My party of 8 (and a newborn) went to Buckeye Beer Engine yesterday. We called ahead of time to warn them as this is typically a larger party that requires reservation. They said they did not take reservations and to just come in but it would likely be a wait which we were fine with. When I got there I ran in and they took my name down, my number, and the fact that we had 8 people mentioning to us that it would likely be around 30 minutes before we got a table. About 10 minutes later my sister-in-law went in to sit at the bar and they mentioned again it would be about 15 more minutes, all good so far! the rest of us came in and joined her at the bar. This is when it all went downhill.

I ordered an old fashioned — it was made over the next 25 minutes and then lost at the bar. The bartenders were too busy casually talking to each other and what seemed to be their friends rather than making my drink. We had to ask again for my drink and was finally received (30 minutes later).

Our large party of 8 was mostly sitting at the bar (taking up half the bar mind you). We saw several people after us get seated, but assumed our table was getting organized because of the large party. We were wrong. I never received a call and after an HOUR of waiting, we asked what the deal was. The host that initially helped us gave us a response of “I don’t know, I already clocked out…” WHAT? How can you give that response to a customer?

Afterwards we had to ask someone else whole told us “we don’t typically seat 8… WHAT? How can you make a large group taking up your entire bar area wait an hour just to tell them this? If this was seriously a problem we should have been communicated to when we called that morning and we would have went elsewhere. It’s bad enough we never got a call, or even offered food at the bar while we waited for that hour. Common sense tells you to offer us two tables next to each other (there were two tables in the small dining area open EVERY time I looked over there). I understand being short staffed and assumed that was the case, but that is where we ended up after further conversations.

Thankfully at this point things got a bit better. The service once we sat down was fairly good (thank you to the blonde bartender who came and helped us). The food and drinks came out quick and was pretty good. The only other concern I had was that I never received an itemized receipt.. I did not think we were overcharged by any means, but I have no idea what I payed for.

One other thing to note: I saw a post in the AM on Facebook about the brunch menu and asked about if only the brunch menu was offered or if the regular menu was available. They wrote back mentioning only the brunch menu, which did not line up with the response we got from the person on the phone saying that most of the regular would be available as well. We did not know what we could order when we finally sat down.

This place used to be fantastic and I used to frequently pop in here. Incredibly disappointed in the experience and treatment we received. I fully understand being understaffed, and even some of the mistakes noted here but the overall experience is absolutely unacceptable. There is no way any of us will be back to this establishment or recommend it to anyone.