Ballard Brew Hall — Restaurant in SeaTac

We stopped in 3/11 around 8 pm for dinner and sat ourselves at table 9. This is the kind of place where you scan a bar code to order at your table and pay your bill and gratuity when placing the order. I tipped the standard 20% for two burgers and two drinks which arrived shortly after. I worked in food service for 15 years, and have serious concerns about the quality of service we received. What's worse, there appears to be no way to privately share this feedback with management.

I received a text with a link to an online receipt after placing the order. There is a small 'Got feedback?' link at the bottom, which redirects to an empty page. There is no contact information provided on the menu or anywhere else on the website. I attempted to speak to someone in person while at the restaurant and was treated poorly by our server. It seems there is no other way to submit feedback than publicly through this Google review.

When our food came to the table, I made a comment to the woman that delivered it that I thought the burgers came with fries. She replied that they come with chips and walked off. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to order a side of fries. I scanned the barcode at the table and couldn't find a 'sides' section of the menu. There was an appetizer of 'truffle fries', but no side of plain fries. I waited for the server to come by the table to check how our food was so I could try placing the order that way, but after several minutes no one checked back. The woman and bartender both bused tables next to us and dropped off drinks to other customers, but we could not get their attention. By this point my partner was almost done with his burger and it was clear we were being ignored, so I went up to the bar. I spoke with a third staff member and asked how I could order a side of fries, and explained that I had unsuccessfully tried doing it through the website and by trying to get the server's attention. He gestured towards Brian, said that it was his section, and told me to go back to my table and wait. Brian soon came over and was immediately confrontational. Apparently it was my fault for not reading the menu correctly, and he proceeded to chastise me in front of my partner.

I tried to explain that at this point, I didn't care about the fries, but was more concerned about the quality of service we were receiving. I shared the details of my experience, and he was irritated and clearly didn't care. It's worth pointing out that there were three staff members taking care of the very small front of house which was less than half full at the time. They all seemed to be in a bad mood.

We would have stayed and ordered another round of drinks if we weren't treated so poorly. As mentioned earlier, I worked in restaurants for 15 years and this is not how you handle customer service. Staff should check back within two minutes after dropping off the food. If there is a problem they can't make right, they should get a manager. In this case, the online menu is confusing, and I needed help to place an order for a side of fries. This could have easily been handled when the food was delivered had she asked if we needed anything instead of walking off. Did I read the menu incorrectly? Probably. Did my sever need to point that out to deflect blame for the poor service that followed? Definitely not. There should also be a clear pathway for communicating these concerns to management. Having to detail all this in a Google review and hope someone reads it is ridiculous.

One last comment, it used to be that tipping after a meal was a way to reward good service. At this place, they force you to do it up front, and then the staff does the bare minimum. I will never be back here, and I will try to avoid any other locations owned by this establishment. I sincerely hope that management is able to receive this feedback, retrain their staff, and fix the broken feedback link on...

This place is cute..asthetically. Everything else is pretty ugly. We stopped in for a quick, pre-flight glass of wine. Easy, right? Nope. We sat at the bar and watched the staff prepare drinks, actively ignoring us. We get "busy"... That doesn't mean that a welcoming "hello" can't be offered. The first words uttered to us we're "can you move your bag closer to the bar so I can get through?" This after sitting there for almost 10 minutes. Finally, instead of "hello, welcome " or some other greeting that indicates that the customer isn't an inconvenience, we were told to use the QR code to order, at which point I asked, "Can't we just order from you?" We were, after all, sitting right AT THE BAR in front of the server/bartender. Answer: they want you to use the QR code to order, but if you REFUSE, I'll take your order." Time out. At this point, with the clock ticking to boarding, and our desire for a drink waning, I suggested to my wife that we go elsewhere. Instead, we ordered. The bartender/server went on to explain that the QR requirement comes from management, not the staff. We watched and listened to every customer that came to the bar complain about the QR code requirement. Most were reprimanded by the staff to do it, but told that if they REFUSE, their order would be taken. This is the ANTITHESIS of service, not even great service, decent service. The people who are willing to patronize a sit down airport restaurant and drop $16-25 for just a glass of wine, food notwithstanding, want service. No one wants to be put to the work of searching for a QR code, reading tiny print and ordering through an online process, no matter how efficient it may be for the restaurant or staff. The money that you think you're saving on labor by this requirement is substantially killing guest service and ensuring that the people you'd most want to dine at this location and share a positive experience with others, will go out of their way to find a better location, where they're treated better by a staff that hasn't be relegated to "automons" by anti-customer policies. I'm a frequent flyer, diner and generally loyal customer. But never again at Ballard Bre Hall. Pay attention to what your customers need and want. Train your staff to be genuinely hospitable, even in an...

We got the chicken sandwich with truffle fries and brussel sprouts. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of this airport food but not too satisfied with the service. First of all, it’s self serve. You seat yourself, you scan a code and order for yourself. The staff brings you your food. The catch, if you don’t close out before 40 minutes after you place your order, an automatic 22% gratuity is added to your bill. The food can easily take 40 minutes to arrive but determining a tip before the food arrives is something I’m wary about. Thankfully our food arrived within 30 minutes and I closed out immediately, tipping 10% for the cook staff. I’m all for tipping and I don’t think I’ve ever tipped that low before, but when the food is already incredibly overpriced (expected, because it’s the airport of course) and the staff doesn’t actually…do anything for you other than bring you the plate…I don’t feel a tip was earned. Secondly, the drinks were awful. I had a martini with very cheap gin, as it was the only option available on the online ordering system. Right in front of my face however, was the top shelf gin I actually wanted but I could never flag down a single staff member to get the order placed properly. So my advice would be to just go find somebody to help you. Don’t settle, because it’s not worth the cheap alcohol options available. On that note, pretty much half of the menu, drinks and food, was “out of stock” but I can only assume this is not accurate, as I could see every bottle of alcohol on the shelf that they claimed was out of stock, except for one bottle of tequila. Pretty disappointed overall but like I said, it’s...