Firestone Walker Brewing Company — Restaurant in Paso Robles

High price for bland food and diminished service: Beer is good (Cali Squeeze Blood Orange is delicious!). We sat at table outside (fun ambiance). You have to order food and drink from website (QR code at table links your table to your order) and food runners will bring it to you (not very helpful when you have questions about the menu). I ordered fish tacos which looked great but bland (no seasoning on fish nor batter, very disappointing). After one bite I returned the tacos to a food runner who assured me his manager would take care of it. When I asked how he would know which order was mine (my brother also ordered the fish tacos) he gave a ‘deer in headlights’ response that I didn’t understand and pressing him on the matter produced even more confusion (red flag). Assuming I wouldn’t be charged for the tacos (doh!) I ordered a burger which was slightly less bland, even though I paid extra for additional toppings. Side note, my other brother let me try a bite of the smash burger he ordered and it was delicious, well seasoned. I paid for the meal on my phone and the bill included the fish tacos. On top of that they automatically added an 18% gratuity (for bland food and food runners!?). Anxious to leave I left without confronting the staff, thinking (wishfully) the final charge would not include the fish tacos (several days later I confirmed the charge did include the tacos). In hindsight I probably should have talked to the staff about my bill. However, at that time, after the ‘deer in headlights’ encounter with the food runner and nobody following up with me (and after witnessing what appeared to be disorder at the hostess booth when we first walked in) I felt confronting the staff would be fruitless and aggravating. In the end I left being charged tax and tip for bland tacos I didn’t eat and overall bitter about the whole experience.

If you do end up here, I recommend navigating this place as follows: After getting seated, use your phone on the QR code at the table to open the menu and start your order Do not expect a server (only food runners) Order the smash burger, fries and Cali Squeeze Blood Orange (great combo!) Be patient with food and drink delivery Enjoy your company and the ambiance

Update: Shortly after posting this review Firestone reached out to me. They refunded my whole meal! Classy move Firestone, thank you. They also assured me their working on improving their service at that location. We’ll...

Service needs improvement. Its like the staff are incompetent and the poor manager has to go around fixing everything after them. We were on the waiting list to be seated, asked for inside, 25 min wait, not bad. Watched a guy get really mad because they skipped him and then told him he wasn't on the list to be seated, should have been our first indication. After waiting, the hostess wanted to seat us outside, and not even at a table, at some lounge chairs with a tiny end table. Mind you plenty of regular dining tables available. The manager asked 2 times if we had been helped, she must have seen the annoyance on our faces. We waited a little longer to be seated and to our surprise the manager offered a round on the house. Very nice of her. We didn't see any other waitress, other than the one that brought food. The manager kept coming back to check on us, about 3 times. Then as we are leaving, I ordered to go cans of beer. As I just get up from my table all the staff is on me to out on a mask, this is the only time anyone, besides the manager, acknowledged we were there. I walk up to the bar, with my mask on. The bar tender says how can I help you, I start to speak, he interrupts me rudely to put my mask on. I tell him its on, he continues to interrupt me as I am asking for what I already paid for. I cant even get a whole sentence out of why I am even at the bar because he continued to interrupt me. He wanted the mask up by my eyes, I covered my whole face at this point. Told him to stop talking long enough for me to tell him what I need. Mind you, I am not yelling, just talking in a normal volume, but it is a lower tone at this point. He continues to be rude the whole transaction. I am not sure why, he wasn't busy, I hadn't even seen him prior to walking up to the bar. I would have gone up to the manager and let her know that I did see staff without masks and how rude the bartender was, but I was over it. The manager obviously has to clean up for her rude staff and I'm sure she knows how bad they are. I will say, the food was good, the beer is good, and the manager is nice. Not sure I would go back at this point. Customer service is huge, I'm not mean to staff and I don't skimp on tips, but I probably should...

They should call Firestone "Restaurant of Low Expectations". If you don't have high expectations, you won't be disappointed.

First, there are no servers, only food runners and drink runners. I guess that's so no one has to answer for any mistakes? You order your food and drinks via their online menu that you access by QR code. If you have any questions about the food or drinks, good luck.

I ordered drinks for my wife and I first. I'm watching people who were sat after us getting drinks, where are mine? Finally I went to the bar because one person who came by that I told we were waiting for drinks didn't even offer to go find out where they are... Again, no responsibility for anything.

I get to the bar and ask, the bartender looks up my order and says oh your ticket must have gotten lost. No one has any responsibility for screw ups. If there was an actual server they'd be demanding the bartender to get the drinks ready.... And bring them to the table.

Order food, taquitos and brussel sprouts for me, fish n chips for my wife. Brussel sprouts are overcooked/ burnt. Taquitos have a honey glaze dripped on them which is actually greasy for some reason and makes it difficult to eat using your hand since it's dripping everywhere. Fish is cooked ok, fries are underdone.

Someone came by and asked if everything was ok, just nodded yes as we wanted to get out of there. No second drinks, an actual server could probably have sold another round though.

You check out online, the tip suggestion box comes up starting with 18% and goes up from there. Yeah no, I'm tipping on food runner service with zero responsibility and having to fetch my own drinks...

I think this store is not run very well as I've eaten in buellton and Venice and didn't have this experience at either.

I also think just having food runners is not the answer. A good server can bring a lot to the bottom line of a restaurant by selling. They get tipped more and the restaurant sells more food and drinks. Missed...