Howard Park Public House — Restaurant in South Bend

We frequent the park as my daughter loves it here. My wife and I decided to have lunch and drinks while my daughter and friends play. We waited for an hour and a half after check-in. Till my manners started to wane. We were told it would be twenty to start. I rechecked with the hostess to which she replied she thought we were sat. There were a total of three tables that were being served. That's all. We then sat at a table an additional 15 minutes before we were even remotely acknowledged. Ok, let's begin. We started with the bottomless mimosa. To find out after paying that there was a four limit. Dear readers that is not bottomless... In fact it's very bottomed. That's absolutely false advertising, misleading. Tell me upfront. They were well made and wonderful, However. Now I'm still not overly up set it's a beautiful day with my beautiful wife. I will persever. The service once we got underway was absolutely amazing very intent, thoughtful, informed. 10/10 can't say enough good. The server took ownership of all mistakes whether it was theirs or not. So much respect. This is why I go and spend my hard earned money. Perfect service, and memories. This is why we did not walk out. The food: it was one o'clock and the first appetizer we finally agreed to... (marriage)... Was of course out. After discussing, we selected the wings..... Huge order, I assumed 6 would show up we had 10-12 smokey, light spice, crispy.... they were amazing... Get the blue cheese on the side it's perfect. We ordered the cheesey burger to share. Crispy edges perfect cook, juicy. Great bun, all the cheesey goodness! The only tiny complaint.... The pickles, so boring! For $15+ burger step up the game... This was cafeteria quality blandness... Do anything it will literally take it over the top. The double fried frys were perfect. Crisp and warm perfectly salted. The tator Tots ..... Absolute TRASH... Tots are my favorite and I salivate at the thought... I was crushed. There were soft horribly fried and saturated in oil, I've done a better job over a fire in the woods... Come on... This should be the easy things. The drinks were well made and had great flavor. There was an entertaining musical gentleman playing songs on the patio. Very nice, personable good talent, very funny and engaging, not overbearing, very good. I was fearfull The best possible thing at the place was gonna be was the breeze. I get that everyone is very short handed. But as the owner please embrace the notions that the hard working members of the area are comming for an experience. Great food, and service. Be engaged in every aspect of your craft from the time we sign in to the time I pay. I love to spend when it's warrented. I also love to speak to all the people I come in contact with to tell them to come spend their money.... Or to not. In a day and age where reviews can make or break lively hoods... We all need to go the extra to make an impact. This restaurant could be amazing. You have a front adjacent to a playground, where parents will spend lots to enjoy great drinks and snacks while letting the kids run free. You could have their undevided wallet if you paid attention to the needs of the clients. Do better and they will come. The stars are indicative of the up front service, the lack of communication and enormous wait almost for no reason. If I could do independently I would easily give Charleiine ten stars... Hands down. 4.5 for the food. Because I expect greatness. That is my review, my rant. Just...

Definitely the worst experience we have had at a restaurant in my opinion ever. We are the type of customers who always give the benefit of the doubt, but the service we received for the prices we paid, were baffling.

We only decided to attend this restaurant on a whim because we knew outdoor seating was an option, and we had heard nothing but good things about it. When we got there, specifically asked to be sat outside (mind you, when pulling up we seen there were PLENTY OF OPEN TABLES ON THE PATIO). The hostess informed us that there were no seats outside, so again because we wanted to enjoy an outdoor experience I asked how long the wait was. The hostess walked away to what we figured ask the servers how long the wait was, instead came back and couldn't even remember the question I asked and seemed very out of it.. once I repeated my question, she informed us of a 30 min wait. We were so hungry, we elected to eat inside.

Once sat with our kid menus (it was only my adult husband and myself eating), nobody even acknowledged us for 15-20 min. Mind you, there seemed to be adequate staffing(where we sat gave a clear view of the make line and people who appeared to be workers were laughing and chi-chatting, and they were not busy)I was starting to get very upset that although there 'were not any outdoor seating', the hostess proceeded to walk EVERY CUSTOMER THAT CAME IN AFTER US OUTSIDE. Yes, I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt, those customers may have called and had reservations, but to the naked eye it didn't seem to be the case..

My husband and I are very patient with eating out, but this was just so mind-blowing to us, we began looking for another place to go. Right as we were about to stand up to leave, Rachel (one of the servers) came up and asked if we have been seen, we assured her that we had not even been acknowledged. She was such a nice waitress, and it appeared she was the only one actually serving tables. Once we were given the actual adult menus with drinks from the bar options, we ordered an appetizer, each a house drink, and each a burger.

We ordered the cheese curds, and truthfully we were served fried breading. There was maybe a few curds that actually had cheese in them. The drinks were yummy, but for the prices definitely were not worth getting again. I had specifically asked for no pickles, and of course a pickle came out on my plate-so had to be sent back. Once I got what I had ordered, while it was yummy, I was already so traumatized by the experience I didn't even finish my meal, or even ask for a to-go box.

Again, because it seemed that out waitress was the only server working-we had not been acknowledged again, so we elected to go up to the front counter to pay our bill. Rachel was kind enough to give us a small discount, and insisted on us taking a desert. Rachel, if you happen to read this, you are the only reason my review is a 2 star.

I really had wished we got up and left when we were going to. For the price we paid, the service we received, and the overall food, I am still so upset about this experience. We will definitely not...

First, let me state that I know there are issues everywhere with getting help, much less, good help. That said, I stopped there with my wife and daughter after the ND spring game. Disorganized from the start. The hostess was too busy bagging to-go customers & ringing them up to get our name on the list for at least 20 minutes. After we made the list, we waited another 10 minutes to be notified that our table was ready. Awesomeness. That was 4:07PM. I still have the text. Went to the hostess station where another woman had no idea who notified us or where we were to be seated. 10 minutes later, the other hostess was located and showed us to our table with 2 chairs for the 3 of us. No biggie. Our waitress came several minutes later to take our drink orders and give us menus. 10 minutes later we got our drinks & placed our order. As we drank, we noticed several tables that arrived after us had received their orders, so we flagged our waitress down. She asked if we needed more drinks and explained our delay concerns. At this point, it was approximately 50 minutes since we placed our order. She came back with our 2nd round of drinks and apologized as she had forgot to “submit “ our order after entering it. I get that stuff happens and had we not been so hungry, would have left. Another 25 minutes passed before we finally received our order. Hoping that they had made an effort to make sure everything was excellent due to the delay, we were very disappointed. The Brussels sprouts ordered as an appetizer were under cooked and our Cubano burger was nearly mooing. We ate what we could then asked for our bill. It came to $77 with no consideration for our delay. I normally don’t push it, but asked for a discount considering it was approximately an hour and a half to even get our meal. She came back with $10 knocked off. Wahooo. I said I wasn’t happy it was only that after the lengthy delay. The smile now gone from her face, she asked what I thought fair. I said to at least remove our drinks. Apparently, even that was too much to ask. They took some, but not all off. As my family had left sometime ago due to our waitress taking care of other tables while I waited, I was fed up and simply agreed, paid & left. Would not recommend the restaurant in its current state of...