MacGregor's Grill & Tap Room — Restaurant in Town of Gates

Went to the MacGregor's Grill & Tap Room this evening (2021.07.12).

This is the MacGregor's at 2205 Buffalo Road, Rochester, NY 14624.

Three of us got there about 6:15pm.

Inside, the bar was about 1/2 full. The inside portion of the restaurant looked to be about 2/3 full, with social distancing seemingly in place as the tables were far apart.

We elected to sit outside and that went pretty quickly. The host/manager seemed to be in a sour mood, as we received no smile, no greeting, no welcome.

Waitress (Marissa? Server #314) was slow - going on 15 minutes getting to us. We noticed that the people that arrived before us were seeming to have service issues so we girded our loins with patience.

"Server #314" was personable and pleasant. She took our drink orders and ran off to get them entered - Diet Pepsi, Iced Tea, Edmund Fitzgerald Porter. Drink delivery was slow, perhaps 15 minutes. In fact, we ordered dinner before the beer arrived at the table (see below). Server #314 expressed dismay at the slowness of the bar.

The Diet Pepsi had become a regular Pepsi and was delivered with the iced tea. The Porter came later - less than five minutes later but definitely later.

I asked to exchange the Pepsi for Diet Pepsi. That was done quickly and I got Diet Pepsi the second time.

The food we ordered: Shrimp and Chips, Cow and Pig Burger - no bun, side of coleslaw Buffalo Sauce Burger - no bun, Caesar side salad without croutons

20 minutes - No drink refills, first dinner (Shrimp and Chips) delivered by the manager/host. He still seemed to be having a bad day.

10 minutes later, second dinner delivered by the manager/host (yep, still dour). Buffalo sauce burger, garden side-salad. Didn't I ask for Caesar? Burger was overdone, though still warm when delivered. Too bad about the salad. Did not ask for a change - how long would that have taken?

10 minutes later, third dinner delivered by the manager/host. He was still having a terrible day. The burger was well-done even though rare was ordered.

I asked for drink refills of the Diet Pepsi and Porter, the waitress started away without asking about iced tea, called after her to get an iced tea also. The Diet Pepsi and Iced Tea came quickly, the Porter had to wait until the glass was empty and could be refilled (at least that is what happened, not sure it is a rule).

Waitress came back and asked how things were - let her know that things had gone poorly. She apologized, then made some excuses about short-staffed and the like. She made no offer of desert, money off the check, or a coupon for a future visit to compensate us for the poor experience.

Not planning on going back and I suggest you find another place to hang...

Another bad experience. So once again we’d still go back for pitcher specials and select food items. If the food is made right it usually is good. If you have allergies or might not want something on an item don’t bother coming here. This time we ordered a wrap with no onions and it had onions. Also, ordered blue cheese with pizza, asked twice, but never got it. Waitress was really nice and on top of things outside of the blue cheese, and she was really apologetic about the wrap. Brother in law didn’t want to wait for the wrap to be remade. Accidents happen, but issue is manager never came out to apologize. Any time we’ve had an issue there managers have been either jerks and now can’t even come out to apologize. No wonder so many Macgreggors have closed down, for they are so poorly managed. Also, they charge a convience fee, and have signs saying credit cards charged 3.5% extra. This is illegal, and the state supposedly will now charge a fine if it’s reported. Other businesses do this still too, and we just say meh. However, since a manager couldn’t come out to apologize for the wrap we’re reporting it and sending pictures to the state, and hopefully the state follows through with the new rules and fines them.

So we enjoy going to the 2 Macgreggors that are left cause they usually have good beer on tap and decent food. We were here on a Thursday night, and randomly at around 7:30 PM the waitress tells us last call for kitchen due to an issue, which was fine. Then about 45 minutes later she tells us the bar will be closing in 30 minutes, so last call. When we got here the place was a mad house busy, so we were a little weirded out seeing it wasn’t even 9, and the place closes at 2 am. Maybe 10 minutes later someone else comes up to us and tells us we need to leave the place was closing. I’ve never seen anything like this. There were tons of wait staff and bartenders. Idk what the deal was in the kitchen. At first I figured someone needed to leave when already low staffed, but when well staffed and a busy place to suddenly you need to leave…. That doesn’t sit well with me, and I wonder what is going on behind the scenes. Hopefully everyone that was there doesn’t suddenly get sick cause of whatever was going on that the business had to suddenly just close. Only thing I could think of is maybe they’re closing for good, or something really bad health related was going on. There was never police or fire trucks. I thought maybe the cooks got into a fight or a gas leak, but that would require...

My wife and I drove from Syracuse on March 4th. 2025. Our purpose was to get lunch and hopefully meet Hulk Hogan doing his Great American Beer promoting. When the door opened and we got in there was one table left a high top round by the front door. I asked a gentleman that was working up front if we could stand there and order lunch he was very nice and said of course yes. One minute later he came over with two stools for us. I had a pulled pork sandwich and Fries, the wife had the Guiness Beef Stew. The food was terrific and plenty full. Actually we both had half our meals to go. We sat there have some drinks enjoying all the people waiting for the Hulk. I had a couple questions for the gentleman that seated us and as busy as he was he was gracious and took his tie answering, he never once gave me the impression that I was bothering him. And I should add I called the restaurant on our drive three times with questions and this was like two hours before opening, a man answered the phone and took his time answering questions. Our server was fantastic, of course the place was busy and she was super nice and we basically stopped her while she was waiting and running for other tables. This place was very crowded and the food came out quickly and all nice, fresh and hot. Yes we were disappointed with the whole Hulk fiasco he didn't get there until after 3:00 then spent maybe 20 minutes behind the big bar getting the crowd going and did hand out beers, but forget trying to get a picture or having him sign the 20.00 12 pack they were selling there. THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MacGregors again I can't say enough about the place. We spend a good amount of time in Rochester or driving through and we will be stopping again maybe on a more normal Tuesday, if today was that good top to bottom I can only imagine how it would be on a little slower day. Congratulations MacGregors and to your staff. I been around the restaurant business 50 years and your place knocked it out of...