HomeGrown Brewing Company — Restaurant in Oxford Charter Township

Update 2019 - continues to improve and up a star - new beer runs and trials (more hit than miss) have been a good addition. Trivia nights and live music outdoors - well done. I would skip the spruce beer - but there are no advances without mistakes. (I’ll keep my evergreen derived alcohol content to gin!) Cannot comment on food as I have not eaten here in well over a year.

Update: Definite improvement in staffing levels seems to be improving the speed of service. Nice work. But is it fair for the head chef to give his own place a 5 star rating?

As a local I would like this to succeed. However it is off to a rough start in my opinion after three visits. What is good: The beer is good - pleasant varieties. Nothing a knock out but good selection. The patio is a great addition - perfect for summer evenings Sitting at the bar - someone will actually wait on you here Owners involved

What is bad: Service has been poor when seated at the tables. On a prior visit we watched three different tables leave between being seated and abandoned after getting water. Quick seating - as people were rolling out to an expedient nearby location for dinner. When this was brought up it was mentioned that they were suddenly slammed and did not have staff to keep up. Being surprised that you are busy, on a Friday, at 6pm might be a recipe for failure. Nearly had to tackle our waiter to get his attention - one would think he would be peddling the drinks to keep his tables happy instead of hiding at the waiter station talking.

Food is well and truly meh. Salty, uninspired and generally poor outside the burger - I expected so much more of a local source inspired menu - but have been underwhelmed on four separate occasions. Overpriced for undersized and mis-cooked - regardless of what ingredients were put in it. - Update - some down tick in some prices (fries now come without the slap in the face they once provided)

Question the knowledge of some of the staff on the meals. hearing an interesting description of the red pesto meat sauce was a nice opposite to the green pesto vegetarian pasta received

I am a mug club member and will continue to support the brew side of this location - but there are better food choices. They will be in trouble with their pending new neighbor if they do not improve the dining side of their...

My friend and I split beer cheese and pretzel app. Very creative presentation and unlike any other "beer cheese" we've ever had. Clearly fresh and completely made from scratch. The horseradish seemed to be what every other beer cheese is missing. Pretzel bites were soft and well seasoned.

Our waiter was very knowledgeable about the menu and helped my friend select a beer she ended up loving (will be back when I'm not pregnant to sample the brew) and pointed us to the special sheet and strongly encrouaged us to order from there. He said since their hard menu isn't going anywhere, to take the opportunity to enjoy some locally sourced ingredients and recipes that will come and go with the season.

We both had the shrimp and it was amazing. You could really taste the difference local veggies made. The tomatoes and corn tasted like they were picked from a garden that day. The shrimp, too, was very fresh. The broth it was all in was so flavorful. Top it all off with two thick slices of delicious homemade multigrain bread and we were so happy.

The meal portions are much smaller than other restaurants, especially breweries, which is actually nice because there is room to enjoy more courses. However, it'd be nice to see that reflected in their prices.

The appetizer and dessert portions are large and very shareable.

We split the crumble, which right now is blueberry to go with the season, and it was very good. Again, the berries were undeniably fresh.

The atmosphere is wonderful. It is open but you don't feel crowded. The outside is beautiful with lots of seating and two huge fire pits. We wanted to go sit or there but opted for dessert instead. The decor is rustic without being too trendy. I loved the choice made with the kitchen location. It is completely open to see into, but not in a diner type way. When you're seated, you can't see it and you're still getting the "nicer restaurant" vibe as it is prepared for you. But walk in from Main Street or use the restroom, and you have the opportunity to see everything they're doing. No secrets. Just fresh ingredients clearly made by passionte chefs.

I will...

I am giving this harsh review because this restaurant has so much potential, and I want to see them succeed. This is meant to be constructive not malicious. I do recommend people at least give this place a try... all the deficiencies are fixable. First of all the good: The atmosphere is fantastic! Now the rest: The beer was okay. I had the Steamboat Stout and it tasted like a stout mixed with an IPA... I am sure people who are not true stout lovers would like it. The food was extremely disappointing. We ordered an appetizer of fries which cost $6.99, and it was this tiny little basket of broken pieces of french fries. The pieces were so small we could barely pick them up. They tasted fine. We had to ask for the dipping sauces that were supposed to come with them. The server said he didn't bring them because most people only want ketchup. Next, I had the macaroni and cheese. I was thrilled that it had no meat in it, but it was so salty that I could not eat it. I only took about two or three bites. The waiter never came to ask how the food was. Instead, someone did come and ask if he could take my nearly full plate away. I said yes take it, it is too salty, I can't eat it. He picked up the plate and took it away without even saying I am sorry to hear that or offering any remedy. For the rest of the meal the wait staff was very attentive in wanting to take things off our table but not once did they ask how the food was or if we needed anything. I DID like that they are well staffed. There are plenty of people there to serve you, they just need training in how to be better servers. Again, all of these things are fixable. With the terrific atmosphere, this place has...