Carolina Ale House - Summerville — Restaurant in Summerville

My family and I visited Carolina Ale House in Summerville, South Carolina, for dinner today around 4:15 p.m. Unfortunately, our experience was quite disappointing.

My daughter started with the Artisan Five Cheese Spinach Dip, which she found terribly bland and tasteless. She also ordered the Carolina Shrimp, receiving about 12 pieces. We all shared these and agreed that they were very good. However, her three fish tacos were another letdown – she could only eat one and a half before giving up, citing a lack of flavor.

My son ordered the chili nachos, which came in a large serving. He ate half but lost interest due to their bland taste. For his main meal, he had the Classic Philly Cheesesteak. He managed to eat about half of it, but again found it plain, with only meat and melted cheese. There were no additional toppings like peppers or onions offered.

I ordered The Varsity Cheeseburger and a garden salad (for an extra charge). The burger was cooked correctly to medium, and the meat was okay, but the bun and lettuce were very bland. It came without mayonnaise, ketchup, or mustard. When I asked for mayonnaise, I was given packets typically seen in fast food restaurants, which seemed cheap considering the other meals came with condiments in proper containers. The garden salad was another disappointment – it was dry and bland, even with honey mustard dressing (thankfully not in packets).

We all had soft drinks, which we found overpriced at $3.50 each.

The service was mediocre at best. Our waitress was not very friendly, rarely checked on us, and we had to flag her down a couple of times. She became noticeably friendlier when it was time to pay, presumably to secure a higher tip, but it was too little, too late. We left an $18 tip on a $120 bill, which is about 15%, much lower than our usual tip of 20% or more.

We've been to Carolina Ale House several times over the years, but this was by far the worst experience we've ever had. All three of us agreed that we would never return. The service and especially the food were subpar for the amount of money spent. We could have chosen many other restaurants that would have been much better.

Overall, our dining experience at Carolina Ale House was underwhelming, with bland food and subpar service. Save your money - go...

I’m so disappointed by the experience I had at Carolina ale house on 7-27-22. I ordered 12 wings and fries by phone. When I called to place my order Chris, answered the phone (the manager) I began to place my order in which he cut me off mid sentence to transfer me to take out, which I found very rude, but I understand that I called during a busy time, so I didn’t sweat it. I came to pick up my wings and fries that I ordered, with a side of blue cheese. I paid and checked my bag for blue cheese before I left. It was missing. I came back to the take out area to ask Chris (the manager) for blue cheese. He just about snatched my bag out of my hands (without asking) placed it on the bar, looked at my receipt which was taped to the bag, to confirm that I had in fact ordered blue cheese. When he saw that I had, he proceeds to go through my bag, opening my boxes as if I was lying. For a customer who just paid $25 for wings and fries, to be treated as if I need to lie about blue cheese infuriated me. I then told Chris not to search my box. He had on NO GLOVES! Which is disgusting. We are still in a PANDEMIC Chris! And it was all together really offensive. Chris then tells me if he can’t search my bag, then I’ll have to pay for blue cheese. So you guys fail to complete my order, attempt to search my bag and then threaten to charge me for YOUR mistake. When he said he would have to charge me, I said “okay, WTF”….as in it’s not that serious dude. I can pay for the sauce that YOU ALL FORGOT to put in the bag. He then tells me I can leave if I have to curse. I left! I order from this place ALL the time and have NEVER had an experience like this. I’m disappointed and I regret not getting a refund for my food. I was so upset that I called back to explain to Chris, you don’t open someone’s food without gloves. If checking for the blue cheese was THAT serious you could’ve ASKED me to open the box myself. Or better yet, CHECK the BOX BEFORE it’s sent out and ensure that it’s in there. Chris is not an asset to your company. It’s sauce! I literally went to the host desk on the way out and ask for some and she came back with 2! (P.s I didn’t have to pay for them.) One of the hostess apologized for him and told me she recognized me from coming all the time....

Hello!

Just wanted to let you know my experience last night. We had a group of 8. We picked Carolina Ale to celebrate!

We arrived at 4:30, we barely anyone seated in the restaurant. We were told it would be 2 hours to be seated. We did not like that but all of our party had arrived and we honestly thought how could it possibly be that long. We put our name and waited and waited and waited. We were told there was ONLY one table in the place to sit us. They could not put two table together in the bar area. While we waited others came in and were seated immediately. We could not go to the patio area because it was closed. The hostess was so extremely rude it was ridiculous. Then again, she was like 16 years old with a manager with her who said it was his first day. Awful

Anyways they finally sat us at 6:05. We order drinks and the waitress does not know how to put in drinks on her little computer thingy. Plus she can’t bring it to us because is not of age. Anyways, I order a Varsity burger and she says they have no mayonnaise. She then says are fries okay? I said do you have ketchup? She said we didn’t for two days but we do now. Yeah!!!

We get our food which as good but my burger was raw. I just ate what I could. Then we get ready to leave and we had 3 couples paying and two individuals. Well forget it! We would have been there another 45 minutes. We paid with one credit card and left at 8:30.

Wow!!!! What an absolutely horrible celebration.

Our waitress said she was new to waitressing as he had hostessed for two weeks.

I was so embarrassed to say I recommended this restaurant. Someone needs to get this place straight! We will NEVER be back except to visit the bar IF you can ever order a drink.

Sent...