Raised Grain Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Waukesha

Very disappointing experience tonight at Raised Grain in Waukesha... my wife and I decided to go for garlic bread, pizza, and beers at Raised Grain. We got there about 5:30pm and ordered the garlic bread and beer. We waited a few minutes and then ordered a pizza. They seemed somewhat busy and after a bit a nice bar waitress brought our beers. We sat there talking for quite a while and finally a guy brought our garlic bread. At this point, no biggie that we waited a bit. We finished out garlic bread and waited about 45 minutes, when I started questioning if they forgot our pizza order? We continued to wait when all of a sudden a guy walks up and says 'Here's your pizza... we accidentally put chives on it but you won't even notice'. I replied that I don't eat any kind of onions and I'd like them to remake the pizza the way we ordered it. He walked away with the pizza and I saw him go talk to a guy behind the bar. He then came back and said it would be another 45 minutes before we would get the correct pizza we originally ordered and that they were backed up (even though there were quite a few empty tables at that point). So I said 'wait a minute... you screw up our order and put us to the back of the list, after it was your mistake'? He said yes, you will wait another 45 minutes. So I asked him to just take the pizza off our tab so I could pay and leave. Then that was a project because after about five attempts before he could get the pizza credited. Long story short... I have no issue with waiting. I have a problem with the employees of RG making a mistake and not making it right for the customer. They first tried serving us something they screwed up and we didn't order. Then they treated us like garbage told us to go to the back of the line and wait another 45 minutes, after we had already been there for 1 1/2 hours? Seriously screw Raised Grain, their poor customer service, and their ignorant employees. If you want to know how Rosa Parks felt, or how the 3rd class passengers on the bottom of the Titanic felt... try eating at Raised Grain! I have recommended numerous people to go to RG in the past......

I don’t ever really leave bad reviews. And I wanted to like this place. We ate here twice before I wrote this review, but we had the same bad experience twice. We paid almost $80 for two adult and one child entree, one appetizer, and two drinks (one was flight). The appetizer and toddler entree arrived at the same time, over an hour after we ordered. The next two entrees arrived at 20 minute intervals (i.e. none of the three entrees arrived even close to the same time). The “servers” are just food runners - they don’t ask any questions, offer any explanation for why the food isn’t arriving at the same time, or check in with you at any point. You order off an app. To get water, you honestly have to go inside and get it from a machine. They wouldn’t give me water at the bar when I walked over and asked for it. We couldn’t get a to-go box. It was hard to catch anyone to ask for condiments. And frankly, this probably would have been fine if I wasn’t also asked to tip the “wait staff” who didn’t provide any service other than walking my food from a window to the table. TO BE CLEAR - this isn’t the wait staff’s fault, and we did tip. They are clearly just doing the job as they are told, and they were very nice. But Raised Grain is (I assume) paying them a server’s wage and then asking their customers to supplement that wage via tips, when in fact Raised Grain should just be paying the food runners a full wage for their work since they are not providing any particular service to the guests. The food and the beer were good, and the app model is cool. But the tipping model is really confusing. Should we tip? Should we not? If we are expected to tip, why is there no service, and what are you paying your staff? Since the app is supposed to streamline service, why has the food taken so very long to arrive both times we’ve eaten there, and at vastly different times for each meal? I don’t think this is a staff issue - this seems to be a...

Wasn't gonna do it, but when a place deserves it, you gotta..

Pro's: Very good beers. There were a couple clunkers on the bunch we tried, but for the most part, all the styles were done right. Good, efficient QR code ordering system. We got our drinks and food quickly, especially considering it was a Friday night. Staff handled the volume well, and was attentive if we needed anything on addition to our meals. Clean place, nice patio (though we didn't use it because it was a little cold).

Cons: After our table spent at least $200 in the establishment, and after playing a dice game at our table for about an hour, the (I assume) manager walked over around 10pm and I kid you not, says "With all due respect, I'm glad you guys are having fun, but I can hear you from my office." Ok, he could hear us from his office. At 10pm.. at a brewery. And the problem with that is what, exactly? Your patrons who have had a couple drinks each, were enjoying some burgers, pizza, dippers, beer, and each others' company, and you for some reason had a problem with their "fun", at 10pm, when the place was 75% empty. We weren't swearing, we weren't using any offensive language, and we weren't being disrespectful to any of your staff. Yet the noise level was so bad that you had to scold us, instead of just saying to yourself "Wow, these people are having a good time.. I'm kind of envious.. Yeah, they're a little rowdy, but they're not hurting or offending anyone.. We're closing soon anyway, so even though their volume level might annoy me, they spent a lot of money here and I do want them to come back someday."

Guess what? We were about to leave anyway, and we were about to leave as happy customers who would return again very soon based on the 3.5 hours we spent there-- except your little comment at the end canceled all of that out.

Oh well, we'll return someday, but it...