BevRidge Public — Restaurant in Ridgefield

I would have LOVED to give this restaurant a better review. Let me explain. We arrived as a family of 5 calling prior to make sure they could accompany and were kid friendly. Upon arrival a little before 8:30 p.m., I was very impressed with the atmosphere and staff making sure we had been greeted at the door. We could immediately tell they were very slammed, but my hopes were high. The atmosphere, decor, cleanliness in bathrooms, menu looked fabulous, very friendly staff, appeared very family friendly. The waiter initially was very prompt at coming to our table, but as our dining continued, things didn't pan out as expected. We had placed a drink order and food order shortly after arriving. At about 9pm we still had not gotten our drinks that were sitting at the bar for about 15 minutes and no appetizer (we had ordered a salad to share) by 9:15 I asked a bus girl (because I had not seen our waiter in some time) to check on our children's food (as a parent-my food can wait- 40 minutes for a kid is eternity) they did provide some fries and fruit for them which I greatly appreciated. The owner Ashley came to our table to speak to my husband (who had also asked at the bar what was going on, I didn't not know) upon encounter, Ashley brought the written ticket over and showed it to my husband over the entire table with a writen time stamp, saying it had only been 28 minutes. Upon discussion of the situation, she seemed agitated, stressed, and trying to basically prove us wrong. I, as a business owner of many years myself and my husband a head cheif with many years of restaurant management experience, can appreciate the concept of defending your staff and explaining the situation to an extent but you should NEVER EVER in a service industry be agitated or argumentative immediately upon engagement with a paying customer. I myself could time reference the situation due to phone messages and texts, but whatever, i just wanted some form of drinks of food in front of my family. It rubbed me in such a wrong way, I almost gathered my family and left, but my kids were very hungry. Only after we had said something did we begin to receive more prompt service. It was 1 full hour before we got our meal. The food plating was beautiful, but unfortunately, the food was not good. The steak was over cooked, chewy and my fish was very dry. The salad we ordered was just thrown on a plate, tacos meh. For our "trouble," we got a free slice of cheesecake and were told because an unexpected 30 top outside they fell behind inside, and our waiter was taking care of 14 tables. The owner never returned to check on us to make sure we were okay, which would have been a great way to rectify our frustration. I can understand as a small business taking a large party unexpectedly is stressful, splitting tickets is time consuming, but it didn't make sense with the staff I saw on hand that a table should ever go unchecked for more then 10-15 minutes, drinks not being ran and sitting for more then 10 minutes, lack of communication with your tables shouldn't happen, and as the owner NEVER argue with your customers abrasively showing them tickets in their face. As a restaurant that appears to be family oriented and welcoming, we as parents understand the stress of life, but you never know who will walk in your doors, please please please be more mindful of times with childrens food (which everything on the menu is simple fried food), every family table which is an easy $100+ ticket table should be taken care of. We finally were able to leave at 10:15ish for home. As a suggestion for large parties, 2 waiters minimum of parties over 10, don't split tickets and add an automatic gratitude to make it easier on your staff. Inform your other tables of any lag time on meals, especially families. PERSONALLY check in on your tables with a smile on your face to make sure they are comfortable even if you're helping your staff run food (this goes a long way more than running food). We hope to try again in the future, bad...

Just okay at best. My wife and I have been twice. The first was very busy so we tried to cut them a lot of slack. It took over an hour for our food to arrive and, after arrival, we discovered our order had been changed. Apparently certain things were out, so they were just substituted without asking us first. We had a few cocktail drinks and they were alright. The Godfather was okay, the blueberry thyme cocktail just tasted like vodka and soda water. My wife got the regular burger and I had the smash burger. Both were overcooked and hers had way too much bun for such a small patty, so it was very dry. I asked for no onions but found out of bacon jam was basically onion jam with bacon pieces. My mistake, I'll know in the future. We decided to give it another go after a couple of weeks.

The second time was much less busy. After being seated, we found the menu was significantly smaller than before. It took almost 45 minutes for our drinks to arrive and nearly 1.5 hours for our food. We noticed nearby tables that had been seated well after us received their food long before we did - we don't know for sure, but we suspect our order got lost. The food ranged from just okay to largely inedibe. My friend and I had the smash burger and my wife the bourbon chicken Mac and cheese. Our burgers were super overcooked and pretty dry, but otherwise okay. Definitely not worth the price. My wife's food was gross - there were pools of honey glaze on her pasta that suggested that, instead of tossing the chicken pieces in the glaze then placing them over the pasta, the glaze was drizzled over the chicken while on top of the pasta. The whole dish was cloyingly sweet. She didn't want to say anything, so she ate the chicken and left the pasta. Our waitress only checked on us once after the food was left, about 30 minutes later, so we didn't have much chance to address it.

All in all, I don't get the feeling that BevRidge is intentionally negligent, just that it was opened by owners with no prior experience in the restaurant industry. We've been hoping for a good local pub, some alternative to the Sportsman's Pubic Louse, for awhile, but this isn't...

June edit we did come back and try. I actually had every intention to rave about the brunch until we went again Father’s Day. I told my husband I planned on updating about the brunch because it was great last time and was completely let down this time. I tried to order a breakfast burrito with no country gravy and was told no substitutes. Which BLEW my mind because just don’t add the gravy? Which tells me that things are not that freshly made. Then has to pay extra for the potato’s I wanted that would have been included if I could have had want I originally wanted. The steelhead was meh at best. My husband is a big seafood eater and was unimpressed says it wasn’t bad but not worth ordering again. My entire meal ended up very disappointing because it wasn’t what I wanted. Also, the 3 different alcohol drinks were either all ice or watered down. I will also add we have been back for the regular menu and still nothing to write home about. I will upgrade to two stars for food because the brunch is decent but lose a star in service we won’t be back because you’re not close to good enough to not allow for no gravy. As silly as it sounds, that was my breaking point for this place.

Original:

We keep coming back here because we really want this place to be good. People are great atmosphere is good. Im always left disappointed.

For a place named BevRidge I expect a lot in the Beverage department. I love mixed drinks and ciders personally. Their cider selection, if they have one, is ONE and their mixed drink menu is subpar at best.

Their food is also not great. It's not bad but definitely not worth the price.

I feel like they are ALMOST there but there's really nothing other than location that they've nailed. Everything is "eh". Which makes you disappointed when the check comes and you see price you've paid for "eh" food and drink.

I want this place to be a "OMG you have to try __" insert food and/or drink but it's...