Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom — Restaurant in Lexington

I am very disappointed in this place. We have always loved their food, but tonight we didn’t even get to eat there. We were there for 2 birthday parties, myself and my son. We had kids with us. We were hungry and excited to spend time with family. When we sat down at the table, we waited 20 minutes before my husband got up and politely asked if they could take our drink order. The hostess comes over and provides us drinks, however we never received our beverages from the bar. Another 30 minutes goes by and my husband politely goes back up to the hostess stand and asks if they can take our order. They tell him ok, but it was yet again another 20 minutes before we decide to get up and walk out. We did ask to speak to the manger in which he apologized and said they were short staffed. I understand staff shortage, but we asked for assistance 3x with zero courtesy. In addition, the restaurant was not busy. There were so many empty tables. There were 3 tables in our vicinity that had not been created, with dirty dishes and trash. There were employees walking past us, paying no attention that we had been sitting there for an extended period of time. There were employees having personal phone conversations around us. Employees sitting in booths talking amongst themselves. I understand employees can have break times, but everyone at once? No. In the chaos of leaving and speaking with the manager, I forgot to grab my birthday gift that we had placed beside one of our chairs. After we left and got down the road, I remembered I left it and I called the restaurant. Someone told me that they would look and put it at the desk. When I arrived back at the restaurant, the girl at the hostess stand said she didn’t have it and that the gift “wasn’t over there” referring to the table we were sitting at. I walked over to the table and I couldn’t find the gift bag. The employees were huddled together talking and I asked them to find my gift bag or I was going to need to see some security camera footage. Everyone just stared at me and didn’t say anything. One nice employee spoke up among everyone else and said “honey it’s in the office, I’ll go get it for you.” She came back out and handed it to me. I’m not sure where the issues lies but I’m very disheartened that people think customer service means nothing and it appears that someone was trying to hide my belonging that I accidentally left...

Someone quickly put this place out of their misery. I’ve never witnessed a more dysfunctional atmosphere. We went in on a Thursday night around 7PM. Place was empty aside from two tables. I stood at the host stand for 10 minutes, then wondered to the bar which had no bartender behind it. You know how we got sat? I called the restaurant, while standing in it. Someone shuffled out from the kitchen towards the host stand, answered the phone, and proceeded to walk away. I had to tell her that the individual she was talking to, was the guy she just motioned to with a finger up to wait a minute. We got sat at this point, but this is where we should’ve left. My daughter had just had her first recital and wanted pizza, so we were really trying here. After sitting down, the waitress arrived to the table 7 mins later. Yes, I was timing it at this point to prove to my wife we should leave. Does she take our drink orders? No, she says “I’ll be right back” and disappears for another 5 mins. We strike up conversation with the table next to us, they are sitting with waters and have been waiting over 40 mins for an appetizer. Uh oh. Waitress comes back, my beer order on the tip of my tongue, nope, “I promise I’ll be right back”. I was awe struck. The place was empty, and she’s twice now ducked out on taking a drink order. I hurried my family up, told the table next to us good luck, and walked to the front to call another restaurant nearby and check wait times. We called roughly 3 places in this time, about 5-7 minutes, waitress never returned to the table. The table we met? They took off as well, I guess assuming the pizza was never coming. They hurried out past us while we attempted to find a place to eat after a 40 minute disaster of epic proportion. Maybe if the ambiance was nice, and the menus weren’t covered in the last patrons sauce, I’d be willing to stare at them for an hour. With that being said, you’re supposed to eat at restaurants, and this one isn’t excelling in that department. Whoever is running this place, if you’re reading this, move quickly. You need someone in there that cares. I wouldn’t be surprised if the doors are locked permanently within a...

The last few times I have come here I have waited so long. If I can see that they’re busy that’s one thing but to actively watch our server chit chat with one table for over 15m when multiple seats are empty is another. This time, my party of four was immediately sat. I called ahead of time to be put on a wait list, Anaya stated they didn’t have a wait and to come on in. I told her we were coming from Richmond and wanted to make sure we were sat. She told me to come in and ask for her and we would be sat - and we were. Once we were sat we were not acknowledged until about 13m in, by a bus boy, I am assuming. Before that we were constantly being passed by servers, which if I’m not their table I understand but we noticed that the server with the red hair had been talking to one table, comfortably, for so long. When the boy came up to us he approached her first then came to our table and told us she was our server and would be with us soon. She was approximately 5 feet away and not once did she look over or greet us. (She was our server the last time we were there, and it took us a total of 2.5 hours from entry to exit, so I knew this couldn’t be good but wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.) By this time we have closed our menus, ready to order our starters and entrees, and still without drinks. Minutes passed and another server was walking out with food on tray, stopped by the red haired girl and asked if that food was going outside, the red haired girl had said yes and thanked her and turned back around and continued her conversation with that table. We immediately stood up and left. I called the manger and told him the interaction and he willingly told me that she only had one table and he was sorry and said he would talk to her. I think he had said her name was Ashley. Ashley did not Acknowledge any table and other people were running her food for her as she was leaned up against her guests table with her hand on her hip, not moving once. It’s incredibly disappointing that both my experiences with her were...