McMenamins Lighthouse Brewpub — Restaurant in Lincoln City

Eating Out in a timely manner wasn’t in the cards for us. We don’t usually go out on Saturday evenings but we arrived in Lincoln city late. We had to choose a restaurant that was open late.

McMenamins was open until 10 pm and we had stopped in Newport at another brewery/restaurant that was full. We had our birthday 3 year old daughter and 5 year old son and didn’t want to wait 30 minutes so we made our way up 101. We called Tidal Raves on our way (18 minutes out) and tried to get on the list. They had a 2.5 hour wait! We stopped at M&P Thai but they are closed for dine in at this time.

We went to McMenamins and got on the list for a 30 minute wait. By this point kids were antsy and hungry. I noticed a couple that came after us was sat before us and kindly asked the host if we were still on the list. Apparently he thought we wanted to be taken off the list but we were just waiting inside on a tiny bench because it was a chilly evening and it was the only spot to sit and wait (that was indoors). The host apologized and let us know we would be next to be seated. I noticed they offer blankets for their wait listed guests, which is pretty nice. Atmosphere- the bar area is neat. There are two stories. Lighting is dim. We were sitting in a booth and each table has their own personal lamp. The bloody Mary’s looked good. They have a glass filled with celery sitting on top of the bar. I’m an artistic person myself so I enjoyed the paintings and unique designed T-shirt’s, hats, etc. Bartenders were shaking up some drinks. Mixed drinks are around the $8-$9 range per drink. Glass of cider about $5.00. Beers are $3-4+. Our server and the other wait staff were friendly. We hoped they did something special for our birthday kid but they don’t do anything for birthdays. We will have to celebrate restaurant style somewhere else a day late. Apparently it had been a busy day. They let us know when we sat down they were out of clam chowder. So we decided to order a burger with bacon & an egg on it, crab fondue, and steamed clams. By the time we thought our food would be ready they came over and let us know they were out of crab! That was the main thing I wanted. So I ordered a chicken gyro with soup. I settled for sweet potato soup (wasn’t interested in soup with bratwurst in it- not my style- and out of what I really wanted- clam chowder).

We arrived around 8:30 pm. Seated a little after 9 pm. Ordered pretty quickly. Our food finally came out at 9:45 pm! They close at 10! We were thinking “well we will have to eat fast!” Servers didn’t rush us, nor did we feel rushed. Everything was presented nicely and it looked good. Burger was tasty but $17 for burger and tots seemed pricey. Steamer clams were good but also $17. I’d prefer a more buttery taste with my clams. Buttery taste must have been overran by the water from the clams. Chicken gyro was a decent size but I prefer lots of sauce, moisture, flavor. It wasn’t a traditional tasting gyro that you would get from a Mediterranean restaurant (juicy, flavorful, saucy). It was more like a dry soft taco styled pita wrap with tomatoes and cucumbers. I did ask for extra sauce and waiter was kind to bring me some. Sweet potato soup was sweet potato purée. Our kids ate the clams but would hardly touch anything else. As soon as we got back into our van they were searching for food and complained they were hungry. We are food lovers and we were starving by the time we got our food, but overall we weren’t satisfied. This is a good place for friends to gather and have a couple beers but not the best place to bring kids on a late Saturday evening. We understand busy days and running out of things, but we still paid $48 for our three items, no drinks. It was just our luck to deal with all the food challenges of...

To begin it obviously was busy and in the weeds when we came in, and that was not their fault. I wouldn't be doing this normally but the whole situation and how it was handled irks me as a service industry veteran of close to 15 years.

My fiance and I went in for drinks and a bite to eat Tuesday evening 2/13/24. When we walked in I could tell they were busy and a bit understaffed, I mean who isn't these days you know? You have to have grace about these kinds of things, so of course we waited patiently for a table to be cleaned and sat at. Bartender passed by us, younger gentleman looking a bit busy for one person stating he'd be with us shortly, cool I respect the hustle and at least the acknowledgement. A few minutes went by and we were given a greet and our drink order was taken, I unfortunately wasn't ready so i quickly ordered a go to staple with a whiskey coke and my fiance got a hammerhead pint. He asked if we were ready for food yet and I said we hadn't even looked yet and that were just hanging out. About the time he's taking our drink order what seems to be a regular sat down with her teenage daughter the table across from us, who was promptly greeted by a different server, had gotten their drinks, their food, and been checked on twice by the bartender after he learned the server was going to transfer the table to him, I watched him run food to a table, check on his bar patrons and walk past us three times in the span of about 10 minutes after taking our drink order and we still sat at the table with nothing. Eventually we decided to just leave, on my way out he was staring at us with a blank stare and so I said hey man don't worry about it, to which he coldly asked don't worry about what in a snide tone, I said for one our drinks, two service, food, anything really. He responded with he was about to make our drinks. He was no where near the well, he was actually engaging in conversation with a bar guest at the rail talking about he was finally caught up. I suppose he completely forgot about us entirely. If the bartender had just admitted he forgot about us and apologized that would've been the end of it but his snide attitude combined with being almost completely ignorant to the fact we were sitting at our table I was irritated. All my years working in restaurants and bars some great some terrible I would never have been that way so rudely to a customer.

To the bartender, I hope you see this and learn some accountability man. I understand you were in the weeds because the server upstairs had an 8 top, I understand you're understaffed and that really sucks, however that doesn't give you the excuse to treat people so rudely and lie to their faces when you clearly had forgotten about them. It happens man, best you could've done was just apologize but instead you reacted as if I had done something wrong by leaving after waiting patiently for you to realize...

Solid atmosphere and location to the hotels. The food looked awesome online and given we had the kiddos figured a slightly pre dinner time would be best so it wouldn’t be crowded. Our kids aren’t bad but they make noise as toddlers do. We try to be courteous to others who didn’t choose to have kids. We got seated by the gentleman up front quite quickly. He seemed rushed but friendly and upbeat so we were excited this would translate to later service. The service at the table was solidly one of the worst experiences I’ve had. Took probably 15 minutes to get anybody to the table and then another 5-10 to get some waters. The guy seemed like he maybe was friendly but like he was having quite a bad day and dealing with maybe headaches or something? Not quite sure but it was not his day. Food came relatively quick in about 15 minutes for the fries for the kiddos which is great to keep them occupied away from the lamps and windows they have. Great for normal people but with toddlers it was a hazard we just unplugged it and moved it off the table. Fries came first and were incredibly basic and a grade below even McDonald’s. When they put their name on it I expected a lot better. Maybe not the full works but even a little bit of seasoning would’ve been great. I’ve not had kiddos refuse fries in my life but I had to basically shove them at the little girl to get them to consider. Probably another ten minutes later we got the entrees, crab fondue and crab Mac and cheese. These are quite small portions and sharing them between us was quite difficult. The food was also barely above what I’d say was warm. There were small bits of crab noted in each dish but you had to search a bit. The fondue tasted, in my wife’s words, like “cheese wiz warmed up with some mild cheddar”. After tasting it once I fully agreed with her. The Mac and cheese was lukewarm and of similar flavor profile. After heavily seasoning with salt I was able to eat it but it wasn’t what I expected for that price. Both the wife and I looked at each other at the end shocked with how much we spent and how little food we got. We spent only a little more down the road at Zeller’s and had so much food between all of us we were stuffed and took some home. Needless to say after this encounter we did go right back to zellers to actually eat enough food. Would not recommend going...