Village Draft House — Restaurant in Raleigh

UPDATE: I returned to VDH for a second visit to see if things might be different this time around. (See Original Review below.) I sat at the bar this time. The bartender was prompt and friendly. She got me my ice tea right away. She took my order and the food was out promptly. The Roadhouse burger was good and cooked as ordered. I had the side of mac n cheese (which was warm, not hot) but it tasted okay. I do believe in checking a place out again after a problem to see if it was a unique situation or something that happens all the time. I now believe that my experience on my initial visit was just a fluke. I have raised my star rating to 3 stars.

Original Review: The 1 Star rating is because of Service, not the food. I do not know if the food is any good because I didn't get to eat there. Yesterday, during my lunch break from work I decided to go here for lunch as I had never been in here. I was seated promptly and a waiter showed up almost immediately and ask to take my drink order. I ordered Ice Tea as I had to go back to work. He gave me the menu, we discussed the specials, and he said he would 'give me a minute to look it over'. That was the last I saw of him.

I read through the menu. Decided what I wanted to order and sat the menu on the table. I then sat there drinking my Tea. After a couple of minutes I finished the Tea. I then sat there with the menu sitting on the table and an empty glass sitting in front of me - for 8 minutes - without anyone stopping or even acknowledging me.

I realize that 8 minutes isn't an incredibly long time, but as I was on my lunch break from work it was eating into my break time. And for me, one of the reasons I go to an indoor, sit down restaurant is mainly the service. And there wasn't much here.

I got up and gave a dollar to the Hostess at the front door to cover the Tea that I had and I told here I was leaving, and why. She offered to get the Manager for me but I told her no that I just wanted to go. One of the waitresses heard what I was saying and asked for clarification, I explained to her what happened and she ask me to come back inside so that they could take care of this for me. I told her "No Thanks' and that I was just going to go since I had to get back to work.

I didn't write this review yesterday as I was a lot more upset then. I am not sure why, but sitting there being ignored really upset me yesterday and It affected my mood for a better part of the rest of the day. As I said, 8 minutes isn't a very long time but 8 minutes spent sitting at a table, with an empty glass in front of you, waiting for your waiter to return, can seem like...

To whom it may concern: On January 30, 2021, my wife ordered lunch on her phone and wanted to pick up. My wife explained that she wanted a burger with gouda cheese and ordered nachos for me without onions as I am allergic to onions. My wife returned home and I began to eat my nachos and halfway through consuming my lunch I discovered caramelized onions. My wife discovered that she was given a melt rather than the burger that she requested. My wife called back up to the Village Draft House in Cameron Village to inform that our food was not adequate. The manager did check with the staff member that took my wife's order and she confirmed that she heard the order right and that my wife ordered what she received. The manager then proceeded to tell my wife that "she needed to be more concise with her ordering and that they could not afford to waste any money" the male manager then hung up on my wife. My wife called back and asked for a manager and was speaking to a female manager this time. The female manager placed us on hold and consulted with her staff. The manager did make another burger for my wife and we returned to collect the burger. I was informed that because I had eaten half of my nachos I would not be allowed to have a new set of nachos. I explained that I am allergic to nachos and I was told that because we did not express that allergy it was not a concern. We are new to North Carolina and we fell in love with this restaurant when we first became patrons. We have ordered and sat in this restaurant multiple times over the year that we have been living here in Raleigh. The restaurant is a lovely place and a great business that we love to contribute to. We spend our evenings here just with a beer of your amazing selections and watch endless games on your television selections. We did ask for the manager when we arrived but the manager never showed up. We then asked for the number or email to a corporate office and was told that there was no number to be given. We would really like to continue to do business with your establishment and we are understanding that this is an isolated incident of wonderful times that we have had at this establishment and we look forward to many more. We feel that we are genuine customers and basically family members of your business and we have no intentions of breaking this relationship. We do kindly ask that this situation is addressed with the management staff at this location. Thank you for your kind attention to this complaint as I am sure this situation did not represent your values, business model and your customer service etiquette. I look forward to...

I swear, I'm not a "leaving a scathing review" kind of guy, but this place took me there. My experience here was a Perfect Storm. From the moment we got there, over half the restaurant was empty inside. The host told us we'd have to wait outside for about five to ten minutes. Apparently, they didn't have enough servers inside. This should have been our our to leave, so I guess your could say whatever happened afterwards was partially on us. "Five minutes" quickly turned into somewhere around twenty five when we were finally seated outside. Look, I understand our server was juggling several tables, really I do, but that still can't excuse incompetence at your job. We had to wait yet again after being seated for her to get around to us. We were all hungry by the time she showed up, so we told her we all had our orders ready, yet she insisted on taking our drink orders first. This somehow meant waiting another fine it so minutes. We were a party of eight. Orders can get mixed up. I get that, however I saw her write it all down. So I don't see what the problem was. She got my drink wrong, them she got my food wrong. I ordered the bacon especial, but was instead served a honey chicken sandwich. I told them it was wrong, and the server made a face and was like "we can discount it, or you can wait another five or so minutes to get your order." At this point I'm ravenous AND furious. Everyone was well into their meal by the time mine arrived. This is besides the point that I have blood sugar issues and was about to pass out at the table. This was simply not taking care of the customer. Sigh. Perhaps I just had a really bad experience and you might not. Your's might be the complete opposite. By all means take the chance. As for me? Nah, I'm good. One...