Hundred Mile Brewing Company — Restaurant in Tempe

Food and beers (Patty Melt and Hundred Mile Burger; Bea's Knees and Dust Devil) were good, as were the pretzel sticks. Coleslaw was dry; seemed to have almost no dressing on it (I still ate it, but it was more of a raw veg salad than a coleslaw).

The biggest reason for the 3 stars is lack of signage/unpleasant service. We came through what is apparently the back entrance. Door was propped open, led into the parking lot, had the brewery name on it and you enter into a small seating area with sofas and chairs. There was no reason to think that this wasn't the main entrance. We looked around inside, but there was no host stand, no signs about waiting to be seated, and no staff nearby who looked ready to seat people or appeared to be available for questions. We went outside and, noting the reserved signs on a few tables, sat at a table that did not have a sign. There was no signage that we saw anywhere outside that mentioned a host stand or waiting to be seated. Only when a hostess or server (unsure which) came up and asked if we'd been seated by the host were we made aware that one even existed.

We went back inside and discovered that the host stand is on the opposite end of the restaurant from the door we'd come in through. There had been no one there when we looked around on entering, and the distance plus the fact that the host stand blends in with the wall behind it meant it looked like just another part of the counter that runs along most of the adjacent wall. The only sign we saw in the entire restaurant about waiting to be seated was next to the host stand, facing the other door (the one we didn't come in through). The attitudes of the two hosts were dismissive and borderline scoffing, as if we should have somehow intuited that there was a host stand camouflaged some fifty feet from the entrance we'd come in through.

There were delays in service once we were seated due to the seating of a large party at a long high-top beside us. This party basically created a human wall between our table and the rest of the restaurant that made it difficult for our server, whose other tables were elsewhere, to keep an eye on our drink levels and readiness for the check. However, large parties and split sections can't be helped sometimes, especially on a busy Friday night. By itself, these delays wouldn't have dropped the restaurant's rating. It was the complete lack of signage on entry and the attitudes of the first two staff members we had encounters with that set the tone of our meal and informed our 3-star rating.

As a note to management; a single sign at your second entrance advising that there's a host stand to check in at...

There were a lot of things wrong here, so this will be long. We went for trivia on a Thursday. The trivia host was so annoying and long winded.. it took over 2.5 hours for a simple 20-25 questions. Every other trivia in the valley is 1.5 hours or less. I live 30 minutes away, would appreciate a smoother game . I've played 5 different brands and none last that long. He kept making comments on movie quotes that weren't relevant, read questions super slowly, and kept saying he hated his own voice. Yet he wouldn't stop talking like he was on an open mike night at a dive bar.

Secondly, there was only 2 servers for the entire building. It was packed. So naturally it took 20 minutes to get any drink or food order. Then another 10 or so to get it delivered. We ordered three apps and got two of them at the same time. No utensils or napkins were delivered at all. When we asked the food runner for napkins, she rolled her eyes acted like it would be the biggest inconvenience ever. We never did get our utensils or napkins. We took our neighbors. Thirdly, it was so hot in there we were visibly sweating sitting there. Multiple people around us were hot and complaining as well. Every now and then the air would come on but barely putting air out. Finally, we checked out but weren't sure why the bill was what it was. We paid and requested a receipt but it never came. We were there for about 20 minutes after we cashed out and never got it. Still not sure if I paid for the correct things. When I was walking out to the parking lot, I tripped over something that was sticking out of the ground in the median where the rocks are. I almost face planted. My foot still hurts the next day. Nothing was marked on that. I think it was a sewer pipe or water valve.

I love breweries and actually have worked in the industry for 10+ years and this put a damper on my night.. usually I can ignore issues and give them the benefit of the doubt, but this was such a miserable experience I...

Atmosphere and service was great. I only tried 2 beers and they were kind of average, maybe slightly above, nothing that stood out but not bad either.

I had their 100 mile burger and I'll just say that it had good elements, I was disappointed that it continues the "smash burger" trend of not really being a true smash burger. No lacing and honestly part of the side looked like they still used either a puck or cylinder to contain it. The burger meat itself was good and had good cheese content.

My concern was more about the sweetness. I don't want to detract too much because maybe some people really like a sweet flavor on a burger, but it was too ketchup heavy. If you've had burgers fried in mustard maybe this makes more sense, but this tasted like a generic unspiced bbq sauce based burger that only the pickles really made it finishable. Way too sweet in my opinion. I imagine kids and people who prefer mainly ketchup on their hotdogs would like this more than me.

That said, the size was good (thankfully for the price). and the fries were excellent. Interesting seasoning that I enjoyed, but it definitely has something like cumin for those who aren't into that. But they had a great texture, fried well.

I liked that the menu had some non-normal pubfare, which makes it easier to bring someone who doesn't just want a standard brewery food offering. Like spaghetti and meatballs, good salad options, etc. This adds to the atmosphere, which to explain more I liked how open and clean it felt.

I'd definitely enjoy coming back here again to try some of their other food. I complained a bit about the burger but it wasn't bad, just not my style - other than perpetuating the smashburger falsehood that maybe I personally just need to reconsider my own understanding of.

I'll try more of their beer next time, as it is a brewery first, but hope I just had some of their mediocre brews and missed...