Union Station Brewery — Restaurant in Providence

Lets just say this was a 3.5 star review but I rounded up because of the save on service that occurred. We arrived on a real busy Saturday Night at primetime . Shame on Marriott , our Hotel adjacent to This location for not telling us exactly how close this was to us !! We wandered around town a bit being turned away without reservations by 5 local establishments, then we finally found the Union Station Brewery, after several bouts with Directions- we normally plan better !

This place is busy! A bustling brew pub atmosphere for sure . The host told us to our surprise they had a table momentarily and sat us right away. We lingered without staff contact for 12 minutes- we were starving!! Like I said the place was beyond busy at this point but looked like a real fun place so instead of leaving I went back up to the hostess station and voiced my concerns nicely. The host was super apologetic and within 60 seconds a very friendly waiter came by and immediately recovered the service and experience. Super friendly guy, from Atlanta got our orders in and drinks immediately. He actually save The evening for us as we were beyond starving from traveling and college tours.

We ordered focaccia , calamari, a cheeseburger, shrimp scampi and nachos. We also tried the Providence Rugby Lager which was excellent as it did not tip the “too much hops” scale for me . Great beer!!

The waiter whipped up a chocolate milk for my son who was beyond starving at this point, which is was delivered immediately. Focaccia was simple and my son thoroughly enjoys his bread . Burger was also Excellent according to my burger expert in residence. Calamari didn't meet my expectations, but my wife enjoyed it. Good quality product in the Land of the best calamari on earth, Rhode Island, but too much garlic all around- took away from the other ingredients . Tossed in garlic butter with creamy garlic aioli , one or the other , but not both may work , but not a fan of creamy sauces when Pickled Banana peppers and pickled red onions could be the star accompaniments . Again, just My personal preferences, but I have eaten calamari 20 times before in RI so I consider myself well versed in this territory.

Shrimp scampi over pasta was excellent , but the nachos missed their mark - while the nachos portion was very big it lacked cheese and may have spent too much time under a heat lamp in the kitchen . Plenty of other ingredients as well as added grilled chicken ,which was very good on its own. Perhaps some queso could improve the situation and a little less char on the chips?

All in all we would come again , perhaps when it’s a little less busy, but overall the experience was positive and deserves...

If you care about ethics in dining then read this. Last night at Union Station Brewery I ordered a Bombay Sapphire martini. Having been seated directly across from the bar, which mainly serves beer (being a brew pub and all,) it was easy to observe the bartender making my mixed drink. But, he did not reach for the Bombay Sapphire bottle, and instead reached for a bottle next to it. I waited to make sure the drink was mine and once delivered to the table I got up and went to speak to the bartender. I asked him what the liquor was that he used in my drink as I had ordered a premium brand and being gluten free, it was important to make sure I was getting what I ordered since many liquors contain gluten. He showed me the bottle - a bar stock variety of Bombay simply called "Dry Gin." He offered to remake my drink with the Sapphire, knowing I had caught him red-handed in this ridiculous charade that restaurants are constantly using to dupe their customers. I told him as long as it was Bombay Gin I would take what he had made and he replied it would cost less than the premium. So, the thing he had to do at that point was make the adjustment in the computer on the price of my drink, or tell the server to do so. Neither of those things happened and when we got the check, sure enough, we still were being charged for the premium drink. Epic fail! My husband and I encounter similar varieties of this situation in almost every restaurant we go to. Quite frankly, I am sick of it and am going to start calling out restaurants like the Union Station Brewery that lack ethics in delivering their services. If you value ethics in consumerism, do not dine at establishments that knowingly cheat their customers. They do it, and if caught, their normal modus operandi is to make an offer to remove the item from the customer's check, or offer some other type of compensation. But why does it always land on the customer to have to call out the bad behavior of restaurants that want to cheat the customer? This is a COMMON problem, and believe me, if you begin being more aware in restaurants you will soon find that you are also being cheated. Union Station Brewery is one of those establishments. Do...

The beer is OK. The food is not great. I have been here twice and the food both times was bland. First time got calamari and French onion soup. Soup was bland and not great. Calamari was rubber. I had to send it back because I couldn't bite through it, it was so bad. They re-made it and it was edible but still over cooked and sadly the worst least fresh tasting Calamari I had in RI not to mention it is like 50/50 fried calamari fried banana peppers, so it is like they are cutting the ammout of calamari you are getting to skimp out. This time I ordered poutine becausea friend wanted to eat here and I wasn't going to order what I did last time.... so I ordered poutine and they skimped on toppings. It had melted cheese and gravy and they barley put any. I had to ask for more gravy on the side because it was a thin layer, and then they gave me a ketchup cup amout of gravy. Like enough for 3 fries, like the gravy was some prized possession. It was the worst saddest poutine I have had in Ri,, and it was $12. Poutine at the Slow Rhone and federal taphouse are 10 times better and are cheaper. The quality of food isn't worth the price. Idk that I can say much good about this place because the servers seemed annoyed, they ask if we are good too often. Like drinks aren't finished even half way and we are mid conversation. But then the table doesn't get cleared when things are actually finished.

I just don't get it and I wouldn't waist my time and money here again. Also $4 if you want a bread basket 😑 why even...