Karl Strauss Brewing Company — Restaurant in Poway

UPDATE: the restaurant reached out to me to see if they could make it right, I really don’t want any free food or any different type of treatment just because I gave them a bad review. Bear in mind my wife and my son will visit that place, and I may pop in in the future someday sometime who knows when but not soon. I just hope that they take this as a learning tool. However, I am glad that they reached out. It shows that they care about their customers

I can’t recommend this place anymore. It’s right around the corner from where I live and I absolutely love it, but enough is enough. I walked in with my son, the restaurants pretty empty. They tell me that if I want to sit near the bar to watch a game. I have to use a QR code, which is totally fine with me. I find it easier that way. I get there use QR code order my food : Duck fat pretzel appetizer Mac n cheese Fish and chips Water Soda and then start watching the game. 19 minutes later, I still haven’t had a glass of water or a soda delivered to my table. A minute later, our food shows up everything at once the wrong appetizer, and the two mains. So I have the wrong appetizer and also my main dish. I ordered it with green beans and they bring out an order of fries. Not a big deal the waitress is very apologetic and corrected the situation very quickly. I told her would you mind grabbing our drinks we haven’t had anything to drink yet and it’s been about 20 minutes. I’m sitting next to the bar, so she says she’ll check on my drinks and disappears. I never saw her again and I was there for an hour and a half total.

I decide to dig in and my son starts to eat his food as well… just for laughs I take the three steps over to the bar, and the bartender who is pouring some beers never turns around look at me. I even said, excuse me twice. I just wanted a soda and a glass of water, so I go sit down and I noticed a server who is giving a to go order to a gentleman by the front door. We make eye contact and I ask her would you mind getting me a glass of water and a soda? We’ve been here about 20 minutes kind of thirsty, foods here yada yada yada. She was great and she actually waited on me the many times I’ve been there. She immediately brings out water and a soda, and we begin to dig in some more.

Now about the food. My son’s Mac n cheese was good according to him. My food was like warm, fish and chips were ok, a bit soggy. The green beans looked like they’d been sitting a bit and the duck fat pretzels were burnt. They put the cheese over all the burnt on them, still didn’t taste great at all.

So not really the best night for a father son dinner I guess. My son finished his water so I thought I’d give the bartender who was wiping the bar down and NOT busy taking orders and see if he could refill the glass for me. This time I approached the opposite side of the bar. As he wiped the bar with a rag in front of me I asked his if he could refill my glass with water. He never looked up from what he was doing and muttered “it’s going to be a while I have some orders in front of you.” 😮

At that point he went to the bar tap and started pouring beers, for who I have no idea, and talking to a couple that got to the bar after I had asked for the water. I waited 5 minutes and finally said I can’t. I cannot justify spending over $60 to just have mediocre food while simultaneously being ignored by the staff. (Some of them anyway)

I told my son we were leaving. He had finished his food anyway. I walked out and that’s it. I supported them during the initial QR code era, then supported the. When they brought servers back. It’s a great place to hang. But I cannot stand the slow indifference attitude. I mean the service has always been slow, but usually it works itself out with the food and the staff being wonderful. But...

As long time residents and patrons of our local businesses, never have we been treated as rudely and disrespectfully as we were last night at the Karl Strauss in 4S Ranch. A group of us came in to watch our local sports team and enjoy good food and company. As the night went on we had a few last minute friends pop in to join us. This for some reason highly upset "Kira" who claimed to be a manager. She started treating our table very rudely...for example...yelling last chance when delivering a beer and no one heard who she said it was the first time. She then proceeded to get belligerent about us standing once in a while or getting up to hug a friend, or grab an empty stool. We had bar height tables and were in no way blocking anyone's path. There were numerous ways in and out of the restaurant that was hardly busy nor anywhere at capacity for a Friday night. This along with her eye rolls, her rude comments about us to the other staff, and the complete disrespect to us caused us all to close our tabs and not leave a tip. At this point instead of doing her best to remedy the situation (we had even offered earlier to split our group up), she just became more and more belligerent and refused to bus our table. To be treated like this when we are bringing a large amount of business in our community to a restaurant that we have supported for all the years it has been here was just shocking. This manager showed she has absolutely no experience nor does she have the social skills needed to not create a hostile environment with the staff and patrons. We could have gone to any of the other fine choices nearby and taken our business and been welcomed for it . We definitely will be letting our network of friends and businesses know about this until we have a proper resolution so we can go back to enjoying what was one of our local favorites. I do believe the business model of not having an assigned server for a table DOES NOT WORK. I had to ask for water at least 4 times from different servers before getting some. Also, having a server willing to work with us could have very easily solved some of the above issues that happened before...

Karl Strauss (4S, Rancho Bernardo)

Beer Choices: Plenty , ~ 15 taps

• Top 5 Beers (No-Particular Order) * Two Tortuga's Scotch Ale Red Trolley (the most consumed liquid next to water here) Mosaic IPA Wreck Alley (Imperial Stout) And their other seasonal like Off the Rails (Hoppy version of Red Trolley)

Ambiance Indoor, is very focused for big and small families. Lot of TVs with Bar stool and Restaurant style eatings. Outdoor, Ambiance with a fit place very lively.

Prices Tasters: beer flight for $5. (choose any 4 on the menu) Beer : $6 16 oz acerage Buffet: $26 Entrees ~$18 average Burgers range from $11-15

Food Even without Beer, this place is awesome for Food lovers, I am listing few of the best Appetizers: There Nachos are out of the world, spinach artichoke dip, buffalo wings, Asada Fries, Pita, Bread and Hummus and Calamari rings all are highly recommended

Salad: Ahi Poke Salad

Entrees : baja shrimp skillet, Tacos and Blackened salmon, Spicy chicken sandwich (average and safe) Fish and chips

Veg: tofu curry, Veg burger,

Champagne brunch buffet on the weekends Brunch buffet was ~$30/person. The buffet comes with either 1 glass of beer, a flight of 4 beers/ Bottomless mimosas. Brunch buffet highlights: Omelet station, Mini waffles, chicken wings, Ahi poke, Smoked salmon, Baked salmon with mango salsa and Plenty of desserts

Avoid, brussel sprouts, nah

Try this Outside seating along the fire place for beer Ask for Bumper stickers.

Highs Ambiance Full food menu with Great appetizers Very Friendly service Neat Happy hour pricing Proximity for 4s ranch residence

Lows Too close to road Expensive side on the food

Tip:...