Brothers Bar & Grill — Restaurant in South Bend

This place is incredibly hit or miss. We have gotten good service once & also unfortunately horrible service twice. Then the other 2 times were just below average. I have been a bartender/server all over the country & am extremely patient and sympathetic to restaurant workers, but this place needs management to step in. The food is fairly good if ur looking for "bar style" & they have a very nice draft beer selection. Great place to have a few drinks and play pool or watch a game. But if you want good service (or even decent service) unfortunately I would have to recommend somewhere else. The bartenders are much more interested in what is going on in their personal lives (and their phones) than serving you. Most of our experience with the servers (besides one time ...who we much appreciated & tipped 50%, wish I remembered her name) have been basically the same way. It almost felt as if we were a burden to them. Like they had much better things to do. For example, we had to flag down our server when we needed something. Then maybe we would get what we asked for... maybe not? We came one time late at night and the bouncer was quite rude. We are middle aged and just came to have a drink on our way home, it's not like we were trying to sneak in with fake IDs....I'm 34!😁 And my boyfriend is 45! I understand being thorough and cautious, but there is no need to be rude and treat patrons as if they are doing something wrong. Being courteous to your patrons is not a crime. I have been to TONS of places where the bouncers were very professional as well as respectful while doing a stand up job. To The Bouncers... YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A D*CK TO DO YOUR JOB PROPERLY! It's all a shame, bc they have the set up, location & atmosphere to be an all around great place. If they could get some managerial experience in there to work strictly on the service aspect of things, I'm sure they would definately see some positive changes in this...

Came to south bend for the weekend to watch the Notre Dame game Saturday. Decided to go out Friday to catch the Astros game. Decided on Brothers, arrived there via Uber about 7:22 p.m. Walked in and sat ourselves as suggested by the sign. Found a table towards the back and a TV that they would put the Astros game on for us. All good so far. Bussed our own table cuz it was very busy. Still no worries, it's a Friday in a college town.

We waited 20 minutes and nobody stopped to take our order or introduce them selves. We asked several waitresses who our waitress was. They said they would send them our way. 7:50pm, still no waitress. One of us went to the bar to grab some beers. Waited another 10 minutes, ask someone who our waitress was. They said they would send them over. 8:00 p.m., went to the bar ordered appetizers. It's now almost 9:00 p.m., and still have yet to have anybody come over and introduce themselves as our waitress or see if we need anything.

Definitely will never come back. Would not recommend. I've never seen waitresses so good at avoiding eye contact.

I get it's busy, I get it's Friday night, I get it's a college town. It's completely unacceptable for no one in over an hour to come by and at least take our drink order.

We're all past servers. We know how to take care of our customers even when it's busy.

If I could leave zero stars I would, but I have to leave one. The cheese curds were good, our pretzel sticks came out cold.

10:00 p.m. now, and I forgot to add that we did try to talk to someone who we thought was a manager. And they said they would send our waitress our way. That was about 30 minutes after we...

I am baffled at their arbitrary dress code. The bouncers would not let my fiance in until he tucked in his necklace. It's not an ostentatious bulky chain, just his promise ring I gave him years ago on a short chord. Seems like an odd thing to pick on. I was wearing a long, bulky gold pendant that could have pierced an eye out if I chose to dance, but I didn't have to tuck mine in.

Aside from the fashion police bouncers, the food and drinks are satisfactory. I typically adore the walnut burger but these last couple times the patty has been half as thick as a usual patty. Best burger bun I've ever had though. Perfectly buttered.

The bartenders and wait staff are knowledgeable and amiable, but the music is rather loud in the evenings. It's nearly impossible to hear the waiter or person beside you. I suggest doing breathing exercises before going there so that you don't wear out your vocal chords and sound like a chain smoking telephone psychic the next day.

Overall the place is clean. If someone breaks a bottle on the dance floor, it's cleaned up lickity split. As a germophobe, I feel pretty comfortable here. The ladies room is also clean but the toilets don't flush completely. There are always shreds of paper in the bowl. It's also hard to tell if any stalls are open since the doors swing shut.

Being a woman who likes to go out in public and not be harassed, I feel safer there than in similar establishments. Locals there are talkative and friendly but don't exude creepiness. Although the atmosphere seems rather commercialized, there is a bit of a small town feel to it since everyone is pleasant to one another and respects...