Boards & Brews — Restaurant in Manchester

very poor customer service. the service was very slow but obviously we didn't mind because we were playing a trivia game. We ordered a bottle of wine which was brought to us after some time, but without wine glasses so we were left with an open wine bottle and no cups for a table of 4. not a huge deal, we asked for glasses and were assured they were on their way. probably like 35 minutes later I went up to the bar and asked again for glasses stating it had been half an hour since we had been given wine but no glasses. the bartender responded rudely but I didn't even say anything I just sat down hoping for some dang wine glasses. the same bartender came over and was rude again, full of attitude and slammed the cups on the table. He was met with a collective eyeroll from our table, we didn't care about the confrontation all we wanted to do was drink our wine while we played our game! he gave us a few random excuses stating that they didn't have many wine glasses and didn't have any clean ones which we thought was weird for a waiter to say but whatever we just wanted the glasses ffs lmao

Another staff member, I'm assuming he was a manager but I didn't ask, came over to "apologize" for the situation, the slow service and lack of glasses. none of us were very receptive to the apology because there had just been multiple incidents (also earlier in the night another glass I was given had a full lipstick mark on it, I asked for another glass, not a HUGE deal but everything adding up made it a bad experience). for some reason the staff member continued talking through his apology and in the same sentence told us that they were sorry BUT that we needed to take it down a notch, and I quote, told my friend to "take a chill pill". He kept calling us all "bro" and saying "we're all just here to have a good time" telling us to relax and stuff but basically just continuing to escalate the situation.

that's basically when it turned into a confrontation because we literally were just sitting there playing a trivia game trying to drink some wine because we believed that was the concept of this bar? We pretty much were like, "are you serious right now?", asked to get our checks AND HE TOOK THE FULL BOTTLE OF WINE OFF THE TABLE accused us all of being drunk!! And told us we were cut off! We weren't even yelling this confrontation was so mild up to this point. He was visibly shaking from the confrontation and clearly was not somebody who handles confrontation well.

for reference, we got to the bar around 730 pm and this all happened right around 1045 pm. We got the chance to order one round of drinks and appetizers. We obviously mentioned this at this point stating that none of us were even slightly drunk and he said "well I don't know where you were before you came here" to which we all replied "work!" all of us had just gotten there after leaving work. plus we had been there for a few hours anyway, none of us had been even slightly disruptive beside asking for glasses multiple times over the course of an hour or so lol

basically it was impressively bad service to the point of being laughable. none of us could believe this was actually going on and that the manager was so rude to us. We paid in full for our checks, no discounts offered for the terrible experience, no real apology was offered without being followed up with basically calling us drunk and belligerent. I hope this is an isolated incident but the way it escalated tells me that's probably not the case.

On top of all of this they've responded on social media by deleting negative Facebook reviews and having one of their business partners claim to have been seated behind us backing their false claims that we were belligerent and drunk, despite having been at the restaurant for 3+ hours and only being served one round of the...

My wife and I are boardgamers, and we would not recommend this place. When we arrived, we were informed that all tables were full due to reservations. This was not the case, as we stayed for 3 hours, and multiple tables were completely empty for our entire visit. If you go, make a reservation days in advance, despite their website saying "walk-ins welcome". Walk-ins are welcome only at the bar, so we stayed there. We reviewed the menu and were already playing our first game before a staff member offered us water. We ordered some fries to split, which took nearly a full hour to arrive - they said they forgot who ordered them. I left my chair to review the boardgame collection for a few minutes and when I got back, my water was gone - I had to ask for more. Staff was not friendly or helpful. I observed several instances of behaviors where staff members were too busy chatting and scrolling on their phones to take care of their customers. This is very much a "bar first" establishment. I overheard another patron relegated to the bar asking a staff member for a boardgame recommendation, and the staff member told her that she didn't really know anything about boardgames so she could not make a recommendation. The business also does not have staff assigned to simply help or teach games to patrons. As a result, many of the games we observed people playing were mass-market classics like Parcheesi and Sequence. This behavior seems counterintuitive to what I would expect a business goal of the place is: Creating a space for hobbyist boardgamers to enjoy and a welcoming and laid back environment for bringing new people into the hobby. The boardgame selection is OK at best and lacks any helpful organization beyond overall genre. Expect to find many mass-market classics, some hobbyist titles, as well as many games no one has ever heard of. I fear the collection is aging, though, as I did not see many newer games from 2020 or beyond. The food and drink menu options were fine, but limited and fairly overpriced. The space is not well lit and is loud - it was about half full or less throughout our visit, but it still had a din and clamour. I feel strongly this place is striving to be a trendy bar and everything else suffers as a result. Unfortunately, I would highly recommend planning a game night with a few friends at home and ordering some take-out instead of visiting...

I have been going to Boards and Brews for a while now and I just happened to wonder why I haven't written a review on this wonderful place. To start off, this is a place for anyone of all ages groups that, well... like to have fun. If you enjoy fun, then this place is for you.

If you want to play any type of game of all types of difficulty levels, then they have it here on the shelf to play. Anything ranging from quick card games or children's games to the more advanced campaign games or adult games. If you prefer to bring your own games from home, you can definitely do that.

Not only do you have the ability to play games all day long until your heart is content, but if you get hungry or thirsty, they have a selection of wonderful foods and drinks. I did not take any pictures this last time, but I started the day off with something light, The Mediterranean. The Mediterranean is a cutting boards full of sliced cucumbers, red bell peppers, carrots and pita bread all to be dunked in a nice bowl of hummus.

If that isn't your thing. They have wonderful selection of other really tasty sandwiches, salads, hot meals or desert items. I have tried a lot of the food here and it is really good food.

If you aren't looking for a full meal, no worries! You can grab something from their munchies section. The classic "connect four" is a great choice if you are going with a couple friends and you can choose from a long list of munchie foods up to four different types on one plate. I usually go with four people so we all tend to pick one of our own favorites to complete the plate of munchie goodness to keep us going throughout the day of fun gameplay.

If you need help learning how to play any games, they have that covered. The staff will gladly assist you in helping you learn new games, or even pick out a game if you have no idea what you want to play.

The only complaint I have is that there isn't an Boards and Brews in my area up in Laconia, but I guess that is a good thing because I would be there almost every night after work to play some games with friends and it would probably eat up all my time!

I highly recommend going there if you want a family, a friends, a girls, or a guy's night out to escape your regular life and just sit a play some games with some good...