Ugly Oyster Drafthaus — Restaurant in Reading

So I don’t post negative reviews. You can see that from my history. I’ve never had such a poor experience before and hope to never have one like this again. I’ve worked in customer service for 15 years. I took the weekend to really think about if I wanted to write this review. Saturday 07/27/24 my husband, myself, and two family members were in town for a concert. We looked up restaurants in the area and upon review this establishment looked like it had a pretty good menu and was ranked as a 4.4 on google and was close to the concert arena. We walked in and waited. No one greeted us. There was no hostess stand. My sister and myself needed to use the bathroom so that’s what we went to find. Leaving the two males to get us a table. When we came back our husbands were seated and mine had a very displeased look on his face. I asked him what was wrong and he said the bartender asked if he was stupid. Baffled I was to say the least. I asked what happened. He explained he asked the bartender if they had a table for 4 available and she replied “are you stupid”. For background there weren’t many tables in the establishment to begin with and some had signs that said reserved. He didn’t want to just sit down and a table already be taken. He explained this was our first time here and aren’t from the area. Which he didn’t need to explain that whatsoever. There was absolutely no reason for the disrespectful comment. And before you ask yourself why didn’t we just leave? We only had about an hour before the concert started so we were pretty limited on time and places. Our waitress was fine no complaints there. We all had water brought out to us. Honestly tasted like rusty water is the best way I can explain it. There was a unalived cockroach beside our table which I included as a photo in this review, and the amount of gnats and flies were pretty annoying. It’s cool that most things were original but you can tell it was not kept clean. My husband ordered a double captain and coke. The first one came out as it should. The second one came out as just coke and barely any captain. I don’t drink and I could tell you that. I wonder how the bartender would have felt if I took that drink back to her and asked if she was stupid? We were charged for two doubles but by the end of the meal we had enough and we’re just ready to leave we didn’t even mention to the waitress. But on to the next, the food was decent bar food. My husband asked for a side of bbq sauce. He used it to dip his fries in…. He starts inspecting the sauce which had chucks of unknown in it. Kind of looked like shredded cheese but we have no idea. 10/10 do...

We visited this bar/restaurant for the first time on Saturday, September 23, before the Sebastian Maniscalco show at the Santander PAC. The place was packed! The bartender, an older blonde woman (sorry for the description, but she was SO rude we never caught her name), was SUPER rude when we asked if we could get a table. She immediately scolded us with the knowledge that there were no reservations available until 9 pm. We happened to snag two open bar seats and she reluctantly served us two beers. After that, she would NOT make eye contact with us. Other employees would yell bar orders to her and she would prepare them and when those orders were completed she would lean on the bar or stand with her hands on her hips. She NEVER looked around to check on any other bar patrons or worked to help any other employees out. We were lucky that Katie (a younger brunette) served us behind the bar. She took our food order and continued to serve us beers... even though the older blonde was willing to grab our empty beers and toss them in the trash. NEVER once did she ask if we would like another drink. We even heard her complain to other patrons that she was annoyed with all the people in the bar that were going to the PAC show and were trying to find tables. I know nothing about Reading, PA OR this bar/restaurant, but I do know that most bartenders would beg for a busy night when the business keeps coming and the sales/tips keep rolling in! She was NO asset to your team, Ugly Oyster Drafthaus. She was no team player last Saturday. She had the other two girls behind the bar walking around her. She answered your phone with an attitude and kept that attitude with any person she came in contact with. Even though we are not and will not be regulars at your bar because we live over an hour away, I felt it was important to let you know what a terrible vibe and attitude she gave off on our first and ONLY visit to your establishment. I can't even speak about the food because her terrible attitude overshadowed the meal. Thank you, Katie, for giving us good customer service and taking care of us with a smile even in that busy bar...

The atmosphere inside was pretty neat but unfortunately for a "bar" setting they have no drink menu; just a written list of some beers on tap...When you try to get a mix drink made it's very amateur. You order some of the most expensive items on the list (crossing your fingers and toes it'll redeem the situation) and have more disappointment to get a salad that would cost MAYBE $2 (I could get that at a fundraising spaghetti dinner) then to top it off I couldn't even eat half of my jumbo lump crab cakes because of the gnats flying around (this was inside), it had tough spots (almost comparable to fish bones 😷) and my husband's steak had a ton of gristle in it so he couldn't enjoy anything either. We thought maybe the fries underneath would be SOMETHING we could have but even those were either soggy or tasted like they had been made more than once. To top it off, the waiter was constantly on his phone and not paying attention to when we were trying to get service so neither of us finished our meals and left within a 47 minutes total! All-in-all, this visit cost us $67 (not including a small tip). I almost didn't bother leaving a review until we BOTH woke up with stomach aches in the middle of the night due to the meals. Absolutely horrible. The only reason I gave 2 stars (kindly I might add) was because of the decor inside. I definitely think they need to lower prices/expectations or decide to revamp the menu, kitchen/chef and staff. Wishing I would've asked for a refund in all honesty! I can think of cheaper places that don't have gnats, stellar waiters/waitresses, and amazing food/drinks all at a cheaper price than this. Utter...