to the Northwoods with unrealistic expectations, but even then I think the...

I’m torn on this review. I was here 2-3 time five years ago when we were in town for a hockey tournament. It was great. The menu isn’t super kid friendly but they made up for it then by accommodating for our team and being absolutely great so we ate there at each meal. Now we are in town for a vacation. We went back for lunch and tonight for dinner. Atmosphere, food and drink are great. However, both times we had poor service. For lunch she was never around to get another drink or bring us the check. She also didn’t know the menu or beers very well. She couldn’t answer our questions. Disappointing but forgiveable. Tonight we went back. Food and beer were so good. Servings generous. However our waitress was actually not a nice person. She was irritated with us. I actually asked my kids if they did something. They didn’t and called her snotty. I felt myself over compensating my thank yous and pleasantries to try to make her happier with us. It didn’t work. Basically, I’m going to decide the service is now poor. I’m guessing they need to invest more time into training and management expectations but are currently not doing this. We are in the middle of a pandemic. I’m sure all small businesses could use all the business they can get. Poor service is really not ok. I’m a little sad because we decided we need to try other places now. If I didn’t like the atmosphere, food and beer so much they would have...