Brewhouse Grille — Restaurant in Lower Allen

My wife and I decided to visit Brewhouse for dinner on Tuesday, 8/7/18 for their AYCE crab. It was definitely not our first time there, either for the crab or in general. We've been fans of Brewhouse for years and have been there for dinners, drinks, Beer Week events, you name it. We have get togethers with our choral group that usually end up there, and stopping after an event with friends for a beer or snack is almost always mentioned. Anyway, we arrived there at 5pm and got on the waiting list. We generally call and make a reservation, but they have lost ours twice this year so we figured we would just go and see what the wait was like. The place was definitely busy, but only 4 people were in the waiting area so it looked like they were turning checks pretty quickly. The hostess told us it would be 45 minutes due to incoming reserved parties, so we sat and waited. During our wait, we found out that this was to be the last crab night, hence the amount of people. After a while, we started to notice that groups would come in every 10 minutes or so and be seated, but generally there were at least 3 4-top tables open as we waited, and even when it crested into 50 minutes of us waiting, there were still 2 separate, open tables that had not yet been seated, while people were waiting. After 2 parties of about 7 people each were finally seated, the lead hostess (of the 4 working) turned to and started conversing with a couple who were sitting and waiting with their baby, and she assured them they would be sat "within 10 or 20 minutes". Since this couple had arrived well after us and told the hostess they did not have a reservation (and it had officially been an hour of us waiting), I approached the stand to ask when we could be seated. The hostess then informed us that because of the reserved groups finally arriving, it would be another 45 minutes. I couldn't believe it. I asked her about the tables that had been sitting empty, and she looked baffled and started to give me an excuse. I told her to take our name off the list and we left. This was the last straw for us. As I said before, I do like Brewhouse's food. They also have a great beer list (including their impressive nanobrews) and I haven't had a bad meal there. But something has turned for the worse with their front-of-house staff since the beginning of this year, and I've given them enough chances to turn it around. At one point during our wait a server came over and tried to help the hostesses make sense of the list, but after she walked away the lead hostess shook her head and said "I don't know what to do". With that. we will happily take our business elsewhere. Maybe our experience was unique, since the place does good business and their accidents-waiting-to-happen parking lots are always full. If you've had an experience like ours, however, please don't sit on it. Tell your friends and family. Post it so others can see. Positive change only comes when the owners and managers know they've done wrong, and that happens when their...

Petty bartender staff run counter service like a bitter soap opera. 50% of bartenders center themselves, gatekeep customer service over petty personal grievances, hold ego-driven bully-like grudges, gossip to and about customers, greyrock and blackball honest customers over personal vendettas, envies, and other trifling. They have an “I’m the boss” mindset and expect to be made to feel important or they’ll snub you and not make cash-change for your bill. They expect fealty and relish in unprovoked drama at this smalltown bar that’s otherwise in maintenance disrepair, with dimly-lit/neglected inner dining area last remodeled in the 90s, with parking lot potholes and vulgar graffiti in the bathrooms. Food menu is limited, ingredients are mediocre, and wait times can be long.

Recommending to ownership to have a serious conversation with bar leadership to address culture failures and the several “bad apples” / passive-aggressive divas-in-disguise (they’re not all obvious), for an attitude adjustment. Also, I’m sure the 70s were a good time, but we don’t necessarily need bathrooms that haven’t been remodeled since Iran-Contra. I’ll give them credit, their Christmas lights do look good and their bathrooms are usually clean, and most waitresses are kind.

Recommend having a talk with all people-facing staff about separating personal drama from work, stopping unprovoked unprofessionalism toward customers, staffmembers forming cliques and even bullying eachother, and maintaining respectability and dignity toward customers. Of course there are difficult customers, but in the event of that, it should be handled directly and transparently. Petulant self-involved disrespect and slighting of customers over outside-of-work personal grievances or jealously will slowly ruin a business. No more bartender god complexes with cruel brat syndrome.

The place does have some redeeming charm and potential, but some egos need checked and people need to be more direct, fair, and respectful to all. Little extra friendliness wouldn’t...

Careful! They might scam you... I came here with some friends over the long weekend to grab a drink. We arrived around 11 PM and the bar was pretty busy. The bartender made it to my two girlfriends to take their order and completely ignored me. I was standing against the bar, mine and my boyfriends IDs in hand ready to order for us and waiting for my turn when two gentlemen came up on either side of me to grab a drink, and the bartender continued to ignore me and served them first. I then passed our IDs to my boyfriend and had him order for me as I didn’t want to be rude because I was losing patience, and he was served immediately. (Crazy how that works…) Flash forward to today, one of my girlfriends got her statement from that night and noticed that her $5 tab with a $1 tip (so what should be a $6 tab) was shown as $9 charge on her statement… (Weird!) As someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for 4 years, I don’t think a 20% tip is unreasonable at all. However, it seemed to have been for this bartender and it would also seem the 1 was changed to a 4. Being such a small tab I’m sure they don’t expect anyone to dispute it, or even notice it at all on a credit card statement but it’s incredibly shady behavior. She didn’t think to keep the customer copy of her receipt so there isn’t much for her to do. I just want to warn future customers to hold on to their copy of the receipt to avoid having this happen to anyone else. I especially didn’t expect a local business to be scamming customers. As far as the service goes, I understand it gets busy, trust me I’ve been there, but full on ignoring customers isn’t a great strategy for repeat business, nor is forging tips. I’m honestly incredibly disappointed as I do enjoy their food and drinks and don’t see myself returning in the...