The Exchange Bar — Restaurant in South Bend

My rating seems to be an anomaly, but waiting 40+ minutes for a drink is horrible customer service. Maybe this is the standard wait time (I dont know)? I visited the evening of August 1st, 2025 a Friday around 10pm. Very few patrons were in the place, maybe 25. Looked forward to trying a few different drinks with 6 other friends, but the staff had other ideas. Two of us arrived first and it took 20 minutes for someone to come to our table and take our order. 20 more minutes passed and the rest of our party arrived. Another 20 minutes for the waiter to take their order. We still had not received our original 2 drinks. Another 20 minutes and we received our original 2 drink orders (so now 2 of us are drinking and the other 5 are watching). Then again another 20 or so minutes for 4 of the 5 other drinks to arrive. The undelivered drink was a flight of rye whiskey and by the time the staff came over to apologize my friend decided to cancel it, we settled our tab and left. The place did not look short staffed and how long can it take to pour mostly straight whiskey drinks? I was excited to check this place out, but was highly disappointed in how it is managed. I can take this establishment off my list for any return visits. You will wait a brutally long time to get served here (unless you sit right at the bar maybe). Step inside have a look around and just leave. Not...

Typically I would give this place a 5 star. Unfortunately tonight I stopped in to this establishment to have a few drinks after a very stressful day. I was in the process of putting my mask on when the token “Karen” began screaming at me across the room to put my mask on. Mind you this place only had 3 patrons in it and everyone was at least 50 feet from one another. I understand the fear that all of us have with current pandemic. However this was more than just enforcing a safety protocol. This way a power play by someone that isn’t use to having any authority in her life. Managment I would suggest training your staff to have some tact and little bit more class. Manners are free and I still think we all should use them more often. I hope next time I come in that Karen had been either replace or at the minimum has a...

Service was absolutely terrible. Slow and careless. And no food items were being served at all. At least that is what I was told, but I seen a guy at the bar with a plate of crackers. The excuse was "we weren't even supposed to be open today". My waitress was barely present, she also said she was new working there. I asked for the wifi password, she didn't know, the manager on duty didn't know, and they had to text their other manager for it. When I first asked for it, she said she'd go check, then went to sit down with an older guy sitting to have a 5-7 minute conversation with him. I never got the password. I sat with one drink for almost half hour (maybe more) with no check ins from the waitress. I eventually had to get up and walk to the bar to ask...