Brew Lab — Restaurant in Overland Park

Let me tell you about a terrible experience at Brew Lab. To set the stage...my brother was given a beer making experience by his mother-in-law for Christmas. My brother and his wife live out of town. They booked a reservation for 5:30pm on a Friday, arranged childcare for the weekend and made a special trip to Kansas City all centered around enjoying his Christmas gift and making his first batch of beer.

We arrived at Brew Lab at 5:30pm. My husband tracked down a server to let them know the 5:30pm beer making group had arrived. We were directed to a table and told a brewer would be over the start the process.

The brewer came over and introduced himself. The brewer chatted a little with my brother about the styles that can't be made and how he could try to model a beer after a commercial product. My husband asked for the recipe book (which is what his group used the first time he was there) so my brother could get a sense of what he could make. The brewer left us to look over the book. When he came back, we engaged with him about the package since my brother didn't know what all was included and wanted to make sure everything was covered. We were told they only take payment online for the $50 reservation. He asked if we could find out who the gift giver spoke with when the reservation was made. My brother's wife called her mom and found out she spoke with a woman. The woman turned out to be the manager of the restaurant. She came over to the table, said she remembered talking to the gift giver and informed us that she had mailed a physical gift card.

My brother realized he forgot to bring the actual gift card. Again, the gift giver was called and she was able to find the actual gift card at the house, take pictures of the card and text them to my brother. After that happened, he left the table and went to the bar to show the pictures to the manager. He was told that the pictures would work since she would be able to get the information she needed to process the gift card. At that time, the brewer started complaining to my brother that it would take too long to brew beer, he would have to stay later to clean-up, etc. My brother came back to the table upset at the prospect of not being able to use his Christmas gift.

The brewer then came back over to the table and gave my brother-in-law his email address so the session could be rescheduled. At this point it was 6pm. We asked about availability for the rest of the weekend. They were booked and he started talking about times next week. My husband cut-in and said that wouldn't be possible since his brother-in-law and wife were from out of town and made a special trip this weekend to visit Brew Lab. The brewer started getting defensive and argumentative with us expressing our frustration.

Again, only 30 minutes had passed since we first arrived. The original calendar reservation reminder indicated it would take 3 and a half hours. We couldn't figure out why we were suddenly being told it was impossible to brew that night when it was only 6pm. Nothing was communicated to us when we arrived about a timeline, time crunch for the 5:30pm slot, etc. Why offer a 5:30pm slot if there is a chance it isn't going to work?

We paid our tab and left. On the way out, the manager was by the front door so my husband stopped and expressed to her what a terrible experience we just had. To her credit, she was being very apologetic. He just wanted to express his opinion to her and leave, but the cherry on top was a young male server who came over and became very defensive and argumentative because he was talking to his manager. First of all, he and the manager were having a respectful conversation. The manager is there to handle issues like these. She should have sent the server away since he only escalated the frustration of the moment. He did nothing to help his cause, the manager's cause or the reputation of the establishment.

I hope the gift giver gets reimbursed since my brother is no longer interested in...

Today was an awful experience. It’s difficult to put into words how frustrated I was with the way my friend and I were treated. Jose was our waiter, he was absolutely nonexistent from the moment we sat down. My friend ordered a beer and I needed a moment to look at the menu and Jose just simply never came back. After 15 minutes of waiting to order my beer I had to go to the bar. At this point it was quite clear Jose had a vendetta against us both. We ordered a handful of appetizers and my friend got a Reuben sandwich with fries. The food is always perfect the beer is always good. About a quarter of the way through my second drink I accidentally spilled my glass setting it on an uneven surface. It made enough of a stir to be apparent to the entire half of the building(closest to the bar). Not a single staff member acknowledged this. I used every napkin we had and picked up all of the glass pieces. I placed the broken glass in the nearest bar trash can. Attempting an apology to the bartender garnished again zero acknowledgement. There was no ability to inform anyone of this potential safety hazard with the spilled liquid on the floor. We were at this point being ignored. I was given our checks, I have no idea what my friend left but based upon my experience I left Jose 0.00. He deserved zero tip based upon the way he purposely ignored us. This was then the point that upon walking to our vehicles to leave Jose came out into the parking lot with our checks and asked if “we were serious”. My friend and I reassured him we left the correct amount and without any further conversation he turned and went back inside. I felt the need to explain my point of view after all of this. I have never in my lifetime had a server follow me out of an establishment. I went back in an calmly attempted to explain my experience to him and he then explained that because my friend “shouted” at him in an attempt to place an appetizer order. He served the “nice” guests first. He proceeded to tell me not to come in ever again if I was going to...

So, just to preface this review, my fiancé and I have been to Brew Lab a handful of times and have always had a pleasant experience. The food and beer is always great and pre-Covid times we always enjoyed attending trivia. Unfortunately, tonight was the first time we’ve been and experienced terrible service, honestly.The waitress never introduced herself or even just welcomed us, instead she just came by and said, “What can I get you?”, we ordered our beers (to which she seemed to have no knowledge of). When she finally dropped the beers off she said nothing and didn’t ask if we wanted to order anything else. Finally, once the other two people in our party had sat down, she came by again. Throughout the course of the night, there were a lot of odd things that the waitress didn’t do that we just found strange, she never brought silverware, and when asked she only brought two sets, even though there were four of us there. She didn’t seem to know anything about the beer or food menu either. Finally, half of the food came out almost ten minutes before the rest and it just seemed very nonchalant. That being said, the food was still great and we have no complaints about it. I simply wanted to write this review as a concerned customer. As places begin to open back up and the weather gets nicer, I would think that restaurants would be eager to offer awesome service to keep people coming back. We want to continue going back to Brew Lab, but tonight just seemed...