Appalachian Brewing Co. Mechanicsburg — Restaurant in Silver Spring Township

Just left there after dinner on a Monday evening. I'm a Navy officer from out of town that has eaten good and bad food in many places around the world and I would gladly have paid the $50 I paid tonight for just myself for my meal and a couple of beers in a middle eastern country. Here's the bit, I'm not in a middle eastern country, I'm in Pennsylvania, USA and I definitely overpaid for the mediocrity I encountered at this restaurant. The place is big, it's easy to find and it is nicely decorated inside. It looks pretty classy. I had high hopes for a relatively fast meal consisting of a couple of tasty microbrews, a quality salad and a hearty sandwich to match the price points. I should mention that the place was more than half empty. I sat at the bar and it took the bar tender way too long to notice, let alone acknowledge me and ask if I wanted a drink. The first beer was just OK. I ordered my meal and the salad came out fast but the beets were out of a can and the dressing was very bland. $12 for a ton of arugula, some cheese, weak bottled dressing and canned beets. Before I tried it, I waited for 5 minutes to see how long it would take for the bar staff to realize that they served food without flatware. I nearly stood up and got some myself from a nearby high top. During that time, three different bartenders passed my empty beer glass without asking if I wanted another or something else. Big no, no in the bar business if you want to be successful. At $7 a beer, they should be jumping on empty glasses like linemen on a fumble. Don't get the buffalo chicken sandwich unless you: 1) aren't hungry (in total, it's about the size of a six inch hoagie;) 2) don't absolutely love blue cheese; (It's crumbled on there like crazy); and 3) don't like drinking grease (the bun was falling apart with the shiny mess and the plate was a puddle of it). The onion rings were fine, but they were obviously out of a freezer bag and that's hard to mess up. Be ready for the $2.50 up charge on those as well. I asked for a box at the end (never intending to eat the leftovers but just to see how long it would take) and was ignored the first time. Bartenders and wait staff were having plenty of fun jawing and laughing behind and near the drink pickup area this entire time I waited an additional 5 minutes for another chance to ask for a box and my bill. I walked past two employees on the way out with zero acknowledgement whatsoever. Bottom line is that if you want to market yourself as an upscale brewpub AND restaurant, you need to focus as much on your beer (which is not worth the hefty prices you are charging IMO) and put some additional emphasis on your food and especially...

Super bummed about this one. Met up with family for Penn State game at ABC on the pike today (9.4.21).

Was excited at the prospect this was a good place that was also family friendly.

First the good stuff; *The employees, staff and server were EXTREMELY pleasant and helpful, overall our server was above average, if not really good. The manager who sat us was super accommodating! *The beer I had (Imperial stout), was REALLY good! *My wife said she enjoyed the shrimp tacos greatly!

The bad; *The cheese soup I ordered was ICE cold, since we literally walked in at noon, I assume the cooks maybe had just put the soup in the warmer, and the server didn't notice? (To play devil's advocate)

It's a shame, the flavors were there, but the texture was pudding-like because it was so cold, I was pretty bummed, but the staff were busy, and I figured it wasn't enough to complain about.

*The fish and chips were BAD! Like amoung the worst I have ever had. Which was a bummer cause I pysched myself up to forget the soup debacle by saying to myself, "atleast the fish and chips will be awesome!"... But they weren't.

They truly tasted like one of two things; (A.) - they were simply fried too long, so the fish itself was dry and chewy, and the breading was harder than shoe leather

Or (B.) - they had fried it LONG LONG before everything else, and it sat in the heat window WAAAAY too long.

I tend to believe the former, that's just my gut feeling.

Either way, terrible, and again I bit my tongue.

*Finally, the one glaring flaw the server did make was I asked for a soda after my beer, needing a drink after my cold soup and chewy, dry fish, and the girl never brought it.

Again, I didn't say anything, but about 15 minutes later, when I was asking for the check, my wife did politely interject; "didn't you want a soda hun.." At that point, the poor server was quick to get it for me, but as we were leaving I told her not a big deal, but thank you anyway.

*In conclusion, it was $71 after tip for myself, my wife and my 5 year old, that's a hefty hefty, HEFTY, sum for a pretty bad meal/experience.

I thank you ABC for some kind and good service, but I've truly never felt so robbed of my money before in a dining situation, I'm pretty go with the flow, and not one to complain, but man, a TV dinner would've literally been better......

We regret not going to Olive Garden, and I’m not a fan of OG. Reviews online all were high stars, and pics looked good and we like grill/pubs most of the time but I’m starting to doubt reviews now, but I will post our truth cause we know we are picky eaters but all we ask for is good service, food and atmosphere. The main doors were filthy, sign 1 we should have turned around. All the servers congregate at the hostess area (or server station?) either way we were greeted quickly and taken to a seat. She took us to a high top table, I asked for a low table, there were empty ones, then she took us by the stairs next to a large group with lots of children, I asked for a 3rd table preferably not near children (we have our own, we like to sit away from other kids when we go out) and she sat us near the hostess station, so the whole time we got to see them all chat about and only go to their tables as needed, at one point though we almost had to ask two of them to move away from our table, the servers wears short shorts, not what I like to see, not my vibe for a server to be barely dressed below.

The $12 Pina Colada, I believe it had alcohol, for the price I hope it did, terrible, no coco pineapple flavor.

The bacon poppers were actually good, and the server who brought the food to our table each time, he was friendly. Our server seemed very bored and going through motions.

My husband asked for burger well done, he always does cause they are 99.9% of time undercooked anyway, and this was the case, the center was very pink I told him to eat around it.

We don’t believe in sending food back, we had really bad experiences when we have in the past that that we just deal now (and I write a review while fresh on my mind).

My chicken fried sandwich wasn’t bad, we actually love the little flags in the buns and the stamp of a bear print on the burger bun, A+ on those little touches.

All in all, okay but not a 5 star rating and the owner/manager needs to improve the moral of the servers and their chatty station, that’s a D- for us.

Everyone else around us seemed pleased, maybe it’s a local place and we are just a traveling through couple. Maybe it’s the beer and alcohol and we went for food only, anyway, that’s our...