Prison Brews — Restaurant in Jefferson City

Atmosphere was nice when you walk in. Prison bars around the dining and bar area. Tables were unique. Bathrooms were clean. I give cudos to Debbie, our waitress and Tom, the Manager for their handling of a not so pleasant food experience though... Starting off, me and my guest were seated by Debbie, who was pleasant, smiling and friendly. She got our drinks and took our appetizer order.. came back, took our lunch order. My order was a Supreme Pizza, my guest ordered the PB burger. Onion rings came out hot and crisp and the Chipotle ketchup was good. Debbie came to the table a few minutes later and politely told us that our order had not been received on the kitchen due to computer "glitch" but then stated she put it in again and should be up soon. No problem we thought.. she kept our drinks going. My guests burger arrived. He cut in half for easier handling.. took a bite.. he stated the burger was cold. He asked Debbie to heat it back up.. she said she would have them make a new one... my pizza arrived then... it looked and smelled phenomenal! I served my first slice to my plate and dug in. The Supreme flavors did not disappoint. This pizza had phenomenal flavor..the crust was a perfect golden brown and the toppings plentiful! My guest grabbed a piece for his wait..placed on a plate and right then, my guests burger comes out..and it is good to go, nice and warm. I tell Debbie I would like to order another Supreme pizza to go as the flavors were that good.. she said she would put the order in. I grabbed another piece of the mouthwatering pizza and ate it during our conversation. After a while I thought I want another piece.. the flavor was that good and I hadn't eaten yet that day so I could do another piece. I went to tug to pull the piece on my plate and felt something against my finger that was taught.. closer inspection.. it was a hair baked into the 2 slices that the piece I was trying to take had been attached to.. I understand unfortunate things can happen in a kitchen..however..the 1 thing I cannot do is hair! I immediately alerted Debbie the waitress who apologized and took it back to the kitchen. I did explain to her that I would like that off my bill and that I no longer wanted the 2nd to go pizza. She came back to table stating that the manager would be coming over to talk to us shortly. Tom, the manager came and apologized and stated he would take the 2 pizzas off.. Tom did what he said and also gave us a 15% discount as well. I appreciate both Debbie and Tom. I may one day give them and the pizza another go, as the flavor was awesome, however it...

We brought friends and family here for a unique experience. We had toured the Missouri State Penitentiary and decided to keep the jail theme going. The restaurant is clean and has great decor, but that's about all I can say. Here are the pros and cons:

PROS - Clean and fun atmosphere! Manager ended up taking 50% off of our ticket after we had to complain.

CONS - Waited 30 minutes for our server to even take our drink order, which he got wrong. Gave a Sprite to someone when they asked for water. She said it was fine and that she'd drink it and never said anything. Then he came along and topped her Sprite off with water. Then it took a long time for him to come back so we could ask for a new one. Waited another 20 minutes for our server to take our food order. Meanwhile, several groups that had come in after us had already eaten and left. Finally received our food, but only half of our group got their food. They were finished eating by the time the second half got our food. Everyone's food was cold and not very good. The same person who had their drink order messed up got their food order messed up and had to wait even longer then everyone else. Our server brought the condiments after we had pretty well finished our meals. We had asked for them with our food order. Our server was not very attentive. He didn't listen well and several times seemed to ignore us as we tried to get his attention. One of the people in our group actually walked back into the kitchen to find help. Everyone just stared at him and didn't say anything. Our server never acknowledged his mistakes until we complained to the manager and then he came by and gave a very quick, non-genuine apology (similar to a toddler being forced to apologize to a sibling) then turned around and walked away. I'm not even sure he knew what he was apologizing for. He seemed oblivious the whole time. We were finally able to leave 2 hours later, but too late for our next...

My wife and I decided to get out of Columbia and check this place out. We had high hopes...

Really two stars but I'll go three because my wife liked her meal. She had the Club with sweet potato fries. Kudos for having prime rib on the sandwich, as very few places do more than turkey and ham. And she liked the fries, although they were served cold. But, my Prison burger was just odd. No sear at all, and the burger tasted like the cook was using meat loaf mix. Just shake some salt and pepper on the patty, add nothing to the meat, and sear on both sides to 160 degrees. Easy peasy. Two tiny pickle chips, a little ring of onion, a small slice of tomato, and one lettuce leaf. That's it. Cheap, cheap, cheap, and poor taste too. At least the house-made potato chips were good. Cold, but good (yes, all the stuff out of the fryer was cold. There is a trend here).

We had two beers apiece, trying three of the varieties. Bottom line? Flat. And woefully lacking in beer flavor. May as well have had Bud Light someplace. Plus, the bartender knew we were first-timers but kept talking up the couple a few seats down. We sat there with cold food, bad beer, and empty glasses. He never smiled and seemed pretty disinterested the whole time.

We've had excellent craft brews and bar food from coast to coast over the years and can't believe how many five-star reviews this place has. Was our experience a one-time anomaly? Maybe. After all, we didn't try every single beer and food item. But, when you can't brew beer with life and flavor, and the cook can't get a simple hamburger right, well, that's where we draw the line.

We'll stick closer to home and spend our money where we don't leave thinking...