Nonesuch River Brewing — Restaurant in Scarborough

We waited for quite a while to have an opportunity to eat at Nonesuch. We heard great things about the food and atmosphere. However, my personal experience eating there was far from what I expected.

The waiter was fantastic. Very personable and helpful. The atmosphere was what I expected. Clean and brew pub like. But the drink I ordered (Long Island Iced Tea) was actually horrible. It was even a drink I could power down. I gave it a chance and had three sips of it then asked for a diet with lemon. I seriously don’t think the bartender knew how to make one.

I then ordered the pastrami sandwich with garlic french fries (up charge). The sandwich was very tasty. However the fries seemed like basic frozen square cut fries with garlic bits literally sprinkled on them. Additionally they were barely warm.

I was also surprised the waiter didn’t question why I had him take a full alcoholic drink and order something non alcoholic. Had he asked me I would have told him. But that was on me for not bringing it to his attention. But…I’m really easy to please and I don’t complain about much at all. So for me to write this review is very difficult. But…my disappointment in Nonesuch Brewery was overwhelming.

My wife and I took my daughter and her family out eat lunch. We spent over $225 for four adults and two children. I think that’s a lot for what we had, but…had the food been good it would have been worth it. I don’t mind paying for good food, good drinks, and good service. We only had one out of the three of those.

I see no reason to visit there again given my experience. I wish I had better words in this review but it just wasn’t there. Sorry.

• Update 01/06/2023 *

After Nonesuch River Brewery responded to my review they offered to make it up to me with a gift certificate. All they asked was I forward my name and address to the email address given and they would send it out.

When I wrote my review I wasn’t looking for a response nor the offer to “make it up to me”. I wanted to leave a fair and honest review of my experience. I think I did that.

However, since the date of their response I have heard absolutely nothing from them. At this point it doesn’t really matter. But…don’t offer something if you have no intention of following through.

I have no doubt Nonesuch River Brewery has provided excellent dining experiences for thousands of people over the past few years. I just wasn’t...

NONESUCH BREWERY: extremely disappointing! you can judge for yourself, but as a former chef I would not eat here until changes are put in place. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best: The food gets a 0. The service gets an 8, and the atmosphere gets a 4 I ate at Nonesuch Brewery. I was seated in a timely manner. I received drinks in a timely manner and I ordered in a timely manner. Allie our waitress did a great job. I ordered the simplest local meal of fish and chips. As soon as the plate arrived I could smell that something was off with the fish. I took a couple of bites and right away tasted rancid slimy, fish. The oil in which it was fried in was dirty and rancid as well as evidenced by the extra curricular stick ons that were attached to the batter as well as the sour odor emanating from my plate. the fries were soggy and flaccid. this was very disconcerting and disappointing. It became even more concerning upon returning home and vomiting in my bathroom! now for the good news, Allie our waitress was very attentive and concerned about the issue and immediately took the plate away and offered several times if I wanted something else. I was so disgusted I did not want to eat anything else. She continued to be attentive to my needs and was responsive until the meal was over. Allie also went to the manager. Sarah came right over. she was very attentive and kind and very apologetic. She as well offered me with other choices of food, I politely turned it down. Sarah seemed genuinely upset that I had a bad experience. she did comp my meal and that was very nice. now the atmosphere: there was extremely loud heavy metal blasting in the entire restaurant, there was very loud industrial factory like noises coming from the brewery section that at times startled the hell out of me. due to this noisy overstimulated environment, all the patrons in the restaurant were talking very loud this type of atmosphere makes interacting difficult. Overall, The experience was very disappointing and discouraging. The service is great. but the food was terrible and made me sick. the stadium level noise leaves little to be desired. the place has huge potential. I really hope they institute some changes and servsafe standards for their food...

TLDR: I tried to go on my birthday and was misinformed and then insulted by the host.

This used to be my absolute favorite restaurant. I would eat here every weekend and even bought one of their jackets since I loved their company. I wanted to celebrate my birthday there and bring all my friends and family to enjoy it too. I called two weeks ahead and was told I couldn't place a reservation, but I could rent the upstairs. Unfortunately I don't have the kind of income to afford that. I asked what the next best option was. I was told to call several hours ahead of time and check the wait the day of. So I called around 2:30pm on my birthday. The guy I spoke to said he couldn't do a reservation, but that they weren't expected to be busy that night, so I should call about 45-30 minutes before I wanted to go. I confirmed this information several times and he even wrote down my name and party size as a note for the host to look at. I've worked in several restaurants and even if we didn't take reservation, we would note large parties and try to seat strategically so if they showed up, we could seat them. An hour before we planned on going, I called again. I spoke to a girl who seemed very busy. I explained the situation and mentioned the guy I had spoken to. She said the wait was 3 hours and there was "absolutely no way" I could be sat tonight. I was really bummed and mentioned what the guy had said. She told me I clearly misunderstood what he said, so I asked if she could check with him. She put me on hold (but I could hear their conversation since the phone was still on) when she asked him what he said he told her he didn't say anything. She replied with "yeah I know, this girl is clearly a liar who didn't plan ahead" and they both chuckled. I was severely disappointed and offended by being called a liar just because I followed the directions I was given, on my birthday. I will never go there again and neither will my...