Stack'd Burger Bar — Restaurant in Milwaukee

I recently went to Stack'd after hearing good things about it and checking out their website. Their menu was appealing, albeit expensive for what it was. My boyfriend and I were seated and asked to order drinks. I asked for lemonade and he chose a beer. Only after the waitress (a blonde, don't recall the name) had left did we have time to examine the menu. We were about to get fried pickles as an app, when I noticed a tiny line of text saying they use peanut oil as their shortening. I have a severe peanut allergy. There were no signs or warnings prior to this, and I felt uncomfortable even being in the restaurant. I notified our waitress (as she returned with our drinks), who seemed perplexed and asked "Well like how bad?" I told her I would die and asked if it was safe for me to dine there; I asked if they had a separate grill and/or station that was allergen-free. "Uh I don't know let me ask my manager." The manager was ten feet away sitting at the bar. She returned to say "I can't like guarantee it won't have nuts but you can try... my manager said it is all on one grill and the other stuff is made right next to it so it could splatter... I don't know maybe you should just get a salad I think?" I obviously wanted to leave but she took my silence and closing the menu as needing to find a salad (that may or may not end up killing me.) I thought it was the right thing to do to let her know we were leaving instead of just walking out. She said "okay one minute" and came back with... A BILL! TEN DOLLARS for an untouched lemonade and beer for customers who cannot dine there because they don't have visible warnings of ingredients that are a very common allergen? Five Guys, Chick-Fil-A, Longhorn Steakhouse and the like all give adequate warning before you even look at the menu. Whether or not the oil is broken down enough to cause a reaction is a moot point, if there's any risk at all, you should tell the customer you can't serve them. I've been denied service from plenty of places because of my PA, but it shows me the employees actually care (and don't want to be sued.) I told her I found it ridiculous she was charging us for being in there less than 15 minutes, and asked if she found it rude. It's not like we knew and had tried to take advantage of anything or downed our beverages. Again she seemed confused... and spoke with her manager who told her to tell us we had to pay for the beer. I asked to speak to the manager, who was an African American woman with shorter hair (in case there are multiple managers). I asked if she found the bill inappropriate due to the circumstances and she seemed just as perplexed as the waitress. "Well it's an open beer! We can't not charge you!" I stood my ground for a few minutes and eventually, with an eye roll, she told us "Fine." I thanked her and we left. I feel the staff handled the situation very poorly. Dining out is hard enough with so many allergies, but when people lack empathy and don't seem to understand what allergies are, it becomes a downright miserable experience. I lost my appetite and felt the need to warn others who might be like me or care about such dismal business practices. It is frightening to think if we had ordered an App with our drinks I wouldn't be here typing this. TLDR: Rude, unprofessional, ditsy staff and poor management // Smoky, cheap-feeling atmosphere // Overpriced food, but I didn't get to taste it // (Regardless of the quality of the food, my experience was so bad I can not recommend Stack'd.) We ended up at Cafe Centraal which is...

I visited this location twice; on our first visit we had a negative experience. I was contacted by the owner in regards to our poor first time, and after speaking with the owner, my family and I came back and tried the restaurant again. I have written about both of our times below. If you want to read my more negative review, it is below the first paragraph (which is much more positive).

Visit #2: Our service was probably the most impressive part about this visit, and understandably so. Both our waitress and the manager made sure that we were very comfortable and always tended to. Our service was quick and polite, but I know that there was a lot of added pressure on our waitress due to the results of our last visit. None the less, she was extremely kind and informative. Our food was much better this time around. All of our sandwiches were cooked to our liking, our fries tasted warm and fresh, and our fried pickles were also delicious. If you are a fan of fried pickles, I would definitely recommend these to you! If you have never had fried pickles, this would be a great place to try them. So, in summary, both our food and service were superb. The deterrent, however, is the prices; both the sandwiches and apps are all pretty expensive. You can expect about $10 for an app, and $15 for any burger. For those prices, there are a lot of places that you could go, for much less, for a meal of equivalent taste! Although it is a bit of a drive, Reveres in Delafield is just as good, for much less.

Visit #1: I visited with my family of 4, and we ordered 4 different burgers. Each of our sandwiches was cooked incorrectly; they were all either under or overcooked to what we had requested. It was a Saturday night, but they were not too busy. For a place that focuses so heavily on burgers, we were shocked that all 4 of them were wrong. Each Patty was also incredibly dry, and cheeses were not melted, and all of our fries were cold/room temp. One of our sandwiches also was supposed to come with a pretzel bun, but it did not. We expressed this concern to our waitress, and they did their best to compensate for their mistakes. We also waited probably 30-45 minutes for our meal, so it was not worth getting any...

(Review from 10/13/16)

I have been wanting to check out Stack'd for years now, and finally got my chance this past weekend on Sunday 10/09/2016!

I had spent the morning at LEGO Kids Fest with my fiance, her son, my sister, and her boyfriend. We were all pretty hungry, and I had suggested AJ Bombers as it was nearby. Due to the lack of parking available near AJ Bombers at the time, we began thinking of a different lunch destination. My sister's boyfriend actually suggested Stack'd, and we headed there right away.

I really liked the overall atmosphere right away. The outdoor seating looks like it would be a great place to hang out in better weather. Inside was comfortable with plenty to look at. The well-placed TVs had both the baseball game and the football game on.

I immediately checked out the beer list to get started. With the excellent selection of beer and other drinks, you would definitely have no issue finding something that you like.

The main menu has a great variety to choose from as well. Since half of us had never been there before, my sister and her boyfriend ordered the cheese curds and fried pickles for an appetizer. The cheese curds were on par with some of the best I have had. I usually don't care for pickles, but always give something new a try. I am glad that I did. These fried pickles were in no way soggy or having the breading falling apart like I have seen other places. These were nice thick slices of pickle that still had it's crisp even after frying!

As I was browsing the burger selection, I came across quite a few that I wanted to try. It took me a bit, but I was able to narrow it down and ultimatley chose the Italian Burger. It had maranara, mozzarella cheese, large pepperoni slices, and pesto. Each burger lets you have a bun choice, and I couldn't pass up trying the pretzel bun. That was such a good choice! The burger itself was cooked perfectly to my liking. It was juicy and flavorful. Overall, I was completely satisfied with my burger selection!

I do have to agree with some other reviews that the prices are a bit high. I guess I will keep this one on the back burner as a special occasion option which is kind of a bummer since I would like to frequent...