Astro Beer Hall — Restaurant in Washington

The visit was “okay” but not a place we will go back to. As a business owner, It’s our impression there was no real thought out plan when developing this restaurant and beer hall. You need to analyze and come up with a better “flow” on how to serve food and drinks. A customer walks in the door and is confused about the crowd of people blocking the entry way. This is the line to the bar where you have to order your food and drinks, but the customer doesn’t know this so they head directly to find a table, only to find out there are no serving staff. Recommend you have instructions with QR codes to menu and an online ordering system to list the table you are at. Then somebody could review the menu, select their beer and food, enter the food order and pay through the website, and then head up to the drink line. Instead, there were only menus laid on the corner of the bar. So picture this - enter the restaurant and wiggle through a crowd. Ask random strangers/customers where the line is to be seated. You then see it is seat yourself and you go find a table, only two open, and there are piles of garbage because the busing staff didn’t clean the table. Are customers supposed to bus themselves? If so - how do they know this? Then you bus and clean your own table so you have a seat knowing that long line of people are also going to want a seat. You look for QR codes for a menu but don’t see any. Ask the people next to you where the menus are and they said, we went up in the line, quickly picked drinks, and found the menus laying on the bar. I went to the bar, cut in the line, and snagged two menus or bring back to our table. We selected what we wanted and then I look at the line, which was now out the door. We waited 20 mins until the line went down and I went up to get drinks and order. When I get to the bar to order, the bar tender stops, picks up a plate of watermelon, and starts talking to ladies at the bar saying he doesn’t get a chance to eat his dinner; therefore, he is taking his dinner break when he can. I watched him eat for a while, and then he took my order. I carried the drinks back to the table with the Vibrating Notification device, but then thought, “how will they know where to bring it?” We enjoyed our drinks (beers were good, not their beers but they carry a great selection). Vibrator went off and there was no food anywhere. I went up and ask the bar tender and he said they’ll bring it to us. About 5 mins later a staff member comes up the stairs and just randomly starts walking around looking for a vibrator going off and/or somebody who will raise their hand saying that the food is theirs. We watched the poor staff make circles around the dining room numerous times trying to find the right customer, all while several people were waiving to ask to place their order because they were also confused on where to go. I’m sure all this confusion is caused by lack of space and no proper layout of the facility - but you’ll need to leverage technology and some common sense to get this working smoothly. Add in customers are coming to consume alcohol only adds to a confusing situation. I think this could all be easily fixed by laminated instructions on each table, QR code to an online ordering system where you make your table #, pay for the food through an online system, and then continue your line for beer. It would be faster all around as the food would be streamlined with no waiter/waitress, and your bartender isn’t holding up the line for food orders. Maybe it would then be possible to have another bar tender when it’s busy? Think of the women who need to sit their taste testing every single beer on tap and conversing with their drunk friends about what the other ones think is good, all while the line is out the door?

Again - great selection of beer - but fine tune this process…. You’ll...

This restaurant is too modern for me. No host, no waiters, everything's on QR codes and self service minus the bar. There wasnt any explanation of anything other than a sign saying seat yourself so it was a figure it out moment. The QR codes arent connected to the drinks or bar so I had to first scan and order food which asked for a tip. Who am I tipping again its all self serve. Now im at the bar asking for a drink menu and its either read the TV ticker or scan another qr code. I got 6 people at the table were not trying to crowd the small bar and a taped down qr code doesn't get the menu to the other quests. So drinks were a pain so we skipped out and just had water, ice was not available but not major.

If youre a business professional needing in and out i can see it being great, walk up to the bar, grab a seat order food eat and go. In DC it makes sense but as a group of 5 or 6 on the weekend it just made the place feel unwelcoming because had I not bought a drink at the bar I would not have spoken to any staff which is a wild thought. Like if you come in drink water and order food then leave the only interaction with this staff would be the 10 seconds the runner drops off the food.

Guess that's the new age thing is to have as little human connection as possible? Just not the place for people wanting to connect with it or the staff.

The food though was actually bomb and the kitchen knows what its doing.

Since we didnt have servers or any interaction I assumed we bus our own table. Bartender appeared saying we didnt need to but was thankful.

No issues with the staff, the little bit we interacted they were great. The food was great too but the overall experience left me more annoyed...

When I first arrived, the restaurant was crowded there is a lot of people waiting in line. The weights were an hour hour and a half wait the the servers and hostessed and busters look like they were a little bit annoyed because there was too many people they kept coming and coming not enough tables we were told that it would be a half an hour wait for our table but then I added an additional half an hour, because again it was overwhelmed. The location was nice atmosphere is nice it’s just not the size of the restaurant that it needs to be for the crowd of people that come and keep coming the bathroom was damaged. We had to go to a different place for the restroom. When we did get a table, they brought us over to the table that was outside next to the sliding door that opens to the back of the bar we sat. I ordered a Coke we had four different entrées and three waters. My wife had to go and get the picture of water with ice because it was never brought to the table. I got a Coke and that’s all I forgot to bring me a Coke you forgotten that it was on the order that I ordered and I never got a refill Our food but my wife’s food came late. We also had to get her own ketchup our own napkins we had to go get bar napkins because there was no napkins inside the caddy. The staff did mention that it’s best to come Monday through Thursday. The weekends are horribly overwhelming with time to sit. He will spend a lot of money though for something that you can get at a restaurant that’s got a little bit...