Bender's Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Westminster

Honestly, my girlfriend and I have been coming here to watch sport games for about two years and we have always had a great time. We have never had issues with the service or the food until what I’m about to write about.

So we were out late on Saturday night (1 AM) and wanted to grab some food so we called the restaurant to make sure the kitchen was still open and to make sure they were still taking tables. They told us the kitchen is open until 1:30 AM and that we were only 5 minutes away. We looked over the menu a little on the way there so we could order as soon as we sat down. However, once we got there the server was expressing his frustration of getting a table this late into the night pretty loudly to the bartender. Saying, that something should be done about this 1:30 rule, let me point out that the table we chose was literally right next to the bar. He comes to our table and is clearly not happy about having to attend us. He got to the table and slammed the menus down and took our order. We felt super uncomfortable and unwelcome, we even considered leaving but we had already ordered a couple of drinks so we decided to ride it out.

Once the food came out we had a few other problems. The dough on my girlfriends pizza was a little undercooked. My sister in law also ordered a paloma and the soda used in it tasted like it had been sitting there for hours and had zero carbonation and zero flavor. We decided not to say anything because we already felt extremely uncomfortable with everything else going on so my girlfriend took the pizza home and baked it a little more and my sister in law just left the drink there.

As someone who’s worked as a server before, I understand the frustration. But customers like us should not have to hear the server complain about having to attend us. This was the reason we called before showing up to make sure that everything was still up and running. We were a little disappointed just because we had two people with us who had never been here before and we promised them a good experience . I really don’t think they’ll want to go back. But this has been the only bad experience I’ve had coming to this restaurant. I typically do not like writing bad reviews but this was just a pretty...

Great drinks. Good prices. Questionable service. Went to Benders on a Monday night. As we enter the sign says to seat yourself. We grab a table by the window so that we could watch anyone playing/practicing on the ice. My date notices that 3 other parties walk in and seat themselves when we did. I was just focused on where the best table was. After my date informed me of the three other parties that were also waiting for a wait staff, I decided to get up and go order our drinks from the bar and take them back to our table. I figured while we were waiting for a food server to take our food order, we would enjoy our drinks. People around us got waited on. Two different food servers walked past our table multiple times. Now I didn't make it look like I was super eager to get a wait staff for assistance but we sat there drinking our drinks. I'm also a slow drinker. Finally we finished our drinks and no one had come to our table so we just decided to leave. I want to give Benders the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it was just super busy. Maybe I appeared too presumptuous by getting our drinks from the bar and bringing them back to the table but I thought someone would swing by to see how we were doing and to see if we wanted to order some food to go with those tasty alcoholic drinks that the bartender made for us. My date said that she had the same feeling the first time that we went there. All I remember the first time that we went there was that we did get waited on and we did eat but I don't recall the service. It's unfortunate that I was only able to interact with the bartender and not the waitstaff. I left 3 out of 5 stars. Our goal was to sit at a table and eat a meal with some tasty drinks. We got the table, the drinks but not the meal. I did not feel discriminated but my date did. I'll be honest, (sounding super old) in all my years of eating at restaurants, I've never not had a wait staff come over to the table to see how we were doing. We might try again in the future since we live locally but this was not the best experience. Also...

This has been a place I frequent and the last time I came in will likely be the final time. Service was fine as expected but towards the end of the night things really got sour.

My girlfriend ordered a burger that she was unable to eat, so we got a box. I left to use the restroom while she paid the tab, only to come back and see that not only was my 3/4th full tall beer gone, but the box with her food had also been taken.. she was at the claw machine with my brother when our food and drink were taken, both of them clearly visible to our hostess.

I came back inside to get one more beer as I waited for the DD to arrive and the girl (Zoey) literally told my brother and I that my girlfriend didn’t tip enough, and that it was clearly taken on a personal level.

When she mentioned that I was still inebriated and thought not much of it. My brother awkwardly gave her more money before we left. The next day I realized that she was upset by her tip so much that she took my beer and my girlfriends food. It was a Wednesday night, not busy at all. This was clearly done out of spite, over a tip, that was short maybe $5. She ended up getting a total of $19 for $60 worth of food and drink by the end of the night.

I have never gone to a restaurant and been told straight to my face that the tip “wasn’t enough.” How awkward, petty and unreasonable. I guess at least she got 33% after complaining, but she’ll get absolutely zero if I have the displeasure of her service...