BRU Burger Bar South Bend — Restaurant in South Bend

We chose this spot ahead of time to meet up with a friend from Michigan somewhere along our path from Cleveland to Chicago. The menu showed an Impossible burger and gluten free buns, so we figured it was a good choice for everyone meeting up.

Upon arrival, the hostess was very friendly and accommodating to seat us outside on one of the patios. The menu didn't list if the gluten free buns were vegan, so I had to ask our server. Upon arrival to our table, our server, Ariana, immediately appeared irritated to be there. After she brought us our waters, one of my kids asked about the French fries and she told her in a fairly clipped manner that they were not gluten free. My daughter asked if it was simply due to a shared fryer. To which her response was to roll her eyes and tell her that it was because they had wheat in them. My daughter asked if that meant they were coated, to which she received another eye roll followed by a yes. My daughter said not to worry about a side then.

When it was my turn, I asked for the Impossible burger and asked if the gluten free bun was gluten free. I got a similar response with an eye roll. I asked her what was in the fruit side and then asked if we could just have that instead since we couldn't have the fries. I was told yes.

However, when I got the bill, I realized later that she charged me extra for the fruit. Which she definitely shouldn't have due to both burgers not getting fries and mine not getting a bun either.

One of my kids said their food was fine, but the other was less than thrilled with her burger and the fries. Two of them thought the sauces brought out were fairly odd and didn't taste good. We asked what was in them and she told us that they don't tell them the ingredients in anything so they have no idea. That was a huge red flag to me, as not knowing the ingredients means that someone found easily get something that could cause a food related reaction. Servers should either already know the ingredients, be able to get a hold of them or know for sure if an item may be an issue for those with dietary restrictions.

Overall, it wasn't the great find I was hoping...

I'm bummed to be leaving 3 stars instead of more, but something seems to have changed at Bru within the last month or two. My husband left a 5 star review about 6 months and I couldn't have agreed more. We've been in the area a year and this was one of our go to places. We love the Nashville hot chicken, and everything else has always been solid. We bring our family here when they visit from out of town. Today we ordered online like we usually do and the first thing I noticed was the website ordering was different. I got their "Bison Burger" and my husband got the "bourbon burger subbed chicken". We used to love their fries, but they've changed them and they're more like steak fries. Not much flavor and pretty soggy despite the fact that I ordered "extra crispy". My Bison burger was missing all the toppings it was supposed to come with aside from the cheese. Also, their brioche buns were always great, now they're just regular, dry buns even though the website says brioche. My husband's sandwich was fine but when we opened the to go container it was like someone had put the sandwich in and the smashed it down excessively. Overall everything was very average, which is definitely a step down from where it was a few months back. Not sure if it's new management or supply chain issues. Hope they get back...

Visited on New Year's Eve around 4:30 intending to beat the rush(we did as we were the only customers until later). My wife and I ordered drinks and were surprised it took over 10 minutes(no one manning the bar). We ordered two patty melts as we have enjoyed them in the past. In the mean time, another table arrived and lo and behold they were sat right next to our table even though every other table was open. Oh well, no really big deal just a little strange. They ordered apps and meals and received both before our patty melts arrived. When we did receive ours, we lifted our toasted sour dough to reveal two round hamburger patties, one on each side of the cut. No smash burger here. To make it worse, the outer sour dough crust was hard as a rock at least one inch in(I realize it is crusty bread but this was too much). We enjoyed the fries and spoke to the waiter about the non smashed burgers. He said he would pass it along. He was attentive to our needs otherwise. Anyway, it was not the best experience today. I looked on the website if there was a more private way to pass this along but I could not find a way, so Google...