The Dutchess Biercafe — Restaurant in Town of Fishkill

Hands down the best burger in Dutchess county. I love this place, I love the food, I love the service. Tonight was just not their night. Let me start by saying I eat here almost once every other week. I’ve never had a bad experience here until tonight. I would give the 5 stars 100 out of 100 times because of the food, the drinks, the staff and the owners. I almost feel bad leaving this review because Jess and her husband, the owners, are super friendly and do such great things for the community. They are amazing restaurateurs!

Nicole, I believe that’s her name, is the best waitress you could ask for. Super attentive and always smiling. I wish she could be my waitress at every restaurant I go to. She gets 5 stars! The busboy/food runner, whom I don’t know his name, also gets 5 stars. He must’ve started working there post pandemic. He is also super friendly, hard working and always asks if we need anything. If we do, he brings it right out to us. In my opinion, he should be a waiter. My mother i law actually went out of her way to give him a tip tonight because he deserved it. Which brings me to our actual waiter tonight, Bryce. Very friendly boy, but he is not cut out to be a waiter. Almost non existent when it came to service. We had to flag him down a few times just to get water, napkins, the check and we had a little issue with the food but that’s a rarity so I won’t even get into that but he was rarely anywhere to be seen. When he did walk by us, he could’ve asked if everything was fine. I don’t want to drag this kid down but he should take notes from Nicole. I was half way through my angry burger and I had no water or any drink to wash down the jalapeño and salty fries. I understand he’s busy with other tables but that’s no excuse not to walk by our table and simply ask if we need anything. As we were leaving, my mother in law and I tried to find the busboy/runner to give him a tip. The hostess seemed a little confused as to why we were asking for him. She asked if we wanted to see the waiter and we responded we wanted to tip the busboy. She asked again, did we want the waiter. I said we definitely don’t want that waiter and she said well I’m the manager. I was kind of rubbed the wrong way. Maybe it was due to it being the first bad experience I’ve had at DBC that made me feel that way. I’m not too sure. Anyway, I live their food and the owners. Nicole and the busboy/food runner need raises and/or promotions for that fantastic service and smiles. I will be back again and again and again. I just hope that Nicole is our...

The food was good, but the service was poor! From the second we walked in one of the girls at the hostess stand said she couldn't take our name down because we had to wait on someone else. I thought it was a bit odd considering you're just writing down a name and the number of people in the party (which was only 3). A man came by to sit some people and started looking for the next groups of people on the list. Afterwards he took down the names of 2 different couples that came in behind us. I then went up to him to let him know that we had arrived earlier but one of the girls didn't write our name down. So he wrote our name down but of course it was after the 2 couple's that arrived after us. He said it would now be a 30 minute wait. Well I guess he saw the look on my face of already contemplating on leaving and going somewhere else when he gave us a table about 10 minutes later. After we sat down we waited about 5-10 minutes before a waitress with long blood hair in a pony tail came to take our drink order, but we gave her our food and drink order. She came back out with our drinks in about 5 minutes, and well that was the last time she ever came back to our table and disappeared on all of her tables for at least a good 20-25 minutes. When we finally got our food it was from someone else, a male that seemed more like a busboy then a waiter. We weren't the only ones waiting a long time either that had this same waitress. Not once did anyone provide us utensils or napkins, not a huge deal but it took some time to get someone's attention finally and at that point we were already halfway done with our meal. While we were almost finished eating our original waitress finally showed back up, but only attended to about 2 or 3 of the 5 tables she had. She never did come back to our table to ask how our meal was or if we needed anything else. The waitress that gave us our utensils and napkins did ask if we wanted anything else or the check. I said the check of course because at this point I was concerned that we would be forgotten again like a few other tables and wanted to just leave at that point. So while the food was good, I just don't see myself coming back, at least...

First off I want to say that I enjoyed my beer and the server was very nice.

With that said, I visited this restaurant tonight for dinner with my SO. First thoughts based on the menu, beer selection and ambiance were positive. There was a great variety to choose from on the food and drink menus, and the place had the feel of a biergarten, the music Playlist was good and not too loud, and the dining room was well placed without letting patrons get to close, following covid guidlines.

After arriving however, I was disappointed to find that the majority of the food looked and tasted like it was either precooked or came from frozen product.

The cheese dip for the pretzels had great flavor but had consistency like it had been sitting in the plastic cup it was served in for several hours under a warmer, and the pretzels tasted like ones I could buy at the grocery store in the frozen section. I got the French onion burger and while I did enjoy the flavor and was happy the burger itself was cooked well, it tasted like canned French onion soup that was plopped on a patty. The fried onion on top honestly was a waste, for both tasting like a frozen onion ring and getting soaked in French onion soup losing its crispness before I could enjoy it. We ordered a side of fries because they were not included with the burger and they looked and tasted like frozen fries, for a $5 add on, I expected something a little more.

There was apparently no manager available for us to speak to, which as a previous restaurant manager, I find baffling.

The saving grace, and why I gave it 2 stars was that they had a great selection of beers on tap and the server was nice. If I was a college student and already had been out drinking, this would be the place I would choose for a greasy burger to hold me over, but for a place to go out for dinner with my SO, I was fairly disappointed. The prices don't quite reflect to quality I expected and I don't think we will be returning unless it is just...