Whiskey River Pizza & Pub — Restaurant in Parkville

We had an awful experience on a Sunday night, thought things would be not as busy. My friends raved about this place and were excited for me to go with them. When we first got there we asked to be sit outside and where told that we would have a table cleaned for us, then we were told we could not be seated due to the kitchen being backed up. We told the hostess that it’s fine we can wait on food as long as we can sit outside to enjoy the nice weather and enjoy a cocktail. The hostess said no, we had to be on a waitlist. Fine. Even though there was plenty of seating outside and we were only a small group. So we sat at the bar and waited to be seen by a bar tender for a solid minute. Then the bartender asked us if we were eating and we laughed as we said, well we were told it would be a minute to eat anyway. Trying to lighten up the situation. The bartender then snapped at us that it was the back up was only 10-15 minutes anyway. We then explained we were just waiting for a table to be available. We then watched the hostess turn people away but then we watched her sit a couple and explain to the bartender, “they are my friends, it’s fine.” Then the bartender brought us our check with no word and we just assumed we were being asked to leave. However, she then said, your table should be ready. At this point we were so frustrated that we just closed out and went to another restaurant in the area with patio seating. I don’t know if they were short staffed or what happened but it was a poorly managed situation. If this was staffing issues, the manager that day should have been the person explaining the situation and not leave it to a poor teenager to enforce that. My friends apologized profusely to me that this was my first, and probably last experience I had with this restaurant. Cocktails were mid at best, I didn’t even finish it because the situation was so frustrating. All we wanted was to enjoy a cocktail outside on the patio, but I guess that was too much for this place to manage that. I’m NOT blaming the employees, they were just being managed terribly that night. They were doing the best they could do, but were given backwards directions for handling the kitchen back up. There are other better places in that area and maybe go somewhere else for pizza. Service was the worst I have had...

We finally got the chance to stop in and try this spot out. We met some friends for dinner and everything was on point! The drinks are incredible, the atmosphere is hopping and the food is better than we could have imagined. We started with the pretzel, it is run through the pizza oven so the outside is crispy and the center is soft, it comes out piping hot with beer cheese and a stone ground type mustard to dip in. For dinner my husband had the Whiskey River burger, he loved it! He said it was one of the best burgers he's had in a long time and the fries are perfectly cooked and seasoned. I had the Shroom and Onion burger without a bun over a bed of arugula, it was so good. Easily one of the better mushroom burgers I've ever had. Our friends had the garlic cheese bread and one of the pizzas, the raved about it all. The owner was running food as they were so busy and he stopped buy our table a couple of times to chat. The staff as a whole is working so hard to keep things flowing, having worked in the food industry and been part of restaurant openings I know just how hard it can be to keep patrons happy and they were pulling out all the stops to make sure our visit was top notch, something they did not have to do but definitely added to why I will absolutely be a returning customer. I told the owner (his name I did not catch but wish I had) that I would be ordering a pizza next time since we live local and they obviously take pride in their food. The pzza is not your take out pizza, it is crafted to perfection and you can see the pride in the food presentation alone! One other quick note, they have a photo booth, not only is it nostalgic and fun but it's free! If you haven't given this spot a try, don't sleep on it because it is worth every penny!

We continually come back to Whiskey River because the food never disappoints. Today we tried the onion ring appetizer, this is one we're leary in as it seems no one does them well, except we just found a place that does. Perfect balance between breading and onion ring. Once again the all meat pizza was at the table but today I tried the drumettes in garlic Parmesan, pleasantly surprised at the flavor and cook on these, I paired it with a side ceasar which was massive, my only complaint, a tad heavy on the dressing but...

The first few times my husband & I ate here it was lovely. No issues. The last two times were not as lovely. We always sit at the bar. Last two times, both bartenders have forgotten to enter our appetizer order for cheese bread sticks until after our meals were served. Additionally the last time we went my 4 ingredient salad was served to me without one ingredient. No one said anything. When a salad is missing 25% of the ingredients it’s noticeable. I had to request the missing item. Then the bartender made a big deal of it like he would get me as many as I wanted. I just wanted enough for my salad, not enough to take home for 5 future salads. I tried to wait. But they had to go get a box of dried cranberries from storage. Then they had to spend a lot of time breaking them up. After not getting our appetizer of cheese bread sticks I was very hungry. So I had eaten all but a 1/3 of my salad by time I got the missing ingredient. My husband was completely finished eating his pizza by that point. No apology or anything. Just gave me a crazy amount and said he gave me extra that I would take home, like he was doing me a favor. We paid and left. After service issues twice and making me feel like I was the problem for wanting what I ordered, we will not be going back. I couldn’t believe they would serve something to someone without even mentioning they didn’t have a key part of a very simple salad. It’s arugula, candied pecans, goat cheese and dried cranberries. Anyone is going to notice one of those things missing and shouldn’t be made to feel like the problem in...