Liberty Public House — Restaurant in Richmond

A HORRIBLE DINNING EXPERIENCE!

After waiting 35 mins for our lunch we were not happy when it finally arrived. My husbands eggs benedict were hard boiled with just a drizzle of hollandaise sauce. As if that were not bad enough, the avocado and sprouts with melted swiss open face sandwich came out with a helmet of hardened cheese, and it was barely warm! When I cut a piece to try it I noticed the bread looked burnt. I then lifted the toast up and the entire slice was blackened! I called the waitress over and lifted the slice to show her. She gasped and said " oh I'm so sorry, what would you like me to do?" I asked how long it would take to get a burger, and she assured me she could get it out quickly, so it was ordered. In the meantime I asked to speak to the manager. She right off , she did apologize for our long wait. I explained what happened and she again apologized and said " just tell me what it is that you would like to make this right." I said she could not charge us for my meal. I got a bit of a funny reaction, and she said she'd talk to the owner. The burger arrived and it was at BEST mediocre. Certainly not the tastiest burger I've had. And instead of the waitress asking me what choice of side I preferred , she took off to put the order in. When she returned it was with a side of fries. She did correct it and brought me a salad. When the bill arrived I was charged for the burger! I asked to speak to the owner. OMG...I could NOT BELIEVE this mans attitude!!! He actually argued with me and said "there was nothing wrong with the sandwich, it was not burnt and he ate it himself!!! He said he did not charge me for the sandwich ( i literally took one small bite out of it) (like I should be grateful) but was indeed charging me for the burger!!! It was his horrible attitude that shocked me the most. I said I couldn't believe he would treat a customer the way he did. A few more exchanges were made that got rather loud, and customers were beginning to observe what was going on. I think it was because of this that he took the bill and ANGRILY said he wouldn't charge us. He ended by saying "and don't come back!" And he is a restaurant owner? Unbelievable. I just want to share and let people know what happened to us. I am still in shock...

Used to be one of my favorite spots until this past Sunday. I took a friend from out of town for their brunch we decided to sit outside which is normal some eat outside some use those tables to wait on their food. I let someone know we’ll be outside whenever they were ready. Our server saw us and brought our waters without asking which I thought was super kind and considerate. After we were brought our waters the owner very rudely came to our table told us we skipped the line and for that we will not be allowed to order for 10 mins (gave me you’re in time out vibes). Luckily our server was kind and ignored our time out. That’s not the kick, the kick was we watched the owner walk over to all the other tables check on them make conversation and all we got was rudeness. I’m hoping that the reason we were treated this way was because she was rude that day and not because we were the only people of color sitting outside. I’ve patronized this restaurant from the first month it opened and stayed on even with the new management/owner; however, they will not get my money or time again. A special thank you to our server she is truly a gem.

*edit a few things per the owner’s response that is not what happened at all. You were not accommodating you immediately told us basically we could not speak to our friend. You also were not letting us know you were behind you explicitly stated we skipped the line which we did not and told us we would have to wait. Side note it is beyond insulting to a person of color to add how you identify as a way to relate. Neither here nor there the point is no matter what you write back YOU we’re beyond rude and cruel and your tone resulted in my friend, a black man feeling uncomfortable and unwanted at YOUR restaurant because there was a clear difference in how you spoke to us versus how you spoke to the non people of color around us. If you truly were sorry a simple apology would suffice but instead you responded with justification and a lack of ownership. If you’re capable of disrespecting someone publicly don’t ask to be able to apologize privately.

I will not be reaching out per your response.

This is no longer a place I feel...

We visited the Liberty Public House near the end of their Sunday Brunch. To be fair, we were a party of 10, and besides our party it appeared there was another party of 10-14, besides a number of tabletops of singles and doubles. The servers were very friendly and knew the menu and made recommendations on the craft beers. The food when delivered did not enjoy the same level of service. 3 oof our orders included sweet potato waffle fries. They were delivered cold. One order, mine, a bowl of mac & cheese with fried chicken was delivered at least 10 minutes after all other orders at our table had been delivered. When it did arrive, the 3 pieces of boneless chicken (sitting atop the mac & cheese shells) were beyond brown and had obviously been left in the deep fryer too long. When presented to me, I looked at it with an expression of, "you've got to be kidding me. I've waited this long and you presented me with this?". I attempted to cut into the obviously dried out chicken and I needed a steak knife to get through it. You could tell the wait staff was embarrasses to even have put it in front of me but did anyway, ?Ybe to see if I would accept it because everyone else had finished their meal when I was just being served mine. It didn't take long (under a minute for the wait staff to check back with me about my meal), and I told them that it was absolutely unacceptable. The wait staff apologized and said they would have another order prepared. Another 10 minutes goes by, and another bowl is briught to my table. This time, instead of 3 chicken pieces (as on the 1st attempt), there were only 2, and while not as black and tough as their 1st attempt, were still overdone. The wait staff again apologized and .ake an excuse about the kitchen staff. As I was not responsible for paying for the meal, I cannot confirm if any compensation was offered or included. The venue seemed quaint and had a nice menu and drink offerings. As I was visiting the area and not a regular visitor, I cannot say if this was a one-off" happening or a common practice. I would have significant reservations about visiting this establishment...